Brilliant Start to a Timeless Saga

Rating: 10/10 (21 May 1999)

Critics be damned...this film is brilliant!
I'm not going to say it was 100% perfect...but it came close. It certainly exceeded my (admittedly high) expectations. Let me start by saying that there is *not* a ton of character development. Then again, this is Episode I of a six-part saga. It can't develop characters intensely...it has to introduce them. And it does a great job at that.
The effects are absolutely mind-boggling (especially the immense Senate chamber and Coruscant itself), and the John Williams score is (as always) phenomenal. The Neimoidians were a good addition - showing a different side of evil: greed - but not everyone might find the obvious reference to Japanese businessmen as funny as I did. Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Jake Lloyd (despite his detractors) were wonderful, and the quick appearances of Samuel L. Jackson and Terence Stamp and Warwick Davis were good as well, but as always the show-stealer is Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. In this film, he is not yet the Emperor, but simply the Senator from Naboo. But he has ambitions, and they begin to come to life in this film...
My favorite parts of this film were the scenes with Palpatine. All of his scenes show there is more than meets the eye to this man, and aside from the fact that Ian McDiarmid is clearly the actor behind Darth Sidious, they make many references to his hunger for power and his plans for young Anakin. Listen carefully for a perfectly creepy line at the end of the film...my favorite in all four films!
Finally, it must be said that the final battle - ESPECIALLY the intense lightsaber duel - is the most exciting and awe-inspring scene in the entire saga to date. The podrace scene is, as many have reported, another adrenaline-booster. And for all the people attacking Jar Jar Binks, he got annoying at times, but at least respect him for the phenomenal CGI work.
I gave this film a 10 out of 10.