Take a deep breath...

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2001)

Ok, ok, people...just calm down.
So most believe that "The Phantom Menace" wasn't that great of a movie. Even though the graphics were good, the actions scenes awesome, the fight scenes BEAUTIFUL, and the politics well thought. For the most part, the film was excellent. We only have one problem with it:
We don't feel for the characters.
Well, DUH!!!!
Tell me this, when you first saw "A New Hope," and didn't see any of it's sequels...did you care when Obi-Wan died? Or were you just like "that's sorta sad, poor Luke, but the idiot-old-man shouldn't have fought Vader in the first place."
Funny. I'm sure that's what the rest of us are thinking about Qui-Gon.
And Luke himself. He was some moron of a kid wishing for things he knew NOTHING of. He was whiny and spoiled, and you sorta wished he would bite it, or at least grow up a bit. Did you CARE about him AT ALL?
Hmm.
We complain: Obi-Wan says next to nothing in the film. Well, OF COURSE HE DOESN'T!!!! He's the damned apprentice, and a well disciplined one at that. He basically talks just as much as Luke did, and follows people around just as much; but at least when he talks, he's not whining. Forgive me, but I think that comparing him to Luke in "A New Hope"...Obi is MUCH more of a sympathetic character.
I think it's unfair to look at "The Phantom Menace" all by itself. When we think of the original trilogy, we think just that...the trilogy. We love the old characters because we know EVERYTHING about them by the time the story ends...but imagine ONLY seeing "A New Hope." We'd think the storyline dismal, of course.
I think we should wait until the rest of the prequel comes out before making any judgements.
Mara Celes