You all know me, I love Star Wars and have had several blogs in defense of some of the choices GL has made and on the continuity of series. That being said I still don't particularly like AOTC.

By far I feel this is the weekest of the saga and wish that it had been better. I still watched it a dozen times in the theater, but that's for support. Don't get me wrong, the last 20 minutes were awesome, and made me want more (plus Yoda's first fight scene is classic). Overall the film fell short, and I know I'm not the only fan who thinks so. Most people, however, like to blame the film's lackluster on one single element: Hayden Christensen. He's an easy scapegoat, but I think he's been unjustly accused.

If you have ever had the chance to see his other films (Life As A House, Jumper, Awake, Shattered Glass) you'll come to understand that he really isn't a bad actor, and in fact has some talent (if not some poor choices in work). In ROTS, i think he had a brilliant performance, along with Ian McDiarmid.

No, I feel the problem in AOTC lay in its pacing, and to a degree the script. Episode II just feels so rushed, some scenes lasting for a couple lines of dialogue before wiping to another scene, in another location especially at the beginning. The other films gave you time to get you bearings at the beginning of the film. They let you know where you are, who was around, all contained within longer scenes all set within the same basic location. Episode II immediately jumps you around from place to place, without giving you the time to think "Ah cool he's back in this one" or anything else. Even Episode I began entirely on the Trade Federation vessel, and took some time before they finally moved on to another location. ROTS started with a space battle and stayed on GG's flagship for a time before bringing us back to Coruscant.

I know, AOTC all starts on Coruscant, but it jumps from Space to landing platform, to Palpatine's office, to an elevator, to Padme's apartment all under ten minutes into the film. The rest of the film takes us all over the galaxy. Yes, it's cool seeing more planets and different things, but there is just so much jumping around, it makes the pacing feel rushed. The OT only had a handful of locations the characters traveled to, and they stayed there for a while. Look at ROTJ, went from Tatooine to Endor (with a brief stop at Dagobah).

Understandably GL had a lot of ground to cover in this film. He had to start the Clone Wars, have Anakin and Padme fall in love, establish a new bad guy, show where the Clones come from, show how Palpatine has started to take over, kill Anakin's mother (but have him try to save her), show Anakin's dark side a little, and briefly explain a little of what had taken place in the 10 years since the events of TPM. Whoo! That's a lot to pack into one film.

I wish GL would have taken some of those elements out (I really wish Maul had lived so you wouldn't have to establish a new villain) to focus on the main things: the Clone Wars and the love story. Those were the two biggest elements of this film and unfortunately the love story was overshadowed and mishandled in order to accomodate all the other elements in the film.

Based on Christensen's other performances and his work in ROTS (come on that scene in the Council Chamber when he's by himself. That was incredible, as well as the scene with him and Palps in the theater) I cannot blame him for AOTC's shortcomings. As fans I feel we should cut him a little slack, and understand that he can only do as well as the script allows.

--DLZ