The Phantom Menace

Our Review

The film that taught a generation to lower their expectations. The Phantom Menace has the podrace, the Duel of the Fates lightsaber fight, and a John Williams score working overtime to convince you everything is fine, while Jar Jar Binks and a trade route taxation plotline test your patience in equal measure.

Liam Neeson brings real gravity as Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ewan McGregor’s young Obi-Wan shows flashes of the charmer he’d become. But Jake Lloyd’s Anakin is asked to carry emotional scenes he can’t yet land, and the film’s sense of wonder is drowned in green screen and senate procedure.

Neeson and Ray Park’s Darth Maul give the climax a jolt the script never earns elsewhere, and the podrace remains a genuinely great piece of action cutting. Watch it as part of the saga, not as a movie. The action holds up, the politics bore, and Darth Maul remains the coolest two lines of dialogue in franchise history. Our score: 5/10. If you are doing a full rewatch tonight it earns its slot; on its own it is a museum piece.