The movie is not so bad!

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 1999)

I know, I know, the movie lacks magic, has far too less character development in it, has Jar-Jar, is too fast...This is some of the criticism I remember at once. I am a big SW fan and I have watched the film as one. And I have to say: THE MOVIE IS NOT AS BAD AS I IMAGINED! Probably because I expected it to be the worst movie I had ever seen. Sure, it is very fast, almost too fast. I would have liked to have some opportunities to just sit back and deal with the information George gave us. Also, the plot is very thin and the characters lack depth. I wonder why George Lucas did not use the fabulous actors he got for Episode I. Neeson and McGregor are really excellent actors, so why not use their talents???
The special effects really were amazing, but what are special effects without a good story? Lucas should have concentrated a lot more on characters and their relationships. And last but not least I surely did not want to know why a Jedi can feel and use the force!!! Now to my opinion as a great fan of SW. I was at the cinema for the premiere and it really FELT like Star Wars. All the people around me, screaming and applauding, it was stunning. And when the music started, I was sure to be home, there in this great universe I love. It looked like it, it sounded like it and it just felt like it! As a fan you automatically put your own fantasy into the story, and that makes it great. You learn to love Obi-Wan, because somehow you already know him and Ewan is just perfect for this part (But again, George, please let him do some acting in the following movies!) You get attached to Qui-Gon because he is his master and you just WANT to like him. And because it is not there you yourself start up to create an emotional relationship between master and padawan. You get sad seeing Anakin as a sweet little boy because you know what is going to happen to him and you have imagined for so long how this would happen to him. Natalie Portman did a great job. She had the most opportunities to interact with real actors and she used them. The phantom menace surely is not the greatest film I ever saw. It just would not work without the three existing movies. It will never reach the same status they did but as part of the mythology of SW it does not have to. Great for fans, a bit disappointing for others.