Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace: Critic Reviews

70%

MovieWeb: 18 reviews

62%

RottenTomatoes: 50 reviews

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Rita Kempley Washington Post (Top Critic)

40

Joyless, overly reverential and impenetrably plotted!
Full Review » 12 years ago
Tom Keogh Film.com (Top Critic)

An absolute disaster!
Full Review » 12 years ago
John Hartl Film.com (Top Critic)

Story. Character. They used to mean something to George Lucas.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Robert Horton Film.com (Top Critic)

This film has a strange air of nada about it.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Rick Groen Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

63

It does the job just fine. That job, as director George Lucas freely admits, is quite simply to thrill the beating hearts and the inquiring minds of 12-year-old boys.
Full Review » 10 years ago
Charles Taylor Salon.com (Top Critic)

Who would have guessed that The Phantom Menace would be so incoherent, so completely bereft of a grand adventure's surging thrills?
Full Review » 12 years ago
Nell Minow Common Sense Media

80

So it begins. First episode comes as prequel to original 3.
Full Review » 1 year ago
Rob Nelson City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Is it ironic or just par for the course that the most technologically radical FX film ever made would also be the most egregiously regressive blockbuster imaginable?
Full Review » 3 years ago
Felix Vasquez Jr. Cinema Crazed

63

Episode 1 lacks a lot of the heart the original series embraced.
Full Review » 3 years ago
Mac Verstandig rec.arts.movies.reviews

The special effects are some of the most dazzling and amazing ever seen on the big screen. In addition, the acting is excellent.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Steve Biodrowski ESplatter

Clearly there is something wrong with a film, when the loudest applause occurs as the curtain goes up, in anticipation of, rather than response to, what is being seen.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Mark Halverson Sacramento News & Review

40

The visuals are indeed eye-popping, but I was left with no vested emotional tie to either story or characters.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Film4

The horror of Jar Jar Binks aside, there's plenty in Episode I to keep us entertained.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Joe Lozito Big Picture Big Sound

63

It's still a galaxy far, far away, and it still looks like nothing we've ever seen before.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Time Out

Charmless, sexless, passionless and robot-humoured, it's preposterously uninvolving.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid

75

It's good to have Star Wars -- any Star Wars -- back after such a long time; and it's worth seeing.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Keith Phipps AV Club

Despite a shaky start and the presence of questionable elements throughout, by the time it arrives at its finale The Phantom Menace has won its place alongside the original Star Wars trilogy.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Christopher Smith Bangor Daily News (Maine)

67

Lucas has protected his multibillion-dollar franchise by making a film targeted at children. It gives them exactly what they want--eye candy that moves at light speed.
Full Review » 7 years ago
David Cornelius eFilmCritic.com

80

What's important to remember is that the better moments don't merely balance out the weaker ones - they topple them.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

92

What is most striking about Lucas' movies -- all his movies, including THX 1138 and American Graffiti -- is a sort of startling obviousness.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Jeffrey Overstreet Looking Closer

67

I must take issue with the intense backlash from other critics against the film.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Jim Shelby Palo Alto Weekly

75

No film made could measure up to the avalanche of buzz and craziness surrounding this release. There is plenty of both good and bad news here.
Full Review » 9 years ago
John R. McEwen Film Quips Online

90

I enjoyed the film and feel that it established the foundation for many story elements that were curiously unexplained in the previous trilogy.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Scott A. Mantz Scott Mantz' Movie Reviews

25

As an artist, Lucas is lacking, but as a businessman he knows his stuff.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Nick Davis Nick's Flick Picks

59

Film franchises come and go all the time in Hollywood, particularly in science-fiction circles, but the Force is still strong in this one.
Full Review » 9 years ago