Better than nothing

Rating: 6/10 (27 February 2014)

After years of waiting, I enjoyed Episode I as much as I could. Lucas would have been better off bringing in a really good script writer to tighten the script, and a stellar sf director to direct. His forte was always in the vision and special effects, and in his first Star Wars film (Episode IV), he condensed all his best material, so it was not as much of a problem with him directing; but when you work with the leftovers, a more deft hand is needed at the reins.
The battle robots in this movie are unbelievably inept, and the idea that they instantly shut down when a ship in orbit is destroyed, instead of having some basic battle autonomy, seems silly. In fights with Obi Wan or Qui-Gon, they are cannon fodder mowed down like grass. Their interactivity with the actors is not at par with a classic like Harryhausen's "Argonauts." Sure, the old stop motion animation is a bit rickety, but those skeletons at least put up a fight!
I thought Vader as a boy was cast OK, but needed to be more brooding; Hitler and Stalin also thought they would bring order to the Gala... uh, Europe and Russia, but they were not happy-go-lucky little children, and Vader needed more complex feeling than some vague "fear" detected by Yoda. Still, one could imagine the boy growing up into a morose, powerfully built poor farm kid, which is more than one can say of Hayden Christiansen in part II. There was a reason that body builder David Prowse played Vader's form in the original, instead of a gangly, scrawny youth.
The movie coalesces once the motley crew reaches Tattooine, hiding the queen of Naboo from the trade federation controlled by the Sith Master, her own planet's senator. A drag race modeled after the final X-wing attack in the original (Epsisode IV) ensues, and Obi Wan, now with queen Amidala and young Anakin Skywalker in tow, escapes to a futile mission to get Naboo's side heard in the galactic senate. In the end, Naboo wins over the trade federation because a soon-to-be Jedi strong with the Force blows up the gigantic space station with a small fighter, and a great big party follows. If this all sounds too familiar to viewers of Episode IV, it is!
The score by Williams is great, more use should have been made of the Sith apprentice Darth Maul, one of the few innovations in this film, and the acting and special effects (other than the droids) are good. It's a professional but not innovative remake that traces an older Skywalker's fall from grace, as opposed to his son's rise to grace.