The first prequel that is hated too much

Rating: 6/10 (27 July 2014)

Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace is a come back to a franchise that although is very disliked by some, I personally didn't mind as much as I thought I might. It isn't the best film of all time and to be fair Is far from good as it lags in certain areas, although it really does boast some very good aspects and I will explain them as this review goes along. I thought it was firmly OK-ish, and here below is why I felt that about it all.
The story is one that starts well, but gets slower and slower and very luckily never quite falls off the rails. It's pretty dramatic and what do we all expect otherwise, big fights, space flights and Jedi philosophy make it one massive soap drama of a film in a weird sense. I very much liked the first half of the movie as it contains most of the well made scenes, fights etc and George Lucas seemed to have written a script and then given it to someone else to finish off.
Liam Neeson is the star acting wise in this film and his portrayal of Qui-Gon Jinn is one that eclipses many others acting displays in the Star Wars franchise as a whole. Ewan McGregor as his padawan legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi is pretty good too and is the true definition of a supporting actor doing his job well too. Young Jake Lloyd, well I could say he is a kid and so he can't act so well, but he is just not good even as a child actor, he has really no emotion and never truly connects with any other characters, and also the audience.
George Lucas directs and writes this and his come back attempt to the series from his point of view is not the best, the writing is only good when philosophical issues are in and Lucas seems to excel in that area, although when dialogue with action comes along, it fails quite a bit. One of the biggest positives for this movie is the eye candy we see with the special effects and maybe even the set productions, they are great for 1999 and would pass for great effects way past that with massive creatures and amazing spaceships among others, Any Star Wars fan may be hard pressed to hate the effects side.
The main criticism for me was definitely in the story and it's fall mid way through, the plot seems to dry up and very little good scenes happen until maybe the very last few and the credits. Many people hate the infamous Jar Jar Binks and his insanely annoying voice, I'll sit on the fence with that one but it is true that he gets on your nerves and so watch out if one character is going to make you absolutely hate a film. You may also find Natalie Portman stale and poor, up to you but it seems that way a lot in this film.
I could easily say, go watch this if you like Star Wars but it seems many fans don't like it and so if you are new to the franchise or young then just, don't listen to people who hate it and work out if you like it yourself. This one is a bit like the other two prequels and is very kid like at times, it's more like family fun but I think it could be said that all the films in the series are pretty light hearted to a certain degree.
Overall it is a Firmly Kind of OK movie in my opinion, many people will disagree with that but some may think I underrated, this has to be on the most split decision films of all times. As I said before, don't listen to what others say and just watch it and have fun also, after all it is still Star Wars and actually kind of key to understanding a lot of things in the series so in a sense you need to see this one anyway, to understand a lot of what is going on elsewhere.