Excellent movie, questionable characters gunna die...?

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 1999)

Overall, this movie lives up to many of the expectations and fails on a few others. Yet, it is an excellent romp around the galaxy!
The movie itself is packed (perhaps too much) together and tries to deal with as many storylines as it can. This causes some problems with the flow of the movie, but can be tolerated knowing what is on the horizon in future films. If this movie were to improve on its stuttered flow, it would be about four hours long and much more in depth. But, for the length -- it was a good effort.
Some of the characters are questionable with their importance, but for those young at heart and just plain young will enjoy them. Some of the sequences were long and could have been cut down, but were not long enough to destroy to many child hood memories. Thumbs up to Sandpeople taking pot shots at the Podracers -- an excellent introduction of old faces. Another aspect of such characters was the accents. It was nice to see different accents, but a majority of the time it was difficult to understand them.
Most of the special effects were great but, at times, were a little much to make that sale in sci-fi reality. The underwater city on Naboo was one such scene. There was no need for this scene as it slowed down the movie even more.