STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 - THE PHANTOM MENACE 1999
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1999 Timothy Voon
3 out of 4 for Lucas' extravaganza
Cast: Liam Neeson; Ewan McGregor; Jake Lloyd; Natalie Portman; Ahmed Best; Pernilla August; Ian McDiarmid; Ray Park; Samuel L. Jackson; Oliver Ford Davies; Terence Stamp; Frank Oz; Kenny Baker; Anthony Daniels Director: George Lucas Screenplay: George Lucas
In arguably the most anticipated movie this century, George Lucas has achieved a very mixed reaction to a sure blockbuster. Despite the fact the script and plot is a bit of a let down, the entire movie on the whole can be considered a milestone in technical excellence, in the sound and special effects department.
In terms of characters, by far the most outstanding and interesting is Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), whose mature performance far exceeds her tender 14 years of age. She is one ‘hot' babe who defines true ‘woman leadership'. She not only has a presence, but knows how to take command of the situation and save her planet from ruination. No thanks to the Jedi Knights who although led by the Force, lack leadership qualities in terms of thinking up a plan to do anything.
The young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) who has a bad hair day in every scene, gets to kill a bad guy in the end, but lacks a love interest to make him a desirable sort of hero. In fact all the Jedi Knight are a bit asexual - there must be something about the Force which makes them all hermits and loners. I mean it would be interesting to see Yoda's girlfriend for a change, if he has one. Not much better is Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) who mostly broods, and has a better hair do than Obi-Wan, but only to find the young Anakin Skywalker and make the biggest mistake of his life.
Also fascinating is George Lucas ‘Metoclorian' theory, which claims that micro-organisms live within our cells and tie us to the fabric of the universe. And it is the high concentrations of these organisms in an individual which make them particularly powerful in the Force. More humerous are the claims to the immaculate conception of Darth Vader, no doubt a concept stolen from the Christian faith, except there will be no Christmas to celebrate the birth of this dark emissary of the Force.
Overall an experience which is not to be missed because of the very fact that it's predecessor almost command a viewing of this inferior successor. By all means not the pinnacle of the Star Wars phenomena but an adequate addition to the clan. Watch out for the next one, it should be one steamy encounter between Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker - who I believe should be portrayed by … Leonardo Di Caprio.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
Movie Archives http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon
Movies In Melbourne
http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~pfowler/week/movies.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews