This Is What We Waited 16 Years For? (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (DVD))

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (DVD)
Date:	24/02/02 (86 review reads)
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The Phantom Menace is the first of three prequels to the Star Wars movies which graced our screens two decades ago. The army of fans which these movies had built up over the years is quite stunning so it is little wonder that the new set would be hyped into oblivion before they hit the screens and of course we all knew they would be huge box office successes.

What I didn't expect is that the first movie was going to be total cr*p.

OK, that may sound a tad harsh but when you consider the amount of hype these got, the source material they had to play with, the money involved, that actors must have been falling over themselves to get in on the act, then the final result is deeply disappointing. Despite all the resources which George Lucas had to play with all this movie did for me was bring up questions...

Where did all the great characters go?
where did the fun go?
Where did the sense of adventure go?
...
..
.
Why the hell after 16 years of waiting are we treated to a movie which has the central theme of a TRADE WAR!?!?

Thats you first clue as to the 'fun factor' of this movie. Economic trade embargos impossed by intergallactic federations is not the stuff of great thrillfests. Political intrigue and skullduggery have their place in movies but they shouldn't be the main focus of a Star Wars movie, and for too long, that is exactly what the main focus of this movie is with the scenes switching to high powered discussions of intergallactic politics. The Phantom Menace is not a great thrillfest, in fact for the first two hours its not really a movie either, but rather a series of elongated scenes which serve to do little but show you glimpses of characters from the original sets of movies like Jabba the Hut and Yoda in all their updated special effects glory. It has all the feel of a movie with a hell of a lot of baggage trying to cover every inch of old ground possible so that it can unload al
l this before the further two movies in the trilogy can actually get on with the business of being entertaining. I hope so, otherwise George Lucas has decided that he would bring us a Star Wars special with walk on parts for all the stars...kinda like one of those charity galas, and its about as interesting which is tragic waste.

I'm purposefully going to leave the plot very vague because to do otherwise would be something of a travesty against those who care and haven't seen this movie yet. Basically the story is set some 40 years before the events of the first Star Wars movie began. We are introduced to a young Obi-Wan Kenobi(Ewan McGregor) in the apprenticeship of the more experienced Qui-Gon Jinn(Liam Neeson) as these two Jedi knights fly to the planet of Naboo in the hope of breaking a trade blockade imposed by the Trade Federation. However, their arrival springs a trap laid by the evil Darth Sidious who is attempting to take over the Galactic Federation and who dogs their path from that point onwards. Naboo is under invasion by an army of droids and the planet's teenage ruler(Natalie Portman) is under threat of death unless she can escape, bringing along her droid R2-D2 amongst others. We are then introduced to Anakin Skywalker(Jake Llyod) on the planet of Tatooine where the the pair are impressed by his displays of 'the force', before more high powered wrangling and back to Naboo for a showdown, whilst Sidious' minion Darth Maul tracks their every step looking for a chance to strike...

The main problem with this movie is that The Phantom Menace has lost so many of the elements which made Star Wars, no matter how camp it was, one of the most loved series of movies ever made. Lucas has forgotten the grand plot, the heroism, the bad guys, the superb characters and the epic grandeur of the original and instead concentrated solely on the special effects. He has associated MORE with BETTER and that is almost always never th
e case in movie land. So much time is spent on the special effects extravaganza that there is no room for character development, no room for storyline even and whilst they may be good, they are not breathtaking as they were in the original because we have seen all this kind of thing before countless times now. Every scene is packed with some kind of digital wossit which is quite awsome to begin with but soon begins to wear rather thin. There is a distinct feeling of 'disconnection' when watching the Phantom Menace, because the human element has been hacked out and replaced by electronic substitutes. When a vast army of droids line up to face Jar-Jar's tribe its not awe-inspiring because we are not looking at human characters, an epic battle between good and evil, but instead a bunch of metalic computerised images against a bunch of bizarre hybrid alien creature computerized images. This isn't a heart in the mouth battle an "oh, nice effects..ZZzzz" battle where its impossible to care about which side wins - the are both cartoons afterall. Turning Star Wars into Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a huge mistake!

That fact alone leads to another big problem with the movie - lack of emotional connection. It is flat, cold and unemotional throughout. Where are the epic battles? The loathsome bad guys? The heros? Star wars may have been corny in its over-the-top grandeur, with its dashing rogue adventurer, enthusiastic idealistic hero, sassy heroine and such like but at least it made you CARE what was happening. The Phantom Menace is so obsessed with showing off its sfx that it puts all this kind of thing to the wayside, leaving its actors to go through the motions and little more. Its impossible to underemphasise the lack of emotion in this movie. There is never even a sense of danger felt throughout the movie. In the pod races vehicle fly around at break neck speeds, smashing into solid rock walls at indescribably velocities and yet Lucas fee
ls the need to pan back so that we can see whatever computerised graphic was driving the pod clamber totally unscathed from the wreckage. The very human stormtroopers are replaced by droids - droids fighting against droids gives you a whole sense of so what? Whoever wins has won nothing, whoever loses has lost nothing...just a little factory time! Droids fighting against humans means that the humans can kill emotionlessly which is conveyed to the watcher as boredom because there is nothing to relate to, no sense of human loss or a reason for caring that the side of right should win through.

In terms of acting, The Phantom Menace is again deeply flawed but through no fault of its cast. Ewan McGregor comes across as a plank rather than a man imbued with 'the force' who will grow up to become erm...well become Alec Gunness I suppose in the Obi-Wan Kenobi role. Could there have been a worse choice to play this guy?! McGregor can not play serious roles, he always looks as if he is about to giggle at something which is hardly what you would expect from this character! Then there's Liam Neeson as the other Jedi Knight who looks more like a vagrant in a potato sack than one of the federations noble warriors. There should be some air of commanding authority exuded by the Jedi, some nobility even, yet these two simply do not cut it. But they are not alone in seeming out of place and disconnected, and you can't blame them when they no doubt spent most of their time conversing with a blue screen before someone added in the special effect later. The original players were enactors of destiny, the balance of power in the known universe lay in their hands, yet all that is gone here, instead people wave light sabres because its expected, mention 'the force' for old times sake and fire lasers at droids. When the bad guy does come on screen then he is certainly one of the more interesting thuggish characters see in a Star Wars movie, but he is afforded
so little screen time that he feels almost like an afterthought; an excuse for the two Jedi knights to swash their buckles for old times sake. Then there's the kid...cute, can't act AT ALL, and totally doesn't fit the part he is meant to be playing. When the two Jedi's start get all excited about him being powerful Jedi material I almost laughed aloud - McCauley Kulkin in Home Alone comes across as being more Jedi material than this dude!

One big question remains though....just who was this movie meant to appeal to? No doubt "everyone" was the answer Lucas wanted to come up with but its tough to say that it does. The political debating which takes up way too much of the movie is going to bore the hell out of kids, it certainly had more than a few squiring around in the theatre I was in, and bored me as an adult too. On the other hand the character of Jar-Jar Binks seems to have been included for no other reason but to keep kids amused, but his jabbering is going to grate on adult's nerves within 2 seconds of screen time. By the end of the movie I just wanted to reach through and throttle the creature - one of the very few emotional connections this movie made with me. I could almost hear the whirring and buzzing of the factory prodution lines churning out Jar-Jar Binks lunch boxes, duvet covers etc. when he hit the screens, but then the constant barrage of new droids etc. gives that "collectables" feel throughout the movie.

My main gripe though is that this movie just doesn't feel like Star Wars, for all the reasons mentioned. In fact, it only BECOMES Star Wars in the closing 20 minutes where there is actually (heaven forbid) some action. Far too much time is spent in inconsequential converations, character introductions and special effects showcasing to make this an interesting movie or even an enjoyable movie. By the hour and a half mark I was ready to get up and leave the theatre, the only reason I d
idn't was because the person I was with was doing the driving and she kept saying "it'll get better, it'll get better" in some vain hope that it might. Well, as it happens the final section is Star Wars, its just an enormous shame that the rest of the movie is so flat and lifeless.

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