I liked TPM better the second time. I wasn't as ravished visually, but some issues I had with it didn't crop up on second viewing. Of course, now I've had the opportunity to review the first three films which definitely lends a greater sense of continuity. Now I understand why Jedis would turn up to sort out a trade dispute, for instance. They could use their mind powers to effect a reconciliation. I would say this movie ranks with 'Return of the Jedi' which is to say it's enjoyable if you turn your intellect off and just have fun watching stuff blow up.

It really can be a fun movie. It's got so much to look at, for one thing. One viewing isn't enough to absorb the wonderful details. Yes, I looked down and to the left in the Senate hearing. I said, "Awwww!" So I'm a sap, so sue me.

If I don't turn off my intellect, I still have serious reservations about this movie, chiefly in regards to script and direction. I realize I didn't initially catch some of the subtleties of the plot in part because the language was sometimes very difficult to understand between the bizarre "alien" accents and the queer human accents (nobody pronounced midichlorian very distinctly the first few times so I had no idea it was an important concept). It was only by careful listening in certain scenes this time that some of the plot points were clarified for me. I think that's bad movie-making. Your audience shouldn't have to search that hard for meaning.

As for the non-human characters, Yoda seemed marginally less capricious this time through, but he's still irritatingly omniscient. I decided I really, really like Watto the junk shop owner. I am possibly just stupid, but I do not think the Gungans seem particularly like racist stereotypes of black culture. I'll grant you they're vaguely Caribbean, but the ears didn't seem at all like dreadlocks to me. They reminded me more of lop-eared bunnies. And Jar Jar Binks doesn't particularly bother me. He's not much of a plot device, but he ably fulfills his role as a cute, goofy, non-threatening alien for little kids to fixate on. If we're talking about fixating on aliens, I'm still a huge fan of banthas and those big lizardy things on Tatooine.

A lot of the human acting left me wondering about the director. Terence Stamp was positively vanilla as the Supreme Chancellor, and that seems wrong. He's not a bland actor normally. Plus, no matter how cool Samuel Jackson was in other movies, he's not cool in this one. He's simply a cypher on the council; Yoda had more presence and personality. It doesn't matter to me that Mace Windu will be a focus of future movies, as I've said. In this one he could have been played by John Ritter just as effectively. I actually blame the writers for that one. But overall, I think Lucas should have stuck with model-making.

All of the Naboo, including Captain Panaka and Sio Bibble, appear to have blundered into this movie while looking for the set of Ozma of Oz. Those uniforms were pure L. Frank Baum. It was slightly distracting. And all of the spaceship pilots looked like refugees from Battlestar Galactica. I spotted some major sideburn action.

Ewan McGregor didn't seem quite as useless the second time through, but he still spent way too much time on the spaceship worrying over the dilithium crystals. I mean hyperdrive. Whatever.

Yes, I did forget to mention Darth Maul last time. Yes, he is an extremely cool character. He owns the screen every time he's on it. Now that's acting. Well, acting and really scary makeup. But I'm also becoming an admirer of Ian McDiarmid who radiates menace and evil like nobody's business using only the lower half of his face! Damn, he's good.

The pod race was much better the second time through. I appreciated the fight scenes more this time, too. Any of the super tense action sequences went better for me because I already knew who lived and who died. Does that make sense? I don't enjoy the suspense of an exciting race coupled with fear for the characters. I can't pay attention to the fun stuff until I know everyone's okay. I'm such a girl.

Overall, I'm happier with TPM now. I don't think it stands alone as a movie at all well, but it wasn't meant to, I guess. And now that I'm up to date with the whole series I think this is a good beginning, barring the pseudo-scientific garbage about the midichlorians (the Force is one's spirituality, and let's have no more nonsense about symbiosis). But you know what?

The title still stinks.

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