Finally! After two years, Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones is finally launched worldwide! I was lucky enough to obtain free tickets to the 9:00pm show on opening night (courtesy of the company I work for). I can tell you that it's definitely much, much better than Episode I: The Phantom Menace as far as the actions and storyline goes. We finally get to see how some things seen in the later episodes actually form e.g. how Luke's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru came into the picture, the origin of the Death Star's design and of course, Anakin's intimate relationship with Amidala which eventually led him to the Dark Side and subsequently the birth of Luke and Leia. However, the movie has its shortcomings too. Firstly, the dialog came on as too corny, and what's up with the Anakin and Amidala rolling down the meadows of Naboo ala Hindustan movie as well as that scene where Amidala was running up the hill ala Sound of Music? Was Lucas short of ideas for the romancing scenes? Still, the best part of the movie I reckon was the light sabre battle between Count Dooku and Yoda! It was worth waiting to see why Yoda is THE Jedi master! Also, Sam L. Jackson gets to strut some badassed Jedi attitude ala Shaft this time around (I want a purple light sabre too!). All in all, I'd give it an 8/10 rating.

I've really gotta watch Spiderman after this. I'm sure the ticket demand would be much less with people flocking to see Episode II now.