Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

As a film intended to introduce the Star Wars world, the design and special effects that went into this are beautiful and add scope and detail to the original trilogy. The score is also a wonderful addition to the already iconic music. As an introduction to a new set of characters, the story of the discovery of Anakin Skywalker is poorly paced and lacks urgency, despite characters consistently reminding the audience that time is short. Too many cameos and bit parts for extraneous characters and dialogue telling us what is already being shown slow the film down considerably. Better editing would have resulted in a better film. Liam Neeson however carries the film with a great performance as Qui Gon Jinn and the villains are equally compelling, culminating in a stunning duel between the Jedi and Sith which is still one of the high points of the whole series.

This movie has a lot of good and bad. I saw this when I was a kid and I had the vhs so I watched this countless times. Good: Qui-Gon Jinn, I would of loved to see Liam Neeson play him again and try and become a grey jedi. The last lightsaber battle, still one of the best in the series. Darth Maul, he may not have much of a back story but he still is a bad ass villain. Pod racing, its fun and I enjoyed the scene. Bad: Obviously Jar Jar and all the gungans, man I forgot how annoying he is. Bad CGI, it is a little forgivable for the time but it doesn't hold up well. Pacing, it can be a boring at times and the editing can take away from the better scenes. Overall a decent intro to the series, I wouldn't show this first to someone who has never seen Star Wars, start with A New Hope.