Weak prologue to real action

Rating: 4/10 (21 May 1999)

The Phantom Menace is a weak prologue to what should be the best movies of the Star Wars saga -- Episodes 2 and 3.
Lucas has always said the prequels would be more soap operas -- the "who-did-what-to-whom" types -- than epic movies about space battles. Unfortunately, Lucas took more than two hours to introduce us to characters who had nothing to do during that time.
Lucas gave his fine actors very little to work with -- a weak script, a weak plot, and no "story." The characters were little more than showpieces. Lucas spent more time developing the personality of Watto than of Qui-Gon Jinn.
In the end, moviegoers will not flock to this film because it holds little emotional appeal. I understand that these films are supposed to be more emotionally complex than the originally trilogy -- that the good guys sometimes do bad things -- but there must be some struggle at the surface to do right or wrong. In this film, there were no struggles. Lucas did a poor job of introducing characters, and of introducing scenes. The elements were there for a good story, but Lucas didn't do enough to flush them out.
Take the Jedi Council scene for example. No buid up at all that this should be an important meeting with severe consequences for Episodes 2 and 3. Instead, it seemed like another routine meeting with bureaucrats. I'm sure Lucas wanted the Jedi Council to seem as ineffective as the Galactic Senate, but he didn't build it up sufficiently to create the dramatic irony needed to see it as ineffective. Instead, it was just boring.
A poor film all around, and certainly sub-standard for this saga.