A very misunderstood film...

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2003)

The editing style of the Phantom Menace is not supposed to occur in real-time. A scene will pause at a point of climax, then take you away from it for more dramatic reasons. Because the following scene is in another time and place, it makes sense to be able to go back to the earlier scene, right where we left off. There are many movies that use this method, for it is a stylistic editing choice which lends more suspense. The droid armies are used because they are what is realistic for the events occuring. Until human clone soldiers come along in Episode II, there is no other way for a small entity (i.e. The Trade Federation, working under Darth Sidious' direction), to take over an entire world in secret. It would be like the Department of Agriculture of our world putting out recruitment posters for troops, for some unspecified take-over. When it is seen how unreliable thousands of droids are on the battlefield, the clones are commissioned. As for the acting, you should go watch some of the old 1930's Flash Gordon serials. George Lucas has always been emulating these type of films with his own Star Wars trilogy, and has even stated that the wooden acting is on purpose as a homage to those early sci-fi films. And lastly, the narrative of the film is not meant to flow as a focused single story, because all of these separate story threads all contribute to building the entire saga as a whole. Granted, many audience members not very familiar with the original trilogy (i.e. specific lines, et cetera), will question many side-quests, characters, and lines of dialogue of the Phantom Menace, but if you know the original trilogy very well, and you know where the series is heading, then everything makes sense, and is there for a reason. Also, the "Phantom Menace" is none other than Senator Palpatine (who unbeknownst to even the Jedi, is actually the future Emperor, as well as the current Darth Sidious).