Wasted potential and anticipation reduced to underwhelming acceptance.

Rating: 5/10 (10 April 2016)

Born 2 years before this movie was released, I have my perspective on the Phantom Menace. Regardless of arguably being a relatively incoherent film, this is one of my earliest films. Some of my earliest childhood memories surround my viewings on the Phantom Menace on VHS.
As I got older I discovered the original trilogy and came to the realisation that they were simply better films.
And as an 18 year old, the Phantom Menace does not particularly hold up.
The age demographic for the film, for one, is very inconsistent, as the film continuously deteriorates from trade negotiations to comic relief from a certain hated character.
The main problem with the Phantom Menace was George Lucas and the lack of collaboration that surrounded the production of the film. He didn't understand his own source material and everything that made the original trilogy so memorable to begin with.
The film is devoid of a protagonist. Anakin is irrelevant and hardly integral to the plot. The two Jedi, who I will acknowledge are portrayed with great performances from Neeson and Mcgregor, have no emotional depth whatsoever.
The narrative is not established, with the opening crawl supposedly serving that purpose. But there is little to no intrigue or investment when the opening crawl conveys the premise of "Taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute", leaving general viewers in confusion and no reason to get emotionally involved with the characters.
The planetary invasion on Naboo is an underwhelming premise, and nothing at the end of the film feels accomplished or defined, making this entire instalment unnecessary and irrelevant to the remainder of the trilogy.
Arguably the most controversial aspect of the film, midichlorians, ruin the significance of the force and reduces such an engaging concept to biological science with pointless exposition.
Positive aspects? John Williams composes a phenomenal soundtrack, notably Duel of the Fates. There is more emphasis on practical imagery as opposed to II and III being mostly computer generated, as a result making this film stylistically superior. The performances are good for the most part, and I won't criticise Jake Lloyd considering his age and everything he went through after the Phantom Menace. The mythology of the star wars universe is expanded, with more insight on different planets and the political system. I wouldn't have a problem with the politics if they weren't overly emphasised.
Overall, this movie is basically an unstructured mess.