Not good enough

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2016)

My least favourite Star Wars movie. It has one good performance - Liam Neeson as a Jedi knight. Everyone else is either mediocre or just plain bad. Ewan McGregor puts in a naive performance as a perpetually grinning Jedi apprentice. The bad guy is an absurd red- faced devil creature called Darth Maul. Then there's Jar Jar Binks, a ridiculously clumsy but 'goodhearted' alien.
But this is not a terrible movie. There's pleasure in seeing the origins of the Star Wars saga, familiar characters appearing like R2-D2, Obi-Wan Kenobe and Yoda, and the origins of later characters like Darth Vader.
There are some decent fight scenes, including a pretty cool double- edged light-sabre fight between the Jedi and Darth Maul, and interesting politics playing out in the Senate of the Republic.
This is not the Episode I that the Star Wars saga deserved, but it's just about watchable.