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Review:Star Wars:The Phantom Menance
Is it everything the world has hyped it up to be? Of course not. Is it a good movie? Yeah. Are we (the old school Star Wars fanatics) going to be happy? Not all of us... maybe not even most of us. The thing to remember is that in the last 20 years a lot has changed. Standards have risen, and we've read more into a few simple movies than any of its creators ever imagined. 3 movies that were pretty good. Flawed to be sure, but entertaining. And this movie is no different.
The plot loosely follows a pair of Jedi: The Master (Liam Neeson) and The Apprentice (Ewan McGregor) off to save the planet Naboo. There's a sidetrack to Tatooine where a kid (anakin, duh) is discovered. There's There's some daring do, a big battle scene, intergalactic politics, a kick ass bad guy, and a happy ending with a big question mark.
The movie is a fun ride, but it is flawed. Jar Jar Binks is one of the most annoying charachters to grace the silver screen. But does he ruin the movie? Well... no more than Mark Hamil in Star Wars. Remember that movie? Do you remember how annoying he is? Welcome to George Lucas directing. Annoying charachters just happen to be Lucas's dark side. Frankly I wish he would have been edited out, reduced, or at least given a less obnoxious voice. The whole audience seemed to cringe during any major Jar Jar sequence. It was painful.
But most of the other charachters are pretty cool. Obi Wan and Qui Gonn are both cool. The Queen is pretty excellent (and actually quite believable, except when she's holding her blaster) Anakin seems to be taking a lot of criticism, but he does a good job:a few "Yippees!" and cute little boy facial expressions could have been edited out, but as a whole he does a good job. R2D2 and C3PO are in there and pretty cool. Palpatine is dull and predictable, and Darth Maul- while even more predictable, is truly a joy to watch in battle.
Another common criticism is the mysticism overload. Its definitely there- and some of it is really campy. They've come up with a way to "measure" the force in people. Of course Anakin is off the charts. The worst part is the blatant references to the boy as a messianic charachter inserted so loudly that my brain was realing from the impact. But beyond those 2 glaring flaws, there was a lot of expansion of the Jedi myths that most fans will probably enjoy.
Visually the movie is astounding. Very colorful and detailed. The fx are largely quite astounding. The cursed Jar Jar is well animated in many scenes (less so in others). The senate is visually impressive- definitely added a lot to the political part of the film. The space battles are great.
The fighting rules. Watching Maul do battle with a pair of skilled Jedi is just awesome. That alone is worth the price of admission. Obi Wan vs. Darth Vader and Luke vs. Darth Vader is nothing compared to this.
So does Lucas have his masterpiece? No. Does he have a good movie? Yeah. And will he learn and round out his trilogy with a pair of stronger "Jar Jar Free" movies. God I hope so. But who am I kidding, I'll be there even if the second movie is "Jar Jar's Revenge".
I liked Episode One. However, in mediating our expectations, we are told that we should remember that Episode One is "only a movie." If it was "only a movie", it would have been great! However, it is "not quite a movie." Things it functions well as:
:) And I still prefer the SW universe to the Star Trek Universe. :)
a) Commercial for action figures
b) Commercial for the upcoming Nintendo pod-racing game
c) VR Star-Tours-type ride at disney land
d) Teaser for Episodes Two and Three
Episode One is all these things, but it's less than a movie. If it had come out in '86, it would have been an interesting addition to the saga. However, after 16 years, I was hoping for a good, self-contained movie, and I couldn't help but think that all I got was "a special-effects extravaganza based on the Star Wars mythology." But perhaps this is just a slow puitch to generate merchandising revenue to finance Episodes Two and Three.
In any case, I am certainly going to see it again.
-Dean
(I'm trying to keep it spoilerless, but no guarantees.)
Even in my younger days I knew the Trilogy had flaws. I mean, the Death Star gets taken out, along with what must easily be a few hundred million occupants ("heading for that small moon"), after rescuing exactly ONE falsely imprisoned civilian from cell block 2187 (meaning cell blocks 1 - 2186 were full). Nobody bats an eye. Everyone CHEERS. It's never explained how many planets had to be mined dry to come up with enough metal to build that thing.
Luke Skywalker drives us NUTS with his whining, all through SW and Empire. C3PO takes the whining and doubles it through SW and Empire and even Jedi for good measure.
We have to sit and WAIT through most of Star Wars for the action to get underway - watching those two hunks of junk wandering around the desert, listening to Luke whine, watching Luke eat dinner, watching Luke stare at the sunset, etc.
Do we now complain about the lack of character development? Obi-Wan was underdeveloped well up until Jedi where he finally explains his motivations to Luke (until then he's just the generic old guy). Chewbacca was NEVER really developed. Leia's 'princessness' is never explained. Boba Fett has six lines. And there's a million generic characters. Didn't stop me from watching ANH about 70 times. Didn't stop some of you from watching it several HUNDRED times.
Do we now complain about the pace? We watch people wander the desert in ANH, wander the tundra and wander the worm stomach in Empire, and wander the woods in Jedi. Didn't stop us from watching these movies enough times over to put them all in the top 10 grossing films of all time.
Do we complain about Jar Jar? Only if we also complained when Luke Skywalker did the same sorts of things. And Jar Jar actually has some character development - so if you complained about the lack of character development, stop complaining about Jar Jar. He has a REASON to be there - he provides a conversation piece for some of the characters (getting Anakin and Amidala talking), he provides the link to the Gungans, and he provides us with a focus inside the battle later on (nowhere else in the saga do we have a battle shown "third person" without one of the heroes actually in it). And those who say "Jar Jar should die" - yes, it would be nice if we could kill everyone in the world who annoys us.
Do we complain about Darth Maul's lack of screen time? Of course - we complained about Boba Fett's lack of screen time, so George gave us 30 seconds more in the remastered ANH, waving to the audience and saying "HI, I'm Boba Fett". Be careful what you wish for.
Do we complain about a certain, shall we say, "microscopic detail" regarding the Force? Sure, I guess we're entitled to complain about anything that makes the Force, or the Saga itself, anything other than what we've convinced ourselves over two decades that it should be. Timothy Zahn gave us something similar (the ysalamiri, animals that can block the Force) and instead of raising a stink, it raised lively debate about what the Force really is and how it works. I think this new revelation makes a GREAT explanation for why strong sensitivity to a ubiquitous energy field is a rather exclusive inherited trait. And it raises more questions than it answers.
Do we complain about Yoda? Yes, and we have every reason to: he looks like they cast another "actor" for the part, he acts like he stuck his lips into the podracer power beam like Jar Jar did, and he sounds like Frank Oz needs to actually WATCH Empire and remember how to do the voice. And his dialogue is some of George's finest - "more have you to say?" This complaint I grant you - but for all we know, he might "change" in the next two films to become older, his eyes might bug out more, his voice could deepen, and he might get off the painkillers, leaving him more like the Yoda we remember. Conversely, if TPM is the first movie you ever see of the saga, later Yodas won't seem quite right either.
Do we complain about the Nimoudians and how easily they were defeated? Remember what the film is REALLY about - and who was calling the shots in the blockade - they were never SUPPOSED to win. Watch the movie. Think about who stood to gain the most from the arrangement.
Do we complain about the kick-ass Jedi action, the adrenalizing 300mph pod race through the canyons, R2D2 cavorting outside the ship, the exquisite Naboo city, the sea monsters, the jawdropping Coruscant cityscape (I think ILM just took back the award for most ships onscreen), the Senate, the seamless droids-walking-among-the-prisoners effects, or the "red shield" thing in the end battle? No, of course not.
Do we complain about the director and how he composed certain shots? Fault his screenwriting and his ability to coax perfect performances out of actors, if you must - but his skill in actually putting pictures on film has NOT been diluted by the passage of time. It is still very much a George Lucas movie; he uses every square inch of the 2.1:1, he has a sense of motion that few directors have, and he approaches the visual effects as "this is the world, I'm showing you how cool it looks" instead of "these are our cool effects".
Complain about the merchandising, if you must - but if Taco Bell ever offers you a few hundred million for the right to advertise your work on a taco wrapper, you'll have to say no.
I admit: I'm an artist, which makes me a primarily visual creature - which means I can be suckered by a visually entertaining movie that lacks a few points in the plot department. But then, Independence Day didn't impress me, so clearly this film has SOMETHING more to offer.
So just shut up, stop looking for things to hate, and go WATCH THE MOVIE A COUPLE TIMES. You learned to tolerate the flaws in the other three, you'll learn to tolerate most of the flaws in this one, and with any luck, eventually you'll learn to appreciate what this film DOES have. Of course, it'll help when the marketing frenzy dies down, and Jar Jar is no longer smiling at you from every product in Wal-Mart.
Besides, if you don't like how George makes movies, make your own.
~ radiographite: art by john shepard