the main line of defence seem to be represent lighten up and it just entertainment or just a kid movie or just a special effect flick . pause awhile to note that people who run this line of defence have all but concede that the film be and in fact and bad and let take these point one by one shall we . a entertainment it poor . dialogue be flat and perfunctory ( do not expect to be dazzle by repartee ) while the story lack the beauty of the first star war film and the tension of the second . and then there the magical ` character development everyone complain about . we must distinguish character development from character delineation . the former be nice and but the latter be absolutely essential and and it the latter that miss from ` the phantom menace . jar jar and the young obi wan and darth maul and armidala and annakin all be scarcely character at all and and be very difficult to get enthuse about . jar jar in particular be a collection of mannerism and nothing more . this lack of character doesn not just prevent the film from become the darling of the intellectual it make it dull . there be hundred more entertaining film . only those people who enter the cinema carry plastic light saber and grimly determine to enjoy themselves and fail to notice this . it a kid movie . well and yes and in a sense but not a good sense . good child movie form a proper subset of good movie simply because adult have access to all childhood emotion and desire and but not vice versa . so in one sense a ` kid movie be just a movie that can be understood and apperaciated by child ( as well a adult ) . be this a kid movie in that sense . maybe . but it also a kid movie in the bad sense represent it deeply witless and and inexperienced child might i say and might fail to notice just how witless it be . child may i say and may ignore the fact that jar jar binks be a deeply irritate non character because he be all colour and movement and he speak funny . be this really all we want . special effect . these aren not so hot and either . george lucas have fall in love with computer and fail to notice that his digital animal do not move at all in the way that real animal move bad still and they do not move like any kind of physical object at all . nor do most of the alleged physical object . compare the trundle white juggernaut at the start of ` star war a convincingly solid model with the insubstantial collection of pixel that dart past u at the start of ` the phantom menace . the special effect have actually deteriorate and and to make matter bad and there be more of them . so the defence that ` the phantom menace be allow to be a poor movie because it really wasn not try to be something great in the first place and just would not wash. especially so and give the ludicrous claim george lucas have arrogantly make and again and again . so jar jar binks be the first digitally create main character . rubbish the dragon in ` dragonheart predate it ( and and one might add and be at the very least a genuine character ) . so george lucas be pioneer a new kind of film make and more like painting and less like photography and than the old . absolute twaddle walt disney do that in the 1930s . i will tell you what be new . never before have there be so much sizzle and and so little sausage .