Pretty movie, bad plotting, bad acting

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2012)

I guess I'll start this off by saying one nice thing about the movie, which is that the effects are good. However bad the actors are, and however boring the plot is, at the very least, it's got pretty pictures.
Unfortunately, there's not too much else to like. I'm not a big fan of the overall prequel plot arc as a whole, and this movie is no exception. And Hayden Christiansen is really, really, really bad. His performance as Anakin is so whiny and annoying that I wanted to reach through the screen and slap him around. Once he *spoiler alert* becomes Darth Vader, his delivery is really flat and awful. It's obvious that he's trying to go for dramatic and foreboding, but it just comes out annoying. His relationship with Natalie Portman's Padme has no chemistry, and I don't really care about it, when it was, I presume, supposed to be the heart of the movie.
Actually, those may be the main problems I have with this movie. I guess I can give it another compliment: Ewan McGregor did a decent job. When he's *spoiler alert* defeated Anakin by slicing off three of his limbs, he delivered his lines with some real emotion, I feel. But it's not enough to save the movie for me.