Reviews

Maybe I'm in a minority but I really didn't think this was an improvement on the hugely disappointing Phantom Menace, in fact I probably enjoyed this less. Star Wars shouldn't be boring but the first two episodes of the prequel trilogy most definitely are. Apart from marginalising Jar Jar Binks, Lucas again produced a lacklustre movie that failed to live up to the high standards of the original trilogy. It's amazing how everything came together for the original trilogy whereas this time Lucas makes one bad decision after another- probably not helped by yes men such as producer Rick McCallum. After unforgivably starting with Anakin as a child in the first prequel, Lucas then fails to pick an actor without the necessary gravitas or spark to breathe life into the character, instead we get Hayden Christenen, just as wooden and charmless as Jake Lloyd. Of course the actors job isn't helped by the appalling dialogue and Lucas surpasses even himself in writing some of the most vomit inducing lines ever to be inflicted on an audience. The romance between Anakin and Padme suffers the worst, with some truly cringe worthy scenes that are painful to watch. A far cry from the Han and Leia relationship which was a million miles away from the forced and charmless union of Ankin and Padme. One of the main reasons I looked forward to the prequels was the chance to see the hinted at Clone Wars. After being denied that in the first movie the audience is again left to rue a missed opportunity. Instead the film takes forever to set up the Clone Wars with Obi Wan Kenobi going on some dull mission which makes no sense to most viewers, whilst there's a lot of politicians on Coruscant arguing about whether they should or shouldn't have an army. To add insult to injury we find that when the Clonetroopers do finally appear their CGI'd rather than the good old fashioned real living breathing Stormtroopers of old. The effects on a whole seem to be worse than that of The Phantom Menace. There's a lot of shoddy effects,with the end battle feeling like a computer game. Christopher Lee pops up as Count Dooku and gives the film some much needed weight, but its a case of too little too late. The simple fact is the prequel trilogy could and should have surpassed the originals, it has a stronger story, a greater character arc, tragedy and a boot load of action, instead Lucas has frittered it away. The man who's genius bore the story of Star Wars makes a real mess at creating the fall of the republic and the rise of the empire. If he had worked with a good screen writer, got the script polished and used different directors like he had before I'm in no doubt the Prequels would have been a triumph. Sadly that was not to be.

It's a sad state of affairs when there's more excitement and thrills in a movie's trailer than the film itself, but unfortunately that was exactly how it was with the The Phantom Menace. The hype for the film was absolutely huge, this was the most anticipated film of all time bar none. The prequels promised to answer so much, like every Star Wars fan I remember watching the original trilogy and dreaming of what the mysterious 'Clone Wars' would be like and who Anakin Skywalker really was, what Obi Wan would be like as a younger man. Unfortunately George Lucas totally failed to create the magic that the first three films had in abundance. Instead of jumping straight into the Clone Wars with an adult Anakin we have to endure a peck kid who's acting is as wooden as an oak table - I don't want to see Darth Vader when he was a sprog he's annoying and not very cool! The story line is turgid and dull from the start, you know your in trouble when the opening crawl talks of tradedisputes. Perhaps dialogue has never been Lucas' strong point but boy does it show here, there's some great actors in this but they all come across stilted and uninterested, the charisma and charm of Han Solo is a distant memory. That's the major downfall of The Phantom Menace, where the original films seemed to have a purpose and zipped along at break neck speed with crackling chemistry this episode is more of a chore. It was so important Lucas got the story right for the opening episode but he makes major misjudgements, by concentrating the whole film on events that ultimately have little to do with the overall story he wastes valuable time, thus ultimately effecting the pacing and characterisation in parts 2 & 3.There are good elements to the movie, Darth Maul and the climatic lightsabre fight at the end for one, but overall it's a crushing disappointment. There will be those who argue its great but most fans cant help feeling 'It could have been so much better'.