The Jedi Knights should have gotten George Lucas in a "death grip" and forced him to rewrite the screenplay!

Rating: 2/10 (28 May 2002)

The dialogue throughout "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" is trite and banal. Liam Neeson's acting talents are wasted as is Ewan McGregor's (see "Moulin Rouge") in something that even the wizardry of George Lucas can't rescue. Instead of Liam Neeson's character, Qui-Gon Jinn, dying near the end, making way for Ewan McGregor's character, Obi-Wan Kenobi, graduation from a padawin (sic) to a full-fledged Jedi Knight, I think a more interesting plot would have involved the kidnap of the young Anakin Skywalker by the Dark Forces. Then, perhaps, the doubts of the Jedi Council as to Skywalker's having the "Force" within him, could have been united by their efforts to rescue him from his abductors.