New epic trilogy? Where?

Rating: 6/10 (28 April 2001)

First I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the Star Wars universe. I still have to see the trilogy once again, to fully understand the story and get to know the characters better. But I like what I saw, and that was a nice, slow-paced and epic trilogy, with a lot of attention for the story and characters. It was even so slow-paced that my father managed to fall asleep in the cinema in those days. But that easy way of telling a good story is the reason that people nowadays still love or are beginning to love the old Trilogy...
What a difference with The Phantom Menace. The only things that kept me interested in TPM were the truly magnificent computer graphics. They are detailed and often funny, except for Jar-Jar, who makes me wish my remote control had a built-in digital eraser. But the really bad thing is that the acting of the humans is horrible too. For weeks after seeing the movie I couldn't stand Liam Neeson when I saw him on TV. He acts like he has constipation or something and is saying his lines with no expression at all; just watch the scene where he and his friends are chased in their craft. Jake Lloyd (Anakin) has obviously not much acting talent (yet). Why didn't the makers contract Haley Joel Osment (from the Sixth Sense) or another natural talent for an expensive movie like this? He's the main character, for heaven's sake.
I'm afraid I'm still not done, although I did my best to like this movie. I think it's really, really too bad that this new trilogy has kicked off like this. There aren't that many "hard core" sci-fi movies made nowadays, let alone trilogies, so as a sci-fi fanatic I thought that this trilogy guaranteed me a good time in the cinema. Of course, you can always find a reason to like a film, such as beautiful graphics, but an exciting story and brilliant acting would add so much more. I mean, when I want to see nice computer graphics, I'll just start a video game. Now, after seeing TPM, I really don't give a thing about what's going to happen next. I'm still going to watch the next movie, but I can't image that the acting and the story are going to be better all of a sudden.
What keeps me wondering is why the makers succeeded in messing up a film and likely a whole trilogy, when there are millions of (of course critical) fans waiting to see it! And what about all those good examples in film history? Forget epic dimensions, even Disney is jealous of the childish level of this film. It's a bad thing when you leave the cinema thinking: 'I certainly knew what to do with those facilities and such a budget at my disposal...!'