After all, a huge disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (17 July 1999)

Checking the previous votes I might be in an extreme minority, but I dare to say it nevertheless...
"The Phantom Menace" is, compared to 4, 5 and even 6 a major letdown. This movie is nothing more than a bad excuse for, admitted, mostly astounding special FX bonanza, but nearly everything else what made 4 and 5 so special for a whole generation is missing. There's no sense of wonder, you don't care for the characters (as far as you can title the persons in the movie "characters", which I wouldn't). The movie just juggles its way from one fight/action scene to the next with barely no story development (okay, okay, I know, it shall only set the backdrop for 2 and 3, but some itsy-bitsy plot would've been really nice).
What can be said about acting? Liam Neeson does his best and is the sole highlight of the film, Nathalie Portman was nice, the rest - blah... Especially Ewan McGregor had basically nothing to do, Samuel L. Jackson was in the movie (you can't say much more) and the C3PO part could've been spared easily. Darth Maul could have been an interesting villain, but what did they do with him?
The only scene which really had some suspense was the podrace, even if it is nothing more than a rip-off of "Ben Hur", but at least it was well staged and executed.
TPM is, in my opinion, nothing more than a nearly average popcorn movie that's rather insulting to anyone older than 12 (and, I would like to point that out again, I really love 4 and 5 and still like 6), and for that, it's extremely violent, making me wonder once again about the PG rating.
Ironically, Disney's "Tarzan" which I watched the next night did a far better job as kiddies movie which is also highly entertaining for adults.