Better the second time around

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 1999)

For grownups, anyway, Phantom Menace is better the second or third time around. The more oblique aspects of the plot ("taxation of trade routes"? eh?) are more readily understood and, in fact, a plot emerges where the first time around it seems there isn't much of one. Nor does the movie seem as flat, especially at the beginning. (The first time round, Phantom Menace may seem like the world's most boring buddy movie for the first 30 minutes or so.) And you start to notice many more details. You start to see lots more of those cool robot racks. You start to wonder things about the next two episodes. You begin to appreciate Jake Lloyd's performance more, especially the calculating squint that might grow into a perceptive gaze, or might rather become a dismissive stare. Even Jar Jar becomes less annoying. I think time will be kind to Phantom Menace.