Dennis the menace

Rating: Null/10 (4 October 2004)

In my humble opinion, the world (or universe) needed this film as much as we needed the tiresome Matrix sequels. The new Star Wars serves no purpose as to explain the origins of Darth Vader. What we get is a seriously annoying kid running around like Dennis the menace or something.
Lucas desperately tries to tie in this prequel to the original trilogy by throwing in a never ending stream of name dropping, and "clever" winks at the old films. I just don't see the point. Do we really need three films about Darth Vader and the rise of the empire? And if we do - shouldn't they at least be fun or interesting?
The plot about trade wars and political arguments isn't exactly riveting. Liam Neeson goes for a zombie approach to his character, and McGregor tries to look and sound like Alec Guiness, which feels kind of odd. The bad guys, armies of stupid anorectic robots, and some very brief moments from Darth Maul, aren't interesting either. Then, of course, there's Jar Jar Binks (why, why, why?) and Jake Lloyd as young Anakin/Vader (couldn't they find a kid with at least one ounce of charisma).
The only reason these films are being made is that Lucas and ILM can do just about anything with their computers these days. It looks good, but it's very sterile and flat. Actors performing an entire film in front of a blue screen, cannot help looking like cardboard cutouts.
Phantom Menace's over hype, aside, it's still just awfully long and boring (the anything but exciting pod race felt like it went on for ever, by the way). [1/10]