OK fanboys, you're skewing this rating WAAAYYY above what it should be

Rating: 3/10 (21 February 2003)

Imagine if the prequels came out before Ep. IV-VI? Now vote again. C'mon, who in their right mind would consider this movie anything more than a four. I mean, it is the first episode.
I gave it a one for the huge letdown factor. All of a sudden non-humans speak English, yet with European, Jamaican accents? That's kind of odd considering that Greedo didn't seem to speak any English in Ep. IV, nor Jabba the Hut, or any other non-human. And don't even get me started with Jar-Jar. Minus three points just for his presence in this "film".
Plus, the fact that the special effects looked like CGI and virtual-realistic compared to realistic models in Ep. IV-VI. I've always preferred real models to CGI anyhow. It looks possible, not like a computer game. Bear in mind, the models special effects are after the CGI ones, time-wise.
Pure crap. Lucas' ego is a big-headed figuratively as it is literally. He should have never taken over so much of his own creation. The loss, forcibly, of a great director like Irvin Kershner and screenplay writers Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan from Ep. V was a major blow to what made SW so great and...cool. Lucas had a great concept/story, but cannot himself make it perfection without help.