A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2004)

This is the first film I saw in the theaters. And it scared me to death (I was 4 at the time). It's a horror movie. There are giant metal monsters that can't be killed and destroy hundreds, our hero is essentially buried alive, giant monsters eat our robot friend, our other robot friend is dismembered, and the Main character has his hand cute off. Terrors. And I wouldn't have it any other way. To start, the production values can not be beat- there is care and craftsmanship in every frame. The filmmakers put together a fully realized world that seems very close to ours. And there's plenty of interesting action to move the story along. Exotic locations serve as a backdrop to the action and we think we've never seen this world before, but we're immediately comfortable there. And the actors at last seem comfortable in the characters, if they are living in fiction, then they believe it- there is angst and passion and humor and sarcasm and it all fits. This film improves with age. Keep in mind, when Lucas did the SEs in 1997, this is one film that didn't get that much added- it was perfect as is.