A very lacking addition to the Star Wars saga....

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2000)

For 6 months I longed to watch Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, and for 133 minutes I was absolutely blown away with how well the movie was put together. I saw it on opening day of course, and I now understand why I have waited so long to write a review of it. If I had written this review right after I watched the movie, I would have written a review influenced by the months and months of anticipation. I feel now, after 17 months and countless 1000's of times watching all or some of the movie, I now feel that I can review this film free of influence.
***Warning, this review is full of spoilers!***
The Phantom Menace is a film that had virtually years between conception and completion and it's a horrible shame that they spent most of that time deciding whom to cast. On top of that, it now is clear to me that George Lucas spent much of the time filming this movie on certain parts, and not enough on others. For instance, the pod-racing scene is unbelievably awesome, and it is evident that Lucas spent a long period of time on this scene alone. The final battle between Qui-Gon Jin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul is another prime example, I mean just to think up something like the long corridor with those strategically placed force fields must have took a lot of time and imagination. On the other hand, scenes like when Qui-Gon is explaining to Anikin what the `force' is should have been a little more elaborate, and in this case re-written and re-shot.

Casting was, for the most part, well thought out. In the usual Â‘Star Wars' way, the main actors and actresses were not the usual $20 million dollar actors and actresses. In choosing Liam Neeson for the role of Qui-Gon Jin was anything but dull, and Ewan McGregor as the already introduced Obi-Wan Kenobi was even more brilliant. When choosing the eventual mother of Luke Skywalker (Queen Amidala), Natalie Portman was a unique choice. Even having the impressive Samuel L. Jackson in this movie was a great chance to see him along side Yoda. As I am pleased with all the previous choices, the most important of casting decisions in the past few years was not thought out well enough. Jake Lloyd was horribly miscast in the role of Anikin Skywalker. It almost hurt to listen to him present his lines. From the first `Uh oh, this isn't good..' to the `I'm going to be a jedi knight?' his delivery is incredibly lacking of feeling. I would have to say that Jake Lloyd alone is a big part of why this movie will get a lower than usual rating from this viewer. As far as the villains in this movie, and there were many, Darth Maul must have sounded great on paper, but there must have been much lost in the translation onto the screen. He is neither terrifying, nor powerful like the eventual Darth Vader will be. Not until the final battle scene do we begin to somewhat fear him. Throughout the first three movies, we learned piece by piece about Darth Vader. We hated him since we first were introduced to him in Â‘Hope', and we grew to love him by the end of Â‘Jedi'. The problem with Â‘Menace' and Darth Maul, is that he wasn't introduced until at least 30 minutes into the film, and we never learned anything about him.

The movie was indeed full of action, and I especially liked the use of CGI alongside the natural environments. The decision to include Jar Jar Binks, and fully computerized sidekick, was not necessarily a bad one, I just think that a few of his lines were a bit irrelevant to the story. I especially like Watto, and the scene with him and Qui-Gon Jin discussing payment for the part to Qui-Gon's ship.
The use of Â‘wipe' transition from scene to scene is a classic Â‘Star Wars' piece. The lighting is also unique to the Â‘Star Wars' family of movies, as is the bland good vs. evil plot.
If not for the pod racing scene (roughly reincarnated from Ben Hur), and the final three-way fight scene, Â‘Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace' would have earned a disappointingly low grade due to the lack of casting, and very obvious rush to get the movie completed.
Please let this be known, this is the most expensive ($115 million) independent film ever created. It was fully funded by George Lucas himself. With this said, Â‘Episode I' is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, just an average sci-fi film that just happens to have the words Â‘Star Wars' in the title. After all this I must admit that I, once again, will probably be waiting for months to see the next film on opening day; let's just hope that we wont be let down again.