Get over it, it wasn't that bad

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 2001)

Having read the opening review on the page, it seems once again that the over the hill Star Wars fans, the ones who have the original trilogy committed to their hearts want to spend more time bashing Phantom Menace. While it is true that this is not the classic the trilogy was, it still deserves more than the shallow whining about Jar Jar, the complaints about the repetition of the story or certain scenes and the fact that the film was not Gone with the Wind.
The main problem with Phantom Menace isn't really the film, it is the viewers. That's right. Months after the film opened, all I heard was how better The Matrix was. When I finally saw it, I didn't know what the fuss was about. It has the same major flaws as Menace-lame dialogue, stilted acting, an over-reliance on visual effects and a cribbing from other films, namely Blade Runner, 2001 and yes, Star Wars. But since it had hard rock music, enough machine guns going off for 3 Arnold movies and no comic sidekicks it was a classic, while Menace was seen as a shrill repeat of earlier installments.
What most fail to see is that Phantom Menace is setting up not just one trilogy but two. Of course Lucas might want to have a lightweight story for the first chapter. After all, in the next two it will be Darth Vader and some death and destruction for the Jedi. As for the charge of repeating itself, what film series doesn't. Every films series, from Star Trek to Lethal Weapon to The Godfather repeats itself. Again people didn't want to here that.
While this might not change anybody's view of the film, at least give it a chance and see that there is more there than the critics and the geeks complain about.