Rating: 
Summary: The mediclorian count is pretty low
Review: If this had been the first "Star Wars" movie to hit theaters 20 years ago, I'm confident that it would have been a flop, there wouldn't have been a part 2 or 3, and there wouldn't now be, 20+ years later, a Star Wars legacy with millions of fans world-wide. If asked to stand on its own, this movie just crumbles under own weight. The acting is abysmal, the dialog isn't much better, and though the plot has a lot going for it, it falls completely flat under Lucas's bad direction. The spark of magic George had when he directed Episode 4 is pretty much absent from this production. I don't mean to be offensive, but for a great many of us this movie was a HUGE letdown, and it simply does not stand on its own merits. The DVD on the otherhand is a pretty impressive production. It is loaded with all sorts high-quality extras including a great "making of" documentary, deleted scenes, commentary, and much more. Though I dislike the movie, I feel that the DVD is worth owning simply because of the weath of interesting information available in these extras.
Rating: 
Summary: Deleted Scenes Still Deleted...
Review: Everyone talks about how the deleted scenes are so wonderful, the problem, they remain deleted. Usually there's a cut and paste option, as with the new Die Hard releases. You won't find that here. Perhaps in the next release it will be. As for the story line.... Lucas is brilliant. Sure it was a little kiddish, but they will age with the film just like the rest of us did with the origional trilogy, think about it. A new hope looked like a one time shot, so he couldn't take the kid route. It's a trilogy, this was only Part I. My guess is that Part III will be pretty rockin, Part II will have to be better or Part III will never be made. The next films greatness will remain to be seen, but I can see where Lucas is headed.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best StarWars but still underrated
Review: I don't know why so many dis-like this film, sure it's not perfect but it's not bad either. I was a bit disapointed but not enough to hate it. The only bad things about it is that there's no character build-up what so ever. Jah-Jah is annoying, Anakin is too cheerful to believe he becomes Darth Vader. It's way too slow in the middle that when it finally got to the pod race I was almost sleeping in the theater. Plus Anakin blowing up a ship and being a hero like Luke in "A New Hope" doesn't really work. Obi-Wan is so cool too and is better than Luke yet a little kid has more lines and more screen time. What made this film good for me was the visuals, the Pod Race, Darth Maul and the light saber duel at the end. Some fans didn't like Ewoks so much that they didn't like Return of the Jedi. Jah-Jah is so annoying in Episode 1 that he makes you wish Ewoks were in it instead.
Rating: 
Summary: The best DVD in my collection (even with Jar Jar!)
Review: Many people that claim to be Star Wars fans are venomously against this movie. I don't understand it - this is a very worthy addition to the Star Wars universe. The fun is there ("I have a bad feeling about this"), the action is there (especially the lightsabre duels - far superior to any of the previous ones), and the movie is a fun experience. All the SW movies are thin on plot and have hokey dialogue - why are people upset that this one should too? The main problem with this film is that we already know the end (Return of the Jedi). SW fans will consider these films as history. There's little suspense in Darth Maul vs. Obi-wan because we know Obi-wan lives another 30 years! Similarly, Anakin is obviously going to survive the pod race and the space battle, because he lasts until RotJ. By the same argument, we cannot shed tears for other characters that we know are dead in the "present" - Amidala, Qui-gon, Mace Windu, etc. Thus, some dramatic tension is lost. Having said that, though, the fun of SW is the action and immersion in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. The DVD edition is fantastic, even if you think the movie is sub-par. There are numerous behind-the-scenes features, all of which give a nifty inside look at the making of the film. Especially interesting is the look at the digital manipulation of people and places. Parts are very impressive - Coruscant, the Gungan city, etc. Others need some work - Jar Jar is the most obvious. There's something very unnatural about the way he moves, occasionally defying the laws of physics, and he's distracting in the background because he moves too much. The cut scenes are fun to see, the commentary is full of tidbits and features George Lucas and several others (including ILM fixture Ben Burtt), and a neat 3-way split-screen feature on how storyboards are brought to the screen. There's also the obligatory ads (both TV and cinema), some of which I never saw before, and the video for Duel of the Fates. The combination of a pretty good movie on a great DVD full of extras makes this the jewel of my DVD collection, and highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: What were they thinking?
Review: Right after when I saw this movie I wish it would never been made. This is the worst Star Wars film I've ever seen. It seemed more like a kids movie to me. The other Star Wars trilogy is much more better than this and I wish that Episode IV would be Episode I, Episode V would be Episode II, and Episode VI would be Episode III (the last episode). What's the point of starting it as Star Wars - Episode IV that is ridiculous. I didn't really like the way that they did that and I hope when I see Episode II next year it would be a lot more better than Phantom Menace. If not I would really be disappointed at George Lucas. Anyways if you hadn't seen The Phantom Menace don't you will not like it stick with the original trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: People claim that it would have been impossible for this Star Wars to live up to the expectations from the previous movies. I believe that they are just looking for excuses for why this movie is as bad as it is. Lucas' main flaw was trying to target the movie towards eight year olds (ie "humor" used, Jar Jar, etc.) Another disappointment was the acting. Liam Neeson is about the only actor pulling his weight in this movie, and that simply isn't enough to cut it. The performances of Anakin and his mother feel totally unbelievable and Queen Amidala continually has a "pained to take the effort to say these lines" expression. This DVD is barely worth renting, simply for the extras and the fact that this is an episode in the Star Wars series. Other than that, don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Stars?!?! I'll tell you why...
Review: For the 1st installment of the Star Wars silver screen story, it was pretty damn good. So why 3 stars? First, Jar-Jar. I hate Jar-Jar with a burning salty passion. Second, I hate that kid who plays Anakin. Third, the pod race was a bit too long for my taste. After a while, it made me seem as though lucas didn't have enough material for the movie, so he pumped the movie with pod racing. Other than that, I gotta wait for the Attack of the Clones!!
Rating:
Summary: Great dvd, fairly good movie
Review: This movie has perhaps been reviewed more than any other movie in history and the expectations were higher than ever, so let's see if anything can be added to what has been said already. 1. The dvd: The dvd is brilliant. Never before has the extra material on a dvd been so extensive. The menu's are beautiful, the deleted scenes are great (special effects added esspecially for the dvd), and the documentaries give a very good insight into how the movie was made without getting dull. 2. The story: Compared to the classic movies the story seems a bit thin. The main story (the battle between the Naboo aided by the Jedi vs the Federation aided by the Sith) serves only as a means to show the state of the Star Wars galaxy at this point in time. A galaxy where the Galactic senate has lost control over it's people and a galaxy where a business organisation (the Federation) can hold a planet hostage over tax disputes without any resistance of the government. The greatest weakness of the story of this first film is that you probably need to see the next two movies to appreciate it's main point, namely that the real bad guy Senator Palpatine aka Darth Sidious uses the confusion he has caused to let himself be appointed Supreme Chancellor of the galaxy. So the bad guys really win at the end of this movie and this is not clear to most viewers when the movie is finished. 3. The Characters: Qui-gon Jinn: Good strong character, the most important person in this movie as it is he who set's the wheels in motion that begin Anakin's life as a Jedi. Obi-wan Kenobi: Good character although a bit stiff. Shows a certain wisdom beyond his age. Anakin Skywalker: Irritating know-it-all. Not nearly as wonderful as everybody thinks he is. "I can fix anything", right! Queen Amidala/Padme: Stiff as the queen, somewhat more interesting as Padme. Some parallel's to Leia in A New Hope. Jar Jar Binks: Overtly present. Sometimes funny, sometimes not at all, but not nearly as annoying as most people say if you don't pay to much attention to him (which is kinda difficult at times). Which brings me to the movies High's and Low's: High's: Podrace (the most important action sequence in the movie)
The political scheming (if you understand the meaning of it all to the larger story). Overall special effects are stunning. Low's: Story not clear enough, Jar Jar (at times), Bad guys don't have enough screen time (Darth Maul is great!).
Rating:
Summary: Lucas should be put in jail.
Review: What this guy did to his own Star Wars excellent saga is criminal. The dialogues... the acting... the plot -what plot?-, the characters -maybe except Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan- ... and... JAR JAR!!!
George Lucas had not directed a movie for twenty years till he made this one, and it shows.
Rating:
Summary: At first I hated it.
Review: When I saw this movie when it first came out, I hated it. What a let down. Then I saw the DVD and watched it a couple of times. Once I got past the convaluted story and the Jar Jar Binks stuff I found that I kind of liked the movie. My 2 year old son seems fasinated by the film, so it cant be that bad.
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