The Phantom Menace (1999)

"This is set somewhere in space."

I become increasingly frustrated with comments on how this new Star Wars doesn't stand up to the originals.

Most underrated Star Wars movie...possibly movie ever!!!

How some fail to appreciate it is the larger piece of a puzzle is disturbing.

Who can deny the excitement of the light-saber dueling, the thrill of the pod race

This is my favorite out of all of them. Why? Cause the story is the beginning of a saga that started first before... It has the beginning!

Set before the others, and confusingly made AFTER

Acting:

Liam Neeson is simply the whole movie Darth Maul's evil look might've been a publicist's dream but Qui gon jinn is the heart of the movie and Ewen Macgregor simply wonderful as Kenobi. The movie never earned all the basing it got it's about as wonderful a time

Darth Maul is such a cold, merciless villain

his motive is to wipe out the Jedi

For one thing, Darth Maul has a double bladed (duel bladed) lightsaber. And I thought it was nice to see an update on the lightsaber formula.

his motive is to wipe out the Jedi

The interaction between Jar Jar, Qui Gon, and Obi Wan was splendid entertainment at its finest!

Anakin is such a cool person because he is a great podracer

when Jar Jar got his head stuck in the pod race electrical line, I was laughing out of control.

He embodies the people in our society who may not be gifted mentally... If you slam Jar Jar, then that should tell you something about yourself as a person.

George Lucas is not racist. The guy who did Jar Jar's voice was given the job because his voice was ideal for the character.

lets face it we need the Gungans because a lot of the time the Naboo are just boring humans.

impressive 3-D shots... you could also see Jar Jar's tongue stick out of the screen in one shot. My eyes did strain a little bit at times

bad acting? I fail to see it

Plot:

This film and it's story has a lot of action and plot!

Most of the critics couldn't even figure out what the *phantom menace* was.

This is the more "adult" side of the Star Wars galaxy.

Makes the world of the original trilogy seem cartoonish

We can see at last see the "old" republic and how it worked and functioned

Viewers also complained about the complexity of the plot with all the politics....my thoughts are that we need to be informed of the fragile and crumbling centre of the republic

vote of no-confidence! How many adults even know what that is? (Hmm... maybe this explains the low ratings.)

I was able to follow the story just fine

Let me let you in on a fact here. Senator Palpatine and Darth Sidious are the same person!!!! ...If you miised out on this major plot point, then you entirely missed out on the point of the story.

The epic story sweeps you along to the greatness and deepness of human imagination.

Effects:

This has better special Fx than IV, V and VI

This time though the Empire are using robots! OMFG!

creatures,swordfights,adventure,heros,magic (although called Force) and amazing effects.

You need to see the rest of the film

(there are almost zero special effects, but that just underlines how good the visual effects must be).

special-effects directing is MUCH harder than directing for dialog.

I think this film should have received several Oscars.

10/10 Shits all over Star Trek.

Thank you Mr. Lucas!