Introduction
My friend and I went to the theatre to watch this movie about two weeks after its release. (kind of late) I was equipped with only two boxes of candy, but they somehow lasted throughout the whole movie. I never made any bathroom breaks so I saw the whole movie. I also saw it several times on VHS.
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The Good
*Liam Neeson and Ewam Mcgregor's acting- Their acting was great, I thought and the two Jedi knights seemed to work well together. Their fighting scenes were well choreographed out and I was amazed actually.
*Darth Maul- Darth Maul is one of the best villans ever created. He is so mysterious and dark. It is a shame that he died. I would have liked it if he appeared in at least Episode 2 and died then. Ray Park did a excellent job at this.
*Special effects- The special effects in this movie are outstanding. They are even better than The Matrix, which was a also good movie. The computer generated characters blended in well with their environments. The underwater scenes were great. ILM had created something special, but the other two movies will be a whole lot better (eventually).
The Bad
*Plot- The plot made me mad, and I had to watch it back and forth more and more on my VHS for me to understand. It also confused a lot of other people when they saw it for the first time. The original Star Wars plots were nothing less than saving the galaxy and to destroy the Empire, but this was different. Anyway, this is the introduction to the movie so what do you expect.
*Jar Jar Binks- "Hi, I am Jar Jar Binks. They kicked me out of my underwater city so I am allowed to be a moron!" Yes, it seems that many people hated Jar Jar Binks, and I am one of them. If Jar Jar wasn't so stupid and clumsy, he would be a lot better than what I would hope for. His jokes were downright stupid and I thought that George Lucas made a terrible mistake with making him funny.
*Did Mickey Mouse show up in the movie?- If you don't understand what I mean, I am talking about the Disney feel to the movie, that was different from the others. One of Anakin's friends that is a Rodian says: "Ho Ho, Annie! You are such a joker!" then all of the kids start to laugh. George might of thought that the movie should be a family movie, and I wouldn't blame him for financial success, but all of the Star Wars movies are PG! If this movie was G, I wouldn't of went to the movies to see it.
So-So
*Natalie Portman and Jake Llyod's acting- I didn't think that they did a good job of acting. Like what somebody said off of Amazon when I was looking at a review to the movie, "Never let a kid act", that is true. A actor has to be experienced and Natalie and Jake were not that experienced. However, there were parts that I liked in the movie that they said or done, but the bad and the good tie for a so-so.
*Familiar Faces- What I like about this movie is that they bring back some heart warming characters and ILM has added some "easter eggs" as what theforce.net calls them. C3PO, R2D2, and Jabba the Hutt have returned, which is always great. If you didn't notice, Warwick Davis (Wicket) is in the movie as a couple characters on Tatooine (no theforce.net, I knew that before I went to your site). There is also E.T. on the movie after Queen Amidala says that she has a vote of no confidence (ok, I got that one from you, but that one only).
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Conclusion
This movie is good but has some bad points. Out of all of the Star Wars movies, here is how I will rank it:
Top 4
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Phantom Menace
Don't get my wrong, it great movie, but I think that the others were better. Many of the characters are missing out of the prequels and the formula that the other movies had, but I think Episode 2 and Episode 3 will be a whole lot better than The Phantom Menace. This was hard to vote on all of the movies combined, but A New Hope and Return of the Jedi are pretty much a tie. Like what I said before, I hate introductions and the other movies will be better.
