After the lukewarm reception for the last Star Wars instalment, director George Lucas was expected to come up with the goods. Next week, fans and critics alike get the chance to give their verdict. Steve Pratt reports.

THESE must be tense times at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas's 300 acre headquarters hidden in the hills of Marin County outside San Francisco. Opening the latest Star Wars movie, Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, was always going to be tricky. Three years ago the eagerly-anticipated Episode I: The Phantom Menace failed to please critics or fans alike. Lucas was under intense pressure to make the next instalment a real humdinger to satisfy everyone.

Before he had a chance to unveil his new film, Spider-Man swung into action. This, the first of the summer season blockbusters, debuted in the US last weekend, taking a record $114m - the biggest ever opening in movie history.

Immediately, the stakes were raised. The Star Wars team not only have to redeem themselves artistically but need to beat the webbed wonder's box office receipts to retain credibility.

No doubt Lucas and the stars will put on a brave face as they walk along the red carpet at Wednesday's London premiere of Attack Of The Clones, although any nervousness will be understandable as the global release the following day approaches

Advance reports suggest that the movie is an improvement on The Phantom Menace, which even star Ewan McGregor criticised as being "flat". The Star Wars brand will ensure it's a hit. The question is how big a success?

The Lucas team remain bullish, pointing to the fact that, despite all the criticism, The Phantom Menace is among the top grossing pictures ever. "You can't get to $435m-$450m without people liking the film and wanting to see it over and over again," says producer Rick McCallum.

Lucas points out that the Star Wars series was written 20 years ago and that his scripts for the current trilogy remain faithful to the original concept. "Reactions from Episode I didn't affect my work on Episode II," he says.

What has changed is that the latest film is only one of many big budget movies fighting for supremacy in the cinematic marketplace over coming months. Partly, this is Lucas's own doing. The success of the first Star Wars in 1977 demonstrated the public's appetite for blockbusters. With good marketing and merchandising deals, fortunes could be made from event movies. Nowadays the summer movie calendar brings wall-to-wall blockbusters.

Star Wars is just one of many and Spider-Man, rather cheekily, has spun his web over audiences first. Lucas already had a rival in New Zealand director Peter Jackson, whose blend of fantasy adventure and special effects saw the first of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy earning Oscar nominations and big audiences.

The latest chapter of the Skywalker saga is set a decade after The Phantom Menace. The Republic is in chaos as a separatist movement, involving hundreds of planets and powerful corporate alliances, poses new threats to the galaxy that even the Jedi cannot stem.

Canadian newcomer Hayden Christensen takes over as Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, with Natalie Portman as Padme Amidala, the woman he falls in love with. The more cynical see this romance as a means of attracting teenage girls, who might otherwise see Attack Of The Clones as just a boys' adventure film.

Returning are Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Samuel L Jackson as Jedi Master Mace Windu and Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine, the most evil man in the galaxy. Former Hammer horror actor Christopher Lee takes a key role of Count Dooku, a disillusioned Jedi Master.

Back too - but in a smaller role - is the computer-generated Jar Jar Binks, the character that caused most debate in The Phantom Menace. Adults found him immensely irritating. The younger audience, at whom Jar Jar was aimed, loved him.

Criticism of Lucas's direction of The Phantom Menace hasn't stopped him helming the new instalment. Episode I marked his first time as director since the original Star Wars and some thought it showed.

What's undeniable is his determination to use the latest technology. Just as he established Industrial Light and Magic to create the ground-breaking Star Wars effects, he's pushing the barriers again with Attack Of The Clones.

This is the first major film made without film running through a camera, being shot on high definition digital tape rather than celluloid. This enabled him to complete principal photography on the $115m movie in 61 days.

"The advance of cinema into the digital world is a normal transition," says Lucas. "Just as we went from silent films to sound pictures, from black and white to colour films, digital cameras are an addition to the tools we use to create movies."

Such technical matters mean little to the cinema-going public whose main concern is that what they see is worth the price of admission.

McGregor, who admitted to being disappointed by The Phantom Menace, has good things to say about the new one. "There's much more humour and much more colour in Episode II," he says. "It's more reminiscent of the original three Star Wars films than Episode I was."

Star Wars fan Lizzie Knightley, one of the first to see Episode II, understands criticism of The Phantom Menace but felt it did the job it was intended to do - to introduce the whole saga.

"I strongly feel that when all six episodes have been completed and can be watched in chronological order, that Phantom Menace will reveal its true worth," she says.

"Expectations were so high for Episode I because it had been such a long time since the first three Star Wars movies. Nothing could ever be quite as good as the original movie anyway, especially for those of us who saw it the first time round. There had never been anything quite like Star Wars; it was so overwhelming. I will never forget my first viewing and the feeling of joy when I walked out of the cinema.

"I find it quite ironic that such a lot of the criticism comes from young cinemagoers who weren't even born then."

After seeing Attack Of The Clones at the first London preview earlier this week, she thinks it will silence Lucas's critics.

"There are some terrific action sequences, deliberately cheesy one-liners and a marvellous prophetic moment for the future that we already know.

"Most of all - as with every Star Wars movie - it's fun, escapist entertainment of the highest order."

Lucas and his team will have little time to take in reaction. Within a week of the opening, they'll be back at Skywalker Ranch planning Episode III. Filming is scheduled to begin in Fox Australia Studios in Sydney in April next year, with the movie set for release in 2005.

* Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones (PG) opens in cinemas on Thursday.