For best results: believe all the hype.

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 1999)

After all the anticipation, all the hype and all the unfavorable critical reviews recently, I went into this movie with a combination of hopeless anticipation and expectations of inevitable disappointment. Apparently, that was the perfect mindset going into this movie because I liked it very much.
As with any CGI, much of it looked plastic and phony, but considering the scope of some of the shots, one almost had to be impressed. Almost. All of the dialogue is oppressively awkward. Jake Lloyd much of the time is delivering his lines with the typical overzealousness of child actors, but it's refreshing that he's the only one speaking with an unvarnished American accent. The big battle between the Gungans & the Federation droids is rehashed _Jedi_ without the midgets in fur, and the starship battle is identical to trying to blow up the Death Star in _Star Wars_ & _Jedi_. On the other hand, the pod-racing scene, even if you see its results coming a mile away, is thrilling and most of the lightsaber battles are great, even if their climax did seem a bit anticlimatic.
At one point early in the film, the sight of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi swimming toward an underwater city was notably reminiscent of him in _Trainspotting_ looking for his heroin suppositories in England's dirtiest lavatory. Ian McDiarmid's comment about the young Skywalker is almost throwaway, but quite amusing. A scene in the Naboo throne room where a blast door is abruptly lowered is straight out of _Star Wars_. It's that kind of silliness which subtly recalls the kitchy humor of the original trilogy. It seemed like Lucas was making this for the kids, not the gen-Xers who have been waiting for this their whole life, but that's okay, just like it's okay that this movie seemed more expository than pure narrative, because by the end of it I was already hopelessly anticipating Episode II.