A Phantom Menace scale let down with an easily digested script for the masses.

Rating: 1/10 (25 June 2012)

Awesome special effects, bad acting, shallow script. If the movie ended after the first 5 minutes, I would be happy. Up until then we had only a sample of Noomi and Logan's high school level acting, and several minutes of Fassbender's android impersonation. Come to think of it, he didn't have much dialogue by then, so it seemed like a good movie. But then you get 2 hours of unmotivated action, overwrought speech and terrible acting by last years TV costars. It was a lesson in script short cuts and no-no's. Maybe the studio bots lightened the mental load for today's 3rd grade comprehension audience. I'd like to hope this isn't Ridley's fault. Face the truth, folks. Alien and Blade Runner, with their spare dialogue and superb acting, with their mystery and suspense, would not earn a cent today. You have to sell, deliver, then explain every scene. If the character picks up a hammer, they have to say: "Why is this hammer here? Why am I picking it up like this? What am I going to do with it? I'm going to kill someone with it, that's what!" or it's too complicated and the Simple won't part with their coveted $12. From now on, if you see big budget special effects, know that in order to pay for it, producers have to draw in the cattle.