The Saga Concludes: Episode VI Return of the Jedi

I just finished re-watching all six Lucas-era Star Wars films in episode order (I-VI) with the commentary and want to give my reviews of each film. Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy and literally have no memory of a time in my life before SW. As such, I am not going to be totally unbiased in my reviews, but I will try to be somewhat objective.

A year after Luke's fateful confrontation with Vader, our heroes (including Lando now) are back on Luke's home planet of Tatooine to try and free Han from his carbonite prison in the clutches of Jabba the Hutt. Afterwards they reunite with the Rebel fleet, now much larger and more powerful than ever, where they plan a strike to destroy a second Death Star being constructed under the direct supervision of Emperor Palpatine. The resulting mission climaxes with a dramatic confrontation between Luke, his father, and the emperor to decide the fate of the Skywalkers, the Jedi, and that of the entire galaxy.

Coming to the end of the saga is always such a bittersweet experience for me. I know that RotS was the last one made, but watching this movie is when it really hits me that George Lucas will not be making any more movies like this. The SW saga has had such a treasured place in my heart for my entire life, and the pale imitations that Disney keeps pooping out are more of a reminder of something I can't have any more of (new SW material) than any actual consolation.

That said, this is unfortunately a rather flawed movie. I think it's the most inconsistent in quality of the six movies, with very high high points but a lot of mediocre stuff as well. Lucas really tied his hands by not resolving anything in ESB, especially by leaving the Han Solo cliffhanger, which leads to the awkward situation where the first act of this movie is not really related to the overall plot. As such, the whole story here feels disjointed and not smooth. Let's get into it.

THE GOOD

• All the scenes with Vader, the Emperor, and/or Luke are really the core of this movie and what saves it from mediocrity. I'm constantly impressed by Palpatine's skill at manipulating people. Even though Luke knows he is being manipulated, he still can't control himself. And sure, part of that is the Skywalker impulsiveness, but major credit goes to Palpatine for being so good at what he does.
• As a kid, the final space battle is really why I loved this movie. To see how far the ILM team came in just 6 years is very impressive, because the scale of that battle is something they could only imagine when ANH was made, and it probably pushes the limit of what can realistically be done without cgi.
• It's really satisfying to see Luke finally as a fully-powered Jedi. The way he completely dismantles Jabba's private army hearkens back to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan being utterly unstoppable against the battle droids in Episode I.
• I know I've mentioned it several times before in other reviews, but Ben Burtt's sound design is just fantastic. The sounds of the speeder bikes in particular are something that has always stuck with me for how cool and unique they sound.
• The choral music that comes in during the final part of the duel between Vader and Luke is amazing and gives me goosebumps every time.
• There are some strong Messianic themes associated with both Luke and Anakin. Luke has come to redeem the sins of Anakin the same was Christ did for Adam. Anakin and Adam both chose themselves and their selfish and prideful desires over doing what was right. Luke, son of Anakin, and Christ, son of Adam, make the opposite choice, choosing self-sacrifice over evil, thus redeeming the sins of their fathers. But in the end it is Anakin, conceived of a virgin, who ultimately destroys death (Palpatine) and restores life (bringing balance to the Force)—sacrificing his own life to do so before being reborn in the Force. So in a way he plays both Adam and Christ in this particular Messianic tale.
• I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I absolutely love that the DVD/bluray version has Force ghost Anakin played by Hayden Christensen. There's something so powerful about seeing him the way he was before he defiled his soul with evil—smiling and happy with his old friends and mentors again. It gets me in the feels every time.

THE BAD

• The entire first act on Tatooine. The only benefit of it is that it establishes Luke as a full-on and very powerful Jedi now. Aside from that, it serves no real purpose for the plot.
• Boba Fett's inglorious end.
• The Ewoks. They bog down the story and it's not really believable to see them beating the Imperial troops. It was an interesting idea to try and parallel them with Germanic tribes beating the Roman Empire, but the execution was ruined by the fact that they are two foot tall teddy bears.
• Death Star rehash. I get that this is the way Lucas originally wrote it and that the Death Star stuff was moved to ANH just in case that was the only movie made, but once it became clear that the whole trilogy was getting made, he should have come up with something different for this movie rather than just doing that again.
• I don't like the special edition diegetic music at all. Give me back the Yub Yub song, please.
• I also don't care for the beak they put on the Sarlacc. Overall, the special edition changes were definitely not a improvement for this film.

THE UGLY

• It's a little odd that Palpatine doesn't struggle at all when Vader picks him up. He just like "Yep, this is my life now" as he gets tossed down the shaft.
• The look of betrayal by Vader when Palpatine tells Luke to kill him (great job by David Prowse portraying that shocked reaction without any facial expressions or dialogue to work with). It's the exact same look Dooku gives Palpatine when he tell Anakin to kill him. I really don't know what Vader thought would happen when he brought Luke to the Emperor. He knows there can be only two Sith at a time, so either he was hoping Luke would kill Palpatine (no indication given of that in this movie) or that Palpatine would kill Luke (in which case why bother capturing him). My only conclusion can be that Anakin is just not very bright at all. Which retroactively make Vader much less cool than we used to think he was. He really does seem like a tragic Shakespearian character in the end, a fool like Othello who wasn't smart enough to see how Iago was manipulating him the whole time and his lack of perception and critical thinking was what undid him. The difference between him and Othello is that the latter is a pawn all the way to the end, while Anakin seizes some small measure of agency by killing his Iago at the end. However, much like with the Shakespeare play, I think it's possible that the SW saga can be interpreted in such a way that the villain is actually the protagonist and the supposed hero is merely a pawn in his game. Throughout the saga, it is Palpatine who always is in control and proactive in pushing forward his own goals. He has almost all the agency in these movies and thus in many ways he is the protagonist, just like Iago.

RATING: 9/10

Critical Favorite: Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

I just finished re-watching all six Lucas-era Star Wars films in episode order (I-VI) with the commentary and want to give my reviews of each film. Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy and literally have no memory of a time in my life before SW. As such, I am not going to be totally unbiased in my reviews, but I will try to be somewhat objective.

Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, Han, Luke, and Leia are now all important leaders and heroes in the Rebel Alliance, which is hiding on the barely-habitable ice planet of Hoth. The Empire eventually finds their base and attacks it, scattering the rebels around the galaxy, with Luke going to Dagobah to be trained by Yoda, and Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids playing cat-and-mouse across the sector with Vader and the Imperial fleet before finally being captured at Cloud City on Bespin. There, Han is frozen in carbonite to be sent to Jabba the Hutt, and Luke, attempting to rescue his friends, is forced into a confrontation with Vader for which he is not ready and which will forever change his life.

This is the most critically-praised of the SW movies, for reasons I only partially understand. As a kid this was always my least favorite of the movies, probably because it's very talk-y and there are no big space battles. As an adult, I've come to appreciate it a lot more due to the character development and its slightly more mature take on SW, but it's still definitely not my favorite of the saga.

THE GOOD

• This is the first movie (both in my viewing order and in the order made) not directed by George Lucas, and because of that, this is also the best movie by far for dialogue. Irving Kershner and the actors rewrote a lot of the lines on the set, and as a result the banter between Han and Leia and Lando is generally good and for once the characters talking is a highlight rather than a lowlight.
• Assisted by the above point, this movie is great in the character development realm. Not only in terms of Han, Leia, and Luke, but also the supporting characters like Chewie and the droids.
• Boba Fett and the Slave I
• "Apology accepted, Captain Needa." You can almost see Hayden Christensen's malicious sneer as Vader says that line.
• I gained a lot of respect for Kershner while listening to the commentary. He had his own spin that he wanted to do on SW, but he also had great reverence for what Lucas had done in ANH and he made sure to be faithful to the spirit of that movie in every way possible.

THE BAD

• Hate, hate, HATE that they replaced Boba Fett's voice with the actor who plays Jango in AotC. The original Fett voice actor had an awesome menacing, gravelly voice and the new voice sounds pathetic by comparison.
• I'm not a big fan of stop motion animation and there is a lot of it in this film. The AT-ATs look fine, but the tauntauns do not. However, the closeups of the animatronic tauntauns look incredible, so it evens out a bit.

THE UGLY

• Apparently the Falcon is able to reach a different planetary system without hyperdrive. No indication is given of distance or how long that took, but we know that that Hoth is on the outer rim where stars are far apart, so most likely any trip that took less than decades would require near-lightspeed velocity that would have some severe relativistic repercussions. Considering Luke seemed to do quite a lot of training during that time, it's possible there is an unacknowledged time lapse of several months, but certainly not years.
• I am forced to wonder what Vader's real plan was. We know he wants to overthrow Palpatine and that he wants to use Luke to do so, but he repeatedly says that he is planning on bringing Luke to the emperor. Was he just saying that for show, all the while planning on smuggling Luke away somewhere secret until he could convince him to join hist plot against Palpatine? Anakin already saw how Palpatine would gladly cast aside an old, less powerful apprentice (Dooku) for a younger and more powerful one (himself), so there's no way he would be stupid enough to actually deliver Luke to him. Doing so would be signing his own death sentence. Yet he inexplicably does that exact thing in the next movie and then looks shocked when Palpatine does to him exactly what he did to Dooku. So maybe Anakin is really just that stupid? Who knows.

RATING: 10/10

Back to Where it All Started: Episode IV A New Hope

I just finished re-watching all six Lucas-era Star Wars films in episode order (I-VI) with the commentary and want to give my reviews of each film. Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy and literally have no memory of a time in my life before SW. As such, I am not going to be totally unbiased in my reviews, but I will try to be somewhat objective.

Nineteen years after Palpatine reformed the Republic into the new Galactic Empire and destroyed the Jedi Order, we find ourselves following the story of some young rebels fighting against that Empire as they go on a mission to destroy the Empire's new planet-destroying battlestation, the Death Star.

Going back to where the whole saga got its start, especially immediately after watching the prequels, is always a very special experience for me. Seeing how everything plays out in Episode III gives this movie so much more meaning and emotional resonance. When Luke whines and daydreams, one can't help but remember seeing his father do the same thing in the same settings in the prequels. When we see what a strong and confident leader Leia has become at age of only 19, we can't help but remember her mother, who became queen of Naboo at age 14. And then there's Anakin, now fully immersed in the persona of Darth Vader and embracing his evil choices, while still not quite being able to let go of his childish petulance we saw so much of in the prequels. Every character, setting, and passing reference to the galactic political scene has much more significance when viewed in the context of the prequels.

THE GOOD

• In many ways, this movie looks much better than the prequels. Even though they were extremely limited in what they could do technologically in 1976, the fact that every set and every prop and every person is fully and totally physical gives the movie a much more "real" feel to it than the often cartoonish previous three movies. I think the practical effects age much better too. Even though I've seen this movie probably over a hundred times, I still let out a small gasp at the opening shot of the Tantive IV being pursued by the star destroyer. The models used are amazingly detailed and real-looking and in many ways just look better than the cgi fests in the newer movies.
• In a similar vein as above, I love how dirty and grimy everything is in this movie. And the props also are amazing looking. It probably helps that they were modified real life guns, but Han's German Mauser-based blaster pistol and the stormtroopers' Sterling submachine gun-based carbines in particular are absolutely gorgeous props. Everything in the movie has such a tangible quality that is lacking in the prequels.
• Harrison Ford. What a massive stroke of luck for George Lucas to find him and cast him for this role and this movie. He is perfect in every way, both as an actor and specifically as Han Solo. He is one of the very few people who can speak Lucas-written dialogue and make it sound great. And really, there is no better compliment I can think of for an actor.
• Alec Guinness adds a lot of legitimacy to what could have potentially been a very silly movie. He is the another rare actor who delivers his dialogue so well that you never notice if it is poorly-written or not.
• The third great actor in this movie is Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin. He posses a calm confidence and air of supreme authority that the petulant Vader does not provide. He is the real villain of this movie and without him the Empire would probably seem cartoonish and not seriously threatening. His cold, calculating menace really adds to the sense of danger for Leia and the rest of the Rebels.
• I really like that the special edition added in the scene with Jabba and Han in the docking bay. Han's actions make a lot more sense with that context added.
• Aurally, this movie is stunning. Between John Williams' legendary score and Ben Burtt's genius sound design the whole movie is a treat on the ears. This is true of all the SW movies, but since this was the first one made and set the tone (literally) for the others, it gets the mention.

THE BAD

• Luke is kind of whiny and annoying. Not nearly as bad as his dad was, but he's a little hard to like, especially when next to charismatic figures like Obi-Wan and Han.
• All of the added cgi for the special edition sticks out like a sore thumb and just plain looks bad. The only exception is maybe some of the stuff from the space battle, which looks ok but not great.

THE UGLY

• The security on the Death Star is atrocious. Why, on a station with millions of Imperial troops, do only a handful stormtroopers at a time ever go after the heroes? And why, in the face of a fighter attack, do you scramble only 6 TIEs for defense when you have thousands on the station? The movie's budget could explain the latter, but it's all extremely silly if you think about it.
• It also makes no sense for the Rebel fighters to enter the trench so far away from the thermal exhaust port, where they are sitting ducks for the TIEs. And why do the fighters who aren't participating in the trench run not cover the ones in the trench?

RATING: 10/10

The Best of the Best: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

I just finished re-watching all six Lucas-era Star Wars films in episode order (I-VI) with the commentary and want to give my reviews of each film. Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy and literally have no memory of a time in my life before SW. As such, I am not going to be totally unbiased in my reviews, but I will try to be somewhat objective.

The Clone Wars have been raging for three years now. Obi-Wan and Anakin have become great war heroes, and Padme is now secretly pregnant with her first child (well, twins but she and Anakin don’t know that). Meanwhile, Palpatine’s plans are nearly at fruition, as he begins to actively tutor Anakin on the Dark Side, leading to a final confrontation between him and the Jedi council, with Anakin stuck in the middle. Anakin believes Padme will die in childbirth, and Palpatine has promised he can save her, so in order to keep Palpatine (and thus Padme) alive, Anakin betrays the Jedi and becomes Darth Vader. The rest is history.

The movie is really the payoff of the first two prequels. Everything come together here, as the fatal flaws in the Jedi, the Republic, Anakin, and corrupt humanity are all exploited by Palpatine to execute his brilliant and carefully-laid plan to become the supreme ruler of the galaxy. Even if you were one of those people who thought the politics of Episodes I and II were tedious and unnecessary, you can’t possibly argue that the way it comes together in this movie is anything short of genius.

There are very few flaws and many, many high points, which is why overall this is my favorite of all the SW films. The way it ties the two trilogies together in terms of everything—aesthetics, storyline, characters, settings, etc.—is amazing and spine-tingling. So many scene just give me the chills, from Anakin burning in the lava, to seeing Alderaan and Bail and his wife cradling the infant Leia, to Beru and Lars holding the infant Luke watching the twin suns set. The last third of the movie is probably the best forty minutes of cinema I have ever experienced. Thank you, George Lucas, for sharing your artistic vision with the world. There have been some bumps along the way, but as a fan I really appreciate what you have done. Bravo.

THE GOOD

There are too many good parts in this movie for me to note them all, but I’ll try to hit some of the absolute best points

• The opening shot with the space battle might be the best space battle shot of all time. You think it’s just one Republic cruiser in frame and then the camera follows the two Jedi fighters around and on the other side--holy mackerel. What a great shot to start the movie on. That entire space battle is exactly what I had in my imagination reading Michael Stackpole’s X-wing novels as a kid and it was a real treat to see it for real.
• In ANH, Obi-Wan describes Anakin as having been “seduced” by the Dark Side of the Force. Well in this movie we see how incredibly apt of a verb that was. What Palpatine does to Anakin is really a masterful seduction--not a sexual one, but one of power. He knows Anakin’s weakness and exploits it, promising him the power ostensibly to save the one he loves, but really knowing that the power, once tasted, will become and end in and of itself and Anakin will be seduced down a path he can’t retrace (and ironically lose the one he loves as a result). The scene in the zero gravity opera is particularly great in this respect.
• ”So this is how liberty dies—to thunderous applause.” Goosebumps. Every. Time. Padme is kind of an incidental character in this film but at least she gets the best line by far in the whole trilogy.
• Seeing Anakin burn in the lava. And I’m saying that only half-jokingly. Yes, Anakin is a frustrating character and he deserved it for what he does, but also as a kid growing up I always read references in the EU to Anakin being burned in the lavas of Mustafar and that’s why he needed the suit. To finally see it happen and see him become Vader was something I never thought I’d get to experience. It really was the payoff moment for the entire prequel trilogy.
• Vader taking his first breath.
• The entire ending montage, with Alderaan, Tatooine, and Vader, Palpatine, and Tarkin standing on the bridge of the star destroyer as the Imperial March plays. Amazing.

THE BAD

• "ANAKIN...YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART." 
• Really most of the dialogue is bad, unfortunately, but the above line is probably the one that makes me cringe the most. 
• The cgi isn’t as bad as in AotC, but some moments are still very fake looking, like the flip Dooku does off the railings before the fight with Anakin and Obi-Wan. 

THE UGLY

• I have never been able to decide if Mace Windu actually beats Palpatine, or if Palpatine fakes getting beat in order to force Anakin to save him. He looks legit terrified after Mace beats him and it’s hard to believe he knew Anakin would arrive right in the nick of time and save him. Mace deciding that Palpatine should be summarily executed is also extremely un-Jedi-like and I’ve never totally bought it. That whole sequence is rather confusing, probably due to the numerous re-edit Lucas did in post-production (originally it was very different, apparently).
• In the commentary, Lucas says that there was a whole subplot filmed of Padme helping to form the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance (along with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma), but that storyline was sadly cut from the final version. Someday I hope we get extended versions of the prequels like Lord of the Rings did so we can see stuff like that (as well as the rumored epic 7-hour cut of TPM that has never been released publicly). Unfortunately, since Lucas has given up the franchise to the soulless Disney corporation, I’m pretty sure that will never happen.

RATING: 10/10

The Saga Continues: Episode II Attack of the Clones

I just finished re-watching all six Lucas-era Star Wars films in episode order (I-VI) with the commentary and want to give my reviews of each film. Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy and literally have no memory of a time in my life before SW. As such, I am not going to be totally unbiased in my reviews, but I will try to be somewhat objective.

Attack of the Clones begins ten years after The Phantom Menace. After an assassination attempt on (now) Senator Amidala's life, Obi-Wan and Anakin are called in to protect her—Anakin as her bodyguard and Obi-Wan as a detective following an intergalactic trail of evidence to discover who is trying to kill her and why. The investigation leads him to discover many dark secrets about the Jedi, the Republic, and who has been pulling the strings this whole time. As a result, a war erupts between the Republic and the Separatists under the control of the mysterious Sith lord, Darth Sidious. Begun, the Clone Wars have.

Let me start by saying that this is definitely my least favorite of the six Lucas films. The love story is tedious, there's no exceptional actors to make up for the absence of Liam Neeson, the cgi is too much, and Anakin is so unlikable that you almost stop caring that he will eventually turn evil. George Lucas loves to describe Anakin's story as a tragedy in the vein of a classic Greek play, but a tragedy where the tragic figure is not sympathetic is not a very good tragedy at all.

All that said, I still enjoy this film a bit. The politics are probably the saving grace of this one.

THE GOOD

• Christopher Lee is the one great actor but unfortunately he doesn't even appear until halfway through the movie. Still, every scene he is in is a treat.
• The way Palpatine has manipulated everything is absolutely masterful to see. It can be lost in the mess of cgi and Anakin's temper tantrums, but in this movie it's established that Palpatine (possibly through Dooku) created a clone army with the intention of starting a civil war eventually and giving that clone army to the Republic as massive Trojan Horse. He then orchestrated the assassination attempts on Padme, in order to lead the Jedi to Kamino where they would discover the clone army created for them (and also made sure Padme and Anakin were placed together so he would develop a forbidden attachment to her--the fatal weakness he would eventually exploit to turn Anakin to the Dark Side). Meanwhile, he continued to play the Separatists from both sides to artificially create this conflict to keep him in office and allow him to accumulate more executive power. Finally, the whole time he was grooming Anakin and pushing him to explore his dark side so that he could eventually make him his new apprentice. All around it's a brilliant work of art to see in action, and really he deserved to become emperor because he was way smarter and more competent than the Jedi or anyone else in these movies.
• Love seeing the Slave I. It might be my favorite ship in the SW universe.

THE BAD

• Anakin is a petulant, unlikable, self-centered brat. I almost couldn't wait for him to fall into the lava in the next movie because then I wouldn't have to look at his stupid whiny face anymore. However, if you think about it, Vader was occasionally petulant in the original trilogy too, so I guess it's in character (strangling people for disagreeing with him, for example).
• The cgi is just...way too much. The alien that Obi-Wan meets in the diner in particular just looks so fake. And it really makes me angry (probably irrationally so) when they tell us repeatedly in the commentary that not a single clone trooper suit was built and they were all 100% cgi. The whole movie feels inconsequential and fake because of how overboard they went on the cgi.
• The love story is hard to watch. It's not believable that a brilliant, mature, and successful woman with a good head on her shoulders would fall in love with a petulant, emotionally unstable child. And Anakin is straight up creepy towards her in the scenes on Coruscant and Naboo. The scenes on Tatooine where he finally quits creeping on her and they talk like friends are actually very good and with more interactions like that, the love story might have been more believable.
• The dialogue, as always.

THE UGLY

• The fact that the Jedi don't seem concerned about the origins of the clone army and just decide to use it without asking any questions is pretty massive incompetence on their part. In fact, throughout these prequels their complacency and incompetence makes me think they deserved to get wiped out. Yoda is the worst offender here, as he is supposed to be extremely wise and powerful and yet throughout the movies he repeatedly makes critical mistakes that lead to the fall of the Jedi (allowing Anakin to be trained, using and trusting the clone army, not figuring out who was pulling the strings, etc.).
• I know the Expanded Universe is not canon and now isn't even part of SW anymore thanks to Disney, but the EU background for Boba Fett was that he was from a race of elite warriors called the Mandalorians and he has fought against the Jedi in the Clone Wars. This movie establishing him as a stormtrooper clone and a kid instead is just...infinitely less interesting.

RATING: 6/10

The Saga Begins: Episode I The Phantom Menace

I just finished re-watching all six Lucas-era Star Wars films in episode order (I-VI) with the commentary and want to give my reviews of each film. Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy and literally have no memory of a time in my life before SW. As such, I am not going to be totally unbiased in my reviews, but I will try to be somewhat objective.

So we begin at the beginning of the story, rather than the order in which the movie are made. In my opinion this is the best way to view the saga, because things in Episodes I-III do a great job setting up IV-VI and those latter movies will have even more emotional resonance in the context given by the prequels. Lucas likes to say that the saga is really the story of Anakin's rise, fall, and redemption, and keeping that in mind gives greater weight to the originals, especially any scene with Vader in it.

The Phantom Menace's plot is incredibly complex and when I think about trying to synopsize it, I am utterly overwhelmed by how much actually happens in two hours. There's so many characters and so many plot lines going simultaneously that I can really only summarize the plot in the most general of terms. Essentially there is a peaceful planet occupied by a militaristic corporate alliance called the Trade Federation, and the movie is about the planet's elected queen's struggle to free her people from this oppressive occupation. But also there the story of Anakin and how he is discovered by the Jedi. And also there's the beginning of the political story of Palpatine's rise to power. And there's also a huge amount of worldbuilding going on. It probably goes without saying that this movie is EPIC. Let's get into some details.

THE GOOD 

• This movie is gorgeous. The ships, the matte painting, the costumes, the sets. Everything looks amazing. Even after seeing the movie dozens of times over the last 19 years, shots like the aerials of Naboo or the Jedi starship flying towards the Trade Federation ship still take my breath away. 
• The podrace. Though it's a total ripoff of the Ben-Hur chariot race, that sequence is one of the most legendary and film history, and this ripoff is exceptionally well done. Sebulba makes a great Massala and the sounds of the pods are so well done. Ben Burtt is a genius. 
• Liam Neeson. George Lucas is terrible at writing dialogue--let's get that out of the way right now. Most actors can't speak Lucas' lines without sounding silly, wooden, melodramatic, or some combination of those. The original trilogy was blessed with two amazing actors in Alec Guinness and Harrison Ford, both of whom could make the dialogue sound good. This movie is blessed with Liam Neeson, who gives lines about midichlorians and Nubian hyperdrives enough gravitas that you almost don't question them. Almost. 
• The older I get, the more I love the politics in these prequels. Seeing Palpatine's rise from a senator on a backwater planet, to chancellor, and finally to emperor is fascinating and I think something Lucas portrayed extremely well. 
• Darth Maul is definitely an awesome bad guy. I read that the actor who played him was pissed that most of his lines got edited out of the movie, but I think the fact that he only has a couple of lines the whole time makes him that much more menacing and cool. Everything about him is great, from the makeup and costume, to his unique and wicked double-bladed lightsaber (still the coolest lightsaber design in a SW movie). 
• The final lightsaber battle. The fight between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul is the most ferocious, well-choreographed, and well-shot lightsaber battle in all 6 movies by far. The musical score by John Williams pushes it over the top into truly heart-stopping territory. It's worth all of Jar Jar's scenes just for this one fight.

THE BAD

• Do I really need to say it? Jar Jar. I don't think I hate him the way a lot of people do, but he is admittedly very annoying and distracting. And to be honest, he doesn't look good. He looks cartoonish and I think having a main character be 100% cgi was a bad idea. I also dislike that on the BluRay they redid Yoda to be cgi because he has less character and tangibility than the Frank Oz puppet.
• I mentioned it before, but Lucas sucks at writing and directing dialogue. Most of the lines vary between cringe-worthy and just plain wooden. In some cases this is appropriate, like the uptight and dispassionate way people speak in the politics scenes, but when it comes to personal stuff it makes the movie feel sterile.

THE UGLY

• There's an implication that Naboo's planetary core has water, but that isn't possible. At the immense pressures that exist in planetary cores (or even most of the mantle), water can't exist in a liquid form. Not to mention no vessel could withstand the crushing weight of an entire planetary mass pressing in on it from all sides.
• As awesome as Qui-Gon is as a character, we see how his stubbornness and arrogance leads to the fall of the Jedi and the Republic, and the rise of the Empire. Jedi's rules on training only very young children clearly exists for good reasons--reason that will be seen better in the next two movies.
• I don't get what Maul is doing after he pushes Obi-Wan down the shaft. It annoys me that such an awesome and dangerous character suddenly starts screwing around with making sparks rather than killing Obi-Wan, and then just stands there like a moron while Obi-Wan flies up and cuts him in half. Pretty disappointing ending to an incredible fight.
• I can't figure out the reasoning for setting this movie only 32 years before A New Hope. Obi-Wan's portrayed age is impossible to reconcile as a result, as he is clearly at least 65 or 70 in ANH, not the 50-ish he should be.

RATING: 9/10