Good, but not the best Star Wars ever

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2002)

OK, so it's smashed the box office, even next to Spiderman. That's got to be worth something, right? Well, Star Wars films have always smashed the box office. Most of you (like me) probably only went to see it to find out why Anakin becomes Darth Vader. But, yet another episode went by without fully answering this.
Surprised that Anakin and Padmé hit it off? I don't think so. In episode I, dispite the age gap, the two hit it off quite well, so what else could they do? My main complaint about this film is the love scenes. Particularly that four hour speach (well, it felt that long) by Anakin, in which he confessed his eternal love for Padmé, and the pain of not having her, and the haunting of a previous scenes kiss ... He just wouldn't shut up about it!
There's only one more episode left until a good jedi-night becomes a half man, half robot Sith Lord. We never will find out why he is in that suit, will we? Because it'll only be at the end that Anakin crosses over, won't it?
All the other episodes had someone in the team who wasn't a Jedi, and actually didn't spend the entire film going on about the force (Han Solo in the earlier ones, Jar-Jar in Episode 1), but this time, only Padmé isn't going on about it. That's not enough! You need the clumbsy idiot or the rouge warrior.
I will say this for the film, the special effects are awesome! And the action is impressive. There's a lot more violence this time, as well (yippy!), including Anakin beheading a groupe of Tuskun raiders (I had no idea what they were, either, but they were sort of Planet-of-the-Apes rejects).
The mystery of the film is the plot. Who created the clone army? And why is it, if they were created by the dark side, did they fight for the Republic, and quite well, alongside the Jedi?
Tye action finally errupts properly in the last hour, after Anakin reaches the planet. I liked the fight with the monsters, but didn't Luke Skywalker have to do that in Return of the Jedi? Still, none of the others had an army of Jedi nights start having a mass brawl, Star Wars style. Pretty impressive, but could Padme really have survived that? I don't think so.
By far the best part of the film was the Yoda fight. This little sweat guy, who everyone thinks is halmless, apart from telekenesis, pulls out a light saber twice the size of him and fights with it. I don't think one person in the cinema could move for laughter. I hope that was deliberate, I mean who can take a guy who jumps around like that and still needs a walking stick seriously?
My only problem with the last hour was that the light saber battle between Anakin, Obi and Count Duku wasn't good enough! It just didn't last long enough.
Overall, it was entertaining, but lacked the feel of the older Episodes. Also, it was too long.