Darth Maul The Bad-Ass himself		1. DARTH MAUL No matter what faults one might find with The Phantom Menace, you simply cannot deny that Darth Maul was a fantastic villian. Ray Park's physically commanding performance was fabulous! It was wonderfully conservative of Lucas to not "over-expose" the character, but rather to reserve him as a somewhat shadowy figure that toyed with our imaginations. I truly hope we never find out anything more on this character's background. He is 100% perfect!
The physical terror of Darth Maul was a delightful contrast to Vader's psychological terroristic attacks. Whereas Darth Vader conquers with fear as his main weapon, Darth Maul fights with brawn, dexterity, and swiftness.

The Viceroy Nute Gunray		2. THE TRADE FEDERATION I loved these guys! I personally thought they were a far more impressive feat in alien creation and design than the much publicized computer-generated character-aliens were. I especially loved their Thai accents and their cowardly mannerisms. Their fear of upsetting Lord Sidious was very amusing. Lord Sidious has them shaking in thier shoes more than once.
I wonder about their name: "The Federation". Could this be a humourous inside jab at the Star Trek franchise, (i.e. calling the bad guys the Federation?)
		Aside from Darth Maul, The Neimoidians were the most memorable characters from the first installment of the prequel triolgy in my opinion. My hope is that Episodes II and III will also introduce new and brilliant new aliens such as these into our knowledge of the Star Wars Galaxy; alien characters that are so much MORE than just cool masks and makeup, they are fully believable characters with tons of depth and personality!

Ian McDiarmid as Senator Palpatine a.k.a. The Emperor		3. IAN McDIARMID Bringing back Ian McDiarmid in the role of Senator Palpatine was an extremely inspired casting choice. Recasting Ian McDiarmid in the same role he played in 1983 will lend so much continuity to the series it isn't even funny! This actor is brilliant! You won't ever see him win an oscar, nor will you likely see him at one of Elton John's celebrity charity events, he won't rent out Disneyland for the day, or hobnob with Wolfgang Puck at Spago's, date Jennifer Aniston, hang out with Madonna, or marry Demi Moore, and don't expect to see his name on the Hollywood walk of stars anytime soon.
This guy is a REAL ACTOR; a "character-actor", (chosen to play a particular character because he looks, acts, and feels like that character, not because his name is Bruce Willis or John Travolta and the producers are hoping to boost ticket sales at the box-office!) He is so wonderfully sinister and wily in the role of the emerging and sneaky Senator Palpatine and plays his role so subtely that many viewers not familiar with the storyline or not zealous fans of the series did not even suspect that he was a villian at all during the film. ... NOW THAT'S A FIRST-RATE PERFORMANCE!

John Williams directing		4. JOHN WILLIAMS RETURNS John Williams's wonderful new score for The Phantom Menace was also a great boon to the production quality of this film. The four minute and fifteen second long "The Duel of the Fates" with its ominous, Celtic chant lends the Darth maul fight-sequence a great deal of power and awe.
"The seamless connection between Lucas' cinematic vision and Williams' musical interpretation have produced a film score that is the most popular ever, selling four million copies, making it one of the most successful non-pop albums in recording history."

Ewan McGregor as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi

5. A YOUNG OBI-WAN KENOBI No one, after seeing Phantom Menace for the first time, can deny they did not go home fantasizing that he/or she were a handsome young Obi-Wan Kenobi wielding their bright lightsaber against the mad Darth Maul after seeing Ewan McGregor fiercely striking down his imposing opponent with such intensity! It was an incredible scene full of such fierce power and strength. The two-on-one duel at the end of the film completely made up for any weaknesses one can name of in the film.

Droiddecaas, i.e. "Destroyers"

7. BATTLE DROIDS C.G.I. (Computer Generated Image) character-actors usually do not hold up well when shown close-up. The lack of realism is apparrent immediately. This is because "organic life", i.e. living animal life is very hard to simulate in the 3D realm using only lines and polygons to make up all objects. The complexity and randomness of advanced life-forms such as a human being make 3D graphic creation not the optimum choice in most cases. C.G.I. DOES do a terrific job with "inorganic-life" however. Items such as buildings, pillars, cars, spaceships, and of course: robots. (Things that are made up of metal, or plastic, or rubber, or wood etc. non-living matter). *Case in point, the "Destroyer Droids" of Phantom Menace. Excellently lifelike! In my opinion, the Destroyer Droids were the most underrated and impressive thing to come out of T.P.M.'s effects team.

The "Other Queen" Kiera Knightley

8. CLEVER CASTING I thought it was a clever bit of casting on Lucasfilm's part to cast a young woman whom most viewers actually believed was Natalie Portman in two roles. The "alternative queen" was actually an English actress named Kiera Knightley who just happens to look remarkably similar to, (and even sounds like), Natalie Portman. It is close attention to details such as this that make The Phantom Menace a veritable treat to watch again and again. Click here to visit Kiera's website.

9. THE BEST FILM OF 1999
It was quite an insult when Hollywood chose to reward The Matrix over The Phantom Menace at the 2000 Academy Awards for Best Special Effects. Albeit, the special effects in The Matrix were very good, but c'mon! This was a ridiculous oversight and is completely unforgivable.

What is surprising, is how the media couldn't stop talking about The Phantom Menace throughout April and May of '99 (to the point of making us all sick to death of the hype before we even saw the film) and once it finally opened in the theatres on May 19th, the mass-media claimed a few critics were lukewarm (duh) and then never mentioned the film again, even though the film played in theatres throughout the entire summer for over four months, (the only film of 1999 to do so). Without question, the largest ticket-grossing film of the year and yet, most of us let the media influence our opinion of this movie. Why? Roger Ebert & Guest gave the film an enthusiastic "THUMBS-UP" and even devoted an entire show to the Star Wars Phenomenon.

For better or worse, The Phantom Menace is still a fabulous movie, ...thank you George!

Erik J. Dolnack