My low expectations worked!

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 1999)

My greatest fear going in was that Episode I would look and feel different from IV thru VI. Boy was I relieved to find that it fits right in. It serves its purpose of introducing us to all the key characters (here we meet R2D2, here we meet C3PO, here R2D2 meets C3PO), begins to show us simple Saturday matinee serial-ish parallels between Annakin and Luke, and offers a few crackerjack set pieces (the chariot race is worth twice the price of admission alone).
My only criticism really is that Lucas missed the bullseye in terms of tone. Everyone seems to be taking things too seriously. It reminds me of the switch from Eric Stoltz to Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future" when superior actor Stoltz lost the role because he was too serious and heavily dramatic of a figure for the intended tone of the film. Maybe Lucas should have paid attention to that lesson. We all know that Liam Neeson is a much better actor than Mark Hamill, but in this case less was far more.
I give it three stars out of four.