IT WAS MUCH was better than I had expected.
<SPOILERS>
Now as I implied in my last post, I intentionally lowered my expectations to almost nothing after Ep. 1. (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, . . .) Even so, it was an enjoyable movie. I would give it a solid 3 out of 5 stars. Better than Jedi, much better than Ep. 1.
Technically, it was dazzling. Lucas will never be accused using second-rate effects. From the Bladerunner-esque scenery of the chase through Coruscant to the "summer home" on Naboo to the battle between the droid army and the clones, the CGI was great. The romance between Anakin and Padme‚ was somewhat cheesy, but what do you expect from a geek movie? I don't think my initial romantic overtures to my bride of 15 years were any less cornball.
The story was simplisme itself, but that's fine. Jar-Jar was blissfully absent through most of this movie, and served primarily to turn the Republic over to Darth Sidious! I can overlook all his annoyances from Ep. 1 just for the poetic justice of that. And as for Yoda, he owned this movie! . . . I imagine that WWF Smackdown looks like Amateur Hour next to The Jedi Master going after Count Dooku. Which, by the way, Christopher Lee was great as yet another Jedi Gone Bad(tm). Another blogger says he has a voice like a cello. That he does. But "Dooku?" What kind of bad-guy name is that?
Yes, there were plot holes big enough to drive a Federation Starship (Trade or the Enterprise?) through. I can put up with all of this for one reason: It's not Science Fiction. It's not even Sci-Fi. It is pure fantasy wearing a technological mask.
<END SPOILERS>
I'll post later about the difference between the three. The final analysis for SW2-AOTC: Go see it. Enjoy it, cheese and all.
Now, I'm no Pejman, so I won't rattle on much longer. The P-man makes around a thousand words worth of excellent points about the Star Wars franchise in general. Go read them. Then come back and read the rest of this, if you care to. Among his points:
1. Midichlorians: when they first mentioned these in Ep. 1, I almost walked out. The Force is supposed to be a mysterious Force, not a side-effect of microscopic parasites. There was no mention of them in AOTC; hopefully, there won't be again. Perhaps, in the next DVD release/rewrite of Ep.1 Lucas will change Qui-Gon's line to "Midic -- I mean it's a mysterious Force that binds the universe together."
2. One of the funnier sections of Pej's rant, quoted herewith:
The most outrageous example of Lucas making things up as he went along was the sudden discovery in Jedi that Luke and Leia were siblings. Surprise! Bet that one came as a shock when you watched Jedi, didn't it? Never mind the fact that Luke lusts after Leia in the first two movies. Never mind that they actually kiss several times, and that--come on, who are we kidding?--they probably made the beast with two backs in celebration after the first Death Star blew up. Apart from the fact that any implied romantic liaison between siblings is nasty, and apart from the terrifying prospect that a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there existed a three-eyed, fourteen nostriled Skywalker who was part arrogant royal, part whiny farm boy, and so strong in the Force that he didn't need a Death Star to blow up Alderaan, this plot line sucks because we weren't set up for it in any expert way. It also represents, quite clearly, Lucas's desperate desire to come up with something, anything, to top the whole Vader-is-Luke's-father revelation, as well as being a cheap way to resolve whether Han or Luke end up with Leia.
It goes on from there, and only gets better.
3. Military tactics: or rather, the lack thereof. It's pretty obvious that Lucas never heard, of much less attended, the Naval War College, or any other institute of military learning. It's covered far better here than I ever could, so I won't say anymore on this subject.
Now, what are you waiting for? Go see it!
