A Little Better Than Phantom Menace I Guess

Rating: 6/10 (14 June 2016)

Saying that this movie is an improvement over the Phantom Menace really isn't saying anything since this movie is still awful! I still hate it but it is a little bit better. This movie actually had a lot more potential than most people give it credit for. A clone army battle, a Jedi protecting Padme from being assassinated, tracking down a bounty hunter who ends up being the father of Boba Fett (and it made a great story arc in Clone Wars!) This is some cool stuff! However, it's all destroyed by the one major thing this movie focuses on: The romance between Anakin and Padme. I was against this from the start because in the Phantom Menace, Padme was a queen. Yes, she was a young queen but she had to have been at least 14 or 15 to be elected. We also know that Anakin was around 8 or 9 in the last movie. That's at least 5 years apart! There's also the fact that I really don't like either of the characters. I really don't care for Padme. While she is strong in the final battle, Padme spends the rest of the movie either being creepily flirtatious or resisting Anakin. It kind of gets annoying after a while is all I'm saying. I would later feel bad for her in Revenge of the Sith after Anakin broke her heart but she's annoying here. Speaking of Anakin, when he's not Darth Vader, he is the most bratty, obnoxious, whiny baby in Star Wars history. Maybe even cinema history! With the exception of The Clone Wars (2008-2014) I hate Anakin in everything prequel related. Example: In this movie, Anakin's mother dies. Go figure! So what is his response? Schlaughter all the the Tusken Raiders of course! Okay, I get murdering the one/ones responsible for killing your mother but the women and children had nothing to do with her death! Also, get over yourself. You knew it wasn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows for her after you left Tatooine FOUR YEARS AGO! God! The romance here is also way too dumb and stupid to actually believe. Not to mention that the dialogue between them in just cringe-inducing and not even in a good way! I know this is a persistent problem throughout the movie but it mostly comes from the scenes with Anakin and Padme. Here's one of my favorite bad lines from this movie:
"I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them. And not just the men, but the women and the children, too. They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals. I HATE THEM!"
However, I will concede that this movie had it's high points as well. The origin story of Boba Fett is pretty cool, the Yoda vs Dooku fight was cool and the Battle of Geonosis was awesome aside from a few cheesy lines. Other than that it's a dud with stupid political crap, one of the worst romances to brace the silver screen, bad, unlikable characters, cringe-worthy dialogue and a few good action scenes here and there that are almost always drowned out by bad dialogue.