Cross-posting what I said on the subject on another forum:
If you were to watch Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace with no other knowledge of the existence of Star Wars -- having no knowledge whatsoever of the films that came before or after, the books, comics, videogames or cartoon tie-ins, or even of the cultural impact that Star Wars has had on the public over the last 34 years -- then... it wouldn't be a bad film.
It wouldn't be an outstanding masterpiece, but it'd be good enough. I'd say about on par with George Lucas's other fantasy film, Willow.
The main storyline is solid (and most of the critiques offered by Red Letter Media about plot holes really don't hold up), the hints regarding the larger conflict of Jedi vs Sith are appropriately intriguing, the characters are fairly broadly drawn but decently done (Red Letter Media's claim of "Qui-Gon has no personality" and "Amidala has no character" are bullshit), the musical score is fantastic, and even though I'm not a fan of the bright-and-shiny CG-filled look I am nonetheless willing to accept it as simply being the film's aesthetic.
There are some flaws in the dialogue and such, but I have to say that a lot of the problem is not so much in the way the lines are written than in the way they are delivered. Particularly with Jar Jar Binks, who I don't find nearly as annoying as everyone else seems to -- the main problem with Jar Jar is simply that Ahmed Best is not much of an actor. When I was reading the novelisation by Terry Brooks it struck me just how much Best overplays every damn line they give him. There's a similar problem with Anakin -- even though no one could carry off the frequent "Yippee!", his dialogue is mostly okay and only comes off as bad because Jake Lloyd sounds like he's reading off an autocue.
Really, I'd say there are only three major flaws in the film, judging it purely in and of itself:
1. The film is far too in love with its own visual effects capabilities. Now, this isn't a sin unique to TPM -- we also see it in the Harry Potter movies, for example, which would include extended CG-heavy Quidditch match scenes that would go on for 10 minutes at a stretch and in exchange would cut out entire subplots. But there are numerous sequences throughout the movie which are included purely to show off the CG technology with no regard to actually advancing the plot. I'm not just talking about the Podrace (which does count, being about twice as long as it needs to be) -- it also applies to the submarine scene where a bunch of underwater creatures chase them (which could be removed entirely), and quite a lot of the final battle with the Gungans and with the fighter pilots (which could be heavily cut down).
2. The structure of the film is somewhat disjointed in trying to incorporate its main plot (the occupation of Naboo) with the subplots important to the overall saga (all the business with Anakin & the Sith). The thing is, the subplots aren't integral to the overall plot: you could actually cut Anakin and the planet Tatooine out of the story entirely without compromising the story at all. In fact, the entire Tatooine sequence is almost like a separate short film within a film: it has a very different feel to the rest (much less bright & shiny, much more earthy), entirely different character dynamics (Obi-Wan basically disappears, Padme suddenly becomes a main character) and its own self-contained beginning, middle and end... and then when it's over and they're back in space, the plot hasn't advanced at all except that Anakin (an otherwise useless character) is now with them and Qui-Gon has very briefly fought with Darth Maul.
3. Most importantly, in a lot of cases the movie over-extends itself by trying to do too much at once, which has the result of a lot of bits & pieces feeling redundant. This includes the climax of the film, where there are four simultaneous action sequences -- the Jedi fighting Maul is impressive, the Gungans fighting the droids drags on too long, the fighter pilots going against the Droid Control Ship falls flat, and Amidala & the Naboo guards infiltrating the palace (which is probably the most important of the four!) ends up being the weakest of the four because it's not able to build up the necessary suspense. But this over-extension also applies to the characters themselves. We could have had one Jedi as our hero -- Obi-Wan Kenobi -- but instead we got two, with Qui-Gon Jinn getting Obi-Wan-from-the-original-trilogy's personality and the actual Obi-Wan Kenobi coming off as uptight, unlikeable and almost entirely redundant to the plot. The only purpose that Obi-Wan actually serves in the movie is still being alive at the end, so Anakin can still get apprenticed after Qui-Gon's awesome death scene: otherwise, he doesn't do anything to advance the plot either! And then there's the supporting characters: Anakin first appears halfway through in his own mini-movie contrived to get him in the picture and is mostly unimportant afterwards, Jar Jar hangs around being the comedy sidekick for most of the movie but only actually does anything important near the end when he helps reconcile the Gungans with the Naboo, and C-3PO makes an obligatory appearance which has no purpose whatsoever and was only included so that both droids could appear in all six films.
These major problems stem from, I think, the fact this film never had to go through the paring-down process that the original did: here, George Lucas was given a 115-million-dollar budget and absolute autonomy. He didn't have to think about how he might condense the movie down to something which was, if on less of an epic scale, a more solid and substantial piece of cinema. So he could go off on tangents like the podrace business or the extended CG action sequences without worrying about trying for more efficient storytelling -- even though the result would've been more powerful.
(For example, if it were up to me I would've of course combined Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan into one character -- but I also would've combined Jar Jar and Anakin into one character, or at least given the role that Jar Jar has in the story entirely over to Anakin. This would've concentrated the movie more on its own main plot centring around the occupation of Naboo, eliminating the Tatooine tangent and allowing us to see more of this occupation that drives the whole film, as well as strengthening the composite character of Anakin by perhaps showing him developing and becoming more capable over the course of the film.)
But though these flaws are important, they are by no means fatal. I'd rate Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace a 2.5 out of 5.
(Episodes II and III are much worse but that's a whole other rant.)
