Don't blame critics!

Rating: 1/10 (4 June 1999)

Critics wanted more than anything to love this movie. As did many die hard fans who simply couldn't forgive storytelling that is not on par with it's predecessors. THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE of critics being closed minded and braindead! If some dogmatic viewers simply open their eyes, they'd see it's not just the critics. As for the people who loved this movie, well... some people liked the Fifth Element, so I guess its possible to love this. One problem for me is the screenplay of Episode one gets bogged down in minor details, and doesn't move from scene to scene with effective pacing. I don't think its boring, but I will say, it's less exciting, and captivating than it should be. Too many of the scenes are about small details that don't really have to be there, i.e. so many of the chase scenes against the droids, and the land battle with the Gungans. That to me was not exciting. The action is more routine here, and doesn't have the element of surprise like the others. Things get shot, things shoot back, things blows up, things shoot, etc. It gets very monotonous. I did very much like the scenes on Tatooine, however. I think it did capture my imagination, with the exception of that amazingly overrated pod race sequence, complete with obviously CGI characters, and a Pod racer that kills the entire scene for me. This isn't a bad movie, it's just a disappointment. This feels more like a 90's movie. Which place their emphasis on routine action, and effects, and less on character, and interesting backstory. Watching resent action movies, I always thought to myself, where's the magic that I used to see in movies starting with Star Wars in '77 and pretty much ending with Back to the Future in 85. It appears, that Lucas has fallen to the same mistakes as the so called enemy "the big studios" likewise. Nothing against George. He is a wonderful guy. A smart guy, and I think it's too bad that so many disappointed fans have been SO grating on him personally. If I was let down by his movie, and even the next installments, the man still has a heart of gold, and once made pictures that defined the magic of cinema to me. His filmmaking here seems to lack passion, hopefully, he'll get that back with avengeance. Overall, what I think of this movie? There are moments, and enough of them, for me to say, heck, it's pretty good. But I can't help thinking what this could've been.