big step up but a long way to go

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2002)

Surprise- Hayden Christiansen was not as bad as I feared. However, the CGI effects were as distracting as expected. In my opinion creature effects hit their pinnacle in the 80s with films like Dragonslayer and Aliens. Nothing in the past 20 years can surpass those in realism. The CGI characters in SW 2 were just not tangible or believable. Yoda was the closest thing to a success in this area but he looked like Sonic the Hedgehog during his duel (even though that was the most entertaining sequence in the film.) Overall all SW 2 was such a vast improvement over Phantom Menace that you have to be somewhat pleased but it is still is light years behind Empire which it desperately sought to emulate (protector and princess fall in love, severed limbs, asteroid chases, etc). Maybe its the Byzantine politics instead of rag tag heroes trying to oppose the ultimate bad guy. It's hard to figure out who you should hate.