Join us as we begin our journey to a galaxy

far, far away and visit Star Wars The Phantom Menace, exploring

and debating the questionable choices George Lucas made

as the writer and director of the first prequel film. We'll talk

about The Phantom Menace characters and cast a bit, how

The Phantom Menace ending takes the audience on an emotional

rollercoaster, and as always give our Force Fed Sci-Fi rating.

Production and Pre-Production Topics

While George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope and it turned out relatively decent, he came back and decided to write and direct the first of the prequel films. Simply enough, he did not create a good film.

He had not directed for quite some time and decided to put his hand on all aspects of the film. Is that such a smart way to do things? We think it would have been better if there was a bit more teamwork involved with the creation of this film and actually considering others' opinions and/or getting second opinions.

Other Directors Were Asked, But Why Didn't They Take on The Phantom Menace?

There were actually a few great directors out there that George Lucas went to in order to ask if they would be willing to direct The Phantom Menace. One of those being long-time collaborator of Lucas, Steven Spielberg. The other two that were approached included Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis. All of them supposedly told Lucas he should direct it. In addition, it did seem the others had other projects on hand. If they did tell Lucas to direct it himself, we wonder if they regret their decision. Would this film had turned out better in the end if somebody else directed it?

Filming On Location Versus Using Computer Graphics

One bright spot to note as far as pre-production and production topics go, is the fact that there were some on-location scenes filmed. The Tunisian Desert was used for Tatooine as it was previously in the Star Wars franchise, along with a palace in Italy serving as the Naboo Palace, and finally the forest scenes being filmed at a Cassiobury Park in England.

On the other hand, this film was the beginning of the excess use of CGI in the Star Wars prequel films. While the other two seemed to have a lot more CGI than the first, The Phantom Menace still overuses this type of technology.

The Phantom Menace Characters and Casting

Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn. Liam Neeson and his character were one of the brighter spots in this film we thought. We come to care about him and plays out the role pretty well. However, in regards to the character itself (which isn't Neeson's fault), we think that as the leader in most of the film he doesn't make the wisest of choices. Qui-Gon just believes Watto that he's the only one in town that owns the part their ship needs. In addition, he takes a huge risk betting the Naboo ship in favor of Anakin winning the pod-race.

Despite Qui-Gon's faults, we unfortunately come to care about the character who ends up losing his life at the end. We shouldn't be surprised though,