Better that PM, but that's not saying much

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2003)

This film is a step-up from Episode I, but still suffers from many of the deficiencies present on the first film, including: pointless action scences, CGI overkill and poor character development. Character development is the basic cinematic tool that allows the audience to identify with the on-screen characters. It allows us to feel what they're feeling. Sadly, the attempt at development in this movie is a complete misfire. Thus, we bristle at the romance scenes between Portman and HC. As a guy, I had no feelings for NP, (whereas in the first Star Wars I felt myself falling for Leia). Portman, prettty as she may be, appears as a lifeless, smug, preachy character. HC is equally distasteful as a whiny, irritable teenie jedi. His horrific "crocodile tears" acting style makes the character all the more unappealing. Moreover, the romance between the two simply doesnt make sense. A grown woman is unlikely to fall in love with someone she basically reagraded as her kid brother, especially when this kid shows(albeit, very poorly) fits of demonic rage that is inconsistent with her angelic diplomatic ways. Other portions of the movie suffer from the same boring and confused plotlines as did the first i.e the evil political machinations of the senate elite ( as well as the dull deliberations Jedi council). Sandwiched between these scenes are lifeless actions actions scenes that serve no purpose, really. A typical example of this is the final "climactic" light sabre scene. The scene is uninteresting to the viewer because the bad guy has only only been recently introduced into the movie when the scene occurs (kinda like darth maul in PM). We dont know much about and in fact, he doesnt really seem to be all that evil. The same applies to virtually all the other action scenes--and there are plenty. They simply do not engross the viewer and are neither compelling nor thrilling for that reason. Compare that to the opening scene in "minority report" where tom cruise has only several minutes to prevent a murder). The orgy of fighting between the jedi and the robots is as mechnical as the final battle scene in the first movie. Still, there are saving graces in this movie that make it a notch better than Ep.I: the fact that CGI characters do not dominate the scenes, better character development and the overall appearance that this movie is not primarily a kids movie.