a few words for the critics

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2002)

In my opinion, Episode 2 is either the second or third best installment of the Star Wars series. That having been said, I feel somewhat inspired to mount a defense against the film's critics...
1) "The acting is bad" -- give me a break. Have you ever watched the original trilogy? "But I was gonna go to the tashi station to pick up some power converters!" "No... that's not true!!! That's impossible!!!" Every line Luke says until ROTJ is in a long, drawn out whine!!! Is that the good acting which we're to judge Attack of the Clones by? The acting in this film is excellent in comparison to the acting in the original trilogy.
2) "This movie is one big computer effect" -- name me 1 hollywood sci-fi film over the past 10 years that hasn't been a computer effect. What was Lord of the Rings, one of last year's best picture nominees... but a computer effect? Would the critics of this film prefer that Lucas go back to using stop motion miniatures? Or better yet... cut/splice spaceships in so that we can see the black boxes around them when they fly? That would certainly be thrilling.
3) "We already know Anakin's going to become bad, why foreshadow it?" -- this might be the single dumbest thing I've ever read in a review. If you go into episodes 1 through 3 with that mentality, you may as well not go in at all. What do you think the point of these installments is, exactly, if not to show how Anakin turns to the dark side? Should there be no indications that he is going to turn evil before the moment that he actually does? Aside from making his transformation completely fantastic and without any rational basis, what would that accomplish?
I'm sure that there are other reasons out there for people to continue to berate George Lucas' recent installment in the Star Wars saga... but let me close this defense with one comment. Without George Lucas, there would be no Star Wars saga at all.