Lame movie: Two stars * *

Rating: 4/10 (21 May 1999)

IMHO, The Phantom Menace sucked. Here's why: We are TOLD and never shown the interesting parts of the major characters. Anakin has much fear says Yoda. He does? I didn't see it.
Neeson's character (nobody who saw the movie with me can even remember his name - a bad sign) was a rebellious Jedi says the council. He seemed pretty by-the-book to me.
My rewrite: Qui-Gon (sp?) and Obi Wan are the classic cop-buddy team - Jedi, but two-fisted loners, wandering the galaxy trying to bring there own special brand of justice... blah, blah, blah. They have dialogue that is FUNNY and they DISAGREE every once in a while. Sorry but bickering is what made the first three movies a lot of fun - there was no teasing in this movie - just "Yes, Master". These two should have been the Han Solo's of the movie, but as it was they bumbled along.
Anyway, Qui-Gon is killed because of his recklessness, Obi-Wan eventually loses Annakin to the Dark Side because of his own recklessness and, viola, Obi-Wan is a character with some depth and we actaully are bummed that Neeson dies.
I could go on.
I went away from Phantom Menace to spend a good part of the next three days discussing with friends and family how it could have been much better. This is not the mark of a good movie.
Two stars * *, worst movie of the franchise.