It's Star Wars, what do you expect?

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 1999)

Ok, I have inadvertently seen this movie twice, and while it's definitely not a great film, it is thoroughly entertaining. More so the first time, though. The second time through I was just waiting for Darth Maul to show up. Ok, the disappointing stuff first: the script was simplistic, and therefore the acting was moderate. There were some great or at least very good actors in this movie (Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ewan MacGregor, etc.) but here they just weren't given much to do. I understand the argument that these are meant to be archetypal characters and all, but it nevertheless got on my nerves. And Jake Lloyd has got to go. He got very annoying over time. Did we really need all those "Yippee!!"s? Also, I predictably hated Jar Jar and, for that matter, did not like the Gunguns much at all. Also, George Lucas' direction style seems to be gradually moving toward a very young audience with very short attention spans. That said, here's what I did like: Darth Maul (hey, I have a thing for villains, what can I say?)--the dueling scene was in my opinion the best scene in the entire movie, and to quote EW magazine, DM made Vader look like Mary Poppins. Also the computer graphics were obviously amazing--Naboo is absolutely beautiful. I liked the battle droids and the "futuristic hedgehog" rolling droids (Forgive me, I don't know the proper names) All in all, I am not a Star Wars junkie as some of my friends are, and I am therefore not a purist as far as these movies go. I enjoy the first trilogy, but I don't find those movies to be terribly good either. Therefore, I went into Phantom Menace expecting not a great film, but pure, sometimes mindless entertainment as has been the tradition in Star Wars. If you go in with this expectation you won't be disappointed. Two final thoughts: Phantom Menace was sorely lacking the charismatic character Harrison Ford previously provided, and I would've liked it a whole lot more if they hadn't killed off the two best characters.