The second installment in Lucas’ trilogy of pre-quels was much stronger than the first. Much less Jar Jar for one, a lot more action for another. The acting was much better, and the villians were pretty cool.
The most impressive stuff were the effects this time out. Digital characters (such as Yoda) looked much more realistic. Some of the best scenes were entirely digitally created, and they looked great. The city of Coruscant looked amazing, and Naboo looked as great as it did in the first movie.
Story wise it was weak…but you go to a Star Wars movie to be entertained by space battles and lightsabre fights, not to see an amazing story. A couple of things really bother me, like how can somebody tell someone they just committed genocide, and get no reaction? And is it just me, or do you need a doctorate in politics to figure out what the hell is going on in the Star Wars universe? Oh, and what’s with the throwaway references; “Should we tell the senate that our connection with the force is weakening?” WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT WINDU? DID YOU SAY YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET YOUR COLLECTIVE JEDI ASSES WHIPPED???
Still, with the weaknesses, I sat there and just smiled through about half of it, was on the edge of my seat for a quarter of it, grimaced for a bit of it, and was entertained by most of it. Not a bad film.
They also showed the Matrix Reloaded teaser trailer before Star Wars, pretty frickin’ cool.