Very Thin

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2001)

The Phantom Menace is really disappointing. It totally lacks the mythic sense of the 'first' three movies. In those films, the special effects rode on the characters' backs. Here, instead, the special effects are meant to awe us and draw us away from the lack of a strong mythos.
Instead, we get pod races and an underwater chase which, while good as amusement park rides, don't really advance the storyline. Look at the original Star Wars. These set pieces naturally flowed from the events going on in the film. I got the feeling that they came up with this pod race idea and then fit the story around it.
I am not the world's greatest Star Wars fan. I watched and appreciated the first three, but did not learn every line of dialogue. Still, I can see where those films used the idea of myth and archetype very well. Here, the characters are flat.
One good point about the movie was seeing the young Obi Wan. It was the most interesting part for me to think about Obi Wan being a young, occassionally unsure jedi knight, instead of the monumental one we saw later. It was touching and done well by Ian Mcgregor.
This is, of course, pretty much a 'must see' movie for most filmgoers. I'm sure the DVD/rental release will be amazingly popular. I just wish I had the sense that Lucas had put the care into the story and characters for this one as he had in previous ones. I don't buy that he had to set up a story so that's why this film is so superficial. If that's all he set out to do, then he shouldn't have bothered making the film until he had it all thought out.