Rating: 
Summary: The Worst
Review: The visual effects are outstanding. The duel at the end is spectacular. Now that the "good" is out of the way, the story is awful! It seems that Lucas tried to fit too much into this movie. Everything happened too fast as though the Jedi started in the morning and defeated Darth Maul by lunch. The characters were rediculous. You can't help but hope Jar-Jar gets shot in the head, or hope that you do. At least one of you has some relief! And the Vice-roy. These guys sound like Japanese being stereotyped with that "bad english" accent.The acting in this movie was pathetic. What was Lucas thinking when he cast Anakin? This kid CAN NOT act. Any kid could act as good as that. There are many child actors who would have done well in that movie. It wasn't just him, no one in this movie did a good job. This is definately a rental, don't buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Lucas should leave screenwriting to someone else
Review: The visual of this movie is so meticulously constructed the it made me twice as sad to see the story and screenwriting skill is only third graded. Where is the tension in plot? Do we care about the characters and what is happening? I remember watching the underwater scene and was quite fascinated by the beauty of the transparent palace or whatever you called it...then I fell asleep. Watching this movie is like staring at a beautiful piece of oil painting for more than 2 hours straight; one can't been blamed for falling asleep once or more along the way. This film should be cut into a 3 minute trailer, because lets admit that a trailer is what it is.
Rating: 
Summary: YAHOOO! It's DVD, kid!
Review: The wait is finally over! After years of begging, crying, and wondering, we the true Star Wars fans will FINALLY get to enjoy one of these epic tales in a video format capable of projecting this film in a manner that does it justice: DVD!There are about 6 billion VHS reviews of this (wonderful) film, so I'll spare you more inane blather about how this film is better than Mother Teresa and Froot Loops combined. My, my, my! Over 6 HOURS of extras? You gotta hand it to George, he certainly doesn't let his fans down! Come on, guys! This is what we've been waiting for! I've already ordered my copy! Have you?
Rating:
Summary: Star Wars Episode I "The Phantom Menace"
Review: The wait is over. I thought we would have to wait until Episode III was released to get all of these great films on DVD. Even though Episode I is the only title being released, it's still better than none at all. Bravo to George Lucas. The Star Wars release party is already in early planning.
Rating: 
Summary: Did you get that Gungan sub film-strip too?
Review: The WIDESCREEN edition of the film is great...five stars. However, the extras were unnecesary. So if you are a widescreen buff this is the way to go, but realize that the extras only force to you hand over more cash.
Rating:
Summary: The New Star Wars
Review: The world of SW is changing. The Bantham novels are replaced by Del Rey's New Jedi Order series, Dark Horse's comics are now set in a new era, and the latest SW film is released. [sighs] I guess I'm going to be one of the old whiners who sits back and tells long stories about the 'good old days or Stackpole, Zahn, and Irving Kershner'. The new SW just fails to match. I moaned on and on about the NJO series in my 'Vector Prime' review, so I won't put you throuogh that here. The start of the new trilogy leaves a lot to be desired, though. The story's okay, although it fails to reach a full potential. Lucas tried to do a politcal/intruige/adventure/ect. job with this one, wheras the others were war/adventure movies. Leave politics to guys like Stackpole and Zahn, as they do it much better. The special effects are good, and it was great to see Coruscant in all its slendor for the first time. The lightsabre battle was superb, although the land and space battles and the end had their potential muddled by the blabberings and buffoonery of Anakin and Jar Jar. Sithspawn, they were annoying. Pretty movie, and lots of info and the like for SW fans. I can't say I reccomend it for those who aren't SW fans, though. for those who do, watch it to see Palpatine at his best. Only thing is, that's about all that's at its best.
Rating:
Summary: A lot here to love, a lot here to hate.
Review: There are a few problems with Phantom Menace. Big problems. There is also a lot to love, scenes, music, and feelings that conjure up the grandeur of the original star wars movies. Here is my list of things to love, and things to hate. Love: 1)The lightsaber duels. This must be what George had in mind, awesome in scale, grandiose in design, with incredible music. 2)Palpatine's rise. Can't they see how evil this guy is!! really well thought out, and you don't catch it on the first viewing. 3)qui gonn and obi-wan. This relationship is meaningful, and qui gonn is the perfect stalwart, dedicated, but not very imaginative jedi whose initial errors in judgment start things down the wrong side. 4)coruscant. The entire planet, with the senate, fantastic. Things to hate: 1)jar jar, and the entire gungan race. Cartoonish, terribly done, and absolutely out of place. More so than the ewoks. 2)the midichlorian theme. Makes no sense, and even worse, explains what should never be explained. 3)yoda: why does he look like so bad? He looked way better in the first trilogy. 4)dialogue, "this is tense", "he's a dun, and a particulary nasty dun" (from a five year old), "exsqueeze me", etc. 5)grass. Grass should never appear in a star wars movie, either dirt, cities, or sand should appear. And that's that. Overall, about an hour and ten minutes of great movie, fifty minutes of garbage.
Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to the series with some flaws
Review: There are many irritating aspects to Episode I, to be sure: Jar Jar Binks being not the least of them. The plot is weak in spots, and we all know that George Lucas's great weakness is effective dialogue. On the other hand, this first prequel to the Star Wars saga has its moments. Ewan McGregor does a fine young Obiwan Kenobi, and Natalie Portman's performance is kabuki-like but effective. Special effects, great. Questions answered and raised, satisfying. Not as bad as Return of the Jedi, this is a worthy introduction to the prequel trilogy. We can only hope that Episodes II and III are much better.
Rating: 
Summary: This movie is an abysmal failure
Review: There are many, many flaws in this movie. Its first and most overbearing flaw is that it was obviously intended to be a 'kiddy flick'. The computer-generated characters are practically cartoons. Some computer graphics in movies can be good, but adding in CG characters to a movie is completely idiotic. You can tell that the actors did not see them, and it is obvious that the actors were just pretending that the CG characters were there. This does not come off too well in the final presentation. Furthermore, the acting is extremely bland. This is not necessarily the fault of the actors, but rather a meaningless and boring script with no redeeming qualities to it. I am sure that 'pretending' that invisible CG characters were actually there took away from the actors' enthusiasm as well. They just seemed to recite their lines without any emotion whatsoever. The presentation of the film seems rushed. Making a good film is like making a good piece of music; there needs to be rests, and periods of stress and release. The scenes in this movie jump from one to the next without any time to let what the audience just saw to sink in. This is kind of a moot point however, as there was nothing worthwhile to sink in in the first place. What is also annoying about this film is that Lucas obviously intended it to be very politically correct; that's why almost 0 people die, just robots and jar-jar binks characters. I believe there were 3 people that died in the entire movie (I could be wrong on this) You can't make a movie about large-scale warfare without having people die; it is ridiculous. One would expect this from a kiddy flick of course. I was very much looking forward to this movie when it came out. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is one of my favorite movies of all time. Unfortunately, Phantom Menace does not exhibit any of the qualities that made Empire such a phenomenal film. The only people who like Phantom Menace are a) dogmatic fans who think that Star Wars can do no wrong, b) idiots who like it because it is the latest 'fad' and c) philistines who have no appreciation for a good plot or character development in a movie, and like anything that has good special effects in it. Flashy effects do not make a good movie however, as Lucas seems to think. Hopefully he will not direct the next film, and the CG characters will be scrapped.
Rating:
Summary: ONLY THREE REASONS TO WATCH THE PHANTOM MENACE
Review: There are only three reasons to watch "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace": 1)The Pod Racing scene 2)The final lightsaber duel of the Jedis 3)Because this is a star wars movie. THAT'S IT. There are just too many things wrong with this movie. For starters, why have they made "The Force" out to be something of a scientific nature? I liked the mystical and mysterious quality about "The Force" that was abundant in "The Empire Strikes Back". Why was this movie aimed for children? All of the original Star Wars fans, like me, are in our twenties and thirties by now. I understood that Lucas was trying to get a new generation of Star Wars fans, but c'mon. This movie could be shown on The Disney Channel without editing a thing! Why, oh why didn't we see more of Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and Yoda? I wanted to see Mace whup somebody real bad with his lightsaber. I don't know about anyone else, but the true "money shot" would have been to see Yoda wielding a lightsaber and shoving it up a robot's "you know what". Why were Jedis only slicing at robots throughout the whole movie anyways? The only other battle is the one with Darth Maul. And what about the mysterious character known as Darth Maul? I realize that he's not a real talker, but they could have given a bit more background story on him. I admit, he was definitely interesting though. He was the best character in the movie and what did Lucas do? He kills him off. Why Lucas? WHY? He was an excellent menace to star in your next installment. Because of the heavy make-up, he could have been played by anyone with kung fu skills in Episode 2. Also, the movie dragged, BIGTIME thanks to its never-ending babble about politics in this Star Wars world. Lucas, I understand that you had to establish your plot, but about 30 minutes of the movie could have been cut if you hadn't gone ON AND ON about the "Trade Federation" and "Naboo" and all this other crap. All of that stuff could have been canned and it would have made room for the ideas listed above! These are only SOME of the things that were wrong with this movie. I could've gone on, but you get the point. Watch this once just to see the three things listed at the beginning. E-mail me if you have any comments for me. The original Trilogy still rules! Bye PEEPS!
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