I remember taking my youngest, then around 10 and Star Wars obsessed, to watch this when it came out. It was something of a disappointment then and remains so. George Lucas should never have been allowed the creative control he was, although I understand why it happened. After the success of the first 3 films, no-one was going to gainsay him. Still, he can't direct for toffee.
And that's just one problem. The script; the dialogue is clunky at best and that's to put it mildly. The plot-line starts off weakly (a trade dispute, really?) and doesn't improve. The introduction of Jar-Jar Binks, too obviously intended as slapstick / comic relief, is just, well, jarring. Sorry. Next, we have the child prodigy; expected to carry large chunks of the movie. Some of the scene settings are far too terribly conceived and executed; take for example, Anakin's mum's house. They are slaves, but it looks just like Luke's home on Tatooine with a fruit bowl on the table. The queen of Naboo is one-dimensional, despite her alter-ego, not helped by the flat delivery of most of her dialogue. Then there's their relationship............
The pod-race features some great effects; I bet George would have loved that level of CGI to have been available in 1977.
There are just too many issues to recommend this film, even if you are a completist.
Review by robinm0VIP BlockedParent2024-03-05T14:42:53Z— updated 2024-04-14T20:57:35Z
I remember taking my youngest, then around 10 and Star Wars obsessed, to watch this when it came out. It was something of a disappointment then and remains so. George Lucas should never have been allowed the creative control he was, although I understand why it happened. After the success of the first 3 films, no-one was going to gainsay him. Still, he can't direct for toffee.
And that's just one problem. The script; the dialogue is clunky at best and that's to put it mildly. The plot-line starts off weakly (a trade dispute, really?) and doesn't improve. The introduction of Jar-Jar Binks, too obviously intended as slapstick / comic relief, is just, well, jarring. Sorry. Next, we have the child prodigy; expected to carry large chunks of the movie. Some of the scene settings are far too terribly conceived and executed; take for example, Anakin's mum's house. They are slaves, but it looks just like Luke's home on Tatooine with a fruit bowl on the table. The queen of Naboo is one-dimensional, despite her alter-ego, not helped by the flat delivery of most of her dialogue. Then there's their relationship............
The pod-race features some great effects; I bet George would have loved that level of CGI to have been available in 1977.
There are just too many issues to recommend this film, even if you are a completist.