Leaving satisfied

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2002)

Went to see this movie, not sure what to expect. Reviews were quite ambivalent; some liked it, some didn't. No better way to judge than seeing it for yourself. The movie starts out pretty good, with the attempted assassination of Senator Amidala (the former Queen). Unfortunately the rest of the first half of the movie tends to fall into cliche's. It looks like Mr. Lucas just grabbed all the classic scenes from love stories, and put them in a row. It's just an overkill. Come on, nobody is waiting to hear Amidala say 'Every minute I spend without you, a piece of me is dying.' Besides that the focus is drawn away from the real story. And this is what the movie is about, and what makes up for the lousy first half. With the precognition of Episode I, and the other Star Wars movies, one can see the underlying plot develop. Hints to future events are hidden everywhere. Besides obvious hints to other Star Wars movies, there also seem to be plenty of references to other SF movies (search for Star Trek, Stargate, AI, LOTR). The action scenes in the movie are quite good, and as pointed out in other reviews: Yoda rocks.
In short: the movie could have been better if more attention to the underlying plot, and less focus would have been put on the puberal relationship between Anakin and Padme, but the action, special effects and brilliant costumes make up for that. One can already envisage the computer game... All in all, a 7.5/10