Jonathan Hales

I'm very conflicted about this movie. I enjoy most of the scenes in it immensely in a vacuum (yes, yes, some of the Anakin-Padmé romance scenes are a bit hard to watch, but there really aren't that many of them), and it really showcases McGregor's Obi-Wan -- which might be my favourite character in the entire franchise. On the other hand, the plot makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, even by Hollywood blockbuster standards. Basically, the story is structured around a detective plot where Obi-Wan investigates A, which leads him to B. Something at B is weird, so he follows up, ending up at C. Something at C is weird, so he follows up, ending up at D -- but no link in the chain ever has any logical connection to two steps previously. The supposedly intelligent Jedi Master is just running around on a disjointed scavenger hunt (which additionally is full of information that is both pointless and even seemingly contradictory to the facts as established by the end of this film and the following third film), like an easily distracted goldfish, rather than investigate the attempted assassination that started the whole plotline off.

It upsets me, because with the millions spent on special effects, movies like this have no business not having had the few thousand dollars it would have taken to hire someone with a shred of attention span to go through the script or a rough cut of the film, and fix it with a couple of minor scene additions or ADR recordings so it made some semblance of sense.

But even with these huge gripes, I must admit I quite enjoy this film. In addition to Obi-Wan, there's a lot of character moments to enjoy: Yoda's ass-kicking, Dooku being deliciously morally ambigious, Anakin's beginning descent on Tatooine -- which is actually quite gripping -- and the ever-smug Palpatine, to name a few. I just which it did something more with them, so that the sum of the parts would be something greater than they are individually, rather than something distinctly lesser.… (mehr)