Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace

The Phantom Menace is the story of 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker who leaves home to become a Jedi. Accompanying him are two famous Jedi Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi and the goofy Gungan Jar Jar Binks

The beautiful young monarch of Naboo, Queen Amidala has had her world invaded by the greedy Trade Federation and she has escaped to the central capital world of Coruscant to get help, where she finds that the Senate is mired in beauracratic mud and the politicians are not willing to help.

And underneath all this, are the evil and mysterious Sith Lords, who occasionally strike out. Now that the Republic has fallen upon hard times, the time has come for their plan of total domination...

"You will become a Jedi. I promise" - Obi-Wan to Anakin

Hmm, that wasn't much of a review.

"The Phantom Menace"; clearly the most contraversial Star Wars movie to date. Most people either love it or hate it. But there are some (like me) are are in between.

As an individual movie, "The Phantom Menace" isn't very good. It jumps all over the place, especially at the begining. If you really don't know ahead of time what's going on, you'll be completely lost. I showed "Episode I" to some of my friends, and I had to explain to them for about 10 minutes what the hell to expect: The Jedi, the force, good and bad sides. With "A New Hope", it wasn't necissary to explain all that, because they did it in the film.

I know "Menace" is a prequel, but in all honesty, it's a damn sequel. Because if you havn't seen the first three, "Episode I" won't make much sense.

"Menace" lacked memorable characters, for sure. The original film had cocky Han Solo, and the strange wizard Ben Kenobi. Princess Leia, who would die before giving the position of her rebellion army. And Luke Skywalker, a young farmboy who longed for something more.

"Menace's" characters were flat and dry. The most memorable character was Jar Jar Binks, sadly. I didn't think Jar Jar was annoying as some people, but I didn't like how Lucas kept shoving our face in how stupid and clumsy he was. They even went so far as to having Jar Jar getting hit in the crotch. 🙄

Qui-gon Jinn, a man who's face would crack if he smiled or joked around; and his humble tag along Obi-wan Kenobi. The queen, who didn't even change the tone in her voice. Anakin, who the hell is this little shit? The chosen one? Chosen to do what?

And the Jedi counsel; who are these people? Why does Qui-gon take orders from a bunch of people who don't even stand up when he's in the room?

But the Ying to the Yang:

As part of the whole series, "The Phantom Menace" is pretty good. Not as good as the first three, but good noneless.

To those of us who know what's going on, "Episode I" seemed mystical and very deep. It was fun to go back to the begining and see how it all started. Those who handn't seen the others, can't understand this. But it was cool to see what had been vaguly describled by Ben and Yoda in the original trillogy.

And I am a firm beleiver that "Attack of the Clones" will make "Episode I" better. But "Clones" shouldn't have to.

(*** out of four)

I don't agree with most of that. My 6 year old cousin is now Star Wars daft after seeing TPM and he hadn't seen the OT.

For me The Phantom Menace was better than I ever expected. I thought that because it was the introduction to the series that it wouldn't be as interesting but a lot of it was more interesting than what went on in the OT. We're still discussing it now!

It looked incredible. Some people said it was too colourfull but I thought it is one of the best looking films I've ever seen. I was dreading the CGI landscapes and characters but it was perfect and hasn't been bettered since.

I thought the story was a bit over-complicated for what is a film aimed at a young audience but that is my only real problem with it.

Of course some of the characters weren't as interesting as the ones in the OT, but remember we are talking about the likes of Han Solo and Darth Vader!
Has there ever been a cooler character than Han Solo in ANY film? Or a more memorable baddie than Darth Vader?

The soundtrack is amazing and some of the scenes and characters are just as memorable as anything in the original trilogy. The likes of Darth Maul, Watto, Dule Of The Fates, Gungans, the Pod Race, and the Gungan v Droid battle are some of my favourite things in Star Wars.

It was amazing. 9 out of 10

I give it **½ out of ****

I pretty much agree with To on what he said about it not being a very good stand alone movie. I'm sure once all six are made we'll all forget how poor Ep.I was just like I do now about ROTJ, my least favourite of the OT.

Come Ep.II you've gotta a lot of making up to do.

6/10

yes, it's not THAT good on its own, but I do think it's a very suitable start for the new SW-trilogy, it introduces us to the characters, and gives the whole main story of the Prequels a good start. and it IS a perfectly OK film, with SUPERB effects and soundtrack.

8/10

if you look away from Jar JAr and the poor acting by Jack Lloyd it was a cool movie.

🙄 his name is Jake Lloyd .....anyway....TPM was a fairly good star wars movie.....meaning it was definately a great movie, but it could have been a bit better.....AOTC will be better 😉

9\10

Okay...I've said it before and I'll say it again..SW reviews do not go in the Movie Review forum.. We have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much space for SW to let it take over in here too.

moving!

This f*cking movie is 20 years old already... Time flies. ermmnone

Originally posted by Galan007
This f*cking movie is 20 years old already... Time flies. ermmnone

🙁

best film in the prequel trilogy by far, imho

Originally posted by Galan007
This f*cking movie is 20 years old already... Time flies. ermmnone

Oh damn. Im that old.

I still think RotS is the best film of the PT. /shrug

It's funny, though. I still remember all the hype for TPM when the trailers and whatnot first started dropping. Loads of people would literally buy tickets for a random movie that was playing the TPM preview, then walk out of the theater after they watched the preview... Lol @ the pre-YouTube era.

The movie that ruined everyone's adulthood.

And the PT film that was probably closest to anything from the OT.........

Originally posted by mechmoggy
I pretty much agree with To on what he said about it not being a very good stand alone movie. I'm sure once all six are made we'll all forget how poor Ep.I was just like I do now about ROTJ, my least favourite of the OT.

Come Ep.II you've gotta a lot of making up to do.

6/10

Originally posted by KJ
For me The Phantom Menace was better than I ever expected...

It looked incredible. Some people said it was too colourfull but I thought it is one of the best looking films I've ever seen. I was dreading the CGI landscapes and characters but it was perfect and hasn't been bettered since...

...some of the scenes and characters are just as memorable as anything in the original trilogy... Watto... Gungans...

It was amazing. 9 out of 10

This was a good idea. Bump some more threads from the pre-YouTube/PT days. I'm feeling nostalgic.

Goodness... this sure brings back memories.