If you want to ruin the most successful movie franchise of all time, you might as well do it in style.

Rating: 1/10 (31 October 2000)

The Phantom Menace is possibly the most disappointing movie I've ever seen. First of all, while the original trilogy was targeted at young adults and older, Phantom Menace seems to be aimed at children. The character of Jar Jar Binks is incredibly irritating. He serves no purpose other than comic relief (although I'm not sure he was all that comical and he sure didn't do too much to relieve anything). One might recall Lucas's use of R2-D2 and C3P0 for comic relief in the original trilogy and argue that Jar Jar serves the same purpose, but one must also keep in mind, R2 and 3P0 are both in the Phantom Menace as well again providing us with comic relief. One must also realize, while R2 and 3P0 provide a quick chuckle now and then Jar Jar is meant to be a walking laughfest of slapstick humor and just does not pull that off well at all. Also, Anakin Skywalker, one of the lead roles, is a child in the movie. Whereas adult characters appeal to an adult audience, young children appeal to child audiences, only further distancing Phantom Menace from the originals. And this leads to my second point, Lucas doesn't bother keeping with continuity. In the original movies, Obi Wan Kenobi claims he first met Anakin Skywalker when Anakin was a rebel fighter pilot, not a young boy. Lucas blatantly ignores continuity throughout the entire film making it confusing and just painful to watch. Another thing that killed the movie is Darth Maul. Maul's face was plastered all over magazines, posters, trailers and ads hyping him as the film's primary villain and then he only gets about 8 minutes of screen time. What a rip-off! Lastly, the movie's ending is pointless, confusing, boring, and anti-climactic.
The Phantom Menace was just a horribly overrated piece of junk that doesn't deserve its place in the Star Wars franchise.