Great movie requirements: Great special effects-check, Good story-check, Good actors-Houstin, we have a problem

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 1999)

There are two good scenes in this whole movie. One is the Pod race and the other is the battle with Darth Maul. That's it. I'm not what one would call a hardcore Star Wars nut, but I loved the first three. So, of course, I was excited when Episode 1 was announced and when the first trailer came out. Then, I grew rather skeptical of it. The hype was huge and my excitement started to wane. Of course, I still wanted to see it. This is when I found out what the bad reviews referred to. The effects were incredible, the action was cool, but the actors were lame. In particular, Jake Lloyd. This kid should've been coached better. Plus, a scene that I think was totally unforgivable is when Anakin destroys the imperial fleet surrounding Naboo near the end. Everything that he did looked like an accident. The kid didn't look like he even knew what he was doing, yet he happens to push the right buttons by mistake. Horrible. George Lucas should feel shamed that he completely ruined the Star Wars universe. Will I go to see Episode 2? Yeah, but it had better be a big improvement over this.