GREAT MOVIE

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 1999)

Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace
**** out of ****
The Phantom Menace is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. First of all, the special effects are incredible. It was amazing how real everything looked. The computer generated characters (Jar Jar, Boss Nass, Watto, the battle droids and the rest) looked real. Not only that, but it was amazing how well they interacted with everybody. I have seen the movie 6 times, and each time I have looked for parts where the CG characters mess up, but I have yet to find any. While I didn't care much for the underwater scene, it was still incredible how real it looked. Unless I'm mistaken, (I don't think I am), all of Coruscant was CG, and assuming it was, it was amazing how real it looked. The podrace was fantastic. Not only the special effects, but the sound was amazing too. Another great part about the movie was the characters. Qui-Gon was a great new character. He had the same presence that Obi-Wan had in the original trilogy, only more of it. Ewan McGregor did great playing a young Obi-Wan. He did a good job making his voice sound like Sir Alec Guinness. Jar Jar, though a bit irritating at times, actually isn't as bad as most people say he is. He was even kind of funny at times. And, although many people will say things to the effect of "Jar Jar shouldn't have been in the movie", that is completely wrong. He was a necessary character, though he was a bit overdone. Anakin was a pretty good character, although personally I think that he should have done at least one thing kind of evil. But, there is no doubt in my mind that he will do enough evil things in the next 2 movies to make up for it. Palpatine/Sidious (the phantom menace, if you will) was a good character. The movie did a good job starting to show how he becomes Emperor, by giving him more power. Darth Maul was a good character. He probably could have been in the movie more, and had more lines, but there's just something about characters that don't do much that is very cool. (i.e. Boba Fett). The lightsaber battle at the end of the movie was incredible. Ray Park was amazing. After seeing The Phantom Menace, the lightsaber fights in the original trilogy are pretty much terrible. Of course, there is more to a movie than special effects and characters. That of course, is the plot. I think that the plot is very underrated. It probably could have been a bit clearer, but it did everything it needed to do. Basically what it was about was how Palpatine got more power, which will eventually lead to the formation of the empire. And I thought it did this pretty well, although I would have liked to see Palpatine actually being elected as Supreme Chancellor, instead of just having Amidala congratulate him. Oh well. I really don't have much else to say about the plot. John Williams' soundtrack was very good, and it fit the movie well. I guess that's pretty much all I have to say. I'm sure this was a pretty bad review, because I had trouble saying what I wanted to say. If i could have explained it better, that would have been good. Oh well. Basically, I love the movie.

note-I have loved Star Wars all my life. All four of the movies are by far my favorite movies. The Phantom Menace ranks second (behind The Empire Strikes Back). I love this movie.