Rating: 
Summary: A Force Is Strong With This One
Review: I'll admit it, STAR WARS Episode I: The Phantom Menace was not perfect; but I do give it four and a half stars. Anyone who hates is movie DOES NOT understand STAR WARS. Look, Episode I was slow, but it had to be. Lucas had to set up the entire STAR WARS saga. Episode IV did not start off as slow because it had less to set up. Anyway, the reason Episode I had a different look and feel to it is simple, the galaxy at the time a much different place then it is by the time of Episode IV. The Galactic Republic is still in power and the galaxy is still a place of relative peace. Therefore, our hero's will react differently in dangerous situations than the heros of the Second Trilogy. The reason for this is that the galaxy of Episodes IV, V, and VI is a more hostile place than the galaxy of Episode I, which I said before is peaceful. In Episode I, our heros don't expect danger like the heros of the Second Trilogy do. Anyway, I can't wait for Episode II, which I have a strong feeling will turn out to my favorite of the entire STAR WARS saga.
Rating: 
Summary: Its the first of 3, what did you expect....
Review: Let me clear this up. Did you enjoy the first Star Wars as a kid? You did? Well, if you expect what you remembered as a kid, you're probably going to enjoy this film (my 40 year-old dad has watched this tape more than I have!). If you expect a more mature Star Wars, you're going to be disappointed.This film is a pure graphical feast. I don't know how it lost to the Matrix at the Oscars. There are so many stories behind the story, so many things going on crammed into nearly every frame that its impossible to take it all in in one viewing. And let me tell you, the 'saber battle at the end is one of the best fight scenes ever period! I feel that this film was made to introduce the new characters of this trilogy. And it gets the job done, whether you love em (Qui-Gon) or hate em (Jar Jar). But admittingly, the more I see this movie, the less I hate Jar Jar. Sure he was VERY annoying at first, but after a few veiwings you can actually understand what he is saying, which makes him a LITTLE less annoying. The only way to watch this video is by getting the widescreen version. Sure it costs a bit more but its worth it. And the picture is surprisingly good (especially the colour) for VHS. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us with the DVD. Anyway, this is a good Star Wars film, even if it does stray from prevous films with the diolauge and such. I can't wait to see Episodes 2 and 3!
Rating:
Summary: Mytic Adventure!
Review: Nostalgic of the old classic of his day(like Flashgordon)or(Sinbad and the Pirates)George Lucas has captured us once again,with his wonderous space opera in a galaxy long ago.In this 1st Chapter,Jedi master Qui Gon Jin(Liam Neeson)and his young student Obi Wan Kenobi(Ewan McGegor) try to negotiate peace but find themselves in the midst of war instead,while attempting to protect a young Queen and save a planet from invasion.On their Journey to find help and support in the Galactic Senate,the Jedi's find themsevles stranded on a mysterious far away planet where they incounter a young boy with a special power and a dark unknown destiny that is greater than can imagine.Well made and exciting,this first Chapter of the George Lucas Space Fantasy is a fine first introduction and shawdow of things to come in the series .Absolutly astonishing special effects,a must have for your movie libary.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: This was truly bad. Unlike the early Star Wars, where the various characters provided background information, the special effects (which were really good) seem designed to make a coherent story line superfluous. Liam Neeson was the biggest disappointment for me. He wasn't acting, he was just letting the Force handle it for him. I hope the next two (promised?) Star Wars are better, but I won't hold my breath. Since (and counting) Return of the Jedi, they seem like an expensive advertisement for some new doll, game or accessory.
Rating:
Summary: Lucas' latest masterpiece
Review: The Star Wars saga is to film what The Lord of The Rings is to literature.To judge this film as a stand alone movie is wrong, it must be judged in the context of the other three existing films. And with that in mind it remains faithful to the tradition which makes Episodes 4-6 great(memorable music,dialogue, story,characters, etc). Lucas answers some of our questions and poses many new ones. Ok so maybe u don't like Jar Jar but he is not the only character in the film! There are a diverse range of characters (from the likes of Darth Sidious,Senator Palpatine,Qui Gon Jinn, to the cowardly and greedy Nute Gunray, ). George Lucas is the Ernest Hemmingway of film there are no pointless lingering shots (like the space marine landing sequence in James Cameron's Aliens), everything is short, sweet and to the point. From the grand battles (reminiscent of Kerosawa) to the unique way the shots fade in & out of the screen, this is awesome! People will still be watching these films 20 years from now with the same amount of love and admiration. George Lucas, I salute you on a job well done. P.S:GL purposely made this film parallel the structure of the first SW film.
Rating: 
Summary: No Star Wars film was a character study, folks...
Review: Let's face it: if you were looking for snappy dialogue (well, at least CONSISTENTLY snappy dialogue), deep characterizations and profundity from the first three Star Wars films, you were going to go away disappointed. Ingmar Bergman films they weren't. Star Wars was always meant as high-octane, visually inventive eye candy whose job was to thrill, entertain, and put you squarely in another universe, and "The Phantom Menace" does no less. With the caliber of actors who worked on the movie, it could have been far more character-driven, but the film still works as grand entertainment and a sturdy foundation to the new Star Wars series. "The Phantom Menace" has scenes and set pieces that are so lush, so beautifully conceived and constructed, that you literally ARE transported to another world. The entire Naboo city, for example, is absolutely fabulous - Venice set in another galaxy. Tatooine, though we've been there before, is shown in much greater detail as a place where people literally live in co-existence with a desert. The Gungan city is also extraordinary, and gives us a sense that there's a serious intelligence behind the laconic Gungans that later serves as an important plot device. The action sequences in "The Phantom Menace" are also beautifully conceived and executed, particularly the podrace sequence, which is absolutely thrilling. The various lightsaber battles are done convincingly, and the battle on Naboo between the Gungans and the battle droids - conceived almost entirely on computer - has true epic sweep. So if "The Phantom Menace" succeeds grandly as entertainment, why only three stars? This is because its human factor - actors and characters - fails it. Right off the bat, the character of Anakin deserved a better actor than Jake Lloyd. He's a cute kid, and displays some pluck, but he's utterly unconvincing when it comes to scenes requiring emotional depth. Other young kids have given their characters great depth and believability (witness Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense"), and with Lucas' unlimited budget and resources, it's surprising he made such a poor choice to play Anakin. By the end of the film, I had no idea whatsoever how this kid could grow up to be Darth Vader. Perhaps that's Lucas' intent (it does provide a powerful incentive to see "Episode 2"), but it was extremely unsatisfying dramatically. With the acting talent on display here - Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, for starters - George Lucas could have made this film far deeper character-wise, but he didn't. It seems those big names were chosen for their names, not for what they could do in character. Even Samuel L. Jackson, who rarely seems to blend into anything, seems bemused and bored in this film. Acting woes aside, "The Phantom Menace" does succeed grandly as entertainment and spectacle, and is very much worth seeing. Oh, and yes...I LIKED Jar-Jar.
Rating:
Summary: Phantom Menace is Menacingly Excellent!
Review: It has finally arrived. The next installment, or I ahould say the first!New characters blend in fine with some of our old favorites(R2D2, C-3PO, Yoda, Palpatine).Ewan Mcgregor perfectly cast as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi.CG effects revolutionize Lucas's vision of a galaxy far, far away. John Willliams score does it again(Duel of the Fates particularly)!Planet Coruscant resemble Fritz Lang's Metropolis!Pod-Race scene is priceless as is the final light saber duel on Naboo. Phantom Menace kept me wanting more and it just got me more jazzed up about Episode II due out in 2002! May the force be with you....
Rating:
Summary: It's Not The Worst Movie Ever Made But It's Pretty Close
Review: I'm going to resist my urge to compare The Phantom Menace to any of the other Star Wars movies so I won't get into that pitfall. The simple truth is that The Phantom Menace is a movie designed for an audience that has a more limited attention span. It is not a movie with any fantastic moment when you can see it all so much clearer. It's not meant to to make you feel any empathy for any of the characters. It's not a tear jerker. You don't have to feel pity for any of the characters either. It's not a comedy either? What is it then? The Phantom Menace is a theme park ride that has a requirement for all riders. Leave your thinking cap outside. The entire Phantom Menace experience for me was like being inserted into The Matrix. Maybe I'm too demanding but I don't like movies that require you to drop your guard.(mentally, of course) I think the Phantom Menace is a marketer's dream because what might be faults as described by others(Jar Jar Binks) are defended by others. Either way we all see the movie and have a ball ranting and raving about its strengths and weaknesses. Buy the Phantom Menace if you like but realize it lacks what I find to be important in a movie, humanity.
Rating:
Summary: My Reasons...
Review: Like so many others I waited fingernail biting for many years. Also like many old fans I was left sorely disappointed. Now I kept my expectations relatively low for the new movie-and still it was bad! (Really bad) Most of my friends desperately wanting to keep Lucas venerated had "it was alright/ had some cool effects" to say, only to later join my much stronger "I hated it" stance. I've heard plenty of negative criticism without some specifics, so here are some of the problems with Lucas' blunder as I see them: -THE TARGET AUDIENCE: (it was kids!) Now I know the desire was to keep Star Wars available to all ages, but this failed. The original movies were mature enough in dialogue, mood, and detail to enthrall older ages, yet still accessible to younger ages (Darth is evil). This movie though, is kept accessible to its target audience while neglecting the majority of its fans. -THE COMEDY: (cheap laughs and clowning) In keeping with making a children's movie, Lucas had to ensure that all of the comedy could be understood, therefore physical buffoonery was the only out. Would it have been too much to include some subtle banter (or any verbal comedy) like that found in the other movies? (and capable of entertaining audiences older than twelve). Really though, does anything more need be said than Jar-Jar? I don't think so. -THE VIOLENCE: (can't have the kids see any) Now not that I advocate violence for its own sake, but in this film its a mix of clowning-robot breaking-safety. The first five minutes of A New Hope are more violent then this entire movie- Vader parading over the fallen bodies of the storm troopers and rebels (and this was '77, not the desensitized world of the millennium). Violence can be used as a tool to produce mood, enforce the gravity of a situation, or (as Lucas likes) a chance to have a clown dance around making light of a 'war' (I guess because we wouldn't want our target audience to become upset at all the violence) -SELF-CONTAINED WORLD: (it was not) The movie has placible accents (that are also painful) and connections with the 'real world'- i.e. the steriotypical comentators during the pod race. -THE CHARACTERS: (because I care) The characters and their interactions are boring and cardboard. The enemy is not built up at all. Sure old Mal looked pretty nifty, but what is he? The villain- he dies- oh well, whatever, nice and one sided (after all, the target audience will get it). The same emotional impact is felt when Qui-Gon dies: "oh well". -UNBELIEVABILITY: (suspension of disbelief has limits) Anakin is in his fighter plane, avoids dying, and accidentally shoots what turns out to be integral to the station and thereby winning the battle being 'fought' on the planet. I'm sorry I just couldn't work with it. -ANAKIN"S FOREIGN TOUNGUE: (why? why?) Petty, maybe. Integral to the story, no. Annoying? Hell ya! Whose idea was it to have Anakin speak his rhyming gibberish? Were they going for the 'hey this sounds made up' sound, or the 'are they doing this on purpose?' sound? I apologize for not going into greater detail (because believe me, I could) but these are some of the more prominent problems to a movie that I would plan to watch again only to find all those faults that have been forgotten since seeing during its first week. My conclusion: Lucas has become drunk with success and lost his mind.
Rating:
Summary: The Phantom Meance Defense
Review: There has been so much criticism of this movie it makes me sick. People are nitpiking over the smallest things. Lets examine. 1) The biggest of all complaints is Jar Jar Binks. The complaint is that he's just not funny and I completely agree with this except I don't think he was supposed to be funny. His Juvenile pranks are just in Character with his species, which is a lower inteligence. We all know that when kids are young they do dumb stuff that they think is funny, but really is not. Another complaint about him is that his dialect is supposedly racist. I can see why people thought this. In Hollywood a while back black people were portrayed with a similar dialect. Thats because in the eyes of the racist white Hollywood bigwigs black were of a lower inteligence. Now when George Lucas was devolping the Jar Jar Character he had to devolp dialoge which would show the character being of lower inteligence. As a resolt, the two dialects turned out be similiar. If Lucas is being racist in this movie at all its to the Gungan race. 2)Another complaint about it was that there wasn't enought character development. This would be true if this was a complete story, on it's own, but it's not. It's the first of a Trilogy. Thats like reading 1/3 of a book and complaining that the characters weren't developed enough. You have to read the whole book before you can decide that. 3. The Plot is too confusing! Thats the worst complaint i've ever heard. If you are unable to understand the plot of a movie thats rated PG then your in troupble. I can name about five 8 year olds right now who could give you a plot sumarary, an analysis, and the foreshadowing involved. And if it was a little complecated I don't recall anybody whining about how "The Usual Suspects" or "Pulp Fiction" were too confusing. Well I could go forever about all the other unfair nitpicks that have fallen on to this movie from critics that don't have any sort of imagination at all, but I won't because I think I've hit the big ones. But please send your nit picks about this movie to me and i'll answer you with a logical explanation to why they are hollow. I think this is a tactic (the ability to think logically) which most critics should start using more before they attack a movie....
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