Poorly written letdown

Rating: 1/10 (8 August 1999)

The Phantom Menace has everything the other SW movies had save for passion, sophistication, subtlety, warmth, humor(Jar Jar is not just unfunny but anti-funny, since he sucks the life out of whatever scene he is in-and yes he is offensive too), suspense, soul, and respect for the audience. That leaves us with a movie that is basically a long, boring, shiny commercial for the next movie in the series.
On the bright side, I enjoyed seeing R2 and C3PO, Darth Maul's surprise CAMEO appearance was exciting, and you get to see a little more of what jedis are capable of, which is kind of cool. The star actors did OK considering but the characters were severely lacking in personality, in stark contrast to the endearing humanity and friction produced between the principals in the original trilogy.
I wish I didn't love Star Wars so I could just excuse this film and maybe even enjoy it but this movie was terribly disappointing. The plot is both more complicated AND more simpleminded than the other movies in this series. Lucas needs to hire a good director and a screenwriter while he's at it before his space epic becomes a bad running joke