It can stay in a CGI galaxy, far, far, away..

Rating: 4/10 (6 April 2000)

Well, I was generally disappointed with this film. It had started well enough, the usual Star Wars fan-fare and scrolling intro to get people in the mood, but too much time was lost in the middle with a stupid pod race. Really, the two Jedis should have just made an appearance at the race and observed young Anakin to be good with the force and then take it upon themselves to train him.. the plot of having to raise money for a Hyperdrive was pretty poor.
The use of CGIs was very badly done I felt. There were too many CGI graphics used and the overall effect was poor - realism, is supposed to be conveyed to an audience, the fact was, the CGIs looked like CGIs and this should not be the case. It would have been better to see actual models used as in the Classic Star Wars films to be used and then CGIs applied over the top of them. I hope that George Lucas goes back to his roots for the next two films.
The Jar Jar Binks character is completely annoying - due to a bad choice of characterization voice. A more sensible sounding voice would have made it more enjoyable. The grammar of the language used throughout this film is not very Star Wars and more your average-speaking 20th Century american would use, which is far from accurate when trying portray a civilisation in a galaxy, far, far, away..
The lightsabre fights were okay, but why did they call them light-swords? Has George Lucas forgot himself? The end sequence similar to that of Star Wars IV - A New Hope, why copy it? It would appear some more original thinking is required for episodes two and three.. if anything the ending should have been more dark and depressing.. it was promised that these three prequels were in fact going to be a more 'darker' feature, obviously, Hollywood has decided otherwise.
The only other saving features were R2D2, C3P0 and The Emperor character which he'll soon become in the next two films.. apart from that there was very little to call Star Wars, a disappointing 6 out of 10.