Annoying Skywalker.

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2009)

I love the original Star Wars trilogy, it truly is the greatest movie series out there. So when I went to see the Phantom Menace I was expecting something great like the original three films. Soon I learned that my expectations were not to be reached.
There is a lot of problems going on. The trade federation and the confederates hope to kidnap Queen Amidala of the Naboo and force her to sign a treaty to make their invasion legal. Qui Gon Jin and Obi Wan Kenobi rescue the Queen and take her to Tatooine where a young boy named Anakin soon becomes their only hope of getting her back to Coruscant.
The story and plot of this film for me seemed a little too political. I have to admit that when I first saw this film I had no idea what the conflict was about. It involves taxation and invasion and a lot of political aspects. I think that for the most part the story is not really that exciting, it is more compelling in a sort of way if you understand political concepts.
More so than any film I had seen up to the point when I saw this film, this film relied greatly on computer and visual effects. All of the non human characters are created by computer animation and a lot of the settings look computer animated. This film seemed to rely way too much on effects and if they spent one tenth of the time that they spent on Visual effects on the story then this film would have been way greater. If anything this film proved that a film with a great story and decent effects will always be better than a film with a decent story and phenomenal effects. Just saying.
I knew that there would be some characters from the previous series as well as new ones as well. I thought that Qui Gon Jin, played by Liam Neesan, was awesome. Truly a great jedi. I thought that Obi Wan Kenobi seemed to be lacking in this film and does not get to say much and is more supporting. I really loved Natalie Portman in this film. She is as talented as an actress as she is beautiful and she is awesome as Queen Amidala.
I did not like all of the characters though. Jar Jar Binks is on screen way too much. The way that he is depicted as a clumsy ignorant fool just makes me want to cry. A character like him in Star Wars just did not work for me, sure there were characters in the original series that were comical, but Jar Jar is just a joke. Also Anakin Skywalker, little Annie, just did not cut it for me. Looking at him and how he acts like an obnoxious little kid and how everyone calls him "Annie" does not make me believe that he could ever become Darth Vader.
ANother thing that is lacking in this film is the villains. The main bad guy is Darth Maul, but he only appears here and there and is not consistently felt as a threat throughout the way that Darth Vader was in the other series. Maul was great when on screen, but did not get nearly enough time. The Emperor is in it a little bit, and the Vice Roys of the Trade Federation are there but the villains could have been way better.
The pod racing scene was OK. I mean, it basically is like the race in Ben Hur but with pod racers and more visual effects added. Nothing special, but OK.
The lightsaber action is awesome. Especially the duel between Darth Maul and Qui Gon and Obi Wan at the end.
OVerall, slightly disappointed with it. It relies on visual effects heavily and has an OK at best plot. I love some of the characters but others I can not stand. However, this is a Star Wars film nonetheless, so I will still recommend it.