Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999) - May 16, 2005 (Sixth or Seventh Viewing)
I like this movie, though I can definitely see what people don't like about it. For one thing, most of the film seems sort of useless, like it has no real impact on the series as a whole. What was the point (in the grand scheme of things) of Jar Jar? The Gungans? The Pod Race? The final battle? Darth Maul? Naboo? The Midichlorians? None of these things have much of an impact, if any, of the other five movies (though I have yet to see Episode III). Really, the only things of importance in this movie are the fact that Anakin was a nice little kid, and some of the political maneuvering that Palpatine does in the senate. This is stuff that could have been accomplished in about fifteen minutes, rather than a 130 minute movie. So certainly, there is a sense of wasted time, like why does this movie even need to exist? But then it is enjoyable. The pod race, as useless as it is, is well done and quite exciting. The lightsaber fight at the end with Darth Maul was also really good. This is definitely the weakest of the Star Wars films, and the least Star Warsy (compared to the Original Trilogy), but it's still really entertaining. And as far as big summer action movies go, this is pretty much as good as it gets. ***1/2