Lucas had more to worry about this time 'round

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2002)

When you set your expectations high, you generally get disappointed.
The Phantom Menace would have been considered a good movie if people weren't expecting revolutionary special effects as the originals had in their time. Lucas has much more to compete against today than he had to 20-25 years ago.
Another issue, the story line. In just the last quarter of a year, I have seen about 5 new books based in the Star Wars Universe. Lucas could make whatever he felt like 20 years ago because he was only bound to the movies he'd already made. Now he has to worry about a universe that is molded more by the books that continue to expand on it than the movies that started. While an average person likely wouldn't care about it, anyone who reads the novels will feel cheated if they didn't get something similar to what they've read about.
For someone who had many rules to follow, Lucas did a fabulous job.
For someone who wanted to impress an audience with high expectations, Lucas fell short.
Better luck this year.