Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) by Jimmy D — 29 Jul 2017

While The Phantom Menace does not nearly hold to the original trilogy, it does make anyone who loves Star Wars feel like they are back where they belong. The movie is loads of fun to watch with new improvements on CGI that the original trilogy could never have along with a great set of actors.

Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor shine as they prepare to embark on the new trilogy. The pod race scene was awesome to watch and the final battle against the menacing Darth Maul was almost like seeing a true lightsaber fight for the first time.

One of the things this movie does very well is that it shows the audience what the Star Wars universe looked like before the rise of the Empire. There were jedi, sith lords, and the force was something that everyone was used to unlike the original's where Darth Vader was the only one who could use the Force.

Yes, the movie had its moments where it was just not good, sometimes more than the times that it was. First of all, this movie did NOT have to be 2 hours and 11 minutes. The whole Coruscant scene took up about 40 minutes of this movie.

Way too long! And some characters were more brought out than they needed to be a.k.a Jar Jar Binks. Lucas could've easily improved this by at least adding a little action into these scenes but unfortunately they were filled with political speeches.

Who though Star Wars would turn into politics? Overall, The Phantom Menace was not a bad movie, but it wasn't anywhere close to great. I would recommend this movie to any true Star Wars fan but be warned, if you show any kid under 12 this movie, they may fall asleep when they hit Coruscant.