The Phantom Movie

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 1999)

There is much to criticize and precious little to praise in this swollen, overblown and overhyped mess of a movie. Technically it is "state-of-the-art" but that is not why people want to see this "first" of the Star Wars' saga; people want to see an entertaining and exciting preamble to the 6th, 7th and 8th episodes, and in that mission "Phantom Menace" dismally fails.
Perhaps we have all become jaded, but so many parts of this movie seem to be modified, or lifted directly from other, older movies and even television shows: the soldier "droids" even speak like the Cylons of "Battlestar Gallactica" (and how handy to have "non-living" light saber fodder), the set battle between the Jar Jar people and the battle droids looks like the ancient "300 Spartans" battle against the Persians made long ago and far away in Hollywood, Liam's swordwork could be taken from his Scottish epic (and much better film) Rob Roy.
For Star Wars purists, and even casual observers (I among the latter) there is a difficulty in cheering on the precocious young Skywalker (future father of Luke) when we know he is to become Darth Vader. The scenes of young Darth racing rockets and subsequently flying a star fighter are a bit too much, even for a six year-old with "the Force". Much is sacrificed to cute and precocious remarks from this wooden young actor.
In short, it is ponderously dull in long stretches, and seems to have lost all the creative spark and excitment of the first series. As Jar Jar might say, "How wude".