DarkFather said:I don't bash the romance too much. Looking back, I think I was just as creepy and awkward as Anakin around the girl I liked.

The apologists use this one all the time. "The awkward, creepy romance of AOTC is more realistic than the screenplay-romance of ESB." Granted, but if I was looking for realistic, I wouldn't be watching Star Wars. I'd be taking a walk, or crunching some numbers, or running some errands, or eating a bowl of cereal. Sci-fi movies ought to constitute an escape from the monotonous drudgery of real life. I'll excuse the deplorable "romance" scenes in AOTC based on the realism argument around the same time my real life sees the advent of hyperspace, lightsabers, Jedi Knights, and battle-droids. Movies aren't meant to be a direct reflection of real life; they're meant to entertain. AOTC romance is neither engaging nor entertaining; it's just cringe-inducing.

Besides, it's not just the awkwardness that pervades everything Hayden does, says, or seems; it's the terrible quality of the acting. I've seen middle-school plays with more emotional depth and believability than the exchange between Portman and Christensen.