Dosen't deserve the name 'Star Wars'

Rating: 4/10 (15 November 2008)

Have you ever been disappointed ? Have you ever felt like a kid waking up on Christmas morning and finding no presents ? Well that is exactly how I felt after watching Star Wars Episode 1 on Opening night. Disappointed and angry.
Now before I go into the reasons why I hate this movie I won't to show you just how much I was just like the rest of the world anticipating this movie. I love Star Wars and for me the original trilogy was the reason I love movies. So when in 1993 it was announced that George Lucas was going to write a prequel trilogy I was in Cloud Nine ! I thought I was going to see a great story about how one of my favorite characters in cinema history : Darth Vader , turned from good to evil . I was filled with anticipation and spent the next 6 years following every piece of Star Wars news that was released. And when that they day in May came I couldn't wait to see it. However I was so wrong ! The film actually started well but as soon as the Jedi arrive on Naboo the film goes downhill !
As the film finished I asked myself : Why is this film so bad ? How can a Star Wars film never leave me with the magic it always does ? After viewing the film for a second time I came up with many reasons .
The film's story is a complete miss-mash of politics , Jedi and diverse and stupid sub-plots . Now I love politics and I love films about politics . But why oh why does George Lucas have to include tons of dialogue involving politics ! The plot is also confusing and leads you to ask questions : What is the Trade Federation ? Why are they causing war ? Why is Tattoine not in the Republic ?
In my opinion George Lucas made a huge mistake to introduce us to Anakin as a 9 year old boy . He should have been 13 or 14 not 9. In this film we see the future Dark Lord of the Sith as a 9 year old boy racing pods and shouting 'yipee' . There are other characters in this film which are completely miscasted and a waste. Obi Wan for example just runs around the place and contradicts his master. Yoda , supposedly the most powerful Jedi of all time just sits on his a** talking ! But in my opinion the character which could have been so much more and could have over taken Darth Vader as my favorite Star wars character but in a 90 minute movie , how many words does he utter , 14 ! Yes 14 words ! What a waste ! This brings me to another point.
The Dialogue in any Star Wars movie is not great and never has been . But this movie is the King of all Bad Dialogue Movies. Some lines are even pathetic like for example the first line we hear the future Dark Lord speak 'are you an angel ?'This film has good cgi and special effects I Can admit that but without a good story and good dialogue it is useless. Even when you think about it the story is just a more modern looking version of the Original Star Wars there is a journey to another planet , a jedi master dies and a Skywalker ends up blowing up the big space station.
But know you would ask what did I expect from this film ? Well I expected a good story first of all and the story should have been only about Anakin ! Forget about the Republic and the Quuen and Jar Jar just focus on Anakin and thats why this film fails .
Is there anything about this film which I like ( besides Darth Maul) well I appreciate that George Lucas tried to show new elements to the Star Wars galaxy which makes sense since it is a Republic but there are some elements which just don't feel like Star Wars like Gungans and battle droids for example. I also like Qui Gon Jinn as a character and it is thanks to him that this movie is not one of the worst of all time. There was also the final lightsaber battle which in my opinion was the best in all 6 films.
In conclusion for me this film was a major disappointment and doesn't deserve the name 'Star Wars'. Poor dialogue , bad acting and a terrible storyline make it a far cry from the original films.
4.1/10
Luke Mizzi