the opening crawl tells us that the galaxy is in turmoil over the taxation of trade routes , and the greedy trade federation has used it's armada of powerful space battleships to blockade the planet naboo . 
we soon find that the federation plans to invade the planet with an enormous army of warrior robots and force naboo's ruler , the young queen amidala ( natalie portman ) to sign a treaty giving the federation control . 
however , the galactic republic has sent jedi knights qui-gon jinn ( liam neeson ) and obi-wan kenobi ( ewan mcgregor ) as emissaries to the federation in order to negotiate for the ending of the blockade . 
no sooner do they arrive than the federation leaders are instructed via holographic transmission by a mysterious cloaked figure to destroy the jedi , and the first battle begins . 
it seems that for me and thousands of people like me , the love for george lucas's trilogy of star wars movies has only grown over time . 
we're the fans , not the freaks . 
we won't go dressing up like darth vader ( although you have to admit those imperial uniforms are pretty darn cool ) , and we won't incorporate lines from the script in our everyday conversations ( not all the time , anyway ) , but if someone wants to challenge us to a little trivia contest , we're throwing down . 
all right , stop looking at me like that . 
we have been faithfully and patiently waiting . 
waiting for this movie ever since the end credits of return of the jedi started to roll . 
you see , the trilogy is not just a set of movies , but a religion of sorts to we , the faithful disciples , and the phantom menace is tantamount to the second coming of the messiah . 
unfortunately , it is not our savior . 
for weeks beforehand , i was going around telling people that this movie had better be damned good - stupendously good - miraculously good . 
anything less and it'll be the biggest disappointment of the century . 
i didn't want the doomsaying prophecy to come true , really i didn't , but this film nevertheless fails to reach the pinnacles of filmmaking . 
character development is virtually nonexistent . 
with the possible exception of qui-gon , most of the film's characters seem left with nothing to do but go through the motions . 
none seem very affected by their experiences , and few even show any passion at all . 
contrast this with the horribly irritating comic relief we are nearly continuously subjected to in the form of jar jar binks , a creature belonging to a race which lives in underwater cities on naboo , in precarious symbiosis with the land dwellers led by amidala . 
jar jar's life is saved by qui-gon early in the film , and travels with our heroes for the sole reason of making us laugh ( or supposedly so ) . 
his speech mannerisms are so " cute-ified " that i couldn't understand a third of what he was saying , and the slapstick he performed was just distracting . 
his head gets caught in an electronic field , his foot gets caught in the stirrup of some large beast , he describes being in trouble as " deep doo doo , " and even manages to step in some of the same while walking around in mos eisley spaceport . 
therein lies a key difference between this film and one of its predecessors . 
in star wars , we had obi-wan telling us mos eisley was a " wretched hive of scum and villainy . " 
in the phantom menace , we get doo doo . 
the films of the trilogy took me away from my everyday life and immersed me in a story " a long time ago in a galaxy far , far away . . . . " 
this film , on the other hand , constantly reminds me that it's only a movie by including situations and phrases that are so uniquely modern american that they seem incredibly out of place and serve to jerk the viewer from the experience . 
perhaps the most blatant offense occurs during a scene where young anakin skywalker enters into a pod racing competition ( it's kind of like chariot racing with large engines instead of horses ) , and there are a couple of commentators in a press box delivering indy 500-like play by play . 
i liked the pod race ; it was really exciting and ratcheted the tension , but when the heck did lucas think up the idea of putting in the sportscasters ? 
the race would have been even more exciting without the distraction . 
this aspect , coupled with the emphasis on humor simply baffled me . 
i suppose one may say that lucas was trying to appeal to the younger viewer , but would more intelligent scenes and dialog hurt this appeal at all ? 
didn't millions of youngsters still go back to see the original star wars in 1977 over and over again ? 
didn't the action figures still sell like hotcakes ? 
of course they did , and it's only poor judgment that allows the most-eagerly awaited film in history to be marred by pandering to children who would still have enjoyed a film with more appeal for adults . 
one aspect that will appeal broadly , however , is the use of special effects . 
the people at lucas's industrial light and magic , the world's premiere effects house , outdid themselves in providing seamless integration of computer-generated images and real-life footage . 
some of the scenes have to be seen to be believed , especially the shots of a land battle between the federation's robot army and jar jar's countrymen . 
the space battles are also impressive , although improved over past efforts by only subtle margins to the casual observer . 
this , however , is a testament to the work which ilm produced two decades ago and still holds up well today . 
john williams is back , of course , providing a score for the film as only he can . 
his music is pervasive throughout , as rousing and as dramatic as ever , always serving to punctuate scenes noticeably and appropriately . 
since this film is supposed to be the first installment in a nine-episode story ( star wars , the empire strikes back and return of the jedi being episodes four , five and six , respectively ) , the phantom menace has the daunting task of setting up the origins of several characters we know already , in addition to those with whom we unfamiliar . 
as a result , attention to history and characterization was spread a little thin . 
it would have been nice to get more in depth with yoda and obi-wan , for example , but given the fact that there were several new characters to cover , it is understandable that some of the development has been left for the next two films . 
one of the new characters is darth maul , hailed as the new villain with as much hype as marketing forces could muster prior to this film's release . 
in spite of the hype , darth maul is a character which almost didn't have to be in the film , his role is so insignificant . 
he has maybe three spoken lines ( believe it or not , a second actor voices the character ) and the rest of the time just scowls and looks mean . 
with that working against him , he never has a chance at being interesting and instead ends up an utter disappointment . 
lucas seems to have wanted to develop the spiritual nature of the star wars universe , something which has been prominent throughout . 
however , he does so largely by paralleling the star wars spirituality with the bible , offering an easy out for story-writing and once again bringing the viewer back to planet earth with a real-life connection . 
oddly , while trying to capitalize on spirituality , lucas at the same time introduces the fact that mastery of the force is dependent upon having little force-loving parasites in your body's cells . 
this only serves to de-mystify the workings of the force a few notches by offering a scientific connection . 
don't let me mislead you too far . 
the phantom menace , by most standards , is a good film . 
it contains a lot of visual treats , sets the stage for an epic story , gives us a bit of excitement here and there , and even allows us to revisit some of our old friends . 
it's just that when held up to it's predecessors ( and to not do so would be unrealistic ) , this film simply pales .