Honestly a bad start for the series, but still has good moments

Rating: 6/10 (20 February 2012)

I have seen this movie twice in theaters. Once when I was a kid, and now again in 3D. The visuals were very nice, and I know they were amazing when it first came out because I remember being greatly impressed by them, and seeing the movie in 3D was pretty nice. The problem that this movie has is that it throws logic out the window and starts to become a kids movie.
One of the biggest flaws with this movie is that it seems very goofy compared to the others. There are comedy reliefs around every corner, lame puns flying everywhere, and a very lighthearted mood. The plot is supposed to be centered around a conflict on Naboo, yet we never see the conflict. Supposedly thousands of people are dying, people are starving, and just disasters everywhere. But when we see Naboo it looks perfectly fine, we see no one dying, we don't even see anyone injured! Actually we don't even see ANYONE! They just say that bad things are happening.
Jar Jar Binks is not as bad of a character as people make him to be, but he is still fairly annoying. The entire Gungan people was just a little bit too silly. Their underwater city was cool but made little sense seeing as how it is in a swamp.
The lightsabre action was actually really good in this movie. Compared to the other movies the lightsabre duels were much better. While they may not have been as fancy or epic, the actual choreography was good. Darth Maul was cool, though I think he needed a bit more face time.
The podracing scene was probably the best scene in the entire movie. It was very enjoyable and cool. The only problem I had with Tatooine is that some of the aliens make no sense. Like one alien was literally a giant cartoony head with arms and legs. There were a couple others that didn't seem right.
Overall an okay movie, but I feel like it could've been so much better if the plot were taken a bit more seriously, and if the characters were fleshed out a bit more. Still enjoyable to watch for nostalgia's sake.