Entertainment Weekly

Pop culture commentary, entertainment news, reviews, video, and more from EW.com

Follow us

Ask us anything


Inside this week’s EW

Inside this week's EW

Search

Find us on...

Link
 View high resolution
The forces of good and evil have a few nasty run-ins, but the primary struggle played out in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace is that of George Lucas nervously fighting to give everyone in the galaxy their money’s worth. It’s not just the preponderance of digitally realized (yet still rubbery) creatures, which have the disquieting effect of making everything around them seem cutesy and innocuous. It’s that Lucas now directs like a man with a short-circuited attention span. Some of The Phantom Menace is fun, but it’s also skittery and overstuffed, too intent on keeping the audience wired into a state of sense-crackling excitement. Watching the movie, you feel as if you’re simultaneously playing a maniacally rapid-fire videogame, wandering the aisles of a futuristic toy store, and, almost incidentally, sitting through a science-fiction fable about a couple of Jedi Knights who befriend young Anakin Skywalker, the spunky intuitive whiz kid who will eventually grow up to become Darth Vader. Read the rest of Owen Gleiberman’s original 1999 review ‘Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace’

The forces of good and evil have a few nasty run-ins, but the primary struggle played out in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace is that of George Lucas nervously fighting to give everyone in the galaxy their money’s worth. It’s not just the preponderance of digitally realized (yet still rubbery) creatures, which have the disquieting effect of making everything around them seem cutesy and innocuous. It’s that Lucas now directs like a man with a short-circuited attention span. Some of The Phantom Menace is fun, but it’s also skittery and overstuffed, too intent on keeping the audience wired into a state of sense-crackling excitement. Watching the movie, you feel as if you’re simultaneously playing a maniacally rapid-fire videogame, wandering the aisles of a futuristic toy store, and, almost incidentally, sitting through a science-fiction fable about a couple of Jedi Knights who befriend young Anakin Skywalker, the spunky intuitive whiz kid who will eventually grow up to become Darth Vader.


Read the rest of Owen Gleiberman’s original 1999 review ‘Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace’

Notes

  1. prada-x reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  2. makunosuke reblogged this from entertainmentweekly and added:
    ３Ｄ上映も楽しみ♪
  3. cl3rgy reblogged this from snacksidentshappen
  4. helloworldxoxo reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  5. chichathedovakiin reblogged this from snacksidentshappen
  6. mediocrechild reblogged this from snacksidentshappen
  7. billzbeaniebutt reblogged this from hoorayjay
  8. hoorayjay reblogged this from kevinnarrieta
  9. kevinnarrieta reblogged this from awkwardsharks
  10. awkwardsharks reblogged this from himuroada
  11. thebeardofconvincing reblogged this from himuroada
  12. himuroada reblogged this from elictron and added:
    can i just be a jedi already?
  13. elictron reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  14. beatlesunrise reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  15. allison-cumberbatch reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  16. lio-oschisin reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  17. tiano28-r reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  18. partofme28 reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  19. gsingh27 reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  20. melisssssssssssssssa reblogged this from heart-is-a-beating-drum
  21. iloveablank reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  22. galaxing reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  23. cartrett reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  24. fashion-hungry reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  25. heart-is-a-beating-drum reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  26. winterfellsqueen reblogged this from entertainmentweekly
  27. torifreebyrd reblogged this from entertainmentweekly

Loading posts...