Not good, not good at all...

Rating: 2/10 (28 August 1999)

I'm a Star Wars fan, just so that we have that fact established. I have loved the Star Wars movies since the first time I saw them, and they're great. Except for "The Phantom Menace". This is a movie that hardly makes it as a part of the Star Wars saga. Lucas appears to have made this film in a hurry. There weren't many parts of this film which could not have been better. As an overview, I could say that most of the story, parts of the acting, and too many of the visual effect shots could, and should, have been better.
Basically, everything goes wrong from the start. You are never properly introduced to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, so you never really feel attached to them.
George Lucas should have considered dropping some of the Gungan and Jar-Jar Binks-scenes in advantage for letting us get to know the characters better. The Gungans worked poorly as "Ewok-wannabe's".
What's up with the technology? On a little planet in the outer rim, around 50 years before the events of "A New Hope", they have really shiny, aerodynamic spaceships with displays far more advanced than any of the starfighters of the battle of Yavin. They have Destroyer-droids with shield-generators (even the Galactic Empire had no droids with shield-generators), and most annoying of all: Darth Maul's spaceship has a cloaking device (not revealed in the film, but still...). When the Millenium Falcon disappears from the scopes of the Star Destroyer Avenger, 50 years after Episode I, captain Needa clearly says that "no ship that small(!) has a cloaking device). The Millenium Falcon is at least twice as big as the Sith Infiltrator, and still, someone managed to fit a cloaking device into the Infiltrator. Weird!!!
George, please drop the Anakin Skywalker-- Jesus Christ comparison... -----------------------
From all the bad to some of the good (but it's not much): Jake Lloyd does a great job as Anakin Skywalker. So does Natalie Portman and Liam Neeson (but they've always been great in their work). The effects were stunning, and the duel between Obi-Wan\Qui-Gon and Darth Maul was incredible. And of course, John Williams' score is, as always, magnificent.
Well, I think I've said enough for now. There was a lot of bad things in this film, but I have to admit that it was an entertaining movie to see. But as a Star Wars-fan... well, just start from the top.