A disappointing follow-up to the Star Wars trilogy.

Rating: 5/10 (10 January 2000)

While "The Phantom Menace" was good, it wasn't great. It wasn't anything that made me want to see it again and again, much like "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back".
It left a distinctly unpleasant taste in my mouth for several reasons. First of all, the plot itself was strictly by-the-numbers and pedestrian. Secondly, I felt like I was watching a big commercial for Star Wars toys. Also, introductions of new concepts into the Star Wars universe, such as "midichlorians", didn't work very well. And, lastly, several of the famed CGI characters, (particularly Jar Jar Binks) was forgettable at best, annoying at worse.
But you can tell in the movie theater that "The Phantom Menace" just didn't have the same hold over the audience that the other three movies in the original trilogy did. Even the re-release of "Star Wars: A New Hope", a movie that was made over 20 years ago, generated more energy with theater-goers then "The Phantom Menace" did.