This movie is an underrated masterpiece...3rd best in the Saga
I won't go over WHY I think it's so great as I've already reviewed it, (You can read that review right here; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/reviews-3847) but I thought that I WOULD address some criticisms that people have with it.
Criticism # 1~The acting sucks, especially Hayden Christensen: Really? Honestly, I thought it was among the best of the series (3rd behind Empire and Revenge) Christensen is required to play an angsty, love struck dork-o-doofus teenager who is constantly treated like dirt and lives in a society that shuns emotion and promotes stoicism. He does an excellent job being sincere and passionate a la the fireplace scene and can send chills down my spine when he taps into that anger a la the post-Sand people scene. He's an excellent combination of awkward innocence and rougeish darkness, his performance as Anakin and James Earl Jones's performance as Vader are tied for my favorite performances in the Saga. Portman does a great job going from stoic to more emotional and passionate over the course of the movie, and I liked just the warmth she exuded in her scenes with Hayden. Ewan McGregor made Obi Wan Kenobi likable for pretty much the first time in the whole Saga. Before Episode II, he came off as a self-centered, dishonest, manipulative dick but I like how he's shown here as a kind of strict father figure. Plus, Christopher Lee's been kicking ass since the Hammer movies from the 50s-70s and Frank Oz as Yoda is as fun to listen to as ever, and Samuel L. Jackson is Samuel L. freaking Jackson.
Criticism #2: The dialogue sucks: I'm not going to argue that the dialogue here is great, and there are some lines that I just CAN'T defend, ("I truly, deeply love you"... -_- ) but Star Wars has ALWAYS had bad dialogue. From "Only a Master of Evil, Darth!" from A New Hope to "I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain!" from The Empire Strikes Back. Some of the lines in Force Awakens ("I didn't know there was so much green in the whole Universe.") prove that it always will. Bashing a Star Wars film for bad dialogue is like bashing a Stanley Kubrick film for being mean spirited or bashing a Terrance Malick movie for being too ponderous, or too a lesser extent bashing a Rob Zombie movie for being too mean spirited; that stuff is in their nature. And for the record, as cringey and lame as some of the dialogue in AOTC is, it DOES have my favorite line in the Saga after Anakin's mom dies. ("Life is so much simpler when you're fixing things.") A lot of the more emotional and meaningful scenes in the film depend on the acting, where I think the film REALLY delivers.
Criticism #3: The love story is AWFUL: Awkward, yes. Awful...Not even close IMO. Keep in mind, these are 2 people who have never seen each other in 10 years; one of them is a teenage natural dork who has never spoken to a girl his own age in that time and lives in a society that shuns the idea of romance, going after a girl he doesn't even know if he has a shot with. You're REALLY telling me that if you were in that position you'd be Mr. Smooth? As for why they fall in love, makes perfect sense. Anakin has a kind of adorkable personality to him and makes Padme feel special and Padme brings warmth and hope into Anakin's life; a life often devoid of those things. People rip apart the post-Sand people scene where Anakin cried to Padme calling Anakin a "murderer" (He's not. The sand people are animals, specified as such even in the original trilogy) but it was, until Revenge of the Sith, maybe one of the best character scenes in the Saga. It establishes Anakin as someone who is utterly and completely alone apart from Padme and gives a real weight to his love for her, and also helped me understand why he was so quick to do what he did in Episode III. Honestly, dialogue aside, it's one of the only fantasy/sci-fi romances to actually emotionally invest as I can actually RELATE to it. One of my favorites, not at all ashamed to admit it.
Criticism #4: Count Dooku is an awful villain; Surprised anybody who loved Vader can really say this, as he's essentially the prequel trilogy's mirror to Vader. An ex-Jedi "ends justify the means" gentleman Sith striking fear and anxiety with the mere mention of his name. The fight with Anakin where his red saber and Anakin's blue saber seemingly switch in the darkness does a great job symbolizing how similar the two characters are. He's acted phenomenally and his backstory is really interesting to the point where I'd love to learn more about him. Almost to the point where it's...Well, kinda DISAPPOINTING I didn't learn more about him.
Criticism #5: Yoda shouldn't use a lightsaber: You know, it's funny. People either really love this scene or really hate it. The way I saw it, Yoda IS the greatest Jedi ever, so it makes SENSE he's skilled in all aspects of their culture. Would it have been cooler to see him use the Force to wield his saber? Yeah. But I can still buy him fighting normally with it, especially seeing as he only uses it as a last resort, using the Force to fight Dooku first.
Criticism #6: TOO MUCH CGI!: Okay, this one is just reaching. We are in (And have been since 1997) an age where EVERYTHING is CGI. The MCU movies use nothing but CGI, the Hobbit movies use nothing but CGI, the X-Men movies, Harry Potter movies, Hunger Games movies and Star Trek movies use nothing but CGI. So why is it that when the prequels use nothing CGI, it's treated as some kind of crime? Do I prefer practical effects? HELL yes. IMO, the best special effect of all time is the transformation scene from 1981's An American Werewolf in London. But I'm not naive enough to think modern big budget filmmakers are going to do that stuff anymore. And for the record, the CGI in this movie while excessive is BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely gorgeous.
So yeah. Wish I could actually REVIEW the movie rather than just list a bunch of defenses, but that's what happens when I love a movie everyone else hates...Whatever, at least we can all hate Phantom Menace.