4 out of 10 and that IMHO is being generous.
The bad:
terrible narrative arc (who's the story about? why is it about them? what's going on? etc. etc. etc. etc. and so on) and what exactly am I supposed to understand about Anakin from this story?
very weak characters
actors lost in a sea of green screen - you can tell Ewan and Liam are trying (as is Natalie) but by heck they're just lost
copy cat ending from Return of the Jedi with a bit of A New Hope and Empire mixed in
opaque motivation and plotting all round - why is Liam's Jedi (with the forgetable name) a bit of a rebel? He never really seems to be. Why is Anakin bad news? He seems to be a sweet kid who does the right thing. Why are they blockading Naboo? Why would you send Jedi to talk to the captains of blockade ships? Wouldn't everyone senior be somewhere else rather than on blockade duty? And why the hell is the Jedi council so rubbish and stupid? And why did Lucas agree to miscast a certain Mr Jackson just because he asked to be miscast? I could go on and on but the story just makes zero sense compared to the crystal clear and mostly excellent plotting of the OT.
`The OT connection - or lack thereof:
Why does Naboo suddenly have a huge power generator so we can replay the best duel (actually, still the best duel) from Empire in a similar setting?
Why do none of the ships, general designs and basically anything in the film seem connected to the design asthetic of the original films? And don't give me Luscas's spiel because I don't buy it in this setting.
Why introduce Midi-whatever if you clearly have no idea why you did it and are happy to dump the idea in a second? And Virgin births?
How come way back in the past Tatooine actually had a pretty big population and lots of stuff going on vs the sparse settlements of A New Hope (oh wait, you've added that in now, but does it work? Or does it actually imbalance things?)
Why doesn't this film actually introduce us to this world, the Jedi, the Sith, etc. as if for the first time? Why is it clunky and strangely assumptive we've already seen this stuff or played games that explained some of what's going on?
How can the Jedi be so central to the Universe (and ultimately villaniuzed by the Empire) yet a character of Han Solo's age in A New Hope who would clearly have been around both during the rise of the Empire and living under it has barely heard of them?
Just why actually?
The Good:
Senetor Palpatine - now he knows what he's up to and why. And he actor portraying him doesn't let anything else going on around him faze him from his delivery and performance.
The Pod Race technically - even if the actual motivation and character investment is weak
The lightsaber duel - although the setting is completely wrong given everything we've seen beforehand and Lucas doesn't always compose well around the admitedly interesting choreography
The trailer - rather ironically, Episode 1 undoubtably had one of the best trailers ever released.
Summary - a bad, bad Star Wars film. As a film I'd give it 3/10 but it gets an extra point for technical prowess.
Boy, were so many of us old fans from the OT suckered by that trailer and the promise of the magic repeating itself.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
