The Phantom Menace is far from a great movie. Absolutely none of the characters have any depth except Palpatine and Padame. Palpatine's machinations are fun to watch, and the Princess twist is surprisingly decent. But Obi-Wan stands around for most of the movie until it decides he's important, we're told Qui-Gon is a maverick while he still acts like every other Jedi besides believing in a prophecy, Maul is just a cool design, and Anakin... well, Anakin's fine. I have a tolerance for child actors, I find them hard to hate. And Anakin's a nice kid, and Jake Llyod's having fun. He's just not great set up for Vader.
Then there's the stereotypes, from Watto to Jar Jar to the Viceroy. Or the horrible CGI which has aged terribly. Where the practical effects in the OT made the world feel grounded and lied in, the CGI makes things feel artificial and unreal, Qui-Gon and Jar Jar for example operating on clearly different planes where Yoda blended in seamlessly with Luke. The story is nothing, and no performances really stand out. It's slavish to the original trilogy, relying on cameos to get pops and too afraid to step on the toes of the ideal people have built up of the Jedi to do anything new.
But the podracing sequence is fun, the final Maul fight is fun, and if you put a kid in front of this movie, they'd probably have fun. So I can't hate it too much. It's not fun for me. But it's not the worst this franchise'll get. Plus it has Duel of the Fates, so.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2021-10-02T21:42:44Z
The Phantom Menace is far from a great movie. Absolutely none of the characters have any depth except Palpatine and Padame. Palpatine's machinations are fun to watch, and the Princess twist is surprisingly decent. But Obi-Wan stands around for most of the movie until it decides he's important, we're told Qui-Gon is a maverick while he still acts like every other Jedi besides believing in a prophecy, Maul is just a cool design, and Anakin... well, Anakin's fine. I have a tolerance for child actors, I find them hard to hate. And Anakin's a nice kid, and Jake Llyod's having fun. He's just not great set up for Vader.
Then there's the stereotypes, from Watto to Jar Jar to the Viceroy. Or the horrible CGI which has aged terribly. Where the practical effects in the OT made the world feel grounded and lied in, the CGI makes things feel artificial and unreal, Qui-Gon and Jar Jar for example operating on clearly different planes where Yoda blended in seamlessly with Luke. The story is nothing, and no performances really stand out. It's slavish to the original trilogy, relying on cameos to get pops and too afraid to step on the toes of the ideal people have built up of the Jedi to do anything new.
But the podracing sequence is fun, the final Maul fight is fun, and if you put a kid in front of this movie, they'd probably have fun. So I can't hate it too much. It's not fun for me. But it's not the worst this franchise'll get. Plus it has Duel of the Fates, so.