Lame, wooden dialogue and pathetic acting by Anakin actor

Rating: 3/10 (3 January 2003)

Unbelievable in such a big budget movie to have such wooden dialogue and bad acting, especially by the young man who plays Anakin. I broke out laughing several times during the movie at how artificial and stilted the dialogue and acting was. You can see better at most high school plays, heck, elementary school plays. The pathetic acting and dialogue ruined anything that might have passed for a plot. This would be poor quality as a production for television, never mind a movie. How can such a big-budget movie have such awful screenplay and direction?
Having said that, Natalie Portman did a decent job as Amadala despite the scriptwriters, and some of the other actors had moments of respectability, so I'd think this was a "director" problem. You can't cover up poor directing with special effects anymore. George Lucas certainly has the money to hire a good director and screenwriters, so that future future Star Wars movies stand out for something other than their lame, artifical dialogue and wooden acting.