

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.

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Review © copyright Luke Buckmaster

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