A Very Disappointing Beginning to a Great Saga

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 1999)

The original movies were great movies with mostly human element with some great special effects added in. The Phantom Menace was a special effects nightmare with almost no human element. I can't believe that so many have been fooled by this movie. I am a huge Star Wars fan and have seen the originals over 1000 times easily. All this movie was about was how Lucas could spend 85 million on special effects compared to the 10 million for the Third Episode. The characters in this film were incredibly weak! The only one that was even admirable was Liam Neeson. The voices of most of the droids and non-humans were incredibly annoying. The music was made for a graduation party, not an epic saga. There were no cool ships, no cool droids, and no cool costumes. To say the least, I was extremely disappointed. I can't believe Lucas made this film. It almost seemed like he tailored it to one segment of the population...the young children. Why did Lucas try making this movie a comedy? It wasn't funny. In fact, there wasn't anything funny about this film. Lucas has let down all the fans that matter the most, the ones who put him on the map with Third Episode. Go see it to get it out of your system, but not too many will be going back again and again. The only positive side of this is that I am going to save a lot of money because I know I will not be buying Star Wars figures and ships. I will not support this film and Lucas' attempt to once again monopolize the toy industry with such a weak movie. The force was definitely not with Lucas on this one. Hopefully the next director will get this saga back on track.