IMO- Jar Jar sucks, otherwise good.

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 1999)

I tried not to have unrealistic expectations coming into the film, so I thought it was good. Especially considering how they had to work with the fact that we knew what was going to happen to most of these characters in the future. Watching the rise of the emperor should be pretty interesting... without insider knowledge this aspect of the movie would've been totally lost (for those people who may someday watch the movies in order 1-6, it will also be interesting).
I thought the Queen was great, I loved her quasi-Japanese headgear and outfits, her voice and I thought she was a pretty good actor. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor were good. The best was the Darth Maul character!!
However, I do have a problem with Jar Jar Binks, supposedly the comic relief character. It just wasn't very funny and threw off the film, as well as generally unbelievable. jar jar & his whole alien species was completely unintelligible - and what was that accent, was it supposed to be slaughtered 'ebonics' or something. very uncool. Not to mention I couldn't understand anything they said!!
While we're on the subject of accents, the green trade guys sounded a little too much like an Asian accent, I also had trouble occasionally understanding them. I'd rather not hear an accent than a bad one or one that seems to be copied from life. Or make up a language like what Jabba the Hut speaks. That is much more interesting.
My other minor quibble - I prefer more models to computer, but I'm probably in the minority on this one. A lot of it just looked too fake. Although I did Really like the droid army! especially when they come out all folded up on looking like they're on hangers!