The good, the bad, and the ugly

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 1999)

THE GOOD:
1. Natalie Portman as the Queen. She's unbearably cute and very regal.
2. The story. Who says it was boring and difficult to understand? Not for me. Its the story of how evil Senator Palpatine rose to power on the back of the attack on Naboo. It's also the story of the Jedi and the prophecy of Anakin bringing balance to the force.
3. The pod race.
4. The Darth Maul fight.
5. The special effects.
6. John William's 'choral' soundtrack.
7. The development of Palpatine, Obi-Wan, and Anakin.
THE BAD
1. The lack of development of Qui-Gon. Consequently, one does not seem to care much what happens to him, unlike, say, the way the viewer cares about Anakin leaving his mother.
2. The total, complete, sad lack of development of Mr. Bad 'A' Darth Maul. Did he say a single word in the entire movie?
3. Who is Darth Sidious? Is he really Senator Palpatine? Is he Palpatine's brother or his friend? Does he have anything to do with Palpatine at all?
4. The "oh, I'll guess I'll hide in this spaceship no one's using. Oh, I guess I'll try to find its blaster switch. Oops, I turned it on. Oh, no. Here we go into space. Wow, I turned off the autopilot system somehow. Oops, I crashed perfectly in the middle of the enemy ship. Oh, no, my ship's broken. Wow, It's back online all of a sudden, thats nice. Hehe, I'm gonna sit and blast troops for a while with my big gun. Oops, I hit the reactor core. Fiddle dee dee, clumsy ol' me. Wow, the big enemy ship blew up. Did I do that?" thing that happens to Anakin. If Anakin is to be a powerful warrior, it should have been: "Ha, I'll 'hide' in this spaceship. Im escaping. I'm destroying enemy ships. I found my way to the main reactor using my skill and the force. Boom, I blew it up all by myself."
5. Why do some Jedis (Yoda, Ben) disappear when they die and some (Qui Gon, Vader) don't? And why is QuiGon the trainer of Obi Wan when Obi Wan said in the Trilogy that Yoda was his trainer? I'm getting picky now.
6. The variety of cliffhangers and loose strings that make the viewer say quite tragically, "Geez, its gonna be six more years. I hope China doesn't decide to nuke us before then."
7. The problem with prequels is you know what happens to the characters from the later movies. Anakin turns real bad, Senator Palpatine turns even worse, Yoda and Ben go into hiding, the rest of the Jedi will be destroyed, and Anakin and the Queen will have Luke and Leia. But getting from one to four involves so much more than just that, and TPM was a good set up for the next two.
THE UGLY
Well, I couldn't imagine anything more annoying than the Ewoks, at least until now. When I watch the movie for the next umpteen million times I will want to kill this Jar-Jar whatever and all of his Jamaican talking fishy race.
I hope you saw the Trilogy before viewing this flick, or you may not get too excited about the mention of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Jabba the Hut.
All in all, a great movie, better than Return but worse than Hope and Empire.
9.5/10