It's really fucked up to go after this actor. He was a victim of a badly written script, George Lucas' megalomania and general incompetence.
And as far as I'm concerned, Jar Jar doesn't even come close to being the worst thing about the prequels.
I think people just focused on Jar Jar because his introduction coincided with the moment when most people realized that this film was going to be a major disappointment.
In order to enjoy films like the Star Wars movies, you first have to tune down your critical thinking skills a bit, so you're not bothered by things like lightsabers or sound in a vacuum. You're basically telling your brain to relax and enjoy the ride - this is known as "suspension of disbelief".
For example, after R2D2 and C3PO are being captured by the Jawas, they end up on the farm of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, meeting Luke (who also happens to be the son of Darth Vader, but we don't know that yet). They're probably the only people on Tatooine who can take the droids to Obi Wan Kenobi.
How convenient.
Then again, it's a minor issue and the plot moves on, so it's easily forgiven.
But if the script is bad and the director doesn't know what he's doing, then the inconsistencies and plot holes pile up like snow on a roof - until the whole thing comes crashing down.
And that's what happened with Episode 1.
- It started off with an incredibly boring opening crawler that informed us about space taxes. The original Star Wars opening crawlers were supposed to bring the audience up to speed, this one looked like it was meant to lower our expectations by making it look like we were about to see a C-SPAN broadcast.
- Jedi were space FBI now.
- CGI aliens offended by being blatantly racist Asian stereotypes.
- Palpatine concealed his face by wearing a hood. If that was his intention, then why was he transmitting a visual signal at all?
- Why were the trade federation aliens following his orders?
- The assassination attempt on the Jedi made no sense.
- Being a Jedi now meant you were an action hero with superpowers rather than possessing some sort of spiritual insight.
- The escape plan sucked.
Cut.
And in the next scene, the two guys are sprinting through a forest together.
And your brain goes "WTF just happened, didn't they just split up?".
And ~then~ Jar Jar shows up.
And your brain goes "That's it, I'm not going to sit around and tolerate this crap any longer".
That was the moment when for many people, the movie just fell apart and they realized that they were still at the beginning. But they no longer could ignore all the shit that was going on...
- The Jedi have Batman-style utility belts with respirators that allow them to breathe underwater. How convenient, but why didn't they use those to survive the poison gas earlier?
- The way to the capital city goes through the planet's core.
- All the aliens look extremely cartoonish.
- DUMB NAMES.
- The main characters run around like headless chicken throughout the entire film.
And so on and so forth. You just couldn't unsee what a mess all of it was.
But because the moment when Jar Jar showed up in the film was also the moment when people realized they had been conned, their anger naturally focused on that character.
