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Burdened by exposition and populated with stock characters, The Phantom Menace gets the Star Wars prequels off to a bumpy -- albeit visually dazzling -- start. Read critic reviews
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
1999, Sci-fi/Adventure, 2h 13m
237 Reviews 250,000+ RatingsWhat to know
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Movie Info
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is a young apprentice Jedi knight under the tutelage of Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) ; Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who will later father Luke Skywalker and become known as Darth Vader, is just a 9-year-old boy. When the Trade Federation cuts off all routes to the planet Naboo, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are assigned to settle the matter.
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Rating: PG (Sci-Fi Violence|Sci-Fi Action)
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Genre: Sci-fi, Adventure, Action, Fantasy
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Original Language: English
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Director: George Lucas
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Producer: Rick McCallum
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Writer: George Lucas
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Rerelease Date (Theaters):
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $474.5M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: 20th Century Fox
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Production Co: Lucasfilm Ltd.
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Sound Mix: Dolby SR, Dolby Stereo, Surround, SDDS, DTS, Dolby EX, Dolby Digital
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Aspect Ratio: Digital Projection, Scope (2.35:1)
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View the collection: Star Wars Saga
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Critic Reviews for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Audience Reviews for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
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Watching this thing years later, I can finally say, this is not a good movie. I liked it well enough as a kid as a charming little adventure, but as an adult it's kind of a hard watch. I don't know that I was ever bored by anything, but it's wildly inconsistent and just not well put together. The writing is bad, the directing is awkward, and the CGI is about on par with a PlayStation 1 cutscene, if not worse. On top of that, it's really just not necessary. What do we learn from this movie for the overall Star Wars mythos? Basically how Sidious rose to the status of chancellor. Even that is more of a background thing for all the other weird crap happening, and probably could just have been put in the opening scroll of the next film. So it's a bad film, and at times it's pretty cringey. But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at times an entertaining film. Not always for the right reasons, but it's got some fun stuff. I still like the podracing scene, and that final fight is as good as it was back in the day with some stellar choreography. It's got it's moments, I'll defend it a little bit, but overall it's pretty cringey and pointless.
michael m Super Reviewer -
This is a terrible, terrible movie. I'm amazed that A) Lucas made a film like this, knowing how beloved the franchise was, and B) that the franchise remained so beloved after this had come out... It introduced Maul though, who is my favourite Star Wars character. So points on that one.
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Darth Maul, double bladed lightsaber, what could go wrong with this film?! Oh yeah, comic relief Jar Jar Binks and a Tatooine pod race that went about 7-10 minutes too long. It is unfortunate that they wasted arguably the 2nd best villain of the entire franchise in the first abysmal film. About 3 minutes into Jar Jar Binks' screen time you know that the script has a long way to go to dig itself out of that hole.
patrick w Super Reviewer -
A technical achievement in visual effects, makeup, art direction and score that is muddled by a lackluster script and poor acting. The fight scenes, while impressive and tons of fun, lack depth and emotion, and the characters feel like the SparkNotes version of much better characters.
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