Just got back from opening night. My 2 cents? Better than Phantom Menace but still far away from my all time favourite - The Empire Strikes Back.
SPOILERS
[spoiler]Lots of lovely computer-generated imagery. The night scenes in the first chase sequence were pretty cool, although I was thrown off a bit by the fact that Anakin could sky dive at that height and land with nary a scratch.
The romance bit slowed the movie down a tad. And the romantic scenes (the rolling in the grass for instance) were cheesy. The only part here that I liked was when Anakin returned from killing all the Tusken Raiders and sought comfort in Amidala.
I liked the way some of the scenes and lines in AOTC anticipated the action in the first trilogy. For instance:
- Obi Wan to Anakin - “I have a feeling you’ll be the death of me.”
- Count Dooku holding the plans to the Death Star.
- Young Boba Fett holding on to that helmet.
And of course there’s Yoda. My God, Yoda is undoubtedly the Master.
Funnily enough, my favourite - and unintentionally, the funniest - part of the whole movie was when Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) turns up at Count Dooku’s death match and says (something to the effect of) “This party’s over.” I kept imagining he’d whip out his lightsabre and go “Don’t fuck with the Jedi, you motherfuckers.” Cool potatoes.
[/spoiler]
Can’t wait to hear from the rest of you.