Minor spoilers below....
Rating: 4 of 4 stars.
I saw this film at 6:30am before work, so there were only 12 people in the theater. I felt silly entering, but upon exiting realized I saw the film the way it should be seen: with no distractions. In summary, I felt the film was nothing short of spectacular. Does the film have flaws? Of course it does, as does most films. But remember what you're going to see when you enter the theater: you want to be swept away and entertained. You're NOT looking for character development and first rate acting. This is the biggest flaw with movie critism today: reviewing a movie based on a generalized perception of all movies rather than reviewing it based on it's intentions.
The goal of this movie is to etertain you not by challenging your intellect, but to thrill you with action, plot, and special EFX. It certainly delivers on all three. While the movie does have some elements specifically for children, being an adult, I never felt insulted or uncomfortable. I believe George Lucas tried to please as many people as he could, but I take my hat off to the man: you could tell he did it the way he wanted to.
Basically, the plot involves the military blockade of a planet in a Republic in a time of political turmoil. The Queen of the planet Naboo is being forced by the Trade Federation to sign a treaty with them over the taxation of trade routes to the planet. But she will not sign. Little does everyone know that the Trade Federation is being commanded by the mysterious Lord Sidious, who appears throughout the film (only to them) as a holographic image. His identity is secret, but one thing I noticed in the film is that it isn't really to hard to figure out whom he is. Listen closely to what he says during his scenes, and what plays out before and after his scenes. Two Jedi knights, who are protectors of peace in the galaxy, are dispatched by the Chancellor of the Republic to mediate the dispute. When Sidious finds out they're coming, he orders an excellerated invasion of Naboo, and sentences the Jedi to death. He then dispatches his disciple, Darth Maul, as muscle to kill them. Maul is incredibly underused in the film, considering the marketing of him in all forms of media. He has 3 lines and about 10 minutes of screen time. I found this puzzling, but my conjecture is that he might be frightening to very small children.
The Jedi rescue the queen on the planet below and go to the planet Tatooine for parts, where they meet enslaved Anakin Skywalker (who will become Darth Vader in later films). One of the elder Jedi (Liam Neeson) feels he's The Chosen One, a powerful being who will balance the force between good and evil.
Then the action shifts to the Republic planet of Coruscant, where the Chancellor bickers will all forms of alien life (including the Federation beings) over the taxation and blockade of Naboo. There, we meet a Senator Palpatine (played very well by Ian McDiarmid), who is trying all he can to help the Queen present her case to the Republic Senate. He advises her to vote "no confidence" to the chancellor, and in effect getting himself the Chancellorship.
Finally, we travel back to Naboo where the invasion is in full swing and the occupants of Naboo team up to stop it. This ending involves 4 different storylines edited within one and other quickly cut to give the impression of it happening all at once, which is very effective. In one line, the Queen is trying to capture the Viceroy of the Federation, who is holled-up in her palace. In another, there is a space assault to small the contol of the battle droids that invade on the planet below, which is the third storyline. Finally, Darth Maul comes to Naboo to kill the two Jedi masters in a fantastic two-on-one fight scene.
The action scenes are impressive, especially the computer generated armies of battle androids. There are litterally thousands of them on screen at one time, facing an army of computer generated Gungans, who are natives on Naboo. The CGI graphics are absolutely seamless. I think what we are seeing here is the future of film: being able to duplicate or create absolutely anything.
The plot will please adults, but confuse children. The politics of the blockade, the Republic Senate scene, and all scenes with Lord Sidious and the Viceroy are very complex and must be paid attention to, lest you should become lost.
Finally I'll touch on the performances. The always reliable Liam Neeson brings stateliness to his role as Senior Jedi. His character gives the impression that he's in total control of everything, even when we know he's not. Ewan McGregor, also suprisingly underused until the end, does very well as Obi-wan Kenobi, who's played later by Alec Guiness the Star Wars movies from years ago. He impersonates Guiness intonation and delivery, which I didn't feel was necessary. Natalie Portman's gotten mixed reviews as the Queen, but I felt she did very well in her scenes bringing regalness and compassion, where necessary. The boy, played by Jake Lloyd, doesn't fare quite as well, only hitting the mark about 50% of the time. Sometimes he's good, sometime's he's bad. I feel that when he's bad it's not all his fault: some of his lines must've been written by a boy his age, it seems. I'd say the film's greatest fault (not that you'd notice it) is the dialogue. Great actors Samuel Jackson and Terence Stamp have cameos as a senior member of the Jedi council and the Republic Chancellor, respectively. They bring a bit of class to the movie, albeit a small dose. There is a computer generated character called Jar-Jar Binks, who is a Gungan. He looks like a rabbit and serves as comic relief. MUCH has been written about his being geared towards children and how annoying that can be. I didn't feel he was all that bad, one of the reasons being you cannot understand his accent of English (yes, most of the aliens speak English, another eyebrow raiser) most of the time. Speaking of accents, I'll close by saying that the aliens are all based on racial stereotypes, when they certainly didn't have to be, given the imagination of Lucas. The Federation Viceroy is obviously Oriental, down to his eyes and robes. Yet the other Federation aliens don't have the accent. Watto, the Tatooine junk-deal who's enslaved Anakin, is somewhat Jewish. The Gungans are based on Jamacians, given their pidgin English. Picture an alien with long ears and bell-bottom pants saying "Weesa no like the Naboo. Theysa think deysa better dan us." Enough said. This doesn't detract from the movie, but still I noticed it.
A fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon with your kids, or your friends. You won't be disappointed.
Edward W. Morris, Jr.
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