Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) by Jacob — 28 Nov 2015

The Phantom Menace is a great tech demo for what CGI and ILM can accomplish. Some of the worlds created with CGI are stunning. The vehicles all look and sound great. The moments where the visuals and sound take over like in the Podrace and final dull are when the movie is fun and Podrace feels like Star Wars.

Unfortunately, once the characters start talking the movie is terrible. The story is weak with poor pacing, low stakes, and no clear threat. None of the characters are interesting ranging from dull to annoying and all of which are underdeveloped given dull/cheesy dialogue.

In short the movie is either dull or boring and for the most part doesn’t feel like Star Wars. I loved this film a lot as a kid but that time is long gone. Regardless of how bad The Force Awakens may end up being it can’t be any worse than this.