Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Film Review

Alot of films have there own special day be it due to the date that the film in question came out on on in the case of Back Of The Future a date that is quite specifically mentioned in the film itself. With Star Wars technically having two specials days as the film was released on May 25th 1977 with that day being recognised as Star Wars Day by a certain subset of people but then there's also May 4th which is also recognised as Star Wars Day this time by the current franchise owners Disney and Lucasfilm with this years specials days also falling on an anniversary year for the film that i'm about to review for you all today and so then join me as I review the film that is officially twenty five years old this year with the film in question being called simply just "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" enjoy.

The plot of the film is when the trade federation block of an entire planet and try invade by force it's up to Jedi Knights to stop this from happening. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the problem as the plot of this film isn't all that good either as to be frank the plot of this film isn't something that works well within the confides of the Star Wars universe as you don't g to a Star Wars film expecting to see lots of scenes talking about the politics of that world you go to a Star Wars film to see the good guys take on the bad guys and that's really and that is something that the plot of this film really doesn't understand as it's more focused on telling us the politics of this world instead of showing us how this world works at this point in it's history with the plot of the film also not really being really rather entertaining and also not really being really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn , Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala. Also starring in this film is Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker , Ian McDiarmid as Chancellor Palpatine , Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks , Anthony Daniels as The Voice Of C-3PO , Kenny Baker as R2-D2 , Pernilla August as Shmi Skywalker , Frank Oz as The Voice Of Yoda , Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu , Oliver Ford Davies as Sio Bibble , Hugh Quarshie as Captain Quarsh Panaka , Ray Park as Darth Maul , Peter Serafinowicz as The Voice Of Darth Maul , Terence Stamp as Finis Valorum , Keira Knightley as Sabé , Silas Carson as , Nute Gunray , Ki-Adi-Mundi , Lott Dod and An Ill-Fated Pilot , Jerome St. John Blake as Rune Haako , Oppo Rancisis , Orn Free Taa and Mas Amedda , James Taylor as The Voice Of Rune Haako , Andy Secombe as The Voice Of Watto , Lewis MacLeod as The Voice Of Sebulba , Matthew Wood as Bib Fortuna , Scott Schumann as The Voice Of Jabba The Hutt , Lindsay Duncan as The Voice Of TC-14 and Brian Blessed as The Voice Of Boss Nass.

Now then interms what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Which given how bad this films script is and the fact that George Lucas is known for not really working all that well with his actors is truly surprising but then given who is starring in this film it's also not that surprising as well as this films cast are a bunch of really good actors alot of whom have turned in better performances in other films with alot of this films cast members also reprising their roles from the other Star Wars films and would there for know how best to portray there respective characters in any given situation with the acting in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is really bad as it gives none of the films cast absolutely nothing to work with interms of what t is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does affect the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Industrial Light & Magic. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this review being based off of the 20112 Blu-Ray cut of the film as that's the only cut of the film available and because of that we do get some really good looking CGI effects in this film and while it's oh so easy to say that Yoda is best looking effect in this film it's Boss Nass that is the best effect in this film as he looks like that he was made yesterday as his effect holds up over ten years later and while we do get some dodgy CGI effects that really haven't aged all that well those are very few and far between with this film oddly enough having alot more good effects then it does have some actually really bad effects.

George Lucas is of course known for making changes to his Star Wars movies with the best change that he made to this movie being the fact that they switched out the puppet Yoda with an all CGI version of Yoda. With this being a great change made to the film as anybody who saw the film back when it first came out in 1999 will tell you that the puppet Yoda looked like he was stoned all the time and as a result of that is the fact that the CGI version of the character looks ten times better as it's a change that fixes a mistake from the original film which is the best reason to make changes to a film and wasn't done because they wanted to make a change with this also being because of the fact that Yoda in this film was originally meant to be CGI but they couldn't get the effect good enough in time for filming and as a result of that is the fact that they had to use a puppet version of the character with that version of the character staying in the film all the way until the most recent Blu-Ray release of the film where it was changed to a fully CGI take on the character.

What was truly surprising is the fact that this film does set up alot of things that are payed off in the third film. With Obi-Wan sensing something is wrong not with the mission but with something else this would of course be payed of in the final film when we find out that Chancellor Palpatine is actually evil and is the sith lord that the Jedi speak about at the end of this film with this being a very good use of worldbuilding for foreshadowing but at the same time tho it comes at the expense of this film as it takes away screen time from potentially fixing any of this films issues and instead giving us hints at things that are to come down the line which is something that this film really shouldn't have done and was only done because they knew that they were going to make episodes 2 and 3 and so they put alot more focus on giving hints at things for future films instead of giving us a really good first film and then focusing on each of the sequels as and when they needed this is something the original trilogy and to even some extent the sequel trilogy knew to do as without that good first film then chances are you wouldn't be getting the chance to make the second and third films either and yet because George Lucas surrounded himself with a bunch of yes men then he just did whatever he wanted and apart of that was giving a large amount of focus to the other films instead of just telling a really good story in your first film.

This film does get alot of things wrong like alot of focus on the politics of the Star Wars world which is at best boring to see and Jar Jar Binks being a really painfully annoying and really unfunny comic relief character. However one of the things that it gets right is showing the influence that Chancellor Palpatine as on people by showing us just how charming he is to be the point where he makes you want to do these things that will give him more and more power and yet we the audience and the characters buy into it because of the fact that he is a charming character and while his reveal as the trilogies big bad guy might be predictable it still doesn't change the fact that he was written really well and the fact that managed to charm his way into power which does make him a really smart villain as he was playing the long game here and while it would have been better if it wasn't obvious that he's the bad guy that's not really a fault of the makers of this film as that's really more due to the fact that he was the main villain of the previous trilogy and as a result of that is the fact that no matter how things really played out in this film it still would have been really painfully obvious that he really was the main bad guy in this film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hour and sixteen minuets and ten seconds. Which is a bit on the long side for this film to have as there really isn't alot of plot there to really cover that large amount of running time with this really being made all the more worse when you take into account that a huge portion of this films running time takes place on Tatooine when the film really doesn't need to spend as long as it does on that planet as not alot of things that are actually interesting happens on that planet apart from the awsome pod racing scene and that's really it and heck the films plot just straight up comes to stop when they reach that planet and it only just manages to get going again just before the film comes to and end and while it was important for the film to go to that planet as they'd have to set up Anakin Skywalker and explain why he's going with Qui-Gon Jinn all of which are things that they could have done in well under fifteen minuets and yet the film spends around forty five minuets to an hour in that one location but I will admit that this film rally does gave some really good pacing to it tho. 

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I gave to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. However on the flip side of that tho is the fact that this films action isn't all that good either as apart from the final fight with Darth Maul alot of this films action ranges from OK to just flat out bad and boring and best which really shouldn't be the case at all as from an action point of view there have been alot of really good action films that came out inbetween the end of the original trilogy and the start of production on this film that the makers of the film could have pulled from and be inspired by and yet apart from the final fight with Darth Maul which looks to be inspired by Japanese samurai films it would have been really great to see action scenes that were inspired by the liked of Terminator 2: Judgement Day or Robocop for example as both of those films have some really great action in them and from an action standpoint this films actin just isn't all that inspiring in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall while this film is still a pretty bad Star Wars film and film in general this films target kid audience might like like this film and will find characters like Jar Jar Binks to be hugely entertaining and people who grew up with this franchise won't and in most cases still don't like this film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film n this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and and well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Star Wars fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images this film being the really great the official Star Wars fandom wiki page this is because really all of the images that I really got and used from the official Star Wars fandom wiki page are all really high quality with all the images that are currently up and on the great the official Star Wars fandom wiki page are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.