The romantic scenes were definitely the weak links in the movie. The two of them together have the chemistry of a dead fish (Christensen) and a paper bag (Portman). Of course, I thought the same thing about Ep. 2. I do think Natalie Portman can actually act, but she doesn't do much for me as Padme.
While I'm at it, did anyone believe that Anakin really was happy that Padme was pregnant? At first he seemed angry, and even after he said he was happy I didn't buy it. Sure, we know Jedis aren't supposed to do
that, but still.
I just read a review over at slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2119061/ and it posed a darned good question--why didn't the Jedi Council realize that Palpatine was the big bad? Or, did they know? We know Yoda sensed everything that was happening to Anakin as he moved to the dark side. Guess I'll have to go see it again
ZetaPhi--I didn't realize you were old enough to have seen the original trilogy in theaters?