Not just better than Episode I, but a very different film

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2002)

The director nowadays has become a cartoonist. I can't help thinking this as I look at how ridiculously big and bloated CGI has become in films. Give me physical effects any day. Ah for the 1980s.
Episode I of Star Wars exaggerated this fakeness by having virtually no violence or death. Episode II has a far more gritty feeling to it, with the slickness of the balloon-animal graphics slightly temepered by reality. There is still a jellybean-reality to these CGI models. The green jedi Yoda, for example, looks more (not less) fake than in 1980. But at least there is that grittiness lending some reality to the situations.
This grittiness extends to the film itself. No more tergetting at 3-year-old viewers: this film is violent, dark and atmospheric, perhaps targetted at adults. Ultimately this is an improvement. I suspect many "normal" moviegoers were permanently turned off Star Wars because of Episode I. Maybe Lucasfilm has lost a major part of its audience. I cannot imagine anyone ignorant of the older trilogy actually wanting to go past Phantom Menace.
Someone once said of Episode II: "This is the one film that can be hailed as great simply for being better than atrocious." The gentleman who said that was 100% correct. However, I think the quality of this film is fairly good even ignoring the Star Wars label. I went in with the strongest doubts, and was pleasantly surprised. So it was not simply a question of believing the hype.
As far as continuing the older trilogy's story: as Ewan Macgregor said, this film has far more of the atmosphere of the original trilogy. You will see elements of the older story here. In fact, some references are so quick that it might be an idea for people fond of Star Wars to see it twice. Did you notice Obi-Wan cutting someone's arm off in a nightclub, just like in New Hope? - the spherical spaceships on the Federation planet prefiguring the Death Star? - the first appearance of the Imperial March theme in the music? - the first appearance of the Imperial logo? - the gun in Amidala's hand, which is identical to Princess Leia's? - the primitive Star Destroyers at the end? (were they the Victory-class star destroyers seen in the computer-games?) - Anakin being trapped in machines, both figuratively and literally?
Acting: the less said the better, although admittedly it is an improvement over the first film. The dialogue remains problematic, but again, a massive improvement. Obi-Wan Kenobi (the Jedi knight) is given terrible lines at the beginning of the film, terrible lines.
Overall: this film is a massive improvement over the first film, and has also an atmosphere of grittiness that makes it a very, very different experience. It is definitely worth spending money to see, specially if you know anything at all about the older trilogy. If you know nothing of Star Wars at all - or are (like me) not much of a fan - then it is still worth seeing. It is certainly better than the previous film.