Rating of
3/4
A good follow-up to Episode 1
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
One of the most high-profile targets of the opposition is "Senator Padme Amidala" (Natalie Portman) of "Naboo," who escapes an assassination attack thanks to her look-alike decoy, who gave her life to save that of the former queen. "Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi" (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice "Anakin Skywalker" (now being played by Hayden Christiensen) are dispatched by the "Jedi Council" to protect the young politician. Upon their first meeting in the senator's home, she almost doesn't recognizes the former slave she first met on the desert planet of "Tatooine" ten years ago.
What the "Jedi" discovers is that the on-going assassination attempts on the senator is just a small part of a much larger plan to cause unrest in the already fragile "Republic" which will lead to a war where clones of a bounty hunter will battle in the name of the "Republic" in uniforms that will be instantly recognizable to long-time fans of the franchise.
As the "Jedi" goes on his search to find out who is behind the clones, "Anakin" and "Padme" go on their own adventure and slowly learn that they have feelings for each other.
The first thing you will certainly notice is the special effects. There is a lot of CGI in this film that is simply fantastic. There is only a couple of things that I had a problem with when it came to the CGI. First, the spaceships looked more technologically more advanced than the original trilogy. I know that there has been advances in special effects, but this trilogy is suppose to be set before the original, which means the technology should have been more advanced in the original trilogy. Another problem is the CG characters, who are still being poorly blended into backgrounds -- which is most noticeable when they share the screen with one or more of the human performers.
There are stronger performances from the main cast this time around. However, Christensen, who takes over the role from a much younger Jake Lloyd, appeared to have had some problems with reciting his lines and made it appear that he was forcing them from his memory. McGregor, Portman, Christopher Lee ("Count Dooku) and Frank Oz (voice of "Jedi Master Yoda") are just a few of the performers who stand out in this film.
The battle scenes are simply incredible. The space and ground fights are fast-paced, and edited very nicely. And just like the last film, the "lightsaber" battles make the ones in the original trilogy look like they were played back in slow motion.
There is some character development problems with characters introduced in this film. I personally would have liked to have seen "Count Dooku" (Christopher Lee, who is best known for portraying "Count Dracula" on the silver screen) be better developed since he was the main villain in the film.
We also get to see many questions from the originally trilogy answered. Especially the start of one of the major plot devices seen in "Star Wars" (that's "Episode IV" to you kids).
Despite the flaws, "Episode 2" is a good addition to any sci-fi fan's DVD collection.
