Rating of
3/4
And a (Sith) legend is born
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/08
The "Clone Wars" has been going on for three years. And things are starting to drasticly change for the worse.
"Chancellor Palpatine" (Ian McDiarmid) hs been kidnapped, and "Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi" (Ewan McGregor) and his student "Anikan Skywalker" (Hayden Christensen) went in under heavy attack to save him.
But, it turned out to all be a set up. "Palpatine" staged his own kidnapping, as he is the evil "Sith Lord" that "Master Yoda" (voiced by Frank Oz) knew about, but was uncertain of his true identity. What "Yoda," and the rest of the "Jedi Council," do not know is that "Palpatine's" plans include seducing "Skywalker" into joining the "Dark Side" of the "Force," the mysterious energy that binds everything together.
Almost immediately, starting after the opening scrolling text, you are bombarded with an incredible space battle. Throughout the entire movie, you are presented with incredible scenery which causes me to STRONGLY recommend you watch this in wide-screen format. The scenery, which is obviously CGI in most cases, is not only well designed, but well shot.
Another amazing piece of this film are the battle scenes, including the "lightsaber" duels. These scenes are incredibly well choreographed, and never allow the audience to take a long enough breath to relax.
We get to see some familiar faces in this film from the original trilogy. However, they are under used and are not given much to do. We also get to meet some new faces in this film which help up the backstory leading into the original trilogy.
There are some real good performances, which sometimes have to work with some pretty bad lines in the script. However, the actors make the weaker lines in the dialogue work well and you don't really catch them unless you see this movie a few times. Some other performances are a little hard to watch, but that is thanks to what the actors were given in the script.
There are some scenes which lag pretty bad, thanks to the writing. The lines are hard to digest in these scenes, but are tolerable.
One thing that will take your breath away is the appearance that this trilogy had been leading up to -- the appearance of "Darth Vader." As you see the transformation of "Skywalker into the "Dark Lord of the Sith," you hold your breath in anticipation of hearing the famed breathing sound effect that once sent chills down the spine of my younger sister who use to be terrified by one of the greatest villains in sci-fi history. And you will get a chill going down your spine when you hear "Vader" take his first breath.
Despite the minor flaws with dialogue, this movie is enjoyable to watch. And it makes up for the weaker film which leads into this one.
