Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

reviewed by
Luke Buckmaster


STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE Cast: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Oliver Ford Davies, Terence Stamp, Pernilla August, Frank Oz, Ahmed Best, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Ray Park Director: George Lucas Screenplay: George Lucas Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster

On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 2 stars

I'm convinced that George Lucas is not the same acute, sharp-witted and earnest-to-goodness Star Wars creator that perhaps he was twenty years ago. Either that, or he has become so infatuated with his phenomenally successful franchise that he has lost the sense of what it takes to make a good movie. Thin representations and special effects have replaced three-dimensional characters and an exciting story line, so the result is a package that is visually impressive but ultimately soulless. Under pressure, George Lucas has succumbed to the dark side of formulaic filmmaking.

To be fair, anything that he created would have been criticized in some way. After all, how can the most hyped film in history live up to its expectations? Simply, it can't, but The Phantom Menace is a great disappointment because it is ridden with elements that the other Star Wars films generally avoided: a cliché script, wooden performances and style over substance direction. Granted, there are some very nice touches in the film, but relatively every moment is over-worked by Lucas' intrusive direction and John Williams' excellent but often overpowering score. When the movie starts and that familiar text and audio begins, I'm sure that many viewers will feel the same kind of adrenaline rush and excitement that I felt. It is wonderful to feel like a kid again, and this is the tactic that Lucas effortlessly uses to immediately captivate his audience. He sets us up, and all he has to do is knock us down. Easy, right? Wrong.

The plot synopsis of The Phantom Menace reads a lot like a Star Trek film: Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his faithful apprentice Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) are sent as ambassadors to negotiate between The Trade Federation and Naboo, which is ruled by Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman). The negotiations do not go well, and the two Jedi's soon find themselves rescuing Amidala from capture. Escaping from the clutches of robots and a strange alien race, the Jedi's flee to the desolate planet of Tattoine and damage their ship in the process. When he tries to buy spare parts from a shady salesman, Qui-Gon meets a young boy named Anakin (Jake Lloyd). He senses that the force (for those who don't know, is the almighty power "that binds the galaxy together") is unusually strong will Anakin, and bargains for the boy as well as parts for their ship to fly home.

Predictably, our heroes encounter some distractions on their mission to protect the queen. Qui-Gon accidentally saves the life of a fish/bird-like creature named Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), who is dedicated to saving his life in return; Anakin volunteers himself to partake in a high stakes "pod race;" and Darth Maul (Ray Park), the evil apprentice to Darth Sidious (Peter Serafinowicz), is intent on wiping out the Jedi.

Yes, the special effects are state-of-the-art, but contrary to many reports I don't think that they're the best we've ever seen. On many occasions the vivid and obvious computer animation works to the film's disadvantage, making it look like a sort of spectacular light show rather than an exhilarating movie experience. The pod race scene is too long and predictably staged. It bears very loose similarities to the forest chase scene in Return of the Jedi, but this one is entirely derivative. By far the best moment that The Phantom Menace has to offer comes towards its completion, in which the two Jedi's face off against Darth Maul. It's a riveting and exciting high in the film, but even here Lucas doesn't manipulate his material to good effect. Instead of pacing the scene well and building momentum and suspense, he continually cuts to different scenes and plays Williams' score at a distracting sound level. This light saber duel is spectacularly shot but its editing is too tight and rigid.

Also lacking in The Phantom Menace is a spectrum of intriguing characters. Whilst Queen Amidala is convincingly played by Natalie Portman, whose dialogue helps her come across as a wise leader, almost everybody else (and their characters) fall short. This is primarily due to the film's script (also by Lucas) which under-develops its characters, and implies their personalities rather than examines them. Darth Maul was a potentially menacing enemy but he barely speaks a word, so his costume design is as frightening as he gets. There's also that hideously annoying creature, Jar Jar Binks, who is obviously marketed towards those whose shoe size exceeds their age. A lovable and fun character like Han Solo is sorely missed, as is a truly sinister bad guy like Darth Vader.

Occasionally, The Phantom Menace reveals Lucas' infinitive vision of the Star Wars universe with imagination and color. But he is a pretentious filmmaker, who seems to think that he can throw absolutely anything into a movie so long as it has a Star Wars label to it. What else could explain this film's obvious parallels to Christianity, ranging from a virgin birth to the freeing of slaves. Maybe it's true that the movie will make more sense once the rest of the series has been completed, but I saw precious few things in the film that reminded me of the wonder and inspiration that the original Star Wars series evoked. The Phantom Menace misses out on the sense of adventure of A New Hope, the emotional resonance of The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi's highly satisfying climax. It's a star wars film, sure, but The Phantom Menace feels like a video game that you just can't get properly working, no matter how much money you put into it.


Review © copyright Luke Buckmaster

Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia
http://infilmau.iah.net

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