Better than 'The Phantom Menace'

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2002)

George Lucas brought in co-writer Jonathan Hales to help him improve over his (Lucas') solo writing effort on 1999's 'The Phantom Menace'. Even some of the cast of that 1999 film agreed recently that it was a pretty flat effort given the expectations of the 'Star Wars' legacy. Perhaps it wasn't a bad thing that 'The Phantom Menace' was a little flat because you want the films to get better as you go along, don't you? Well, 'Attack of the Clones' has a much better outcome because it is dark like 'The Empire Strikes Back' and Lucas is smart. By making this film he realizes that the darker they get, the more fascinating they become for the mind set of the science fiction fan. Many hard core 'Star Wars' fans consider 'The Empire Strikes Back' to be the best of ALL 'Star Wars' movies. 'Attack of the Clones' has the best look of ALL the 'Star Wars' films because of the progression of technology in the area of special effects. I never expected the second coming with the release of these last two films in the last three years and with the upcoming final chapter in 2005..... but it will be interesting to see how Lucas will cap off the first three stories before we can look back on the last three made a generation ago but still, it has a reach to all generations, from ages 8 to 80.