VOTE 5.5 out of 10
Yay, an improvement on the 4/10 Phantom Menace.
What's better?
Well we have a plot, sort of. It's a bit half baked, but it's there. Not sure how it relates to the first film though, although a hint of some sort of fuzzy background scheme might be emerging. Or not. Bit most tellingly I still don't know what the hell the Jedi/Sith thing is all about (I'm not having any truck with expanded Universe or OT stuff - these films should hold up sequentially and make sense in order with no other knowledge, which they don't)
We have a bit more genuine sense of fun and a bit less plain stupid - funny how quickly Jar Jar got sidelined after Phantom.
We have a Star Wars Universe that feels a bit more connected to the OT and the sense that this time we're seeing important stuff (all of Phantom Menace managing to add zero to the overall story really). But only just.
We have some better action that feels less like a bunch of CGI and more like our heros are actually involved.
We have Christopher Lee (he got it the .5 BTW).
We have a decent battle - hey, yeah Star Wars, and here's a conflict going on finally. Whatever did happen to all that taxation stuff from before? Never mind. It obviously sorted itself out somehow.
But...
We have a very uneven Anakin
We have what may be a worse script! Which you'd think would be tough but apparently not.
We have Padme/Anakin thrust together (pardon the pun) because they have to be for the story, not because there actually seems to be any real reason or even attraction.
We have an even dumber Jedi Council. Really, how did this lot go from seeming so badass to so lame?
We have a poorly handled dark moment for Anakin - again, rather than seeming organic to the overall story arc it seems forced in because o'migod we're halfway through the prequels with no real sign why Analkin's going to end up as Darth Vader - I can almost sense Lucas realizing he almost forgot that bit!
Wait - that taxation stuff - it's the same guys, plus some buddies from the banking sector. But what the hell are they up to? I mean, in terms of what the film conveys not what my own knowledge can supply for me. Damn are we going to keep getting unrelated characters and factions randomly dropped in all the time?
The curse of the obvious event is still to, well, obvious. Why is that Fett guy hiring an assassin if he's one? Oh, so he can kill his hired assassin at a dramatic moment but then fly conspicously away so everyone can see him. Also, how come after the chase we just saw with the Jedi easily trailing the assassin no matter where they went this time they're stumped buy a guy with a jetpack slowly fly away?
Still, it is a bit better as a film than Phantom, just not much.
Note, I nearly made it 6 by adding a .5 for having Fett bang his head as an in-joke to a mistake in A New Hope, but really I wish Lucas had spent less time wondering how to rationalize an extra banging their head in the background and more on actually writing a story that really kinected with the previous narrative he'd created. Hey, did I just say kinected there?
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
