Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Two Jedi masters discover not all is as it seems during a fairly unimportant trade war in a backwater planet.
Biased, pithy comments: What great actors! What great visual effects! What a stunning score! What plot!?! What script!??! Yup---a big double-helping of amazingly cool Star Wars stuff here, from a screamin' drag race (worth my admission price right there) to a giant Imperial Senate chamber filled with aliens to one of the coolest swordfights caught on screen. However, the dialog is hokey and silly and the action drags for lack of a traditionally ``cool'' character (Han Solo in the first few films), and we're burdened with Jar Jar Binks, a computer-generated character who is there pretty much exclusively to make the kids happy. (Anecdotal evidence shows that little kids love Jar Jar but adults raised on Luke and Leia find him annoying. I found Binks easier to ignore the second time through.) So, a Star Wars movie through-and-through; some really great moments and visually stunning, but some weird pacing and clunky scripting. I liked it, but not as well as Episodes 4 and 5; this is probably as good a film as Return of the Jedi, or maybe a little better.
Other Notes: If you see it in widescreen version (as you should), watch the lower left hand corner near the end of the Senate sequence; you can spot some Spielberg aliens. Likewise, the eagle eye will catch some Wookies in the Senate, too.
How many times I have seen it: x2
Starring: Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Jake Lloyd, Anthony Daniels.
Directed by: George Lucas