Some other observations:
Doesn't seem like a whole lot of thought it going into the design of all the new ships and vehicles we see. That cargo "thing" they travelled to Naboo on looked so front-heavy that it should've just plunged to the ground and exploded (might've actually improved the story line AFAIC). Not to sound like a Star Trek dork, but clearly a decent amount of gravity exists on these planets so just based on simple physics, that POS ain't goin' anywhere. Looks interesting, and I know it's Sci-fi, but common....
Also, what's with Count Dooku's ship and the Solar Sail thing? I mean that's just stupid. Those kind of craft by definition slowly build up to very high speeds over a long period. If you got technology that lets you push a button and hop across a galaxy, you don't need a friggin solar sail type propulsion system. But hey, it looks cool.
Also, why must there be literally dozens of new species introduced in every new episode? Why must there be say, 20 species of Jedi master in the arena and not 4 or 5? Just stick to the basics, throw in your occasional arena monsters (those were pretty cool and appropriate for the scene) and focus on the story damnit! Every time the camera pans in on a new 3 headed, six lipped alien speaking swahili it tends to distract - which of course is the intention. Distract attention away from the pitiful dialogs and weak plot development with neat-o ships and freakish alien beings.
On the flip side, I though the race of creatures that lived on the ocean and who made the clone army were a much better fit than the rest. And when that one popped out of the ocean on a flying something-or-other - that was a nice touch. Too bad the rest were way overboard.
Ship to ship battle scenes: there's no need for dozens of laser blasts every second. Again, laser overkill distracts from the movements of the craft, the emotion on the actor's faces, etc. That battle in the asteroid field was pretty good but it could've been a lot better if done in a less visually cluttered way.
Those trade minister dorks didn't say one convincing thing the whole time (bad enough they weren't lip-synced right). During the arena scene "Hey, she's not allowed to do that. Can't we shoot her or something?" Uh yah. Once again Lucas forgets these beings don't live in an American sitcom.
Overall though it was a nice visual experience. Too bad all the substance was stuck in some other script-writer's head. I mentioned something last night about the audio effects. One of the things I thought was well done was the sound the various large ships made. They didn't overdue the techy metallic sound you'd expect. Instead (for example) the Senator's transport in the very beginning sounded like a futuristic B-17. Very cool.
