Just as bad as the other three, so what's the problem?

Rating: 4/10 (9 April 2001)

I certainly wouldn't class this film as being "unworthy" of the original trilogy - it's just as clunky as the others, and certainly maintains the original "Star Wars" feel - in fact it's remarkable how little Lucas' directing and writing style has changed in twenty-two years (he has no directing credit and only one partial screenplay credit since Star Wars in 1977). People constantly call him a "genius", but I'm not sure he even understands the film medium at all! When it comes to the script, the fact that Lucas has complete control over his material means that he's his own worst enemy. If he didn't have total control, there might be someone else empowered to say "It needs to be clearer when Amidala is Amidala and when she's Padme" - "Don't waste this forcefield bit - lets have some explanatory dialogue" - "Cut Jar-Jar Binks".
To my mind, there are four major flaws in Phantom Menace:
1) The whole Queen Amidala / Handmaid Padme thing seems to have been badly thought out - when is "Padme" really Padme, and when is she the queen? Why does whoever is being the queen at the moment (ie geisha makeup on) have to speak in that ridiculous accent? All this could have been easily resolved by simply having a scene between the two of them, or removing the device altogether. (After all, why did they do the switch? This plot device is only of use if the stand-in gets killed - otherwise it didn't really seem to matter if the handmaiden was actually the queen in disguise.)
2)As villains go, Darth Maul was distinctly lacking. The first time we saw Darth Vader, we heard the breathing, we saw that his own subordinates were extremely frightened of him (Maul doesn't even *have* any subordinates!) and he broke someone's neck. Later on he assists in the callous destruction of an entire planet! In Menace, when we get to the climactic battle between the Sith Lord and the two Jedi, Darth Maul's total death toll is: zero. Maul is not really a character in the same vein of Vader, of course - in fact he is little more than a fighting machine, but Lucas let the hype machine take over, a course of action guaranteed to result in disappointment. As is casting your fight director in a pivotal role, causing you to have to cut all his lines (I'm just theorising here).
3) Everything that involved the character of the boy Anakin Skywalker was utterly, utterly contrived. He's nine years old (although looks much smaller!), but he has build his own droid; he has built his own pod racer (a project which involves being able to obtain and/or put together two jet engines that wouldn't look out of place on a Boeing 707). He has to win the race, so he does. Later on he's told to sit in a safe place, so he sits in a handy space-rocket which he sets off accidentally while he's simply trying to fire the guns. But what we really want him to do is have a space battle and destroy the droid ship. What can we do? It's alright, the spaceship is set on autopilot and flies up to the droid ship on its own. In the meantime the crash helmet fits him perfectly! He crash lands in exactly the right place, but don't worry because the battle droids never fire on anything until it's cooled down, restarted its engines and raised its shields.
4) There wasn't a single unexpected or unpredictable event in this entire movie. Everything is laid out, and everything goes according to plan (even the bits which don't go according to plan are predictable). For example, in order to get off the planet, it is necessary for a boy to win the big race. He wins the race (in fact he is the only survivor) and they get off the planet without any difficulty. But what if, instead of winning, Anakin had been knocked out by the cheat, Sebulba, and ended up seriously injured? We create an unexpected situation, which would require an unexpected solution, and possibly the healing of the injured Skywalker could have been another aspect of his "special powers". This is elementary storytelling - but Lucas appears to have forgotten everything he ever knew about that.
I think Lucas got too wrapped up in the the graphical creation of all the "worlds" of the film, and the merchandising opportunities. Some people have asked "Why didn't they cast a real actor as Jar Jar Binks?" to which the answer is that the complete digital creation of an entire character was at least part of the reason for his genesis. Binks is therefore a product of both the above mentioned Lucas obsessions. These factors have blinded Lucas to the importance of character to a film, regardless of the story or environment (not a mistake you'll ever find Spielberg making). In addition, the dominance of digital animation over the whole of this film must have acted as a considerable restriction in certain aspects - no reshoots or additional scenes are possible, because it involves another month of post-production while the CGI is done.
However, leaving all that aside, I think the film is certainly watchable, it's clearly an introductory phase of a deeper story, and it's extremely pretty to look at. The Pod Race is very well done, and Ray Park is an absolutely stunning swordfighter and fight choreographer. I think Ewan Macgregor can be a lot better than this (but you can't make bricks without straw, ie some decent lines to speak).