Let stop and think, shall we?

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2002)

Okay.
I've been reading a lot of crap about this picture. I've been reading a lot of junk about how it's barely better than Episode 1, how the dialogue is muddy, and the performances are bland, and on and on and on. I work in the movies. I know how every take is different from each other, and I know how the director can have a profound influence on the movie regardless of the script.
So. Let's take a moment to consider something. The performances were merely average and the dialogue sounds like someone reading the menu at McDonald's? Has anyone actually stopped and listened to Lucas speak in the last ten years? There is no more boring speaker in the world. Lucas makes Stephen Hawking sound like Sinatra. It seems almost natural to me that the chosen takes would sound like the dialogue running through Lucas' head while he was writing it.
Okay. That point aside, can anybody actually sit back and take in this picture for what it was? We all entered the theater with heightened expectations. ALL of us. Was it going to be as good as Irvin Kischner's visceral "Empire?" No. Was it going to be as slyly clever as the interpersonal dialogue between Han and Luke on the Death Star? No. Was it going to be a story about people living their lives before the crushing hand of the empire controlled the universe? YES!
This movie was not about the radical feats of problem solving and improvisation during episodes 4 through 6. This was a movie about characters who have yet to realize the incredible importance they will have over the course of history. This was a movie about the human elements inside all of us, regardless of our duties and obligations. This was the movie Lucas promised us would follow in the shallow footsteps of Episode 1 and make all the difference in the course of the tale.
Ultimately, what I am trying to say by this rambling diatribe is shut up, stop pretending to be filmmakers, and enjoy watching the perpetually slighted Yoda kick some Dark Side ass.