Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Critic Reviews

Good enough, but only just. It's got the hardware, but neither the characters, the imagination, nor the resonance one had hoped for.Read the full review

An astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking.Read the full review

Fails to recapture the elemental magic of Star Wars, and that, ironically, is because it represents the coarse culmination of the original film's adrenaline aesthetic.Read the full review

While the new film is certainly serviceable, it's noticeably lacking in warmth and humor, and though its visual strengths are real and considerable, from a dramatic point of view it's ponderous and plodding.Read the full review

Not a masterpiece, but it's an example of how imagination, craftsmanship, and technological bravura can fashion superior entertainment out of something that is far from flawless.Read the full review

In special effects, Lucas has moved a galaxy beyond. In energy, not yet.Read the full review

George Lucas does it his way in the pallid Phantom Menace. Even cultists will wish he'd hired a director and some writers.Read the full review

It's up to snuff. It sustains the gee-whiz spirit of the series.Read the full review

Despite a shaky start and the presence of questionable elements throughout, by the time it arrives at its finale -- which copies Return Of The Jedi's triple-climax structure -- The Phantom Menace has won its place alongside the original Star Wars trilogy.Read the full review