It contains the Dark Side...

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2002)

Ok, firstly, before I write about the bad points - AOTC is a great film. If you like Star Wars you wont be disappointed.
There are quite a few bad points though sadly. Firstly the acting. I am a big fan of Natalie Portman, but her acting in this film was very poor. She started off ok, but as the film went on and the love story became more cheesy - she seemed to become very wooden and her lines were so flat. Hayden Christensen had a very mixed performance. In the roll of the evil Anakin he was superb and brought the character across brilliantly, sadly his acting in the love scenes was just short of laughable.
The love scenes are really what let this film down. They could've worked, but the dialogue was awful - really, really terrible. I didn't get any feeling between Amidala and Anakin at all - it seemed to not work from the start. She hasn't aged one day, but he is a grown man - she only knew him when he was a child and yet she falls in love with a guy that is obviously mentally unstable. It just didn't work.
Other small bad points - Ewan McGregor still doesn't seem like Obi-Wan to me. His stereo-typical English accent and poor dialogue fall very short. Also I wish Lucas would stop feeling he has to introduce new monsters into the films. A lot of the creatures that are new to Episode II do not fit into the Star Wars universe in my opinion.
Now for the good stuff. The action scenes are incredible, especially the fight involving Yoda. You really have to see it, words can't do it justice and believe me, you wont be disappointed! The last 3rd of the film is total carnage - fight scenes everywhere, it takes the film from being very average to within a few feet of being a classic.
I know most of this review only contains bad points, but believe me, AOTC is a great film and shouldn't be missed. I feel it even improves Episode I as now you are starting to get used to the new characters.
Bring on Episode III
9/10