Episode I: The CGI Menace

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2017)

(This is my review after watching the prequel trilogy in detail for the first time as an adult.)
The original trilogy of Star Wars established an immediately recognizable style of visual storytelling that, while constantly being reworked and dumbed down by subsequent special editions, has remained largely intact for the viewers of today. The stories were epic in scope, deftly utilizing archetypal characters and plot arcs, all while wrapping it into a new and exciting "space opera" package. This, I think, is how Episode I steps off on the wrong foot. I would argue that the story of Anakin is reasonably compelling in its overall execution; it's more the many less-than-ideal production decisions that detract from the timelessness that defined the originals.
Perhaps the most glaring of these choices is the gratuitous overuse of CGI. Please, George Lucas, just stop. His zeal for adding in splashy computer graphics over old practical effects in the special editions has gone completely unchecked here, and since it is the earliest of the three prequel films, the level of advancement in CGI technology had not made it nearly far enough to be a reasonable alternative to practical effects. (The one exception is CGI Yoda, which replaced the original puppet Yoda in the theatrical release who looked even worse.) As a viewer in 2017, the vast majority of these are just inexcusably bad and unnecessary.
I'm slightly less bothered by how the rest of the story unfolds. For the most part it holds up: the political maneuvering, the crisis on Naboo, the journey to Tatooine and Anakin's struggle to free himself and his mother from slavery, and of course, "the phantom menace" of Darth Maul and Palpatine. Somehow the slightly lazier pace of this movie made it feel more realistic, like there wasn't *always* a dire, civilization-threatening crisis going on for these people. There's enough conflict among the characters in their own lives to keep it interesting.
That being said, the character development is far below what I would expect from Star Wars. While all the Star Wars movies are very plot-driven, having relatable characters is incredibly important, and the combination of stiff acting and bad screen writing just doesn't cut it here with the likes of Qui-Gon, Anakin, Padme, or God forbid Jar-Jar. And Anakin *really* should have been more like 12 or 13. Having a seven-year-old spout the lines that he did, and with whatever attraction Padme had for him, would have been many times less cringey had he been about five years older.
Episode I takes what could've been a successful formula and makes it much less so with poor casting, screen writing, and production. I think if George Lucas and his team had taken this in a more refined, more thoughtful direction, it could have been great. Sadly that wasn't the case.