Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (2 Discs)

Is it nearly 10 years already since Lucas finally unleashed the opening part of this trilogy upon us? Is it still as bad as everyone would have us believe? Did he really exchange Chewie for Jar Jar Binks? Yes it is, yes and no, and yes he did.
On reflection Phantom is just that; a ghost of what made Star Wars great. On the plus side no-one can juggle multiple narratives like Lucas, especially when it comes to the climatic battles. The pod race is an outstanding use of CGI and sound design. In Darth Maul he has created a dynamic villain to rival the solid power of Vader.
On the negative side he has stooped to racial stereotypes with the Trade Federation. He has no wise cracking anti-hero in the Solo tradition-just the buttoned up mysticism of the Jedi. In Darth Maul he has the most underused villain since Bobba Fett.
On the whole Phantom has been given the benefit of the doubt because it is a Star Wars movie and Lucas seems to have taken advantage of that fact-indulging himself rather than the audience.

16 long years we had to wait for Lucas to begin his Saga ! I lined up for hours to see this film, along with all the fanboys in costume. having to put up with them asking each other who fired first Han or Greedo ! Having to put up with that is enough to try any mans sanity. All I was thinking was "This film better be good !" I went in I got a good seat, until a woman sat infront of me with a damn princess lea ear warmer hair do ! The screen went dark, the Fox/ lucas arts logo came up, people clapped. Then "ALONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY " scrolled onto the screen. The cinema erupted into applause ! This was going to be good. Then the music ! The place was a frenzy Fan boys froffing at the mouth. Then silence .... You then could here mumbles in the audience the likes of "Who's that guy trying to impersinate Alec Guiness ?" or " That Kid playing Anakin sure has a problem with acting !" even " who wrote the diologue, were they high ?" but best of all " What the hell is that duck lizard thing Jar-Jar Binks, I thought the Bloody Ewaks were crap !" Yes things were not going well. Lucas would always have a hard time starting the saga, as the previouse characters had crept into our sub culture and nothing, no matter how good the character could replace them. But the real problem is the script. It's got to many religiouse overtones, and this is a family movie. How are kids supposed to understand a script where the bad guys are not defined yet, and having to understand trade blockades and power struggles in the senate ? But when Lucas stops tieing his self up in the script and sets the action upon us, he leaves our jaws on the floor. The two stand out action sequences are The now iconic Pod Race and the brilliant Light Sabre Duel with Darth Maul !. It's a pity they did not keep more of Maul as he could have turned out to be as good as Vadar. In all the film was worth the wait ( Just ) but it would take until Episode 3 till Lucas gave us what we realy wanted.

Was so looking forward to the fact that a new Star Wars film was on its way...Im an absolute huge fan (without being geeky) of the originals but this was just DULL AS DISHWATER ! And to add insult to injury the worst screen character of them all ...Jar Jar Binks ! What the hell was George Lucas thinking when he came up with that abomination ! Even the half decent pod race was spoiled by going way over the top , and the final nail in the coffin is he killed off the only good thing about the whole film...Darth Maul...the coolest character since Bobba Fett !
All I can say is that Mr Lucas belived that after the original trillogy , what ever he filmed would turn to gold but I now know its more of a runny brown colour...Shame !

Despite hearing reports of this being the worst of the 6 and the biggest let down in film history etc etc, i watched this film and thought it was actually very watchable,

I am by no means a Star Wars fan but for mindless fun this moviegoer thinks you can't go much wrong with a Star Wars. Yes, some of the casting and character introductions are suspect (Jar Jar Binks would have been better off deleted as you actually can't make out what he says, and he's annoying).

The CGI is breath-taking and does make itself well known and comfortable in front of George Lucas's woeful scriptwriting and storytelling.

What i think most fans aren't realising is that Lucas (to his credit) is unravelling a huge puzzle backwards and now has to lay the foundations for which episodes 4,5 and 6 are set.

The casting of Anakin Skywalker is all wrong(as with future films), and his flirting with Padme despite their huge age gap is at times a bit disturbing.

Not a good film but not a bad one by any means.

so great to see George Lucas showing how it all began this episode is one of my favourites as it shows how everything came to start. I don't know why people say that the new 3 episodes are bad because I think that they are better than episodes IV,Vand VI. Star Wars The Phantom Menace 10/10 Every Saga Has a baeginning