The best sci-fi comedy in years!

Rating: 1/10 (25 June 2012)

The Phantom Menace is a sci-fi comedy spoof based on the Mel Brooks classic 'Spaceballs'. Many people (wrongly) thought that it was part of a prequel trilogy to the Star Wars movies, in which George Lucas had (allegedly) been involved in making many years ago, but anyone expecting a film like that would only be disappointed. The film isn't as serious as Spaceballs and it's also worth noting that the effects aren't as impressive, particularly the cartoon-style CGI, but this isn't a problem due to the comedic nature of the film; decent special effects would only have detracted from the gags and OTT acting. The movie pokes fun at the nonsensical storyline of Spaceballs by itself making very little sense at all, throwing in some humorous subplots about taxes and trade embargos for good measure.
The film was so successful that George managed to once again line his pockets by licensing merchandise based on the film, which is pretty funny when you consider the scene in Spaceballs where they look at Yogurt's cave; this brilliant sense of irony is just one of the many things that proves George to be a very clever man indeed. He must've had a lot of fun making this film and it shows, as there's almost nothing here which you could take even remotely seriously. This is probably my favourite comedy movie from that year, although the sequels weren't quite as good (apart from the 'noooooo!' scene in the final film, which is possibly the funniest thing to feature in a film, EVER).
Having read a lot of the reviews on IMDb, it disappoints me that so many people misunderstood what George was trying to achieve. Of course as a serious sci-fi movie this doesn't work, but the film was never supposed to have any artistic merit. So sit back and enjoy the brilliant film that George has made, and may the midi-chlorians be with you!