Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

"Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" is not a sequel to the original Star Wars Trilogy, it’s actually a prequel. The film tells the story about two Jedi’s named Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and the young Obi-wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) who go on a Journey to stop the evil trade federation led by Nute Gunray, Darth Sidous, an army of droids and the villainous Darth Mule from taking over the world of Naboo. Along the way, they meet a nine year old Junk yard slave named Anakin (Who later becomes Darth Vader in the trilogy) who wishes to be a Jedi and go on adventures, Queen Padme Amidala and the annoying lizard like creature Jar Jar Binks. Now the story for the film moves very, very slow, and there were parts in the film that just made me want to fall asleep (Literally). I mean this film is more focused on politics than being a space adventure. I find it completely boring and a bit confusing. The original Trilogy actually had an exciting story and plot, this abomination only has very few action scenes. In fact, even the battle at the end is boring as crap.

The acting and characters (Just like the film) are boring too. Qui-Gon Jinn and the young Obi-Wan Kenobi are both played by very fine actors, but their performance in this film is lifeless and the writing for them lacks character. Queen Padme Amidala has a great costume and make up design, but she has zero character and doesn't even interest me for a second. The kid who plays young Anakin, can't act for pennies and comes out more annoying than interesting. In fact, most of the writing for him is very stupid and I can't believe that this is Darth Vader's past. Speaking of annoying, who could forget Jar Jar Binks, the most annoying creature in the whole entire film and franchise. I will admit when I saw this film as a kid, he was the only character that interests me, why you ask, because he's not as lifeless as the human characters. Now when I watch him, I want to hurt him.



The villains in this movie are just as annoying and boring as the heroes. The villain Darth Sidous is surprisingly boring, then cool and interesting as he was in the original films. The apprentice, Darth Mule, looks like a great badass villain, but sadly he's just a bore and doesn't show up too much in the film. Do I need to talk about those Asian stereotype Aliens? It's already bad enough that Jar Jar Binks is a Jamaican stereotype.

If you haven’t seen a Star Wars film before, it would be best to see one of the original Star Wars films, just because it's called "Star Wars Episode 1" that doesn't mean you have to see this movie to understand the other Star Wars films. I saw this film before I saw the original films and let me tell you, it scared me away from seeing them. The film is boring, moves very slowly and the only thing interesting is the Special effects. The background scenery and the visual effects in the movie are really good, especially in the Pod Race scene and the light-saber fights, however, most of it is CGI and just like everything in this film, it gets boring after a while.

RATING 3/5