Critic's plight, fans' delight

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 1999)

The Phantom Menace is a technical breakthrough in movies, with visual splendor as its main thrust. No one who has seen this movie can deny that the special effects are stunning, and the best part about it is most of the time the computer generations go unnoticed. The viewer just accepts them as completely real, as if Gungans and droid warriors have existed all the time.
The plot has a great story that is very informative about the backside of Episodes IV-VI. Unfortunately, the misguided directing of Lucas does not execute it to its fullest. Some of the shots seem like he wanted to try to show his knowledge of directing and a vast array of shots he is capable of, but the result is a lack of consistency that is discombobulating.
Being a devoted fan of the first/last three, some of the ideas about the Force and the way that the Jedi are presented are disappointing if the movies were presented to demonstrate that we have the Force inside all of us, that we just need to discover it. Any more may be too revealing to people who have not seen it.
Ultimately, Lucas tries too hard to foreshadow upcoming events that are far too evident, and if we didn't know they were already coming, his technique would beg the audience to stick around for the next installment like a bad horror film (Jason looks dead, but maybe he's still alive).
Because I am an adult and no longer the wide-eyed kid who saw Star Wars when it originally came out, I may not have the same viewpoints as kids, who are certain to like the film.
Everything that made Star Wars eye candy to Gen-X is back, and I am certain that fans will like the movie. Critics will say that it isn't the best story, that the characters are bad, the dialogue is bad, etc., but looking at this movie as a groundbreaking achievement in storytelling would be like listening to today's pop music in the same vein as Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart.