A collective groan issued from the legions of Star Wars fans the day Episode I: The Phantom Menace came out in 1999. It seemed George Lucas had lost his touch - giving us dubious characters like Jar Jar Binks and Darth Maul as opposed to the caliber we had been expecting. It seemed the brilliance of Star Wars had faded.

It was with an equal sense of excitement and apprehension, then, that the crowds gathered outside the theaters to see Episode II: Attack of the Clones. And this time, George Lucas shaped up.

The movie did, it’s true, commit some of the same sins as the previous one - overacting in the part of Anakin Skywalker, gratuitous alien hookers, and a focus more on technical effects than on dialogue (perhaps the movie’s worst shortcoming). And while Jar Jar Binks mercifully was pulled out of the limelight, the obnoxiousness factor was kept high with the lines given to C-3PO.

As a whole, though, the movie communicated the essence of Star Wars much more than The Phantom Menace, and eclipsed it in terms of special effects and the ever-important light saber duels. Who knew Yoda was so limber? And despite the unmemorable lines (is it just me, or is “I have a bad feeling about this” starting to sound forced?), the plot was complex and full of political conspiracies and mystery.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Attack of the Clones was the way it foreshadowed what fans knew would happen with Senator Palpatine, the Republic, and, of course, Anakin Skywalker. We hear the first strains of the Imperial March. We see the predecessors of the vaunted Star Destroyers, displaying what would become the Imperial logo. We see Anakin as he struggles against the fate that we know all too well he will eventually succumb to. The movie does an intriguing - if not subtle - job of introducing moral gray areas enough to justify Anakin’s future decisions.

In America, Star Wars has become something of a cultural icon, and there’s almost a sense of duty involved in seeing each new movie. We all saw The Phantom Menace, despite the poor reviews, and never wished we had skipped it. Thankfully, this time around it’s much more enjoyable. And who goes to see Star Wars for the dialogue, anyway?