lame drudge

Rating: 1/10 (17 May 2002)

Wow, I don't even know where to start. This is probably the only movie I have ever given a 1, because it was truly horrible in every aspect.
The Phantom Menace has a plot that, uhm, well is there a plot? The 'Trade Federation' blocks traffic to and from a planet in the hope of forcing the planet's leader to sign some paper. Where's the excitement in that? What happened to saving the universe and action, as in parts 4-6?

Secondly, the characters. Whoever did the casting for this movie deserves to never be given another job in Hollywood. Anakin is an irritating little boy, Natalie is supposed to portray some powerful and wise queen (mind you she's 15 years old!) and who on earth would cast Samuel Jackson as a jedi? Riiiight! When I see him, I don't see a jedi, I see an irritating actor from other movies who has NO place here! Same goes for Liam Neeson. Hollywood, get this through your head, DO NOT cast people like that in parts like this.
Furthermore, the parts given to the characters are pathetic. What we see here is a 15 year old girl who is supposedly all big and bad, telling everyone what to do. She not only runs the planet as queen and president, but she is also an accomplished general and trained in fighting, tactics and scaling off the walls of buildings. Riiiight... And then there's Anakin, a 7 year old who happens to be launched into space in a spaceship for the first time alone near the end of the movie. And he blows up the blockade by himself! There are dozens of experienced pilots trying the same and failing, but somehow this little 7 year old, who has no combat experience or no piloting skills, succeeds! Please, don't insult my intelligence, this just turns my stomach.
Then there's the fact that the whole movie seems to be written for 10 year olds. That irritating and pathetic Jar Jar, the heroic child and teen queen, the dialogues which are an insult to my intelligence. Add this to the CGI effects that look like, well, CGI effects, and the whole is just some junk kid movie. I've seen 30 year old scifi movies that had better effects (and I won't even mention plots). Don't people realize that CGI just looks fake? Use models! Claymation!
Anyway I can go on like this, but the point is that this is a childish movie with bad special effects, miscasting, and an insult to anyone's intelligence. Avoid at ALL costs.