TWO THUMBS DOWN

Rating: Null/10 (1 October 1999)

I join in the chorus of Boo's to Lucas on this one. Ouch, what a disappointment. The Phantom Menace was a cartoon and a bad one at that. There was no character development at all. Come on, this little cherubim Anakin is going to turn into the dreaded evil Darth Vader. What a joke. Lucas blew a great opportunity to show a complex child, brilliant, pensive, i.e. the potential of a dark side--this could have been compelling.
And this puny kid racing a powerful machine with tremendous velocity? Why was this even in the film? It was ludicrous and totally unthrilling. Did anyone even care if he won? What made the Star Wars Trilogy so great was the passion of good versus evil, right versus wrong. The spiritual aspect (the Force versus the Dark Side) was inspiring and stirring. It was uplifting and motivating to the viewer to want to be aligned with the Force. And what's with Yoda being relegated to second fiddle to Samuel Jackson's pious posture? Oh brother! Forget the story, Lucas, go for political correctness so every body's happy. B-O-R-I-N-G! Flawed and phoney. I doubt if many of us will be anticipating anymore Star Wars.