The applause and laughter tells a worrying story...

Rating: 4/10 (24 May 2005)

As a lifelong Star Wars fan I couldn't wait for the latest (and apparently) last installment to open... I took a deep breath, put The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones out of my mind, discarded the sour memories of CG Jabbas and Greedo shooting first and took the plunge.
What can I say, the cinema screen lit up and there was whooping and rapturous applause in the cinema, a rarity from a central London crowd even at festival events and this as not a big opening night event either... on came the classic theme and the film began.
The opening battle sequence was, quite frankly, amazing. I'm more than willing to suspend disbelief when buzz-bots get swept from ship hulls by wind in the vacuum of space, I've always accepted that film-making relies on bending reality to heighten the drama, that's why it's not a documentary and I'll not judge Lucas on any point around this.
My problem with this film is pretty simple really.
It sucks.
The acting was wooden at best; there was again an over-reliance on CGI effects, the script seemed to be lifted from a mid nineties American daytime soap opera and the heavy handed way that the themes and emotions were rammed down my throat made me hope that George Lucas is confined to story creation and never allowed behind a camera again.
I worried that it was a case of the nerdy fangirl in me skewing my opinion, but the sad fact is that during the moments of what were presumably meant to be emotionally stirring pivotal scenes in the film (Palpatine's transformation into the emperor proper, Anakin's slaughter of the younglings) the action was so camp and overplayed that the audience were laughing. Loudly. For a while.
To sum up then, else this should become a rant...
Con: A wookiee makes a Tarzan call upon entering battle. Pro: Ewan McGregor is actually pretty good.
Con: more 'comedy' pratfalls than an oily room full of Gungans. Pro: ties the story arc together well.
Con: It sucks. Pro: At its suckiest, Star Wars is better than most other sci-fi.
Oh and the clapping? Only at the beginning I'm afraid, if George Lucas ever does decide to finish the 9 film arc, he should let someone else direct.