Where are the characters?

Rating: 3/10 (2 July 1999)

I must first say that I loved the original trilogy and was looking for a good movie. Nothing spectacular but a good movie.
What I saw was poor at best. The plot for this movie is very thin and the characters are non-existent. Darth Maul is a case in point. Exactly why is this person evil, is it the horns or the fact that Darth is in his name? Anytime the plot threatened to get interesting, such as on Coruscant, Lucas would be impatient to get back to the visuals and gloss over anything that could be in the least bit interesting.
I will say that the visuals of The Phantom Menace are second to none. However, unless Lucas focuses a bit more time and energy on the plot and the characters then I won't be seeing the next movie.