Best of it's trilogy

I am saying it's a good movie but it's not the best of the prequels. That would be ROTS, easily. TPM did feature the most impressive lightsaber duel of the entire saga though.

Don't be fucking stupid, everyone knows Sith is the best.

the phantom menace is a good title too. i was surprised when so many people didn't like it.

1. Qui Gon was semi-okay, mostly because Liam Neeson is fun to watch, but the character was written paradoxically - and not in a good way. Everybody talks like he's some kind of big, Jedi rebel who's always disobeying the rules, but he behaves like a wise sage. That maverick nature doesn't come across in his mannerisms. His big rebellion is slyly training Anakin, but even then, he's just going, "Hey, kid, just watch me and learn," he isn't actually training him. Other than that he has lines about how they aren't allowed to use their powers to help Amidala (presumably by a rule that the underwritten script left out?) and he's okay with doing that. Did he bank a lot on a game of chance? Sure, but maybe (like Obi-Wan) he doesn't believe in Luck, but the Force, and it's not as risky as he thinks.

But, okay, I'll grant that Qui Gon is okay. Darth Maul, though? "Let's give him Satanface and a lightstaff instead of a sabre!" "Should we give him a personality?" "Nope!" "Won't people think his character is lacking?" "His character is Satanface Lightstaff. Shut up and call Pepsi to get that Satany-face on some cans!"

I've never understood the love for and over hype of Darth Maul. That's a flatline, cardboard cutout villain.

Dooku suffers from the same "writing" that Qui Gon got. They say he was a Jedi and it's inconceivable that this "political idealist" would have gone rogue, but we only ever see him behaving in a Dark Lord type manner. Still, I'd rather watch Dooku than Maul because Christopher Lee is always fun to watch.

Heck, even going on their fight scenes alone, I find Lee's rapier style more fun to watch than Darth Flip 'n' Twirl.

2. I honestly don't notice much of a difference between the CGI in Phantom Menace being better or worse than the others in terms of quality. Although, because they used more real locations, I suppose that it's slightly better here.

3. Yeah... the Episode I fights don't look rehearsed at all... sure.

Ray Park is super fat now.

I agree that TPM is the best of the blighted preqs. Qui Gon and Maul were both cool characters but criminally underdeveloped. And then killed. Maul was only really cool because Ray Park fight skills. That 3 way battle was the best of all the sabre fights. I only wish that they had not made him look the way they did. Kinda stupid.

TPM: 4/10
TCW: 2/10
RotS: 2.5/10

Gendy Tartakovski's short Clone Wars cartoon (not to be confused with the mediocre Clone Wars cartoon that followed) was the best thing to come from the preqs. 9/10
It is a shame that they did not let him write/direct a Star Wars movie. He could have single handedly saved the franchise had they given him all three.