A shaky start to the prequel trilogy

Rating: 5/10 (5 July 2018)

It seems almost cruel to pan a film which has been universally panned, like kicking someone when they're down, but this film deserves it and I say that as a lifelong Star Wars fan. I very much wanted to like the movie when it came out, and it took me a long time to accept that it is indeed a turkey.
The good:
1. Darth Maul...coolest star wars villain ever? He's certainly up there, just amazing presence and the double-bladed lightsaber is totally awesome.
2. The Maul, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan lightsaber battle - absolutely iconic, visually stunning, suspenseful and probably the best in the entire series. In fact it is the only part of this movie that really makes it an absolute must see at all.
3. Palpatine's political manipulations - lot's of people didn't like the political plot of the Prequels, but i loved it. Watching Palpatine the master manipulator at work is a pleasure and he is the other main reason the movie is worth watching.
The indifferent:
1. Anakin Skywalker - people say this poor kid is a bad actor. I don't agree, he is a kid playing a kid. It is not his fault that he was cast too young for the role. Anakin should have been 12/13 years old, at the transition from childhood to young adulthood, and so the perfect time to leave his mother and his home behind and begin his galactic adventure with the Jedi, as well as his budding romance with Padme. At 8 years old, none of that made any sense, especially not his borderline creepy crush on 14 year old Padme.
The bad:
1. Jar Jar Binks...what is there to say. I feel sorry for the actor who portrayed him because he is the victim of some bad decisions by George Lucas. Suffice to say one or two goofy hi-jinks from Jar Jar and the droids would have been fine. But Jar Jar should have been an incidental character like the droids, there for occasional comic relief. There was just way too much juvenile humour from Jar Jar in a transparently obvious attempt to appeal to five-year olds. This ties into....
2. Battle of Naboo - are we supposed to take this seriously? Because of Jar Jar's antics, it is like a Warner Brothers cartoon, not a Star Wars battle. Ridiculous and embarrassing.
3. The lack of Darth Maul...why is such a cool character not front and centre? We should have seen more of this villain, he should have had much more screen time and that would have made the final confrontation with him even more climactic. 20 minutes of filler in this movie easily could have been cut out (like most or all of the pod race and some slow scenes on Coruscant) to get proper use of this character. Ironically you have to watch The Clone Wars and Rebels to see Darth Maul handled properly and do him justice.
The film was the worst in the Star Wars saga until that dubious honour was assumed by the disgraceful The Last Jedi. Even so, it would definitely be a crime to show this film first to anyone who had never seen a Star Wars movie before.