Jar Jar Binks and his tribe of retards.

I loved almost everything about this movie, except Jar Jar and the mediocre plot.

@RCH2288 said:

Jar Jar Binks and his tribe of retards

Nah, his pops was cool.

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

Was it:-

1. Failure to match up with OT backstory
   
2. Anakin "Are you an angel" Skywalker
   
3. Jar Jar Binks
   
4. Midi-chlorians
   
5. Racist alien stereotypes - Nute Gunray, Watton, Jar Jar, etc
   

Or something else? All this and the pod race.

I've never watched this film all the way through, and I probably never will. But I can say that the worst part most likely was Jar-Jar. So annoying.

Jar Jar first, Anakin second, all your points come after those two for me, also Anakin building C3PO was stupid making Star Wars so much smaller and coincidental, too much space politics, the slow pace of the film, wasting Obi Wan, boring plot and story, turning the Jedi into bores, CGI, I'm sure theres more...

Midi-chlorians and the whole 'Space Jesus' concept.

@virics said:

Was it that bad? From what I watched it's not any worse than the old Star Wars. The worst part's probably that Natalie Portman didn't get more screen time. 6/10

I rated it 7/10 myself. Definitely not bad.

Anakin 'Yipee!' Skywalker was the death blow. Shame cos Jake Lloyd turned into a decent fellow despite the years of abuse for playing the part that ruined a million childhoods.

3.Jar Jar Binks

4.Midi-chlorians

No question these are two big negatives.

Something else:

The "hero" persuading an admiring young boy to sign up for a dangerous race so that they hero can bet on him. Sounds like HUNGER GAMES, except that the HUNGER GAMES speculators were PRESENTED as being evil.

Wasted potential.

George Lucas had unlimited goodwill. He had decades of great stores written by authors like Timothy Zahn, Alan Dean Foster and others. He had a template for critical success (Empire). He had all the money he needed. And with all of that, he gave us The Phantom Menace.

I never felt that Lucas destroyed my childhood memories. But I ended up depressed that Lucas had such limited imagination that he couldn't come up with ANYTHING interesting to say.

A war of clones where a hard SF writer could have had a field day questioning humanity and the morality of fighting an endless war using cloned humans? Can the Jedi be cloned or is there something deeper and more spiritual about The Force?

Before I get started with a laundry list, I'll just say that Lucas's biggest failing is not recognizing that he didn't have the talent or imagination to realize the prequel universe. This is the genius of Spielberg. He finds GREAT writers to help him with his stories, and he listens to their advice. Lucas's ego was greater than his talent, and all that potential was thrown away like one of Jar Jar's stupid jokes.

There's quite a bit but my biggest issues are probably the bad acting & dialogue. Also the whole thing feels too "kiddie" and cartoonish. Aside from Darth Maul there's a huge lack of dark presence or any kind of threat.

This is the genius of Spielberg. He finds GREAT writers to help him with his stories

Other than that David Koepp fella he keeps using. He's very mediocre and ballsed up Indy IV big time. Though I guess in that scenario Spielberg was happy with Frank Darabont's script until Lucas scrapped it. Another example of Lucas flushing his own properties completely down the toilet.

Jar Jar of course. Comma-inducing performances by all actors which, imo, plagued the entire trilogy.

@AlienFanatic said:

Wasted potential.

George Lucas had unlimited goodwill. He had decades of great stores written by authors like Timothy Zahn, Alan Dean Foster and others. He had a template for critical success (Empire). He had all the money he needed. And with all of that, he gave us The Phantom Menace.

I never felt that Lucas destroyed my childhood memories. But I ended up depressed that Lucas had such limited imagination that he couldn't come up with ANYTHING interesting to say.

A war of clones where a hard SF writer could have had a field day questioning humanity and the morality of fighting an endless war using cloned humans? Can the Jedi be cloned or is there something deeper and more spiritual about The Force?

Before I get started with a laundry list, I'll just say that Lucas's biggest failing is not recognizing that he didn't have the talent or imagination to realize the prequel universe. This is the genius of Spielberg. He finds GREAT writers to help him with his stories, and he listens to their advice. Lucas's ego was greater than his talent, and all that potential was thrown away like one of Jar Jar's stupid jokes.

Lucas had loads to say in the prequels. He had the imagination. Spielberg has hardly AlwayS got it right himself. I agree that Lucas should have allowed other writers help out with the scripts, even if it meant the films took longer to make. But Lucas had every right to do what he wanted to do after all the stress of making the originals. Its his baby to screw and we fans can either take it or leave it. The prequels are hardly disasters, but they could have been a lot better!