Not good, but merely watchable...

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2013)

We had three fantastic Star Wars movies... A perfect trilogy... Until the prequels came! The kick-start for the new trilogy "The Phantom Menace" is a perfect example, of a movie which is made, so that the distributors can sell toys and video games. The pace and story is too slow and boring to keep a viewers attention, during a whole (not good) movie! There are some plot holes that aren't even worth arguing about any more, the acting is rusten and feels so forced and the movie kinda' frustrates rather than intrigues! Despite all of this, the movie as a whole is not a downright disaster.
For some reason, George Lucas felt like everything in the prequels had to be connected. This clearly sets some rains on Lucas' storytelling, and that's one of really the bad things about this movie. I think, if Lucas insisted to make a prequel and he set the plot during The Old Republic, things would have worked out better for Lucas, and most importantly... The movie! The menace is filled with bad acting, awkward scenes, bad one-liners, lame storytelling... But no intensity. But the visuals and sound are much better in this movie, and we still have John Williams' awesome score! That's gotta' count for something, eh'?
I personally, don't have many qualms about Jar Jar Binks, though. I agree, he is not a good character, but I do believe that he is part of an unfortunate core of bad lines and annoying scenes. But when I found out that the Razzies, gave him and award for worst supporting actor, I found it to be unfair. I never thought that the actor was a bad one! But whatever.
Lucas apparently felt, that he had to include a lot of political dialog, that people really understands or care about. I remember when I was like 5, and watching The Phantom Menace, I always thought that whole Corusant segment to be boring as hell! There is not one single scene that is worth understanding to the fully, and when you hear the line from Binks: "We-sa going hoooooooooome!"... You know Lucas thought this segment was pure crap.
The acting is lame and forced, so obviously the characters is nothing to be excited about, either. Like, when you know Anakin and Padme clearly has feelings for each other... A part from that creepy fact that he is like 10, and she is like 25... You would think that the character's desire would be explained. But it's not. Not at all. All we have is a lame and awkward conversation, filled with bad and wodden acting... And when a movie can suck the acting spirit out of both Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor... Something is clearly wrong!
Despite all of this, Menace is still an OK movie, as a whole. If it hadn't followed the earlier movies, it would be some kind of a lame but watchable B-movie on a lame channel, nobody watches. Still, a weak and lackluster entry to the Star Wars series, but watchable.
5/10