Rating: 
Summary: AverageGuy
Review: I'm just an average guy watching a movie. And this is my opinion: I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!!
The story wasn't interesting (or fulfilling). There was no attachment or connection with any characters. In some cases, they were just annoying: Jar Jar Binks. They should have just cut this guy out completely. The special effects were great but, again, this film relied too much on it. I liked the older FX: animatronics and models. The characters seemed more appealing and believable. I hope they do a better job with the next film.
Rating: 
Summary: The Phantom Mockery aka A Star Wars Parody
Review: George Lucas should be horse-whipped! Yes, you heard me correctly. I,like zillions of fans,eagerly went to theater in the summer of'99 hoping for more of that old Star Wars magic. What I got instead was a cheesy, trite, in parts boring, in parts painfully annoying, 2 hour commercial. Sigh...I knew this movie was in trouble when, a half hour in a main character said "Exsqueeze me"..??? I think I grimaced and gasped when I heard this; Thats when I knew "The Force no longer with George is".Now, let me just say that I had no overblown expectations of this movie..I just wanted a good movie that continued( or rather) initiated the star wars saga story. The only things I expected were the things that made me love the first star wars, charcter development, good plot, witty dialogue(that yes, was sometimes cheesy)but most of all, a basic respect for the story and the characters in it. I received none of these things. Simply put, Mr. Lucas took us for granted and got lazy on the script, expecting the audiences prior emotions for the past trilogy to 'carry them thru' this movie. Well, Im sorry George, but you have to work harder than that. You can't just throw out ill conceived barely developed characters, trite dialogue, threadbare plotlines and contrived battle sequences and expect me to hollah. Really George...what were you thinking??? George failed to make me give a darn about many of the characters in this story, no honest human emotion for me to identify with, nothing, nothing to get me engaged with the character. You would think that George would have worked extra hard at character development...esp considering that..err...WE ALREADY KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS!!!!! ....with that fact in mind ,one would think you would work extra hard to make characters the audience can relate to and want to share the crazy wild ride with. But no..what do we get? Jar Jar Binks. Well I have one thing to say "Peeeeeee uuuuuuuu.....that smells stinkofish!" Now..the reason I give the DVD 3 stars is well..b/c it was a good package..The extras are the real prize in this box set. Others have complained of the DVD transfer..but since I have a bad tv I dont really notice it so I give the optics a good rating. The sound is good too, but the gems are the extras ..the music video however is very bad..lifted right from the TPH video game(classy George)..and the visuals for the video are really crude. But overall, the extras are what make this dvd worth it. Back to movie bashing. I hope, I really do, hope and pray that George takes some of this criticism to heart and goes back to the thinsg that made the first trilogy so great(namely...getting all those great wrtiers who worked on the first trilogy to write for him again) Visually, the movie was arresting, but not groundbreakingly stunning. I still feel more a sense of wonder and world-immersion from watching Star WArs than I do Menace...go figure?. So, I guess my point here George is , more plot, more characterization, lets CGI crud...The Cell proved..you can have all the smoke and mirrors in the world, (...)..-A.N.
Rating: 
Summary: Getting better with each viewing
Review: After being slightly disappointed at the theater with the movie, I still purchased the DVD. (I fell in love with the first three films growing up.) After watching it a few times, I feel this movie gets better and better. The nuances of the cinematography and characterizations are far more advanced than the first series but done gently. Whereas Star Wars was more shoot- em- up, this is better at portraying a story. ( enough siskel and ebert)
The DVD is an excellent combination of gimmicks and the movie. It is getting me excited for the arrival of the sequel or prequel, depending your point of view.
Rating:
Summary: Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace
Review: Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace has got a real strong place in my heart.First of all I want to thank to Mr.Lucas to produce this movie.Before everything I want to mentione that the special effects are wonderful the music is as strong as the oldest parts besides the cast is so well selected every thing is graet in this movie however I can not stand my self to tell that I can not feel the Real Star Wars atmosphere in this episode I think that Dart Maul saves this movie.I strongly reccomend every body to own one. MAY THE FORCE BE WÝTH YOU .
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest DVD ever made!!
Review: This DVD ROCKS!! The movie, of course, is awesome, but the extras are outstanding!! Great behind the scenes footage, and the web documentery is great. I would recommend this to anyone who loves the Star Wars saga!! It's a must have DVD!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best DVD ever!!
Review: Yes is true.. the story lacks the power and enchantment of the original movies, but this dvd rocks!!, is maybe the best sounding movie i ever seen, the picture is awesome and the extras are the best.
Rating:
Summary: The ***** rating is for the *DVD*, not necessarily the film:
Review: This one is worth buying for any fan of the Star Wars franchise. That said, as a film, George has left much to be desired (and some to be rebuffed, eg. Jar Jar). Science Fiction fans unfamiliar with Star Wars (as if they existed) would still like this one, but the general viewing public would probably be disappointed in the relative weakness present, especially versus the other films from George Lucas. However, and this is a *big* however: this review is for the DVD, which transfer is among the most amazing ever. Sound is impeccable, video fantastic, and the extra features, including bonus footage originally cut but finished specifically for this DVD, are to die for. Its quite an unreal package for DVD genre enthusiasts, though no Nuon features (unless perhaps in easter-egg format). Enjoy another film from Uncle George, even if it is just good and not great, that will look great and sound better.
Rating:
Summary: Phantom drama
Review: In theatres, George Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace" (whew!) had one transcendent moment: when the lights went down, the familiar fanfare blared, and the words "Star Wars" soared into deep space. Then, like a spaceship with a hull breach, the air leaked out, and all life with it. Trade embargos? What th'?!!? A space adventure epic that begins with an economics lesson? I've got a bad feeling about this...
Unfortunately, in this "Star Wars," there's lots of energy but no drama. An example? R2-D2's intro, completely without verve or context; we're supposed to instantly get emotional simply because HEY LOOK- it's R2-D2, that cute li'l guy from the first trilogy, and he might get blown up! But it isn't earned by what Lucas puts on the screen; rather, it lazily trades off our warm feelings for the earlier films. Perhaps Lucas assumes the audience already adores the "Star Wars" universe and all its merchandise, so he's free to cut corners. Also, there's no climax to this moment. The space queen merely "commends" R2 in another scene that's so static, so formal and emotionless, it might as well be performed entirely by kitchen appliances. Okay, prepare yourself, because here comes the gratuitous anti-Jar-Jar section of the review...
And then there's Mr. Binks, the recipient of many Internet death threats. You know you're in trouble when the hardest workin' guy in your movie is the one everyone despises. Obnoxious and omnipresent, Jar-Jar Binks ruins every scene he's in (about 90% of the movie). I don't fault Ahmed Best; he actually performs quite well. It's the role that stinks. Sir Lawrence Olivier couldn't have played it! Kids hate Jar-Jar, adults loathe him. His action figures choke our landfills. Jar-Jar. Another cultural touchstone for a generation, albeit not in the manner Lucas intended.
Double-J aside, everyone else seems only mildly engaged in the story. Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan comes off best, but Liam Neeson is sour, and Natalie Portman seems ill at ease talking to CGI freaks and beeping trashcans. In fact, she rarely seems to be talking with them, as much as at them. As for poor Jake Lloyd, he's only as bad as everyone else. Annoying little cuss, though, with his "Yippee!" and "Are you an angel?" cutesy lines. And when you create such a visually impressive villian as horn-headed Darth Maul... he should actually DO SOMETHING IN THE MOVIE!
Mainly, "Phantom Menace" proves set-pieces and ancillary marketing do not a movie make. Knock out sequences such as the pod-race and the climactic battles are made to seem ridiculous due to childishness, and too much serendipity. It's as if Lucas is better at imagining scenes than filming them, and better at directing robots and puppets than human beings. Too bad... we may go to a movie to see the puppets, but learn to love it because of the characters. Plus, why should we have to buy a lot of toys and books in order to fully appreciate what's onscreen? Why can't the movie be self-contained, rather than the lynchpin of a marketing juggernaut?
The DVD version overflows with info, documentaries and the like. Extras include the "Duel of Fates" music video (the music's more compelling minus Mannequin Skywalker and the rest of the film), storyboards, animatics, deleted footage and commentary from Lucas and others involved. If you're a "Star Wars" fan, or completist, you'll definitely want this stuff. It's a lot more interesting than the movie, but has a desperate air about it. It's Lucas begging us to love "Phantom Menace" because he and his imaginative elves worked so hard on it. And bless their hearts, they really did!
Rating: 
Summary: Give me the Originals!
Review: In the fairy tales how do you get into a Castle?! Take the water ways or the secret passages. In The Phantom Menace how do you do it?! You use them both! I found the plot extremely clinched. I doubt there was anything original in the movie. That wasn't even really the worst though. All the charm of Star Wars was gone. R2D2 was reduced to a computer on wheels without a personality. Also the action looks ridiculous because the Jedis are obviously just swinging in any which direction and then the bullets they hit are added by computer graphics. And the out come I think would be better described as dancing rather than fighting. To make that worse during most all the action sequences the actors look like they are doing anything, but struggling. How can the watcher be excited when the actor looks bored? The acting through out the entire film was amateurish. Lastly I should mention the plot was almost entirely driven by consciences not by any logical construction. I love the original Star Wars, but I hate this.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY - SOUND PROBLEMS
Review: We all know whether or not we like the movie. We've all seen it.
However, if you're like me, you won't like the DVD, regardless of how you liked the film. There are serious sound synchronization problems for a portion of the movie, starting about the time Qui-Gon meets Queen Amidala. For a movie coming from Lucasfilm, the supposed epitome of movie quality, I find this astonishing. I'm surprised that slipped past, especially when you consider that this (I think) is Lucasfilm's first DVD release How bad is it? Well lips move and the words come a few moments later. Sound FX happen at the wrong time. Etc. Very disconcerting and hard to watch. Maybe mine was just from a bad batch or something, so your experience may vary. But for 23 clams I expect more, especially from Lucasfilm! Save your money and wait till they fix it. Or perhaps wait until they edit out Jar Jar.
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