Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) by Og G — 21 Dec 2017

Was is interesting about the prequels, which in my opinion fall short of the original, is that is is the brain child of the same director/producer creator, George Lucas. yet at the same time, they don't measure up to what some fans, including myself, enjoyed about the original saga.

I think that Menace is probably the strongest of the three, I would rank them as 1. menace, 2. Revenge of the sith, 3. attack of the clones. While there are dazzling scenes, incredible costumes, good choreographed light saber fights, Darth Maul is a great villain, and it was nice to see the Star Wars universe back on the big screen, the phantom menace pointed to a lurking future menace, and it turned out to be the next two films.

There was just too much thrown on to the screen, the jedi are shown having powers that they don't put to use in the rest of the movie, an overly complicated plot, the explanation of the force "mediclorians" or whatever they were called, the Jar Jar character that was annoying as heck.

One thing that has to be mentioned however, is the foresight Lucas seems to have had, as democracy dies in the republic and a power hungry selfish politician slowly consolidates power to become a dictator.

..hmmm who does that sound like?