Still entartaining

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2002)

First of all, I was 8 when I first saw SW Episode IV, I think we all know what does it mean to watch SW at that age. It was definitely the fairy tale of my childhood. Later, I saw the original trilogy a couple of more times and I liked it also at a more mature level. It is a classic movie, it is fun, it has interesting characters, it has a lot of superb action, it has great story, it has mystery, and last but not least it has Darth Vader. He is by far one of the best villains that the movie history saw.
Now when I first heard that there is a new prequel trilogy coming, along side the story of why Darth Vader turned over to the dark side, I thought that this story could be even more interesting and entertaining than the original story. Unfortunately, I must admit that after I saw the first two movies from this prequel trilogy I'm somewhat disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the both movies (although the "Atack of the clones" even more than the "Phantom Menace"), but I think that these two movies don't exploit the full potential of the whole story, but rather banalize it. For example, the force has become something that you can measure (measured by numbers of some silly things in your blood). I liked very much that the force was a kind of mystical, mysterious power surrounding us, that only few can feel, use, etc. Then Anakin Skywalker is shown as someone who has a rather bad character (he is arrogant, seizing the power, etc.), than someone who turns over to the dark side for some (possibly tragical) reason (e.g. his mother is murdered, he loses his girlfriend, etc.).
But the most of all, the story lacks a really strong and scaring villain. Darth Maul or Count Dooku are OK, but they don't posses the power and the continuity that Darth Vader had. The Emperor gets insufficient screen time to really matters. And for the "supporting" villains, I mean who is really afraid of or cares about the President of the Trading Federation?
In the first trilogy the villains and Darth Vader carried the story and all other characters were judged depending on their relationship with these strong villains (Luke's relationship with Vader, Han Solo's neutral way, etc.)
However, I still find SW as quite entertaining and fun and comparing it to a lot of new movies (e.g. Spiderman), the SW still has the "force". Thus, I'm looking forward for the Episode III.