Watching the Phantom Menace for what might be the fourth time in my entire life, and I can let bad plotting in a story slide if the action is cool and characters are fun... at least this movie has one of those last two things.
Quigon is merely a stoic exposition machine, Black Mask Obi Wan Kenobi is just the obedient student and a pretty boy, and Jar Jar is.... I guess you can call him Timon, minus being funny and having Pumbaa on his side to make him more interesting.
At least our mannequins standing in for characters until they meet Anakin [the kid is good at this world's equivalent of Go Kart, that sure makes him ideal to pilot a fighter jet and win a battle in his young age along with clumsy oaf on the ground] are not "professionals" making one dumb disastrous decision followed by another and trying to look cool while they do that.
Like the Last Jedi
Question: Do I hate this movie? No, not really. It's not bad as a time consuming activity to watch this thing that pretends to be good.
Hey look; Toad is working under someone who shoots lightning from his hands, lucky for him he'll have to wait one year to know what it's like for him to get hit by lightning.