[BlackThornn]

(this post may contain spoilers, read cautiously)

First off.. I really love this movie. I picked it up on VHS 'cause I have all the other titles on VHS.

There are a couple of major flaws in it though.

1) The direction. George Lucas needs to be tied and gagged so people can have a good director doing Ep. III.

2) It seriously drags in the middle. I didn't mind getting up for popcorn/nature's call in the middle of this flick. IMO it's not even really good back story.

3) Hayden Christensen has some gem moments but for the most part his acting is rather cardboard. And his lip trembles way too much, even for a teenager with superpowers who can't use them at will.

4) "My young (insert something like "padawan learner" or "apprentice" here)" is used too much in this movie, especially by Obi-wan. It makes the characters seem less versatile.

5a) C-3P0 and R2-D2.. When did 3P0 get that flexible..? And where the **** did R2 get rockets from? I sincerely hope that at least the latter is explained later on, specifically why he can't/doesn't fly in the later eps.

5b) The humor with 3P0's head was dragged on for far too long.. It was out of place in the first place (I mean.. there were literally DROVES of Jedi dying in that battle.. that's supposed to be an important moment, I think, not one that's trivialized by droid antics), and it was spoiled completely when 3P0 said "oh, this is such a drag" as R2 was carrying away his head. I mean come on. -_-

6) This is just a problem I expect myself, and only myself to have.. But the battle, while absolutely kickass, didn't have the effect of the others in the Star Wars Saga.. During the ANH, ESB, and ROTJ the exerpts of each battle are more extended. ANH had precious few Rebel pilots dying off one by one, ESB was one big rout.. the empire just smacked down the alliance there, and in ROTJ while the Ewok sequences were kinda stupid you could get a feel of how desperate the space battle was with brief sequences of pilots going down, crashing into ships or just being blasted apart by Imperial forces. The origionals seemed more like actual story-telling battle sequences and less like eye candy that was approved for the family.

It's like George went friggin' senile and just kiddie-fied the whole franchise. Ep 1's battle was spoiled by Jar Jar's stupid **** and super powerful clumsiness (knocking out three droids with a rifle attatched to his FOOT???), and Ep 2's Clone War battle (first of a war which was supposedly the worse in a thousand years) was trivialized by the canned laughter of 3P0's "head dillema" interjected into it.


Still an enjoyable movie though, but that might be just because I'm a big old school star wars fan.