Even worse than I remember. It has aged so badly to the point where every scene is either completely laughable or makes no sense. Might actually be worse than Attack of The Clones, although it’s still like choosing if dog piss or cat piss is nicer. At the end of the day they’re both piss.

Darth Maul sucks the hardest, I can’t believe anyone defends that character in this movie. Even the fight scene at the end that everyone circlejerks is totally lacklustre because there is no tension or stakes as the characters are so poorly set up. 

Jar Jar is even worse than you remember, his dialogue is completely incomprehensible so I had no idea what he was saying.…

*previously a 53, now an 84*

I think I've reached the tipping point of my love for this thing, but then again, each rewatch is practically exponential in how it affects me as a Star Wars fan and a cinephile. Each frame of world building - cascading waterfalls, forests festering with fog, dusty Tatooine landscapes - is rich and lively in its conceptual work, with costuming, CG effects, and sound design providing a textual beginning to the saga. Lucas paints this picture as delicate and grandiose; a far cry from the uncertainty of Attack of the Clones and the devastating tragedy of Revenge of the Sith. All the puzzle pieces - galactic politics, bureaucratic interplay, Jedi as spies and samurai,…

I will try and explain why I dislike this film so much. It is a bit of a geeky rant, so bear with me.

A Universe of Boredom
The original trilogy gave us a window to one of the most interesting universes ever created. It is a fantasy, filled with amazing aliens and wonderful characters. The Phantom Menace was the film that could expand on this universe. We could have gotten more fantastical worlds, more foundation to the mythos. What we instead got was Tatooine......again. It could have traveled the entire universe but it instead gave us a planet we already know. This is but a tiny example of the unbelievable unimaginative feel this film has. This is most present…

An indiscriminatingly awful, vomit-inducing, excessively cartoonish, unbelievably stupid & mind-numbingly pathetic piece of shit that deserves to be counted amongst the worst atrocities ever committed on film canvas, the first chapter of George Lucas' prequel trilogy & fourth instalment in the Star Wars saga marks its creator's return to film direction after a 22-year hiatus and shows that world cinema was far better off without his directorial inputs.

Set three decades before the events of Star Wars in a galaxy far far away, the story of The Phantom Menace follows two Jedi Knights who are sent to negotiate a peaceful end to an interplanetary trade dispute but when that falls apart, they flee from their hostile situation to warn the Queen and…

When "The Phantom Menace" came out, my parents wouldn't allow me to watch it in the cinema. I was furious. They let me watch the original three instead an I loved them so much, there was little else in my life that I deemed to be of any importance besides Star Wars. Still not allowed to watch the film of the year, I would take to the internet and research everything I could find. I bought a comic book that told the film's story from Obi Wan's perspective and it was so great! Darth Maul killing Qui Gon was unbelievably sad!
From everything I could find, I made a huge folder titled "Star Wars: Episode I" in which I told…

I feel like this movie gets ripped on more than it deserves. I also always felt like the common arguments were not just weak, but blantantly wrong. "Why would the TRADE Federation cause a blockade?" ...do you not know how monopolies work? "I can't believe the Star Wars saga starts with a trade dispute!" ...do you not know how most wars start? "The movie is nothing but politics!" The Senate is only shown once, and it's less than 5 minutes. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a fine addition to the Star Wars saga. Ultimately, I feel it's a story that requires a level of patience and (at the risk of being pretentious) nuance that the target audience lacks. Some…