Rewatched again after many years

Rating: 2/10 (18 November 2019)

I remember the excitement of seeing this movie when it was first released. The hype in the cinema was palpable.
The opening was near perfect. The music and effects felt just right. The introduction of Obi Wan and Qui Gon was really cool, and the droids were an interesting addition.
From there, the movie went down. The acting was stiff (largely due to the types of characters concentrated on, jedis and politicians). There was little chemistry between any of the actors (something that was always present in the original trilogy). And Anikin was this annoying little kid, saying "yippee" and "oops". Let's not mention the comic relief character.
The script was very uninspiring, full of dull conversations about politics. The story jumped from one thing to the next seemingly randomly. The pod race felt like a 10 minute ad for a new computer game. Given it was obvious Anikin was going to win, the whole thing lacked any real tension. The realisation that Palpatine was going to be the Emperor came early and then that spoiled any other real drama.
Then the big battle(s) at the end. We had comic relief character falling over and killing people, the jedi chopping endless droid in half, and Anikin winning the whole war by accidentally pressing the wrong buttons over and over.
The only shining light was the fight between the jedi and Darth Maul. This was far superior to anything in the original trilogy, but was nowhere near enough to save this movie.
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Now, over 20 years later, here I was watching this movie again. The only reason I was watching it was because I had shown my kids the original trilogy and now they wanted to see more. I hoped that my initial disappointment was due to having too high expectations.
NOPE!
I sat there for 2 hours, watching stiff acting, awful scripts and now dated special effects. The humour fell flat. Chemistry was non-existent. I had to keep listening to my kids asking why people were doing what they were doing (something that never happened in their watching of the original trilogy).
At least the Darth Maul fight was still good.