Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Genre

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Director

George Lucas

Country

United States

Cast

Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August, Ahmed Best, Ray Park, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Silas Carson, Hugh Quarshie, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson, Terence Stamp, Oliver Ford Davies, Andy Secombe, Lewis MacLeod, Brian Blessed, Greg Proops, Sofia Coppola, Ralph Brown, Steven Speirs, Keira Knightley

Plot

When the Trade Federation cuts off all routes to the planet Naboo, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are assigned to settle the matter, but when they arrive on Naboo they are brought to Amidala (Natalie Portman), the Naboo queen, by a friendly but opportunistic Gungan named Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best). Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan plan to escort Amidala to a meeting of Republic leaders in Coruscant, but trouble with their spacecraft strands them on the planet Tatooine, where Qui-Gon meets Anakin (Jake Lloyd), the slave of a scrap dealer. Qui-Gon is soon convinced that the boy could be the leader the Jedis have been searching for, and he begins bargaining for his freedom and teaching the boy the lessons of the Force.

Opinion

George Lucas doesn't really strike back. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is not as good as any other film of the original trilogy, but it is not even trash. Firstly the good points: the music is still great, the visual effects are stunning, the action sequences are good, and the pod race is engaging.

On the other hand, dialogs are not that brilliant, the acting is mostly cringe, Darth Maul is barely shown, all Obi-Wan Kenobi did was using his lightsaber, and the first 30 minutes or so, are useless because the film pretty much started on Tatooine.

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Quotes

Yoda: Everything! Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.

Qui-Gon Jinn: There's always a bigger fish.

Rating

7.2/10