Not as good or as bad as the hype

Rating: 7/10 (29 June 1999)

Everyone knows about the hype surrounding the "Fandom Menace." Most people who actually have the time to read these reviews have probably already seen it once or twice (or seven times). So I figured I'd just throw in my two cents.
Visually, of course, this movie's a feast. The special effects are epic in scale and state of the art. Along with the sound and John Williams' score, the visuals are enough to see this on the big screen.
As for the actual content, some people say that the characters needed to be developed more or that the acting was often stiff (especially in young Jake Lloyd). I agree. Hey, I know I was upset when Darth Maul died without saying the whole "...fear is my ally" line that I heard in the trailers. However, the characters in the first (err...last) 3 installments weren't all that original or in-depth, either. Think about it. "I am your father" isn't exactly poetic. And we all know how ridiculous it was to find out that Leia was also Luke's sister; I was expecting to find out that Boba Fett was a second cousin or something at that rate.
Now, what didn't I like about this? First of all, Jar-Jar has to go. All racial connotations aside, this is one of the most annoying characters ever devised. Jar-Jar, you're no Chewbacca. Also, just a few minutes could've been cut out of the pod race scene and all of Tattooine. I'd rather see less of quasi-Aryan poster boy Anakin and more of Darth Maul. I'm hung up on this because I think DM had a lot of "supervillain" potential...but he acted more like a lackey for Darth Sideous. And, as I mentioned before, if they spent a little more time on "cheese-proofing" the dialogue and developing the characters, it would've been far more satisfying.
Lucas himself said that he directed a lot of this to younger children (hence Jar-Jar). This was a wise marketing decision, as he attracted a new generation of fans to his franchise, which already features a faithful legion of Ã¼ber-nerds willing to die by the light saber for the man. Thus, the movie is pretty much all bells and whistles; but it does it well. I was personally expecting more, but I definitely got enough entertainment for my money.