Best tribute to an original since "Speed 2: Cruise Control"

Rating: 4/10 (8 April 2000)

The sun is out the birds are singing, summer looks like it's just around the corner and I feel great. All of this puts me in a sufficiently generous frame of mind to give this film 5 out of 10.
When will film makers, and the less imaginative members of the movie going public, stop making and praising films on the basis of "fantastic special effects". Without a decent story line and character realization there is no point in churning out this rubbish other than to keep the merchandising wagon rolling.
Ja Ja Binks was pointless and unfunny, apparently insulting to many people and worst of all he actually looked like a special effect. Yes he was a tribute to modern SFX technology but he LOOKED computer generated Even Ray Harryhausen's creations were more convincing thirty plus years ago. Ewan McGregor wasn't too bad and Natalie Portman put in a decent performance but somebody should have told Liam Neeson that the cameras were rolling because he looked as if he was hanging around waiting for them to start.
Anakin Skywalker? They're trying to tell me he's going to become Darth Vader? Vader is supposed to be terrifying not annoying. There was nothing in the character realization to tantalize us with prospects of a darker future. Yes I know this is only the first of a trilogy but by the time they got to the pod race I was hoping the pretentious little git would crash and burn so that the story could move on at last.