Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) by Lucas N — 09 Mar 2016

A frequent 'praise' I hear of this film is that if it wasn't a Star Wars movie it would just be a semi-decent science fiction movie. I'd actually say that being part of an established film series is the only thing saving it from being zero stars.

Ignoring what it did to the story, it is a poor narrative in every sense of the word. There is no main character, everyone just sort of hangs out there while nothing interesting happens. That brings me to a different point, nothing happens.

There's no plot. I've watched this movie several times, I still have no idea what the story is. They go on a spaceship, they go to a computer generated set, they bounce around for a while. If your movie isn't interesting enough to have me remember anything past character names, it was a poor effort.

The characters in this have no personality. It's such a let down when you imagine how cool it must be when Anakin and Obi Wan met, then they are finally introduced by some mutual friends or whatever and they just shake hands.

Make them do something interesting! Add drama or tension! Do anything that piques my interest movie! When Qui Gon dies, I am not invested in him. If a movie character dies, I should feel something from it.

And I will say this a million times over, Darth Maul was the most underused villain in the history of cinema. You can barely even call him a villain, all he does that's evil is participate as the opposing side during the climax of the film.

He's such an interesting concept for a character. A ruthless, calculating killer hiding in the shadows to rip apart his prey. But instead, he was wasted. Overall, poor.