A great big shame

Rating: 2/10 (16 April 2001)

I admit I would not be as scathing about this movie were not a Star Wars prequel, however that is part of its problem - and its still rubbish anyway. The original Star Wars films are wonderful and to have this horrendous cringe-fest tacked on to the start is sad. This movie is never scary or thrilling, whereas Darth Vader still gives me the chills: memo to Ray Park - takes more than a cape and make-up to be scary and as for the racist-stereotype chinese badguys, awful. Jar-Jar is an awfully annoying character, as are his froggy friends - more racist stereotypes. And I know that we already know what happens in part 4, but couldn't they have at least tried to instill some mystery - even if you were a Star Wars virgin you'd have to be deaf and blind to miss the fact Palpatine is a bad guy, yet at the same time they pretend we might not have realized by keeping his face hidden! Positives? Some nice martial arts fight sequences. Some great effects obviously. The Wacky Racers sequence was fun but silly - like a lot of this movie, I guess.