An often deliriously exciting adventure, hitting the target audience of 10-year olds and satisfying long-time fans.
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07/31/01
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
62
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Reviews Counted:158
Fresh:98
Rotten:60
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Lucas needs to improve on the plot and character development, but there's plenty of eye candy to behold.
Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: The first of three prequels to George Lucas's celebrated STAR WARS films, EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE is set some 30 years before the original STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE in the era of the... [More]
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd
Director: George Lucas
Reviews for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Top CriticThe horror of Jar Jar Binks aside, there's plenty in Episode I to keep us entertained.
03/04/08
Top CriticA great work from a greater director, and a blockbuster of quite the most swashbuckling kind.
01/01/00
Top CriticIt's not perfect ... but it's still fantastic.
12/10/01
A murky, talky prequel that emphasises all the series' weakest elements rather than its strongest ones.
03/03/02
Charmless, sexless, passionless and robot-humoured, it's preposterously uninvolving.
06/24/06
Top CriticIt's wholesome and enjoyable entertainment for kids, rather than the slap in the face a truly bad movie would have been, but the fans deserve more.
01/01/00
Overwhelmed by digital effects and watered down for children... the narrative structure is just awful
03/15/01
This is a film made for the fans. On that level, it doesn't disappoint.
01/01/00
The special effects are as awesome as you would expect, and this is an extremely slick production.
01/01/00
Delivers exactly what every kid of any age wants: wows. And plenty of them!
01/01/00
What is most striking about Lucas' movies -- all his movies, including THX 1138 and American Graffiti -- is a sort of startling obviousness.
05/19/05
Too bad writer-director Lucas left out the gee-whiz enthusiasm of the original movies. He also left out memorable characters. He left out the fun.
01/01/00
[Lucas] ought to spend more time on story and less time crunching binaries.
01/01/00
Despite a shaky start and the presence of questionable elements throughout, by the time it arrives at its finale The Phantom Menace has won its place alongside the original Star Wars trilogy.
03/02/06
Lucas has protected his multibillion-dollar franchise by making a film targeted at children. It gives them exactly what they want--eye candy that moves at light speed.
11/04/05
It's still a galaxy far, far away, and it still looks like nothing we've ever seen before.
07/14/07
Wait till it's out on video. Then borrow it.
01/01/00
The movie has no heart, dark or otherwise, only state-of-the-art accouterments.
03/24/02
Eye candy isn't a reward in and of itself--it has to be backed by substance.
01/01/00
Latest News for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
July 20, 2009:
Much Anger? Jake Lloyd Talks Star Wars: Episode I 
Recently we marked the 10th anniversary of the cultural juggernaut that was Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, a film that received mixed reactions from fans -- to put... More...
May 29, 2009:
10 Years of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Ten years ago this month, excitement reached fever pitch ahead of the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. After 16 years without a Star Wars film in cinemas,... More...
May 18, 2009:
The Phantom Menace Turns 10
Ten years ago tomorrow, "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" arrived in theaters -- and to commemorate the occasion, author Matt Springer has released a free e-book... More...
March 31, 2009:
The Legacy of The Matrix
1999 was one of the most important years for modern cinema. Ten years on, we're celebrating a remarkable twelve months of movies with new features around some of the year's best... More...
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