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88
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
An astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking.
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80
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The New York Times
It's up to snuff. It sustains the gee-whiz spirit of the series.
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75
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USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Let the killjoys squawk. Lucas has proved he has the Naboos to pull it off again. And again. And again.
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67
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Fails to recapture the elemental magic of Star Wars, and that, ironically, is because it represents the coarse culmination of the original film's adrenaline aesthetic.
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63
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Boston Globe Jay Carr
Good enough, but only just. It's got the hardware, but neither the characters, the imagination, nor the resonance one had hoped for.
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63
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New York Daily News Jack Mathews
In the end, Phantom needed more human and less digital scale. The magic of "Star Wars" lay in Lucas' ability to play the human comedy in a fantastic future. With Phantom, he has brought the series to the brink of total artificiality, the future as a video game.
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50
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Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
While the new film is certainly serviceable, it's noticeably lacking in warmth and humor, and though its visual strengths are real and considerable, from a dramatic point of view it's ponderous and plodding.
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50
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San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
In special effects, Lucas has moved a galaxy beyond. In energy, not yet.
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40
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Washington Post Desson Thomson
It is likely to disappoint more people than creator George Lucas would have liked.
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40
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Washington Post Rita Kempley
The Empire strikes out.
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company.