Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace1999

“𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕.” I think there’s so much about this movie that should work, and there’s so much that does. The universe is so vibrant, so colorful, so creative, and it’s so… Not like Star Wars.  Now it is. Now, after all the prequels, sequels, and spinoffs, it has all been unified into one Star Wars canon. But watching this from the perspective of it being the first new Star Wars media in almost 20 years, I can understand people being frustrated or just plain confused by this.  That being said, I still really love this. It’s too fun not to enjoy, and really, I think its problem is that it’s just too long. I understand that this is an epic comeback to an extremely popular franchise, but it feels weirdly slow for how cartoonish it is. A lot of back and forth, asides, winks, nods, and references.  The majority of the designs are breathtaking, and really, the biggest problems are some of the cg characters. Honestly, if it stuck with all/mostly practical effects, it would have been received better. There’s plenty of other issues with this, either real or perceived, and I don’t like it as much as when I was a kid, but it’s still a classic, and at this point, it’s as much Star Wars as anything else. “𝑱𝒂𝒓 𝑱𝒂𝒓'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔…”