I've got a bad feeling about this...so did I.

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 1999)

The Phantom Menace was a fun, engrossing film that truly brought to terms what so many grown men and women have tried to re-live throughout their lives: the Star Wars Universe and its inevitable affect on them.
Many people will be disappointed by this movie. I was, because it could and never will live up to the lofty expectations that many, including myself, have placed upon it.
However, it was a lavishly and meticulously crafted film made by auteur George Lucas and his creative teams. It features truly spectacular special effects and production values, incorporating stark and beautiful settings and incrediblly seamless computer generated images, including characters such as Jar Jar Binks, junk dealer Watto, and entire armies of Gungans and Battle Droids.
There are great performances abounding throughout the picture, especially by Liam Neeson, as the rogue Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Pernilla August as the earnest and loving Shmi Skywalker, mother of the Darth Vader-to-be, and Ian McDiarmid as the charming, albeit scheming, Senator Palpatine. McDiarmid even delivers the line of the film to Jake Lloyd's Anakin Skywalker, telling the boy he looks foward to following his career. A true foreshadowing of the dark times to come.
As for the above-mentioned Lloyd, as our young protagonist, he gives a worthwhile performance, with youthful exuberence and wide-eyed innocence. He is not wooden, as we were led to believe by the vile media, and surprisingly, gives the best performance of his short career. However, a negative aspect to the star-powered cast was Natalie Portman, whose great skill and talent are never once depicted in the perpetually stoic Queen Amidala. However, some of the best scenes of the film are between Portman and Lloyd, who will eventually marry and give the galaxy (as well as the movie-going public) the twins Luke and Leia.
The Phantom Menace's best scenes are its stunningly choreographed lightsaber battles, including the Jedi's battles against the Battle Droids, and the climatic confrontation with the malign Darth Maul, physically and imposingly portrated by stuntman Ray Park. Sadly, we see little of Maul, or of a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi, well portrayed by Ewan MacGregor, in the movie. However, when both are on screen, the film's pace quickens, as does the audience's heartbeats.
The Phantom Menace serves to set up the saga to be seen and the one already played out in the original trilogy. It is a good backstory for the drama to come, and gives us a great view of the main characters. While not the greatest Star Wars movie, it is still a technical achievement and an eventual box office gargantuan.
All in all, was it worth waiting in line for a month, like so many have done? Of course not, no film is. Was it worth sitting in a cold, darkened theater on a hot Texas afternoon for about two and a half hours? Most definitely, yes. And really, that's the way movies should be.