Rating: 
Summary: Essential Part To The Saga
Review: The Phantom menace is an essential part to the Star Wars saga if you are to fully understand all that was supposed to happen in the series. With this movie, much of what happens in the later movies is easier to understand, which makes The Phantom Menace a must-ahve for any Star Wars fan!
Rating:
Summary: PHANTOM MENACE
Review: The Phantom Menace is an excellent movie. I thought that it provides a great introduction what happened in the original trilogy. I loved this movie. It is here that we are first introduced to young OBI-WAN KENOBI and his teacher Jedi Master QUI-GON JINN. Ewan McGregor did an excellent job as OBI-WAN. This movie answered many of my questions about how the collapse of the Republic was brought about. The Sith are as mysterious as I thought that they should be. At first I tried to compare Darth Maul to Darth Vader, but soon realized that this comparison just does not work. Darth Maul was a lot more intense than Vader ever was. I really loved the lightsaber fight between the Jedi (OBI-WAN & QUI-GON) and Sith Lord Darth Maul. I also liked the introduction of the various members of the Jedi High Council. In regards to Anakin at times I found it hard to believe that he will grow up to be Darth Vader, but at the same time some of the signs of things to come were already there. I also believe that OBI-WAN saw some of these warning signs, whereas QUI-GON saw only the great potential in Anakin. I am not sure that even someone with the experience of Jedi Master Yoda could have prevented Anakin's eventual fall to the Dark Side of the Force.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Awsome!
Review: The Phantom Menace is an execellent movie. The special effects are astounding and the acting is so much better then in the first three movies. Luke Skywalker was annoying: Anakin is wild, fun and inteligent for his age. Maybe, that is why he chooses the dark side.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened?
Review: The Phantom Menace is an OK movie. The special effects were good and the overall story was ok, but where did that GREAT suspenseful story go that was in the original trilogy? In my opinion there were too many special effects that took away from the story. There were more annoying creatures in this movie than in the original trilogy. The drama and the romance that was in The Empire Strikes Back especially is not at all there in episode 1. There was too much focus on the special effects in episode 1 rather than the story.
Rating: 
Summary: The Phantom Expectation
Review: The Phantom Menace is arguably one of the most anticipated films in motion picture history. So it stands to reason that George Lucas and company would have a hard time delivering on the expectations of his own Empire, which has grown more than two decades old and accumulated hundreds of millions of fans.It also makes plain Lucas' dilemma: who IS his audience? Is it a massive army of twenty and thirty-somethings old enough to have seen the original trilogy when it was released in theatres in the late 70's and early 80's? Or is it the post Barney set, fresh from their last trip to the video store where they rented that dusty old space movie Dad kept talking about? If he makes the Teletubby version of his obsessively awaited prequel, he attracts children...AND their parents, who will then be forced to run to Toys R' us after the show to buy little Billy or little Sue the Jar Jar doll with the retractible tongue. It's the practical side of me that forgives Lucas this decision. Moviemaking is, in the end, about profit. It is business, and butts in seats equals money. Anything short of that is labeled a nonsuccess. Don't believe me? I could list for you a litany of critically acclaimed films that could have had a sequel if not for the fact that they had little audience. The opposite is true for awful movies that attract massive audiences. Witness Dumb and Dumber. Was there anything there that warranted a sequel? I think not. So my practical side understands. It's the artist and wide-eyed child in me that's disappointed. Lucas has delivered so many moments of pure fluff, you'll think it's harvest time at Eli Whitney's place. Jar Jar Binks, a malconceived comic relief in a story that never explores its serious side enough to warrant one, is so distracting you'll find yourself putting your attention on pause until the screen relieves itself of his malodorous presence. He's interesting for the first few seconds, because overall the graphic work is pretty amazing, but after that I wanted to dig out my own eyeballs with a garden weasel. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, fine actors who generally raise the bar of any production they take part in, seem uncomfortable and out of place. Their lines are stilted, probably the result of a hideous script that never finds a unifying tone. One minute, it's all darkness and fear, the next we're suffering a farting pack animal. No, I'm serious. A FARTING PACK ANIMAL. And in case Dolby surround 5.1 isn't good enough to get the point across, we then have to watch the CG Jar Jar hold his nose and make cartoon faces in response. Thanks, George. I wasn't sure the animal had ACTUALLY farted. I thought maybe a subwoofer blew out. One of the bigger insults to Star Wars fans will be something called "Metachlorians," which apparently are the source of The Force. They are some sort of tiny symbiont, or maybe they're a chloride group. It would explain my tendency to want to doze throughtout the flick. In any case reducing The Force, which most of us had accepted as religion, to a biological event is not just disappointing, it obliterates any trace of mystery Lucas had built over the course of the three previous films. All this said, the film has some bright spots. The vast majority of the special effects (which soak each and every frame, this is truly a filmmaking milestone) are stunning. Nothing even close to this level of reality has ever been attempted, much less accomplished. The few that are less than stellar probably wouldn't be noticed if it weren't for the high quality of the remainder. Sound, sound editing, music, set design and costumes far exceed any other movie released in '99, including The Matrix, despite its awards. And buried beneath a mile or so of marshmallow, goosedown and foam rubber is a core story that is quite complex and very clever. We know what the future is, and Lucas uses that to drop what are sometimes very subtle hints about why the characters we grew up with are the way they are. Which is why you need to watch the film three or more times. If you see it only once, you've missed alot that went on while you were trying to settle back into the story after a Jar Jar appearance. By the third viewing, you'll be able to tune him out, and the movie rises up a level. Overall, Menace could have been a MUCH better film, but isn't as bad as what you might have been led to believe. I understand someone re-edited it to eliminate most of Jar Jar and other extraneous kiddie fluff and it made it a truly great film. Maybe Lucas will get the hint and deliver a more Star Wars like prequel when Episode II arrives in 2002.
Rating:
Summary: May the Force be with you!
Review: The Phantom Menace is awesome. When Episodes II and III are released, everyone will go back and watch The Phantom Menace with "new" eyes. You'll see. I recommend the Widescreen Edition Boxed Set!
Rating:
Summary: The Phantom Menace..In short, the best movie ever made!
Review: The Phantom Menace is deffinately the best movie I have ever seen! I have heard many people say that the Phantom Menace wasn't a good movie, and wasn't worth watching. However, I soon found out that was not the case after watching the movie. The only reason people don't like the Phantom Menace is because they aren't Star Wars fans! This is the best of the series, and anybody who was impressed with the past three episdoes will LOVE this movie! This episode gives you a clear picture of the story before Luke's time, and will help you understand many of the questions that arroused in the other three episodes. This movie also leaves you eager to know what will happen in the next movie that is currently being filmed. The special affects are absolutely incredible! You can tell as time progresses (and technology as well)that every movie gets better and better. (both storyline and affects)Many parts of the movie just make you want to say, "Wow!" over and over. Their is no telling how much time George Lucas spent on scenes such as the Gungan city, the pod race, and the lightsaber fight between the two Jedis and Darth Maul. Any Star Wars fan will love this video. If you haven't yet seen it, then your missing a big piece to the Star Wars trilogy. A superb video!
Rating:
Summary: The Saga's Beginning A Mixed Bag
Review: The Phantom Menace is Episode One of the Star Wars series, and it personifies the strengths and weaknesses of the series. George Lucas directs this episode - his first directing job since the original Star Wars in 1977. Star Wars was partly inspired by the films of Akira Kurosawa, and The Phantom Menace is the most openly Kurosawa-esque of the series, primarily in the portrayals of Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor), Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), and the film's primary villain, Darth Maul. The Kurosawa influence shows as well in some of the aliens (almost all of them created by CGI) within the film, notably the Trade Federation viceroy who commands an invasion of Queen Amidala's homeworld, Naboo. Less influenced by Kurosawa are the Skywalker family, the young Anakin Skywalker and his mother. Anakin's passion is podracing - here lies the influence of Lucas' 1973 film American Graffiti - and in such an endeavor he displays a strength and reflexes that Qui-Gon recognizes are characteristic of "the chosen one." Though the film's podracing angle is more distracting than anything - it comes off as a Dirk Benedict-esque scam from The A-Team - it does help establish the relationship between Anakin and Queen Amidala - some have criticized this angle for tackiness, but I thought it was very nicely done. There is also politicking in the republic's Imperial Senate on Coruscant, featuring a nice cameo by Terence Stamp (General Zod from the Superman films) as well as dialogue between Amidala and Senator Palpatine - who regular fans of the Star Wars films know will change over the course of the story. These are the film's character stengths. The film's weaknesses are personified in the obnoxious comedy relief of CGI creation Jar Jar Binks. Why this alleged character was created in the first place escapes me. Alas, he is not alone in the bad-comedy relief department - his fellow CGI-created aliens are little better, particularly the slobbering swine named Boss Nass. Despite this, the film moves very well, from the rescue of Queen Amidala and her entourage, to the podracing subplot, to debate in the Imperial Senate (even this scene, like virtually every other, is smothered in SFX, a strength and weakness to the film), to the film's dazzling liberation of Naboo. The highlights of the liberation are the too-brief scenes of space battle and the exhausting lightsaber fight between Qui-Gon and Kenobi against Darth Maul. There are even a few influences from Battlestar Galactica and the real life US Air Force - the battle droids seen throughout the film sound like Cylons, and their command ship is reminiscent of a Cylon base star. As for the USAF, Queen Amidala's personal spacecraft is little more than a sci-fi version of the SR-71 Blackbird - giving the title an unintended irony; imagine if the Naboo fightercraft resembled F-4 Phantom fighterbombers. In all, The Phantom Menace is a rip-roaring good time.
Rating: 
Summary: Time To Put This Cash Cow Out To Pasture
Review: The Phantom Menace is indeed a cinematic achievement. What other movie can you think of that can make accomplished actors like Liam Neeson, Ewan MacGregor, Natalie Portman, and Samuel L. Jackson appear to be abysmal? What other film (or trilogy) can you name that borrows so heavily from other sources (2001, Star Trek, Tolkien, Wagner, Kurosawa, Ben Hur) and has its creator still brazenly defending its originality? What other picture has been so overly hyped for its supposedly staggering special effects and yet those same effects are cartoonish and blatantly unrealistic? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the previous 3 movies (as a child). And, for all of its delusions of grandeur, Phantom does work very well as a children's movie. The characters are amazingly two-dimensional, and the one seemingly ambiguous character is obviously the evil emperor of the previous movies. There's a Satan/Frankenstein hybrid named Darth something-or-other who tries to fill the Vader void, but hopelessly fails. Maybe he needed to have that Nazi helmet thing going.. The Thing-Fish character, Jar-Jar Binks is (as everyone knows) so annoying that I'm not going to waste my time or yours by going into it. The young man who played Anakin really needed some instruction. Considering that there were so many capable adults involved with this thing that were awful, it's silly and needlessly cruel to criticize Jake Lloyd's callow performance. Hell, Haley Joel Osment would have stalled with such poor direction. I recently rented this leviathan the other night, just to see if it really is as bad as I remember it. Indeed, it's worse. Even John Williams' score lacks the Wagnerian passion of the previous movies. Personally, I don't believe the original Star Wars movies are THAT good (Empire is by far the best of the 3), but at least they're good fun. 2001 is, for me, immaculate science fiction. As remarked upon by many people, Phantom is truly a movie for children. I'm prepared for the zillion "not-helpful" votes that will rake against me, but many of the hard-core fans of these movies display a very childish devotion to this cinematic franchise. Whereas once children strove to emulate adults, these puerile people are adults who desire to be children. However, judging the Phantom Menace by these standards isn't entirely fair. By far the most important legacy of these Star Wars movies is the marketing ploys and techniques that has made the SW movies the biggest things since sliced bread. With the Obi-Wan bathrobes, Darth Vader toy lightsabers, Wookie spaying kit, Luke undergarments, Jar-Jar Binks greatest reggae hits CDs, Han Solo's 12-Step Book on Isolation Therapy, Slave Leia pinups, etc etc, as well as around 2 thousand different versions of these films on video, the Star Wars creator's true talent is for milking the drone-like adherents of his intergalactic Empire. I feel like throwing my battered old Star Wars VHS tapes into the nearest Yoda trash can.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthy of Star Wars
Review: The Phantom Menace is not the greatest movie when viewed by itself, but is a great build up for what is to come in prequels 2 and 3. The special effects are spectacular, with amazing cities created full of life and each with it's own distinctive feel. The architecture of the city of Theed is grand and is breathtaking when seeing a long shot over the city. A gripe with the special effects is that it is a little over the top. The overall appearance of the film is too much like an animated film. The battle of the gungans against the droid army is spectacular in it's complexity, but is too fake, with bright colours and a virtual environment. It doesn't have the same feel as the battle of the ewoks in Return of the Jedi, which was similar, but more real. Nothing comes close in any film to the power of the light saber weilding Jedi. The final battle scenes are highlighted by the long dual between the Jedi and Sith. The greatest moment being in the hanger after freeing the pilots, and the soundtrack starts as the doors open to reveal Darth Maul. The Phanom Menace does miss some character development of the original Trilogy, with a character like Han Solo missed greatly. The movie lacks the dark and evil feel that was so great in all of the old three movies. The Phantom menace is a good start to the Star Wars saga. All we need is Darth Vader to appear, the closest thing we get from Phantom Menace is hearing him after the credit soundtrack finishes, then the Saga will truly begin.
| 
