In terms of craft, it scores off the chart. Dazzling to look at, its an all-you-can-eat buffet of special effects. But if you're hungering for creativity, all you'll find is a light snack.

So this is a bizarre, Janus-like creature, looking both backward and forward, setting the scene for a story that it never quite gets around to telling. Still, thats Star Wars for you. An ongoing story, a narrative jigsaw, a phenomenon in portions.

Liam Neeson has manfully carried the action on his shoulders throughout (the subsequent prequels desperately miss him) and his final words...provide the movie with its only real weight.

…a truly awful movie by any criteria….the lack of continuity with the previous films is just stunning to behold…absolutely nothing works in The Phantom Menace, a complete debacle in the history of the Star Wars franchise...