Oh dear, this always happens to cult stories

Rating: Null/10 (11 May 2002)

I bet this film is great if you're a 7-year-old kid who just likes a funny lighthearted sci-fi romp. Unfortunately, Lucas should have realised that what made the Star Wars Trilogy and the Indiana Jones Trilogy so good was that they never patronised the watcher. There were some tongue-in-cheek moments and a cheerful old fashioned plot about wicked generals (be they nazis or space armies) and travelling pirates. Adults could enjoy these films in all their gripping saturday-matinee glory.
However, with Episode I, the winning method seems to have been filed away somewhere as Lucas referred instead to the Hollywood book of generic moneyspinners. The horribly horribly irritating kid was a major ruination of this film (children don't have to be whiny, squeaky little American-apple-pie poppets do they?). Admittedly it may not be the poor lad's fault being given such a poor script, but perhaps getting someone a little older and with a less irritating delivery may have done this film no end of good.
I won't mention Jar-Jar as everyone else has pretty much summed up his 'appeal'.
An why did Ewan McGregor have to try and impersonate Alec Guinness? Yes, Guinness had a distinctive voice which became associated with the role, but it would have been easier to suspend our disbelief and accept that a different actor was playing the role than sit through McGregor's impersonation.
Perhaps the two saving graces of this film were Ian McDiarmid as the Senator Palpatine; he was great and exuded menace, and Natalie Portman just because she's sweet (it's not objective criticism, but you know it's true!).
A one-word summary of this film would be "irritating", whether you're looking at it as a film fan or Star Wars fan.