Rating: 
Summary: As good as Howard the Duck
Review: Lucas has seemed to lost touch of the magical feel he created for the first series with the desire to "outdue" anyone and everyone with technology and his "crazy" special effects team. If you read what this movies plot (Huh?) is before seeing it you wonder if this movie would have been gobbled up by a studio if the previous ones didnt exist to give him some kind of credibility. Lucas needs to let someone else write and direct as he is really only concerned with how many digitalized images he can throw at your senses at once. Story was bad. Acting? worse; even the special effects in some scenes just seem to be completely overdone and computerized, where you sit and are reminded that there is a blue screen behind the actors. I own a DVD player but the video looks okay (I would never buy it). I hope it never comes out for DVD. Who cares? That's probably the biggest surprise a lot of viewers get from this movie. Who cares about these people, places, or their futures? Lucas is also re-releasing the original trilogy for the 18th time again in the near future. This shows Lucas's state of mind trying to remind people that he did actually make a good, fun, well executed series at one time and that he's coming back to rob all the suckers who would buy it again, because he's now more greedy than he is imaginative. For those who argue (like Lucas did) that this movie is a "setup" for the next 2, that's an excuse, copout, and an apology for making a bad movie. A trilogy is 3 movies that stand on their own, complete. Lucas said this because he knew it was lacking and weak. That's like not doing your job for a week, and when you get in trouble from the boss you tell them that you were intentionally relaxing for the next week where you were really going to "pour it on, just wait and see". I also hope Spielberg stays away from Lucas in his future projects. Lucas is as stale and boring as "his" Episode 1 bomb. I'm sure the audio is descent but once again who cares. More than reviewing the actual quality of the video, I wanted to get these thoughts off my chest for Lucas wasting my time with his experiments in digital buffoonery instead of actual substance. I hope people are starting to get annoyed with these technology clowns taking their audiences for idiots who require nothing more than flashing lights and big budget blue screens to sucker them in. The only thing worse is "Howard The Duck". Why doesn't Lucas keep re-issueing that one? Put him in front of a blue screen flying through space. Now that's a shame.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Try
Review: I am a big Star Wars fan and I must admit that the first three were captivating movies. I expected the world out of a movie with twenty extra years of technology pumped into it. And when I saw The Phantom Menace (I could think of a hundred better titles) I was stunned, for two reasons. First, the graphics lived up to all my expectation. Second, Everything aside from the graphics was appalling. It was just a bad movie. Acting: None of the actors were good at all. Many were below mediocre to the point that they made the movie unwatchable. Biggest problem was Jake Lloyd as Anakin. Are we actually supposed to believe that this TellyTubby will someday be the Mega Villain Darth Vader. You couldn't get to know the characters as you could in the previos films. The performances didn't help to much as they didn't interact with eachother and have relationships. Overall it was just a bad movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Jar Jar Steals The Show!
Review: What can you say about Jar Jar? He's cute, lovable, and I just want to take him home with me! I wish the rest of the cast had acted on the same par as Jar Jar (whoops I'm a poet!) The special effects were really trememdous; you couldn't even see the fishing line on any of the space ships and they looked like they were really in space! I would give this movie 5 stars, oh what the heck, I'm giving it 5 stars because of Jar Jar!
Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece.
Review: To everyone who bashes the Phantom Menace I ask, could you have done any better? I think not! George Lucas is a genius! Episode I is a Masterpiece and it serves it's purpose well, which is too introduce the charcters. I love it as much as Episodes 4,5 and 6. Also, people say it doesn't live up to A NEW HOPE. Well, they may have forgotten but Episode 4: A NEW HOPE was critized in the same way THE PHANTOM MENACE was! People were not in love with Episode 4 when it was released either.
Rating:
Summary: a bad feeling about this
Review: star wars - episode 1: the phantom menance should never have happened. there were always worries that once the second trilogy came to be made it would spoil the one we all know and love from the 70's/80's. but i let myself get excited anyway, and found myself watching something horrific and soulless. the strength of the original films was not in the special effects but in the characters. star wars is so human. this movie however has no character, it is just an endless stream of set-pieces and there's little to connect with. there are some fine actors in this film. ewan macgregor and liam neeson have both been excellent elsewhere. that jar-jar fellow i haven't seen before, but i will call up his filmography so i can give the annoying prat a wide berth. if you're a big fan of the original franchise, you might just find this soul-destroying. proceed with great caution. george lucas? the force has deserted him.
Rating:
Summary: Not Ready For DVD!
Review: I don't go to the movies much anymore. I prefer watching DVD & Laser Discs on my Mitsubishi 16:9 home theater with my 151 lb Rotweiller by my side. Both Dusty & I were very disappointed in the Phantom Menace in VHS letterbox. Aside from the weak plot, the unrealistic special effects were the biggest let down. Many of the computer generated scenes were inferior to those of the average computer game & reminded me of bad comic book art. The sound was also not up to par. Dusty slept through the entire show without stiring. He usually interacts with most DVD releases, i.e., trying to look behind the screen, perking his ears at the surround sound, & sometimes charging outside to repell imagined trespassers. George Lucas was right not to release on DVD. The flaws in "The Phantom Menace" are apalling enough on VHS! In my opinion, this is the worst "Star Wars" installment to date! Junius & Dusty Updyke, Bristol, TN
Rating:
Summary: Who let this happen?
Review: Let's not beat around the bush-- this was a bad movie. A very bad movie. It only makes things worse that this was the most anticipated film, well, ever. We waited 17 years and THIS is what we get? Much was made of the fact that George Lucas hadn't directed a movie since Star Wars. It shows. If Lucas had been on the ball he would've fired the screenwriter, because the story and script are awful. Oh, that's right, Lucas wrote it, too. We begin to see the problem. So what is The Phantom Menace about? Well, its about taxes. Its about a planet that doesn't want to pay what it thinks are too-high taxes. Now, this may be an acceptable subject for Bush and Gore to debate, but it seems an odd topic for Lucas to choose as the flashpoint for all that is to follow. Perhaps this is meant to be a civics lesson for the millions of politically uninvolved youngsters out there. Perhaps. Anyway, it only takes about 3 minutes for the lightsabers to start waving around and no doubt the crowds went wild. Except that our fearless Jedi are fighting robots that are about as fearsome as a bunch of Furbies. Outnumbered 10 million to one our fearless Jedi make it to the planet's surface (exactly how is blessedly glossed over) and there Liam Neeson runs, literally, into one Jar Jar Binks. It is one of the momentous meetings in film history. Star Wars, perhaps the most revered (and profitable) story in the history of human creation is up against a character with the power to destroy it all. Like Lucifer himself, Jar Jar is an unholy creature. His pathetic attempts at comic relief, his unintelligable speech, the fact that a great actor like Neeson was forced to emote at empty air and then watched as it was filled by this abomination...it's beyond my abilities to describe how awful it all is. Did no one have the courage, the decency, to tell Lucas that this character was a horrible mistake? Cowards, all. The other mind-blowing gaff Lucas makes is how he pretty much abandons what the whole Star Wars universe is based on, namely, the Force. If I recall correctly, Sir Alec Guinness describes the Force as a kind of New Agey cosmic energy emitted by all living things, a power that could be harnessed by those with the skill, training, wisdom, and patience to master it. Well, in this movie we find out the Force is actually a blood infection. The two Jedi analyze Anakin's blood & find out that he has a high level of this microbes or something and that's why he's so good with the Force. How on earth the people closely associated with Star Wars let Lucas screw up the Force is beyond me. It's insane. The story itself is pretty blah. The pod race was neat and two laps too long. The assault on the Naboo fortress was about as exciting as preseason NFL game and ridiculous to boot. The kid who plays Anakin is annoying, as almost all child actors are. When he finds himself trapped on an enemy battleship and surrounded by murderous killer droids, Anakin utters the memoroable line, "This is NOT good." Ah, such scintillating dialogue. Even the special effects are just kind of, ehhh. When "Star Wars" came out it was such a colossal hit because the special effects were light-years ahead of everything else. The opening scene, where the Star Destroyer is chasing Princess Leia's ship, was awesome, and I don't mean "cool", I mean awe-inspiring. Incredible. Today, digital technology (much of it pioneered by Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic) have made special effects, well, less special. Pretty soon any filmmaker will have the ability to hire a couple of high school kids with Macintoshes who can put together digital effects that can do anything. The director will wish it, and POOF! It'll be on the screen. Films will no longer be differentiated by the neato effects, but on such forgotten elements as the director's vision, good acting, great scripts, and interesting stories. All of which were sadly lacking in The Phantom Menace
Rating:
Summary: Call him George "Demographic marketshare" Lucas
Review: While the original Star Wars series wasn't a revelation in story-telling (It was a little too soap opera-ey), it had many things that people identified with. They liked the "scruffy" rogue, the country boy who does good, the elegant and feisty princess and the comic relief. Lucas takes parts of his first trilogy and stuffs it to make the Phantom Menace. The space battle is a pale comparison to the "star war" in ROTJ, the pod race seems just like the forest chases in ROTJ, the dirtiness and the hopelessness of Tatooine takes place again like it did first Star Wars: A New Hope. Having robbed his first trilogy for ideas, he creates bland characters. Other than Qui-Gon Jinn and Princess Amidala, the others feel awkward in their roles. The worst of course is Jar-Jar who only purpose is to do cute things (such as bump into things, get in trouble and do cutsy spirals before jumping into water). The unfortunate thing is that Jar-Jar will return in the next movie (Lucas, try listening to your fans instead of your marketing group). The story revolves around the Trade Federation, an organization that has political aspirations. It has created a blockade around the small planet of Naboo and the Supreme Chancellor has sent two Jedi Knights to take care of the situation. Lord Sidious, who is sick and tired of waiting around tells his underlings to begin the invasion of Naboo (for what purpose, I don't know). So faster than the Iraqis left Kuwait, Naboo is taken over and occupied by Federation Idiot Droids that seem to say "Roger Roger" over and over again. The princess, the jedi and silly Binks escape to warn the Republic senate but lose their Hyperdrive and land in Naboo for repairs. There they meet Anakin and his mother. While it is his mother's destiny to be a slave forever (?), Anakin's is to be a jedi knight, because of the kaka that Jedi Jinn has made up (sorry...Lucas took a fatal step with this mitichlorian mumbo jumbo) and the fact that Shmi won't admit to who the father is. Lord Sidious sends the devil himself, but Satan (called Darth Maul here) has forgotton to wear his sandals and the good guys get away. So after being sidetracked with an irrelevant pod-race, the mission continues and they reach the magnificent planet of Coruscant to persuade the Senators that the Trade Federation are actually bad people. After Chancellor Vellorum proves that he should have acted like Wilson from "the Limey", not Pricilla Queen of the Desert, he is ousted and Princess Amidala pushes Senator Palpatine (in a big conflict of interest) as the new Supreme Chalupa...sorry Chancellor. So with the politicking all done, the "rebels" go back to Naboo to turn some droids into end tables. Problem is, they have no army. Enter the Gungans, who are basically like a third cousin from the backwoods of Arkansas. Their king (who looks like a refugee from Mardi Gras) gets fooled into helping the people that like to look down on them, so the war begins and Gungans are the front line. Of course, don't expect the Naboo (whose planet is named after them) to do anything but supervise. I won't give away the ending but I'm sure that anyone reading this already knows what is going to happen. So why am I giving this 3 stars instead of the 1 it deserves? Because Lucas is a marketing genius and has turned by mind into goo. He already has me trying to pre-order tickets for the next Star Wars coming out with a wave of his hand. I am and will always be a Star Wars slave....I just wish George Lucas would make the pain of seeing Jar Jar Binks a little more bearable....Rating: C+
Rating:
Summary: I want my DVD.
Review: The debate rages on -- the movie was awful, the movie was great, it was better than Jedi, it was worse than Jedi, it's too childish, it's too commercial -- whatever. Personally, I believe the first trilogy were children's movies as well, but that fact was disguised by the absence of children as characters and revealed with young Anakin. Complaining that this incarnation lacks the depth of the originals is like complaining that the Power Rangers aren't as deep as the Ninja Turtles were. These movies are eye-candy and escape, and Episode I doesn't disappoint in either category. The reason for the three stars is Lucas' mercenary merchandising. Thirty dollars is too much to pay for a VHS tape, even if it has a little booklet with it. C'mon Lucas, give the people what they want: A two-disc DVD with deleted scenes, director's commentary, and an option to digitally remove Jar-Jar.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie but could have been much better.
Review: Set some 30 to 40 years before the events of Star Wars; A New Hope, George Lucas returns to "a galaxy far, far away." The Good aspects of this movie are the action and the special effects. The best score ever by John Williams. They do make the Star Wars galaxy come alive. The actors do a good job in the movie but the main villians being the Trade Federation and their Droid Army are not that formitable. Darth Maul makes an effective villian but his presence on film is too short, and Jar Jar Binks seems to exist solely for pure comic relief and that's all. It was a good film, better then most science fiction at the movies, but it's not in the same class as the other Star Wars films; A New Hope, the Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.
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