The second episode in George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise furthers the tale of Anakin Skywalker’s journey towards the Dark Side of the Force. Picking up ten years after Episode I – The Phantom Menace, we find that the former Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) is now a Senator. An assassination attempt results in Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) being assigned to protect her. While attempting to discover who might be trying to kill her, Obi-Wan discovers a hidden secret and Anakin discovers that he’s in love with Amidala.
Episode II, obviously, has to fill in some of the gaps left in the series. Namely, how did Anakin turn to the Dark Side and how did the Empire come to power? That’s where the problems start, though. Essentially, there’s little suspense in these prequels because we know that Anakin turns to the Dark Side. We know that Anakin and Padme Amidala will fall in love and have two children (Luke and Leia). We know how things turn out, so it’s George Lucas’ job to make the story of these events as interesting as possible. Without suspense, that’s a tall order.
Lack of suspense hurts the movie’s attempts at telling a love story. For about the first hour, the film stalls repeatedly in its attempt to create a bond between Padme and Anakin. Stilted dialogue and wooden performances don’t help much. The pace really picks up when it shifts into action mode in the final act. There almost seems to be a rush to pack as much action into the final 30 minutes of the film as possible. Better pacing, and a tightening of the attempts at romance, would have resulted in a much more balanced film. Still, faulting a Star Wars film for wooden performances and somewhat awkward dialogue misses the point for most fans of the series.
The movie introduces some interesting characters to the series, including Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), a bounty hunter involved in the plot against Amidala; and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), who leads a separatist movement against the Republic. We also see more of characters introduced in previous movies including Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and a young Boba Fett (Daniel Logan). The best scene in the movie involves Yoda (Frank Oz), the diminutive Jedi master. Thankfully, Jar Jar Binks has been reduced to essentially a cameo role.
As usual, special effects take center stage for most of the movie. In most cases, they’re beautifully done. One of the most breathtaking effects involves a chase through an asteroid field and some of the interesting weapons used in the process.
For hardcore Star Wars fans, nothing I say will dampen their enthusiasm for the film. For more discriminating filmgoers, you may want to make sure you’re up on your Star Wars lore before watching the movie. There’s precious little character development or explanation of previous events in the series. That’s what makes it so difficult to review the movie in a way that makes sense to everyone. I consider myself a Star Wars fan, but this film left me a little disappointed when compared to other films in the series. It answers some questions and, in some ways, it is an improvement over The Phantom Menace, but I didn’t have that exhilarated “Damn, that was cool!” feeling that I’d had after seeing other Star Wars films.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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