Certainly not as bad as some claim it to be, though not on a par with the original trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 1999)

About two months before "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" was released in Britain, the film's surrounding elements made the picture seem almost destined to become an enormous disappointment.
"Star Wars: Episode I" is the first of a trilogy of prequels to the original successful "Star Wars Trilogy" made around twenty years ago. The enormous popularity of the films "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" (1977), "Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi"(1983) resulted in enormous anticipation for the creation of another trilogy of Star Wars episodes relating to the original story. The enormous excitement had increased even further with the delay of time between the movies, especially with a new generation of Star Wars fans taking an equal amount of interest. This expectancy from many for George Lucas to produce an unforgettable, out-of-this-world, epic-style experience in contrast to the general surprise at the releases of the original trilogy seemed a perfect recipe for an enormous disappointment from many on seeing the film itself (especially from the hard-core fans) no matter how good the film was. What's more, the early comments and reviews of the seemed to suggest that this was not any good in the first place! Some dismissed the picture as "utter trash" and "gold-plated rubbish." All this seemed to add up to a huge failure...
How pleased I was when I saw "Episode I" on the day of its British release at my local cinema. I was relieved that I could honestly assure myself that I certainly had not wasted my money on buying my cinema ticket, far from it in fact. I found the film highly enjoyable and interesting. "The Phantom Menace" takes place 32 years before the events that are portrayed in the first Star Wars film. The movie deals with the evil Trade Federation's attempts to take over the peaceful planet of Naboo, ruled by Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and a young Obi-Wan Kanobi (Ewan McGregor) and their battle with the Federation's leader Darth Sidious and his apprentice Darth Maul (and underused Ray Park). It also deals with Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and his corrupt rise to power, and, most importantly, Qui Gon's apprenticeship of a slave-boy named Anakin Skywalker (played by young actor Jake Lloyd), who lives in the planet Tatooine with his mother (Pernilla August) and is liberated by winning a public pod race. Young Anakin would later become the well-known figure of Darth Vader who appears in the original trilogy.
Of course, the film does have its obvious faults, especially in aspects of characterisation and acting. Neeson and McGregor's all too hammy performances often contrasting badly against the ridiculously contemporary character of Anakin (illustrated by by some of his words coming accross as very unlikely to still be in existence thousands of years into the future, such as "sure" and "I guess so"! But that's Hollywood for you). Also, the baffling and most irritating character of Jar-Jar Binks. He pays no contribution to the film's plot and many other scenes not involving him are much funnier than any of his lines. This leaving only Portman, who, although her duel performance as Queen Amidala and her maid Padme is done well despite her odd Anglo-American accent and sometimes ridiculous outfits, is hushed up in the wake of the other performances.
That said, the storyline itself is exceedingly clever and sometimes fascinating, George Lucas's revived style of directing is one to be admired, and John Williams's superb score is one of the finest of his career. And, most prominently, the visual effects are simply astonishing. The film looks so wonderful and at such a constant rate that the rest of film's aspects could simply be ignored. Not the best film ever made, though if viewed in the right mood, an excellent piece of entertainment.