For the last week and a half, the only reviews that I read all had to do with the latest installment of Star Wars. In the 10+ reviews that I have read, not one of them said it was a fantastic movie, many of them shoving it aside and trying to deflate some of the commotion that it caused. Looks like all the highly paid critics are grossly overpaid. Not only were they completely wrong, but without Spider-Man coming to theaters a week and a half ago, I would easily say without batting an eye that Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones would be the movie of the year. Why? let’s start at the very beginning….

I bought my tickets to the movie (10 in all, for me and my buddies) on Saturday, as soon as they went on sale in great anticipation of this blockbuster movie that will be talked about for some time to come.

The previews were amazing. I can’t begin to imagine better previews to show during one of the most anticipated movies of the last 3 years. They started off with what looks to be another amazing James Bond flick titled “Die Another Day”. From the looks of it, this will be just as good, if not better than any of the other Bond films. Next, the Matrix Reloaded hits the screen with those famous green lines of code that everyone knows from the multi-million prequel. Aaliyah was supposed to be in it, but the tragedy that occurred some time ago has erased all chances of that. As that preview ended, it showed the title of the movie, and right after, showed the title for the sequel after that, titled the Matrix Revolutions. If you liked the Matrix even a fraction as much as I did, I think we’ll both be very pleased with the finished product. Austin Powers’ Gold Member will hit theatres this summer, and looks to be just as funny, if not more than the previous two.

Then the movie started. Absolutely crazy. Cheering and clapping lasted until the text began to roll up the screen. Other than that, the crowd seemed to be a little subdued, possibly because of the late start time (11:57pm to be exact). When i saw Phantom Menace, people were having light saber wars in the aisles. People must have left their red bull at home ;)

I won’t really go too much into detail about the movie, because it is (for all intents and purposes) really hitting theaters tomorrow. If you want to know any spoilers, just email me ;)

If you liked star wars episode I: The Phantom Menace, I am comfortable in saying that you will love this movie. Director George Lucas seems to have spent a lot of time rededicating himself to the sounds of the movie. They were crisper, clearer, and made this movie what it was. The editing for the music was excellent as well, as I did not notice any sound-overs, where the music drowned out the actors or was too overbearing. The overall special effects are another thing that you will notice right away, from the first scene to the last. I urge you not to compare this movie to episodes 4-6, as I know many people have wrongfully done so. If you do, you will be sorely disappointed in this movie. There are a massive amount of special effects that add to the movie. I can’t think of too many instances in which they were too much. Some effects blended in a lot better, but special effects are a tool that you use when you cannot possibly do what you need/want to in real life, for a variety of reasons. The overall plot was consistent, and didn’t jump around too much. It stayed constant, giving you a chance to get involved with the character development, as opposed to just watching quick little scenes and trying to get a feel for the character through the entire movie.

In my honest opinion, I think that Hayden Christensen came across as very stiff and dry. Granted, I thought the same of the actor that played the young Vader in the previous film, but c’mon, he was 10!! ;) I’ll give him props for doing well, but I won’t say that he was great…he just didn’t really add nor take too much away from the film. When an actor is bad, it takes away from the film because you become enthralled in how bad they are acting. It wasn’t really the case with Hayden in this, you just noticed it a bit. Natalie Portman was fantastic once again, playing Senator Amidala. On more than one occasion, I like to think that she made up for where Hayden’s skills and experience left off. Ewan McGregor was brilliant in playing the older, wiser Obi-Wan Kenobi, and you could definitely see the growth in character from the first film to this one. Samuel L. Jackson got a lot more acting time, as he played master Jedi Mace Windu. Sometimes he was brilliant, and others, he just didn’t really seem to be a logical fit for that role. As I continued to watch and pay attention to this, I realized that I might be nit-picking, but I will leave that to you. Yoda was (for the first time ever) 100% special effects, no puppets this time, and I think that he was absolutely awesome. He provided me with some of the funniest moments of my entire 21 years of existence. I could not stop laughing during one scene, he was that awesome! Same goes with c3-po; he was even funnier than his previous 4 movies.

If you want my advice, I say watch Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, followed by episodes 4-6. The reason I say this is because George Lucas did such a splendid job of packing a lot of information into this film, that if you know the other movies even fairly well, many things begin to make even more sense, and you see where some characters started. If you watch them, you’ll see what i mean. if you don’t, email me and I will let you know what you missed hyndsy@planet42.com ;)

All in all, it was a fantastic movie, definitely worth the $6.50 (Hyndsy lives in NH -gamer42) I paid to see it, as well as my time to watch it and the time it has taken me to write this. I would say that it is a solid 4.5 planets, and the only thing that keeps it from being a 5 planet rating is that Hayden seems to sometimes bog everything down with his inexperience with the character, and holds things back a bit. Other than that, I will definitely see it again in the theatres. I know all the Star Wars movies pretty well, and I highly recommend this one.

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