Great movie, but didn't leave me completely satisfied.

Rating: Null/10 (24 May 1999)

I am not a huge Star Wars fan, I saw the originals for the first time about a year ago. I thought they were very well done especially the story line. I have seen the Phantom Menace four times so far. Here are the important points in my opinion without trying to nit-pick every single scene to death (there is a lot of that to be done).
My most important observation..
*) The original films started with a great movie and a solid foundation for a story, but some of the same drawbacks as the Phantom Menace. The originals became far better as they progressed. I hope the new series will do the same. Lucas left himself quite a bit of room to work out some of the kinks. My hope is that maybe he did this on purpose only so we would be blown away by what is to come.
1) Lucas did an excellent job of developing the story line, unfortunately there were some huge continuity mistakes in relation to the originals like Obi-Wan not knowing R2-D2 in A New Hope. What kind of blatant mistake is that? I am very interested to see if a miracle happens in the next two movies to explain such things.
2) For the most part the dialogue was great, exactly how I would expect the characters to talk based on their roles. Unfortunately there was the matter of Jar Jar Binks. I liked him for about two minutes before he got really annoying. The attempt to draw younger children in with some cheesy humor might have been a great money making scheme, but it was the only thing that kept the movie from being perfect for me. Four times I saw the movie and I realized that only little kids were laughing at most of the movie. Please keep the next movie from looking like a Disney flick.
3) The final scene in this movie has to be the best ending in any movie I have ever seen. It left me with mixed emotions about what is to come. I had the obvious feelings of joy, but they were underlined by this indescribable feeling that I get when I think about what has to come. Seeing Anakin and Queen Amidala smile at each other just about tore me apart. The whole emotion of the scene was magnified by the best piece of music in the entire film. I left the theater four times, awestruck.
4) Natalie Portman is too beautiful and talented to be put into words. When Anakin asked her if she was an angel I thought to myself..."she has to be". My heart skipped a beat when I heard that she is already signed to do the next two movies
See the movie.. make your own judgement.. that is the best review I have heard so far.. and by far the most reliable one.
*Wishing Lucas the best in the future*