Rating: 
Summary: WELL......................
Review: I thought that the first 3 were better,I thought that it was
to childish and wooppy-doo compaired to the other films.I gave
the movie 4 stars instead of 3 because I'm a big fan of the
series and it was a good first try.The dvd is going to be awesome
and I heard that the next one will be darker. Hopefuly jar-jar binks will die or something in the next one
Rating:
Summary: The Phantom Movie?
Review: For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Star Wars saga I'd like to welcome you to the planet Earth and ask if your stay on Mars was enjoyable.Now with that aside, I'm sure this is a statment that will anger alot of fans out there; This movie is not that bad. It is rather enjoyable if you take it in the context of the series. It essentially lays the foundation for the entire Star Wars saga. Now with that said, I will freely admit that there are some problems with this film. First being that the Star Wars mythology is so vast and so expansive that the story does tend to get bogged down in detail (Unknown to the casual fan there is even a back story BEFORE the Phantom Menace detailing an era in the Star Wars timeline called the "Sith War". The Sith War could have easily been scripted for another trilogy. That's is how enormous the scope of the Star Wars universe).
There are some scenes that seem very extraneous that make me wonder what deleted scenes that will be included in the DVD version that actually did end up on the cutting room floor. All the basic elements of a Star Wars movie are here ( i.e. the lightsaber duels, epic scale battles, daring escape, etc.) but the pace of the movie tends to lag in the middle. One can't help but think if this is the result from the fact that George Lucas hasn't made a movie in over 16 years. Where a movie like X-Men seems to grab you and keep you riveted to your seat, Phantom Menace offers plenty of time for bathroom breaks without missing any relevant action. Hopefully in Episode II "Attack of the Clones" ( can you believe that name?) the story will be tightened up considerably.
Even with all that said the fact remains that this is still a Star Wars movie. Though it is probably the weakest film in the series it still is head and shoulders above anything else in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Being an anime fan it is not a stretch that the Star Wars universe could easily co-exist within the anime universe. It does after all borrow alot of story elements from many of todays popular anime series ( such themes as redemption and self discovery are popular in the anime genre). It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the Star Wars saga is in fact a live action anime story. And the Phantom Menace, though flawed as it may be, is still an excellent starting point to that story. It is well worth owning and well worth even purchasing a DVD player for.
Rating: 
Summary: garbage
Review: episodes 4-6 are in fact some of the most outstanding movies I have ever seen....but this one, is just [bad], i really didnt like it at all, I can't believe I saw it in the theatre. The only cool guy Darth Maul has like two lines, but on the plus side the computer animation is top notch, other than that you'd have to be an ultimate star wars nut to like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Please enter a title for your review
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Rating: 
Summary: Down the tubes
Review: Frankly I can't imagine why any of these reviews would be "helpful" to anyone, since the three people who haven't seen the film yet have been saturated with opinions about it. So what good is one more? What the hell, I feel like weighing in. What is good in this film? The pod race is enjoyable and well done. The light saber fighting choreography is far superior to that in the original trilogy. And of course the effects are fantastic. The movie is one of the most visually beautiful films I've ever seen. The land- and cityscapes are particularly astounding. Unfortunately even the good things in this film aren't all they could be. The pod race is derivative of the chariot race in Ben-Hur, the saber fighting scenes lack the character-driven emotion of the original trilogy, and the effects are groundbreaking in scale only, not in any fundamental way. The first Star Wars (episode IV) was revolutionary in its effects. Each subsequent film in the series introduced more revolutionary ideas. But in Episode I, we see nothing truly new, just things that we've seen before done bigger and better than ever. But The Matrix was the film that revolutionized effects in the same year of Episode I's release. What is bad in this film? Let's start with the script, which features too many underdeveloped characters, cliched dialogue, uninteresting plot, scenes that are contrived to the point that audiences have trouble suspending their disbelief. Then there is the acting. None of the actors seemed to be particularly intimate with their characters, with the possible exceptions of Liam Neeson and Ian McDiarmid. Natalie Portman is one of my favorite actreses, and she does better than most of the others, but even she doesn't seem to have found her range with Amidala. And Jake Lloyd is beyond abysmal. Haley Joel Osment was born for that role. But ultimately I think the poor acting comes back to the script and also to the direction, which otherwise I don't really have a problem with. I also think part of the reason for the shortcomings in this script is because the primary goal of this movie is really to set up the following ones. Perhaps it was too complex and ambitious even for Lucas. Now I gotta take on the racism issue. I have to say that when I first saw this film in the theater I was shocked and embarrassed to be sitting there in a crowd watching such blatantly racist pablum. To be honest, it wasn't Jar Jar that jumped out at me, because I wasn't familar enough with the Rastafarian stereotype to recognize it. It was the Trade Organization's Chinese-like accent and sly, conspiratorial, "yellow" behavior. I half expected one of the T.O. aliens to break into "Ahh so." Later I discovered the Jar Jar-Stepin Fetchit connection, which again floored me. To those who deny that Jar Jar is a racist stereotype, I quote Salon.com's Alynda Wheat: "Accents in and of themselves may not be stereotypical. But it's the overall image of Jar Jar that smacks of racism. His buffoonery, gait, appearance (one journalist thought his ears were reminiscent of dreadlocks) and word choice all combine to make him offensive." Bingo. Furthermore, when members of a particular racial group are universally offended, that seems to be a pretty strong clue that something is by definition racist, unintentionally or otherwise. And I think it's clear that the racism was unintentional. As Wheat discusses in her article (http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2000/03/22/lucas/) Lucas strenously denied the plausibility of any racist features in his movie. But as any fan of Joseph Campbell knows, Lucas is a master of the archectype, which pre-exists in his audience's collective psyche, loaded with connotations and symbolism. He leveraged archetypes in his original trilogy to powerful effect. It may be that he was trying to tap into similar notions with certain characterizations and in the process got confused about the difference between stereotypes and archetypes. Beyond the racism argument, Jar Jar is annoying. He does not provide comic relief. He is not funny. Moreover, and more importantly, he adds nothing to the story. Every Jar Jar "contribution" to the story could have been accomplished in another way that would not have necessitated his existence and the consequent torture of the audience. Lucas tarnished the Star Wars series forever with Episode I. Although I don't have much hope, he could still redeem it with II and III. But so far, out of four films, two and a half of them are great and one and a half are awful.
Rating:
Summary: Every saga has a beginning . . .
Review: This movie is great. A wonderful introduction to the Skywalker family and the Star Wars Saga. It was fun and made you cringe when you remembered this cute boy who saves the day becomes Darth Vader. Here's the deal though: much like A New Hope was told from the point-of-view of a naive farm boy, Episode I is told from the point-of-view of a 9 year old ex-slave. It is about a 9 year old boy. It contains a lot of stuff 9 year old boys would enjoy. Embrace this and you will love the movie. I know I did, and I am not a 9 year old boy.
Rating:
Summary: Racism?
Review: I have a big problem with people who say Star Wars I has racism in it just because Jar Jar speaks English with Jamaican accent. What is racism, by dictionary, racism is a belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. So my question to those who say Star Wars I has racism is this: Do you think American English is superior than Jamaican English? No matter if you do or not, let's consider another fact, is American English superior or British English superior?
In my opinion, no accent is superior than another, it's just the matter of how many people are using a particular accent. By the way, most people in Star Wars universe speak American accent, should a English man say that's racism too? Speaking of the film, can you really believe that Jar Jar would speak a perfect British accent? That would make people laugh. And remember, Star Wars is not made just for Americans, it's made for all audience around the globe. And people elsewhere don't have the accent issue at all, why Americans are so different? Stop saying RACISM now.
Rating:
Summary: Not out yet but I can't wait - look at the list of extras!
Review: Ok, this review has to be done in two parts because I'd like to address both the content of the movie itself as well as the DVD release. Here we go. As a longtime Star Wars fan (first movie I ever saw was "Star Wars" in its theatrical release in 1977 - I was 4) I deliberately avoided the hype and promotional campaigns surrounding the release of "Episode I" in 1999. I thought I'd be more objective if I went into the film with no expectations. Since then I've seen it once again, on video. Based on those two viewings, here's my opinion: The good: Ewan McGregor as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, the political machinations of Senator Palpatine (staging a Trade Federation conflict to precipitate his rise to Chancellor of the Senate), the closing two-on-one Jedi battle (great choreography), some excellent special-effects work (the cityscapes of Coruscant and Naboo are intricately detailed), nice glimpses of familiar characters in their salad days (Artoo, Threepio, Jabba, etc) and cameos of others (note the Wookies in the Senate, as well as the species we know fondly as E.T.). There's a lot to like in this movie. The bad: debunking of the mythic origins of The Force (it turns out to be a parasitic microorganism), anthropomorphic stereotypes and caricatures (specifically, the Trade Federation and the Gungans), continuity problems with the rest of the saga (Invincible battle droids and destroyer droids predate stormtroopers who fall over if you sneeze at them? Anakin built Threepio? Obi-Wan was apprenticed to Qui-Gon Jinn, not Yoda?), lack of any real character development (remember Captain Panaka? Neither do I, but he's got an action figure), and more than anything else CGI overload (at times you feel like you're watching a cartoon, especially during the Gungan battle with the droids). The downright ugly: the presence of Jar-Jar Binks and the acting performance of Jake Lloyd. I know he's just a kid, but we've all seen what Haley Joel Osment is capable of, so this kid has no excuse. Overall "Eisode I" is a so-so movie, important primarily for its role as the "stage-setter" (being the first of three). It's a far cry from the triumph of "the Empire Strikes Back" which is the high point of the saga so far, but it's no chopped liver either. That said, on to the DVD release. The good: George Lucas commentary! Seven deleted scenes! Five featurettes! A one-hour "making-of" documentary! Multi-angle storyboards! And a music video too! This is a smorgasbord of extras for any movie buff and definately worth the price. The bad and ugly: why can't the original trilogy get this treatment? I know George is busy working on "Episode 2: Insert Riduculous Title Involving Clones Here" but c'mon - do we really have to wait until 2010 for the "Episodes IV - VI" DVD releases? Bottom line: this DVD should be on any Star Wars fan's list on general principle, and on any movie fan's list for the extras alone.
Rating:
Summary: Looking forward to release
Review: George Lucas has done such a great job with all 4 Star Wars movies so far, I can't wait for the DVD. I own Episode 1 on DVD and I watch it along with Episodes 4, 5, and 6. Over and over. The DVD is said to have easter eggs (hidden jokes or funny items in the back ground) along with out takes, and deleted scenes.
I'm ordering my copy today!
Rating:
Summary: Less than I'd except!
Review: I'm suprised at this movie. I was realy cheesed off. I thought this would be some great scifi drama like the last 3. You could call this a kids movie practicly. In the movie the good guys will only nuetrilise threats if they our non living. Naboo all they talk about is we must realy on negotioations. Even when the power is out. There was no siege at all they didn't even go down figting on there own. It reminds reminds me of the halacust. They dont't even pick up a laser until the Jedis come.
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