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Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (115 - 117 of 166 Reviews)

Keep telling yourself, "It's only a movie.... "

Okay, folks - settle down. It's not the Second Coming and it's not the end of cinema as we know it. It is a prequel that feels especially dependent on its sequels (made and unmade) for interest. Set 30 years before the events that unfold in the much-loved STARS WARS trilogy, it chronicles the deprived childhood of Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who grows up to be Darth Vader, and the travails of teen Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) of Naboo, who must save her planet from destruction while weighed down by a series of brow-burdening headdresses. In Amidala's corner: Jedi knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his cheeky apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who will, of course, mature into Luke Skywalker's wise mentor. Against her: devilish-looking Darth Maul (Ray Parks), a passel of toad-like aliens who take their marching orders from Maul's hooded boss, and the apparently benevolent Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who must be two-faced scum because he's due to metamorphose somewhere down the line into the Emperor of the evil Empire. There's plenty to look at: The movie's crammed with goofball aliens, futuristic hardware and elaborate costumes, some of them truly stunning in their intricacy. The lumbering banality of the dialogue, ameliorated in places by the efforts of actors like Neeson and McGregor, is painful but hardly unexpected - the trilogy is full of wince-inducers. But it's a bit disturbing that along with the simplistic heroics of old-fashioned space operas, this film has also picked up their unexamined racism: Why, for example, do the duplicitous toad aliens speak and dress like Chinese people? And how did comic-relief Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), a lizard-like creature notable for his affable cowardice, come to sound Rastafarian? It's a kiddie movie rejiggered for childish grown-ups, of whom there are enough to make it a hit. How such childishness has become a virtual secular religion is hard to imagine, and far beyond the scope of movie criticism.

What happened here?
This had the potential to be soooo good, and yet, for many loyal fans, it was a letdown. I remember hearing that they were going to make prequels, and being so excited. Having been born far too late the see the original theatrical releases of the original triogy, I had to be content with seeing the Special Editions. When I saw this movie I was 9, so I thought it was really great. However, now I realize that there were serious problems with this movie. First, Amidala- she had great style, but compared to Princess Leia, she was a wimp. None of the characters from the original seemed to be the same, and some of the new ones were not quite up to par: Jar-Jar- what was up with him? Did we really need him there? Plus, Anakin struck me as way too innocent for a 9-year-old boy growing up in one of Tatooine's spaceports. None of the story seemed to have a point, except to have Anakin meet his future wife. However, there were some good things about it. First, the special effects were excellent. Not quite as good as in later Star Wars movies, but excellent. Second, Darth Maul. He was the only new addition that seemed worthy of being called Star Wars. He was nowhere near as good as Darth Vader, but that was because he didn't try to be. He was his own villian, and it woked perfectly. I've never seen anyone use a lightsaber like that before, like it was part of him, not just a weapon. Episode I's lightsaber fight is arguably the best one in all 6 movies. Other than that, it's not really worth it. 1 star for Darth Maul and the lightsaber fight, one for the special effects, and one simply because it's Star Wars, not that it's worthy of the name

The Atrocity Exhibition
So a long, long time ago, in a Galaxy far away, we are told, a young boy, a promising child, steeped in the ways of the Force though ignorant of his destiny, was born to a slave-mother on a backwater desert world.

Now: imagine it is 1998. Imagine yourself flush with excitement, coming down off the adrenaline rush of seeing the then merely-remastered (and slightly tinkered-with) original trilogy making a triumphal theatrical run. Imagine the fever-dream of possibilities: the arid, dream-killing landscape of Tatooine, the nascent, frightening power of a small boy, a Power that could still be turned to the Force, should only his Jedi minders find him before the Forces of the Sith did.

Imagine the coming of the Darkness; the lengthening of the Shadow. Imagine what "The Phantom Menace"---promisingly, pulpily titled---could have delivered.

Then cry in Despair, O Prince, to see what atrocity shambled forth, weep bitter tears in the bleak, cold, hard face of What Might Have Been, gaze upon what issued forth from Lucas's gaping maw to strut and fret its our upon the Stage. But mainly to Fret.

So take what the fans want: blackhearted, dastardly Sith villains, including the war-faced Darth Maul; epic light saber duels between the frantic Jedi and their Sith adversaries; and hopefully a close-encounter with the brooding child who would grow up to stalk the gantry stations of many a cringing Rebel base as Darth Vader.

What did Lucas serve up: he gave Darth Maul perhaps 3 seconds of screen time, flushed him down the cinematic equivalent of a commode (sliced neatly in half, no less, just when the movie had ratcheted up some dramatic tension), and devoted the rest to Jar-Jar Binks, and his entire misbegotten race of pseudo-Rastafarian gob-stopper slinging toads. After Phantom Menace, I gained a newfound appreciation for the Imperial "Humans Only" rule.

Oh, and there's Jake Lloyd as Little Darth. Who amongst us can forget Jake Lloyd?

Yes---some would counter, rightly, that Lucas offered us something new in the realm of digital effects. But special effects should *accentuate* the drama, not supplant it.

It does have a nice soundtrack, though, and the DVD serves as a funky frisbee.

JSG

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