darn good flick... but something wrong...

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2002)

Star Wars' newest installment is a darn good flick, it was definitely better than TPM. There's more than enough bashing of TPM to go around, so I won't add to it. Though, one thing did carry over from TPM into AOTC, that it's under the direction of George Lucas.
I loved the original series, I think they were well done. ESB and ROTJ were much better probably b/c Lucas was not in the director's chair. Don't get me wrong, I think he's usually a decent director. For the current prequel series, I think he should have stepped down after TPM like he did after ANH, maybe brush up the dialog a little. I don't think he has the chemistry with the current actors of the prequels to get the job done.
I know that Natalie Portman is an excellent actress, probably my favorite. She does have great acting ability, but for some reason that ability wasn't able to present itself most of the time in this movie, and I think that reason is Lucas. This argument can also be applied to the other actors, though I don't know Hayden Christansen's previous works.
As for the movie itself: I know I'm nit-picking, but I didn't enjoy the constant back-and-forth of the Kemino & Naboo scenes. Must have gone to and fro about 6 times, got really annoying. The fight scenes were excellent, particularly Yoda's and seeing Windu in action is pretty cool too.
I don't know why this only got a PG rating, there's a few scenes (a few decapitations, plus some dismemberment -- neither were bloody, but you see them quite well) that would have warranted a PG13 rating back in the 80's.
I give it 7/10 stars. The story is enjoyable, it has a few lulls, but what story doesn't. It does a great job of setting up the background story for the next 4 episodes. The end of the movie will allow you to leave the theater happy, feeling you got what you paid for... but then again, it's Star Wars, so it doesn't really fall into that type of category :-)