Just saw AOTC. My observations:
I used to count myself among the elite Star Wars geeks; I spent way too much money buying and devouring every piece of Star Wars literature published for a period of 5 years, I have four copies of the original trilogy (taped off HBO, original VHS release, Re-mastered, and Special Edition – Lucas you greedy, little scoundrel), and I used to have a Darth Vader photomosaic poster framed over my bed. TPM, ended all that for me. After watching that long, boring, poorly written, poorly cast, pathetic excuse for a Star Wars film I ended my love affair with SW. I saw AOTC not as a Star Wars fan but as a movie fan. So to say the least I had extremely lowered expectations, and I was most definitely surprised.
The action and the visuals are unquestionably phenomenal, simply topnotch movie going experiences. They are so good in fact that even if they had replaced the boring meetings and love scenes in between the action with infomercials for spray-on-hair it would still be a movie worth watching. The Genosis battle was an undisguised “Gladiator” meets “Star Wars,” but man, what a combo! The acting and the dialogue as you no doubt have heard many times before leaves something to be desired, but surprisingly I thought the story was rather good. My biggest beef in movies is predictability and much to my amazement AOTC has more than its fair share of twists and turns, and is genuinely thrilling at points. However as good as the action and the story may be there is no point in this movie where I felt anything like when Luke and Vader meet each other in battle for the first time in ESB, there was no sense of emotional attachment to the characters in AOTC for me. That could just be my SW baggage talking though. In the end, I put this film in fourth place overall behind Jedi, then ANH, with Empire in first place and TPM noticeably absent from the ranking.
As for the actors:
Ewan Mcgregor- Like everyone else I agree, his was the standout performance. He obviously did his homework because he nailed Obi Wan. I have nothing bad to say about this actor (alright one bad thing to say, Moulin Rouge), I’ve watched his every move since Trainspotting.
Natalie Portman- I’m baffled; beautiful, multilingual, Harvard educated young woman… can’t act her way out of a wet paper bag? She was more robotic than Threepio.
Hayden Christenson- Not bad, a little over done at points, but anything is better than Portman’s colorless recitation of Lucas’ already weak dialogue.
The Tusken Raider scene was a let down though, he looks at his mom, he is sad and angry, he walks out of the tent and then decapitates two or three Tuskens and then… screen wipe. It was all too brief for what could have been a very pivotal scene. I was expecting much more, maybe even something like this: His mother speaks her last words and slumps into his arms, he whispers her name even though he knows she is dead, the camera pans up and we see Skywalker’s eyes filled with sorrow as he places his mother gently on the ground. His expression moves from grief to anger. (Alright, that part was in the movie, but keep reading). Exterior; the Tuskens are stirring as the twin suns of Tantooine rise; suddenly a tortured scream blasts from the tent in the center of camp startling all the raiders who warily approach the source of the disturbance with their weapons raised. They form a circle around the tent and slowly move in when a green streak abruptly shreds the tent and a blurred figure flies at the Raiders with a pained howling. Anakin dives headlong, twists mid air and with one clean sweep of his saber, halves three raiders, and then throws his saber end over end to take out a fourth as he rolls to a landing. Then, aided by the force he pulls the remaining raiders fleeing the massacre back to him and flings them around like rag dolls, brutally smashing them into each other and the ground. The camera pans up ever so slowly, until all we can see is Skywalker’s face wet with tears, his face is deep in concentration as he murders the nomads, at first his eyes look the same as before, deep sorrow mixed with bloodthirsty rage, but gradually his eyes widen and we see the faintest hint of enjoyment as he realizes he is wielding power like he has never before - he is the most powerful Jedi. Something has changed in his young man. Something has awakened in him. Screen wipe. I’m not Lucas, but that’s the way I would have done it.
Sam Jackson- He ruled, it was to be expected.
Jar Jar- True he wasn’t in the film much, but I would have lost him altogether. My young cousins love him though, so I know Lucas had to keep him around for the sake of the kids. That accent though, what the hell was Lucas thinking?
Threepio and Artoo- Hilarious, I loved them and they were used perfectly. But, R2 flying? I’m not the first to mention it and I’m sure I won’t be the last; that ability might have come in handy a few times later in his career.
The Kaminoan Cloners- These white aliens were far and away the best CG in the film, if not some of the best I ever seen anywhere. The luster of their skin, the smooth animation of their facial features, and those magnificent, cosmic eyes, it was angelic. (This is probably where someone informs me that those were makeup and costumes on really skinny actors, if so I apologize in advance if I’m speaking in error.) The interiors of the cloning facility were also remarkable.
Yoda- I thought his CG was weak personally and his lines in the first half were pretty clichéd, standard Yoda stuff. But, he dramatically improves towards the end and almost steals the show when he rides in with the cavalry. And, the Dooku battle was even better than I imagined, if only slightly shorter than I would have liked. He talks like Gandhi, leads like Patton, and fights like Jackie Chan. Combat Yoda, now this is worth paying $8.00 for.
Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee and Temuera Morrison – all three were terrific villains. I wouldn’t change a thing about any of them.
Well, that’s about it.
YMMV