It's all a bit average really

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2005)

Well, on the plus side, its not boring and its certainly not as bad as ATTACK OF THE CLONES. There aren't as many mawkish love scenes or whining from 'Anni,' although there's still too much of that for the films own good. Christensen's performance has gone from terrible to annoying (he's bad, just in a different way), but then no-one is much good in the film. They're just there to link the computer effects sequences that Lucas is really interested in.
The film has a frantic pace which proves to frantic for subtlety, character or plot. Annakin's move to the Dark Side is never really that credible, just a plot point. He does it because if he didn't, he couldn't become Darth Vader. You won't be bored, but you also won't be convinced by the bits between the wildly overlong action scenes. Like RETURN OF THE JEDI, Lucas swamps the film with overkill. More lightsabre fights, bigger space battles, even more lightsabre fights, big stormtrooper battles, yet more lighsabre fights, and a lot less return on the investment. You get the picture. There's so much of it that by the time you get to the lightsabre fight that counts, your reaction is "Not ANOTHER one?" All in all watchable but also pretty forgettable. It's not a film you really need to see, but you probably won't mind it if you do. But that does seem to be an underwhelming verdict for something this anticipated.