A very nostalgic (but flawed) film

Rating: 7/10 (20 August 2015)

I remember first seeing this film when it came out in 1999. I was five years old then and I enjoyed. Over the years as I've become interested in film reviews and watched the film multiple times, I started the significant flaws of the movie particularly the dialogue. I understand there's a vocal crowd who passionately hate it, but I never could bring myself to doing so. I can't even dislike. I guess part of it is the nostalgia of the experience, but there's stuff to legitimately like in this movie. Some of the performances like Liam Neeson do a very decent job and while Ewan McGregor doesn't do much as Obi-Wan in this film, he gets better as the Prequels go on. The pod race I very much enjoy (though it could've been shot more interestingly) and the lightsaber duel at the film which saves it for many people is my 2nd favorite lightsaber duel in the film saga (first being the Luke/Vader duel in Empire). Admittedly many performances in the movie don't pan out too well like Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Though to be fair he was only 8 years old at the time he was in front of the camera and he got REALLY unnecessary hate after the it came out. In fact due to the hate he went through for his performance it forced him to retire from acting and hasn't been in front of the camera in over a decade. Kinda makes me wanna give the guy a hug for all the visceral hate he got over the years. Then there's the Midi-clorians; honesty I never had any negative opinion about them is I was never so picky with details in movies and pretty much just accept it as is. The one criticism I'd have (at least in Phantom Menace) is that they weren't explained enough. The Clone Wars TV series and the Darth Plagueis novel actually give a really interesting study on midi-clorians. I understand those who despise them feeling it ruins the mystery of the Force (a reason I suspect why J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy decided to completely exclude any mention of them in The Force Awakens), but it just never edged the wrong way. The Phantom Menace is 100% canon anyway and so are Midi-clorians so people who hate them will have to accept them. A huge mistake I feel Phantom Menace made was killing off Darth Maul (though The Clone Wars later retconed that bringing him back and is 100% canon). Ultimately I hold a lot of positive nostalgia for it even with its flaws. 6.7/10