Big & Bland & not worth seeing again

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2002)

What a disappointment this film was! I watched this in New York the day it opened and within an hour or so you could feel the vibe in the audience go from excited anticipation to various shades of letdown.
What's wrong with the film? There's a lack of interesting characters and too much emphasis of special effects for one. There's the eternally annoying Jar Jar and the bland plot. Natalie Portman, a fine actress, is ice-cold and very unlikable as Queen Amibdala and Jake Lloyd as the young Anakin Skywalker gives no hint of what his character to suppose to eventually become. He's just a kid who happens to be in a Star Wars film and it's not enough to have Yoda say he's got `anger in him.' You would think George Lucas would have gotten someone who could act. He brought nothing to the film.
A few bright spots: Ewan McGregor is perfectly cast as the young Obi-Wan and Liam Nessson does a fine turn as a Jedi himself. I wish more time had been spent developing them as characters. Watching CGI effects like Watto is not interesting after a few minutes and neither are robots because they can't act. And why didn't we see more of Samuel L. Jackson?! Star Wars fans have been waiting for years to learn more about the Jedi but we see mostly droids, computer-created creatures and more droids.
The only cool part of the film is watching Darth Maul and the fight scene at the end. Too bad Jar Jar wasn't killed there. I like George Lucas but he has limits as a director. He seems more comfortable with special effects & robots than working with actors. For example, it would have better to have Watto, the slave-owner played by an actor. Wouldn't you rather have watched Christopher Walkin for instance as opposed to some flying green thing with a big nose?
It's hard to believe that Lucas directed American Graffiti and its worth pointing out that he didn't direct the best Star Wars film, the Empire Strikes Back.
Hopefully, Attack of the Clones will focus more on human characters and plot.