Well, it's a start, but get back to business George

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 1999)

In light of all of the glowing reviews, I want to point out some thoughts I had about the movie...
1. Get back to business George. This was not really that much of a compelling story. Unfortunately that's the duty of the first of any series, to bring everyone up to speed and get the plot flowing. Lucas himself said that the bulk of the story is in Episode 3.
2. Got all the toys... now use them right. You can definitely tell that ILM had their hands full with all of the effects, characters, etc. Great job to the ILM team..... BUT Lucas needs to realize that just because you can do it digitally, that doesn't make it better. I watched Ep IV right before Ep I and found that with all of the glitz and glamour, Ep I did not look "REAL". Ep IV has a kind of "dirt" on it, since its all real sets. Ep I is TOO computer generated and makes everything look too perfect... Come on guys, add some dirt and grease and blast marks to those texture maps...
3. Darth Maul was hollow. He was NOT a compelling villain. Lucas did nothing to explain him, or to make me hate him, except paint him up like a devil. I was extremely disappointed. Matter of fact, there was NO really compelling villain. The federation were cowardly, Palpatine TOO nice, and Sidious too hollow to make any really good villains.
I am really looking forward to Ep 2 now though... I have a feeling that Lucas is now watching all of the comments running around and is going to take a lot of it to heart. Now that he's got the tools, and the experience behind their use, he'll wise up and put it all together.