My Complete Analysis

Rating: 8/10 (4 November 2015)

The Plot: I thought the plot was decent. It wasn't the most creative thing in the world in this episode specifically, but it was okay. The main focus of this episode's plot is all about politics, with Anakin Skywalker becoming Obi-Wan Kenobi's padawan as a child.
The Drama/Characters: I'll start with the general things, then get down to the specifics. There really wasn't any bad acting in this movie, although Jake Lloyd's performance as Anakin Skywalker had some cheesy kiddy moments. But he was a kid, so what can you expect? The acting was all pretty good. Nothing exceptional, though. Liam Neeson is one of my favorite actors, and he played Qui-Gon Ginn pretty well, but his role in that movie wasn't his best in his career. Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan very well, and does as good as he always does in movies he makes. Natalie Portman didn't have that much face time, but when she did, she did a great job playing Padme. Now Darth Maul was exceptional. Yes, he only said those two lines when talking to Palpatine, but his appearance and extremely cool-looking appearance and athletic ability made Darth Maul the most memorable character in this episode, for damn sure.
The Setting: I can't complain about Star Wars' time and location. It's epic no matter what episode it is. Nuff said.
The Commitment to the Genre: Action: Tons of entertaining action in this movie, from the battle of the Gungans vs. the Droids to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul. All of the action in this movie was fantastic.
The General Appearance: It had pretty believable special effects for 1999. The lightsabers looked good, the explosions looked good, and the fictional vehicles looked good. I can't really say I liked the Gungan city, though... it doesn't seem like a place where beings like Jar- Jar Binks would live.
The Things I Don't Get: 1. What's all the fuss about Jar-Jar Binks? He's not all that bad... 2. Why didn't Obi-Wan "force sprint" to the red force fields where Qui-Gon was fighting Darth Maul? Didn't he and Qui-Gon do that at the beginning of the movie when running away from the two droidekas? Those few seconds cost Qui-Gon his life! 3. Why are the contestants of the pod race allowed to kill each other??? 4. How did Anakin become so good at flying? He's been a slave his whole life, right? I guess you could say it's the metachlorians (I may have misspelled that), but he's had no practice with flying!
The Rating: I give this movie an 8/10. It did pretty good in most areas, but it could've been better.