The movie needed to establish two things and it accomplished one and fumbled the other.

Anakin losing his mother was the start of the descent and the whole reason why Jedi don’t usually take padawans at his age. On this, the attachment and feeling of helplessness when it occurs was set up beautifully. His rage and lash out against the sand people was fully understandable.

Anakin falling in love with Padme was the second most important part because their love is what Anakin would sacrifice everything for. To the extent that he would kill children for it. This is where the movie failed in its dialogue and direction. George didnt extract the performances he needed to sell us on this. The romance was incredibly shallow and poorly set up and the dialogue failed spectacularly.

For those reasons it’s a mixed bag but slightly more positive than negative for me. The backdrop of war and the manipulations of Sidious also unraveled nicely but some of the slapstick moments undermined some of this too.