STAR WARS EPISODE 1 : THE PHANTOM MENACE
Dir : George Lucas
Starring : Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best

As many have said, this is the most anticipated movie of the year. There was a lot of hype in the beginning and now there are a lot of bad reviews. I, myself, am a fan, but not a fanatic. I was as eager to see this movie, as any other movie I'm interested in. But because of its popularity, there was a lot more exposure. I was able to read the screenplay, view lots of stills and watch a lot of the behind the scenes stuff before actually seeing the movie. So what did I think of it? Well, the hype was definitely too much. Which made fans have very high expectations. I must admit, I myself had high expectations for this movie. And that's where all the bad reviews come in.

The movie isn't neccessarily bad. But there are things viewers have to realize. The first, is that George Lucas had no one breathing down his neck (which is good and bad). So the movie is completely his. No matter what anyone says, he had complete control. So it is HIS movie! Secondly, we must remember that this is one part of a trilogy, and a back story to the original trilogy. I expected some things to be left unresolved, and some characters to remain in the background at this point. You can only do so much in 2 hours. (Movie runs a little over 130 minutes.)

The story : Well, as this is setting up Anakin to become Darth Vader, it was a good beginning to introduce him as well as (I guess I should say reintroduce) the Star Wars galaxy. The movie follows a similar set up as Return of the Jedi. It opens with a rescue, there is a revalation of sorts, they devise a strategy to defeat the bad guys, and it all ends with a fight in three different parts : on the ground to destroy the invading army with help from the local primitives, in space to destroy the controlling mechanism of the invading droids (and the way it must be done in similar fashion as the attacks on the Death Stars), and of course, the light saber duel between the Jedi and the Sith.

I'll sort of skip summarizing the plot because you can pretty much find it anywhere on the net and the screenplay and novelization are out as well.

The most interesting part of the story were the religious analogies. It's funny how the Force was referred to as a sort of religion in "A New Hope." Lucas brings into the story a "prophesy of one who will bring balance to the force." A boy, who's conception is unknown, is thought to be the "one." His mother doesn't know how he was conceived. Qui-Gon thinks he may have been conceived by the midi-chlorians (they're supposedly in all living things' blood and are what bind life to the Force; the higher the count, the more in tune with the Force a being is). His mother is left behind but accepts the leaving of her one and only son because he has a "greater destiny." Qui-Gon tells Anakin that nothing happens by chance. A council of 12 Jedi question and test the boy. These are interesting analogies.

The good : It was nice to see the same beginning and endings. Lucas used the same fonts and the same coloring of the type (blue for the "A long time ago...," yellow for the opening roll, and blue again for the end credits). He did the same pan of the camera downward after the opening roll. That of course gives off that familiar feeling. Throughout the movie, you not only see some familiar characters (like Jabba the Hut, the Wookies, the Sand People, Jawas, Yoda), but are introduced to some interesting new ones as well. The visuals were a treat. They've created some very nice backdrops as well as visual effects.

The sound, as always, is superb. The familiar sound of ships going into light speed, the speeders whizzing by, lasers firing about, and of course, the sound of the light sabers. The score was awesome as well. You even get a treat with a hint of the Imperial March hidden within a scene of Anakin's. And the "Duel of the Fates," played in the final act worked perfectly.

One of the best things in all of the Star Wars movies is Lucas' use of foreshadowing. And there were quite a few here, both in visuals and in some great scenes of dialogue. We already know that Anakin and Amidala will marry and from them Luke and Leia will be born. And we know that Anakin will become Darth Vader. But Lucas reinforces those points with some great scenes. There are a few scenes with Anakin and Padme (later revealed as Amidala) interacting. You can already sense the romance beginning. Yoda is very unsure of Anakin. He is doubtful of the boy. At the victory ceremony, Senator Palpatine (who will become Emperor Palpatine) says that they'll be "keeping on eye" on Anakin's future career. And finally, Yoda and Mace Windu discuss how with the Sith there are "always two...no more, no less" and wonder if it was the Master or the Apprentice that was killed...and as they say this, the shot falls on Palpatine. Will he be the next apprentice of Darth Sidious, or is he in truth Sidious?

My favorite scene (and worth the price of admission and the hour wait before the movie) was the final light saber duel. The only visual surprise in the movie (if you've seen the trailers), there was a lot more to it than what was expected. Ray Park (Darth Maul) really had a chance to show off his martial arts skills.

The bad : I had one main problem (I had some small problems here and there, but only one major one). And that is the tempo of the movie. The first two-thirds of the movie don't flow well at all. The beginning is too slow and too much information is crammed into it. This is supposed to be a back story to the original trilogy, but from the beginning, you're thrown into a story that has already begun, and you feel that there's another back story to this one. A conspiracy is brewing, but you have no idea who's behind it and why. I believe that this will be explained in the next episode, but it was introduced too fast in this one that you're left asking for an explanation.

The final act is the only one that works well. It flows perfectly (mostly because it's so identical to Return of the Jedi's ending). The beginning and middle of the movie move very fast from one place to another, from one scene to another. When you're introduced to a new place, Lucas sets up these great visuals, but cuts away from them abruptly. I was hoping for something like that of the Special Edition scenes of Luke and Ben riding into Mos Eisly, or of the Milennium Falcon flying into Cloud City.

Of course, there's so many main players in this movie, that there's not enough time to flesh all of them out. Many of the characters remain in the background. This movie is focused more on Qui-Gon than anyone, and his character does have moments to express what he's like. But some parts, such as his rebellious nature is only shown in two scenes, and in those, it is only briefly touched upon. However, his character has more persona than that of his apprentice, Obi-Wan, who does nothing but stand at his master's side and obey his every command until the end of the movie. Anakin is pretty well developed through the movie. However, like the tempo of the movie, Jake Lloyd's acting shifts too quickly. Sometimes it seems natural, then he changes his demeanor so quickly, that it looks like he's trying too hard.

Except for the final light saber duel, there are no more visual surprises if you've seen the trailers. All the main highlights (visually) are in the trailers. The light saber duel is the only thing that has something fresh to offer. But even that has problems. I'm a big fan of action movies, especially Hong Kong actioners. So I've seen the best martial arts movies. Lucas needs a better 2nd Unit Director. The choreography was superb. It was some of the best I've seen. But the camera angles were waaaayyy off! He comes in too close at times and pans too far at others. The camera is sometimes placed at an angle where one fighter (or usually a saber) is blocking the the other fighter so you cannot see what's happening. With the choreography that was done here, it's a waste to be unable to see clearly what's going on. The final act is the only one that works well. It flows perfectly (mostly because it's so identical to Return of the Jedi's ending). The beginning and middle of the movie move very fast from one place to another, from one scene to another. When you're introduced to a new place, Lucas sets up these great visuals, but cuts away from them abruptly. I was hoping for something like that of the Special Edition scenes of Luke and Ben riding into Mos Eisly, or of the Milennium Falcon flying into Cloud City.

The final bad point is the overuse of the clumsy and sheer luck factor. Jar Jar bumbles around throughout the whole movie, causing problems as well as unwittingly helping. His accidents happen too often for them to be chance. But then again, as Qui-Gon says, "Nothing happens by chance." Then of course, Anakin saves the day by accident. He accidentally gets involved in the space battle, accidentally crashes inside the Trade Federation Battleship, then accidentally fires at the main reactor.

The ugly : Jar Jar Binks. Sad to say, he gets very annoying after a while. And not just him, but most of the major alien races as well. It's the accents. As I said earlier, too much information was crammed into the beginning, and it didn't help that the intro dialogue was given by the Neimoidians who have a thick Chinese accent making them very hard to understand. Boss Nass, the leader of the Gungans, has the same accent as Jar Jar and both are hard to understand. And with Jar Jar being a main character, it's not very fun trying to figure out what he's saying. The other thing is the humor...it's very out of place in this movie. Half of it works and the other half definitely doesn't. This is where I agree with critics that Lucas needed someone to edit the script and eliminate a lot the unneccessary humor. Most revolve around Jar Jar, and seem to be aimed at amusing kids (as they were the only ones who found it funny while I was watching). It was bad, even for a kid's movie it would be bad. The time used to insert those scenes could've been used better by fleshing out more of the story and the characters.

I know I've mentioned probably more bad points that good ones, but I did enjoy the movie. It still is one of the better ones I've seen so far this year, and I am eager to see the next episode.

-JoE-
©1999 JMR