use Perl

On Friday, a group of london.pm-ers went off to the Streatham Odeon to see Lucas' latest extravaganza. After the nightmare that was The Phantom Menace is wasn't going to bother, but it was in a local cinema - and cheap. Here are my impressions:

• Much better than Episode I
• Too many scenes that were obviously just there to form the basis for spin-off games. I noticed the speeder chase near the start, the asteroid belt and (mostly) the droid factory. That last one is an obvious platform game tie-in
• Completely superfluous Tattooine sequence. Only there to introduce to a younger version of Uncle Owen (hey, look, we're internally consistant!)
• Too much badly done romance. Did anyone else keep seeing them as Aragron and Arwen?
• Oh and whilst we're getting confused between AotC and FotR - Count Phooko is Saruman
• Terrible dialogue - "Good call, young padawan"
• Nice to see some backstory being filled in on Boba Fett. Bit heavy-handed the way he picked up Jenga's helmet tho'
• Less Jar-Jar is good. Even less would have been better

If you're a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise (I'm not), then I'm sure you'll love it. Doubt it'll make any new fans tho'.