Very well done, but still missing something....

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 1999)

As far as the Star Wars genre goes, this movie was the the second from the bottom, with only The Empire Strikes Back ranked below it (in my humble opinion, I do not mean to offend any one by this). But, as a stand alone movie, The Phantom Menace is a success. Unfortunately, one cannot just discount the other three movies so easily.
I feel that the movie centered too much on the effects and not enough on the plot of the movie. I think that Jar-Jar was a bit overstated in the movie, and Darth Maul really seemed to be more of an insane maniac with a deadly flashlight than a Sith Lord. But, the lightsaber dual scene was second to none. The choreography is TPM was the best yet.
The space battle was a bit of disappointment. I believe it would have been better if they had used scale models similar to the original trilogy, but this probably cut costs. And the idea that Anakin accidentally managed to destroy the ship was a bit of a stretch.
It was good to see R2D2 and C3PO in their early days, and it really made me sit up in my chair when we learned that 3PO was built by none other than Darth Vader.
Another nice part was seeing that Obi-Wan and Luke had a lot of similarities in their youths. Both were stubborn, both reckless, both not afraid.
Qui-Gon Jinn. What can I say? A great actor for a great role. Qui-Gon was the only definite success in this story. The actor portrayed the character perfectly, giving us much to wonder about Anakin's future had Qui-Gon been the one to train him....
In the end though, TPM was unable to live up to the hype. I personally feel that the story contained a great plot, but this was overshadowed with special effects galore. If you liked the movie, you'll love the book. And, if you didn't like the movie, try the book: It allows you to completely ignore the special effects and see the whole plot.
Overall: 8/10