Better than "Jedi", not as good as the first "Star Wars"

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 1999)

Without comparing it to the orignal Star Wars, it was an excellent space fantasy adventure movie - well worth the money spent to see it and a definite must for Star Wars fans. It doesn't quite stand up to the original in impact. I still give it a high rating compared to most other films.
Although the FX are incredible, they seem to have been focused on to the detriment of character development. Maybe, unlike the first trilogy, which went downhill big time as it went along, Lucas intends to build up to a much better final installment. Let's hope so at least.
The biggest disappointments were the Jedi-like overly cutesy comic relief bits (though not as bad as Jedi) and the screen presence of Jake Lloyd. As Anakin, he just seemed so, well, non-exceptional - too average to end up being the nastiest/coolest screen villain there ever was! I hate to knock the kid's acting, but there are any number of child actors out there who could have pulled this off. Maybe it was how he was directed to be on purpose. Or maybe it's because he just looks too much like Adam Rich of Eight Is Enough.
But all of this ends up as nit-picking when you compare the movie to all of the other films (and not just Star Wars). All in all, it's a pretty dang good movie.