Definitively the worst Star Wars

Rating: 3/10 (25 February 2020)

The film that should have launched Star Wars films into the modern era, The Phantom Menace is probably the definition of disappointment.
To be fair to it, it's not the worst film ever made. There are positives. Liam Neeson delivers a charismatic and memorable performance as Qui-Gon Jinn while Ewan McGregor is also entertaining to watch as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Darth Maul is a physically threatening villain with a cool design, just a shame they couldn'y find any dialogue for him or any sort of personality. The choreography of the fight scenes, particularly the final lightsabre battle gets a thumbs up, despite the bizarre forceshield triggered breaks in the duel. The visuals generally are nice to look at. In fact the film starts and ends with promise.
Unfortunetely there's a middle that takes up 90% of the runtime where nothing much happens. Unmemorable characters waffle on about nothing, borderlinecaricatures wander in and out of the movie, most notably the abominable Jar Jar Binks, an annoying child asks if Natalie Portman is an angel, is declared the chosen one and wastes 7 hours of screentime podracing to sell video games. The dialogue sounds like it was written by a 5 year old on meth using a speak and spell. It's just such a boring slog to get through. By all means watch clips on youtube of the good bits, don't bother sitting through the whole film.
The one aspect of the film that is truly phenomenal - the music. John Williams saves the day with a perfect soundtrack including classics like Duel of the Fate. Pity there's a film attached really.