Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) by William K — 23 Dec 2017

I have always thought this was a good beginning. Jake Lloyd was good enough. Certainly way better than the kids they had play young Tom Riddle in Half Blood Prince. I guess it's hard to pick the kid that's going to grow up to be a villain. Soundtrack is very good, visual very good, the story is good, not great. Not a big fan of the midichlorians but I get that Lucas was trying to find some way to quantify how strong a being is with the force. It also makes sense that what was considered "magic" in the original trilogy due to the rise of them Sith Galactic Empire and destruction of the Jedi; now has more "science" behind it.

Qui Gon Jinn is number 3 on my all-time favorite list behind Vader and Luke now.

Ewan McGregor does a great job, Obi Wan just is not my favorite character.

?Ian McDiarmid is great as Senator Palpatine.

Ray Park's Darth Maul is awesome though a little one dimensional. I think he should have been kept around longer.

Natalie Portman is very good as Padme Amidala. Not crazy about the idiotic system of government but I guess there are all kinds in the Galaxy.

I dislike Watto but he's more unpleasant than evil which I think is good. Anakin is not free but he's clearly not abused either. No one wants to see that. I guess it could be argued that if you don't want to portray the characters situation as horrible as it could be instead of this clean, sanitized version, then maybe you should could up with other circumstances for them.

It was nice to see Jabba in his prime.

I loved the Jedi Council but the first attempt at Yoda was awful! The changes they have made over the years have improved him.

Sam Jackson as Mace Windu is fantastic.

I don't care for the Gungans who are the new Ewoks but whatever. George Lucas has to have his whimsical characters so it's really the just the price of doing business with him. They are easily ignored.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good start.