The Phantom Menace

7 days to go, and 7 movies left. Next up in the list of Star Wars movies is The Phantom Menace.

Now, yesterday I said I’d list the reasons why this isn’t the worst movie, so let’s go.

This movie has something happening consistently that’s interesting, whether it’s Jedi cutting up droids or freaking Pod racing, the film at least tries to keep a consistent, engaging and exciting pace.
As I said, freaking Pod racing. That’s all I need to say.
Darth Maul. Darth Maul is awesome.
JUST. LOOK AT HIM. His lightsaber is awesome, he looks awesome, his final fight is awesome. He’s. Just. Awesome. again, just- LOOK. That double ended lightsaber surprise is amazing. It’s the first time we see a unique lightsaber that’s nothing like what we’ve ever seen before and it’s just. So. Cool!
Let’s talk about the music. John Williams pulls some amazing songs for this movie. Dual of the Fates and the Droid Invasion theme are both AMAZING songs, two of my favourites of the entire franchise, and they’re both due to this movie.

Now, all that being said, it’s still the second worst movie of the series.

While it has exciting scenes littered through out, between those scenes we get some really, reeeeeeaaally boring stuff. The entire underwater segment, boring. Pretty much all of the Political Padmé related stuff, boring. It would probably be more interesting if the characters were interesting, or the lines were delivered well but- they’re just... not.

Jar Jar god damn Binks. I don’t need to say much mire. Every time something stupid happens, it’s his fault. Every time the heroes get caught up for things go wrong, he caused it. Not even in a funny cutesy kinda way, it’s just annoying. He’s frustrating to look at, ear grating to listen to and an obvious writers tool to squeeze out extra time. Every time the movie begins to pick up, the writers toss Jar Jar into the works like a big ass, high pitched ugly spanner.

Now, here’s the thing. Sure, child Anakin is hardly GREAT, I wouldn’t even call him good, but, he’s a kid. As far as child actors go, he’s not a bad one either. He does the job and does it fairly well. He never has scenes that stand out as God awful or unbearable, but he doesn’t have any great ones. He’s just there, and that’s fine.

Now, the Phantom Menace isn’t unwatchable. It has its perks. It has its flaws. It’s a decent movie, certainly better than Attack of the Clones, a lot better in my opinion.