Nice and entertaining, but nothing more

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 1999)

This movie will not appear in my all-time-greatest list. This doesn't mean that this isn't an entertaining movie. In contrast to what others write here, there *is* a plot and it's not even such a bad one at that (i.e. the way the senator gets the supreme power by the invasion of an insignificant planet, without revealing himself as the bad guy). I even liked the pod race, even though the outcome was obvious from the start.
However, the characters missed some depth and colour (except for Jar Jar, who had too much of the wrong colour ;-) The special effects were, although some of the best I've seen, too obviously computer generated and were maybe a bit cartoonesque. They missed e.g. the grandeur of the Imperial Walkers in the Empire Strikes Back.
Nevertheless, this is a worthy prequel to the well-known trilogy (if you don't let your expectations build up to high due to the hype), and will undoubtedly be followed and expanded in the episodes II and III. I'm looking forward to these!