Marcia Lucas You are our only hope!

Rating: 1/10 (13 October 2010)

I first watched Star Wars (the New Hope) back in 1977 and I thought it was the best movie made of all time. I thought that Phantom Menace would equal the brilliance of that first film. After all Star Wars had a great story, great pacing, and the acting was pretty good for a sci-fic film.
Compared to that film - the Phantom Menace pales in comparison - its filled with stupid characters like Jar Jar Binks which gets a negative 5 rating from me. And worse of all, the child actor casted to play Anakin Skywalker was hopelessly out of his depth - he gets a negative 6. But to be fair to the little kid - he's just a child actor who was given an abysmal script. Why didn't they use the Haley Joel-Osman "I SEE DEAD PEOPLE" ?
Furthermore, we are to expect that "Annie" will one day marry Padme? There's a serious height difference going on there.
However you do get to see moments of G.Lucas' brilliance - a bit like seeing that glint of diamond under the tons of rubble. Darth Maul was very well cast/written +5 and Natalie Portman played a brilliant Queen Amidale +5. But the best parts of the movie is still stuck under that ton of ugly rubble. Its a pity that Marcia Lucas the real craftsperson of the Star Wars series - she won the Academy Award for editing the first original Star Wars movie - was not around to mold this into a real work of art. She would probably have convinced George to have got rid of Jar Jar Blinks and have devised a better script and plot - not to mention getting a more suitable actor to play Anakin.
But of course the special effects of the film was fantastic. So +5. However, Lucas' awful plot idea of the midichlorians gives it another -5.
The pacing is horrid. A lot of the plot doesn't make sense.
A really horrible effort by George Lucas. All that money went to his head - its just a big showcase for his CGI. What a waste.
Anyway - you should watch the original 1977 Star Wars and compare it to the 1997 re-release - this time with all the crap that Lucas' wife deleted. Then you realize why she won the Academy Award. Pity that Lucas didn't get it.