Imaginative, some problems with execution

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2007)

After 16 years, the Starwars franchise was brought out of moth balls. This ambitious prequel achieves with inspired creativity at times, and stumbles with poorly conceived misguided ideas at other times.
They gave it their best shot, though. It's just that many things simply didn't work. Jar-Jar is inserted for C3PO as the comic relief, and his constant whimpering of poorly scripted "comic" dialog in a high screech just gets on your nerves. The action sequences are occasionally sloppy and confusing. The kid playing young Anakin blandly recites lines like he's an extra in a kindergarten play. His scene of accidentally destroying something was pitifully contrived and stupid. Why do the rebels fight with primitive technology (catapaults) along with advanced devices (force field)? As for Natalie Portman, I like her acting but her character looks like an ad for the Forcianity religion: she's always got blood coming out of her lip like she bites her tongue a lot, and her hair looks like an inflated Goodyear Blimp landed on her head.
But there's a lot of good to point out too. There was a lot of political intrigue, setting the groundwork for future events to be depicted in the two movies that were already anticipated when this was made. The Darth Maull light sabre battles were superior; probably the best of all six installments of the series. He was an interesting and deliciously menacing character for the Jedi to encounter. The future society backgrounds were creative, and the foundational back story of the Jedi Knights was integrated well. Special effects technology was splendidly utilized. This movie's futuristic take on the Ben Hur chariot race is a fine tribute to that classic sequence (although it does little to further the story).
Lots of positives and negatives on this one. In later installments, they eliminated many of the weaknesses and improved the overall story.