From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 11 15:36:00 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Matt Prigge Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 7 May 1999 05:28:26 GMT Organization: None Lines: 242 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7gttlq$k4a$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: chandlerb@geocities.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer18.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926054906 20618 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18139 Keywords: author=prigge X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer18.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17343 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2286 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:287411 STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1999 Ted Prigge Writer/Director: George Lucas Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Pernilla August, Ray Park, Samuel L. Jackson, Terence Stamp, Olvier Ford Davies, Ahmed Best, Frank Oz, Kenny Jones, Anthony Daniels, Warwick Davis, Brian Blessed How the hell do I even write this review? That's been the question on my mind ever since I became a critic, as amateur as I am, since the announcement that a new Star Wars film came out long before I even began to write these things. I'm a Star Wars fan, I may admit it; though I'm not a "die hard fan" (amongst the scariest people in the world, I assure you...though a quaint second compared to Star Trek fans), and because of this personal problem, I have a huge bias against judging this film on a fair basis. I love the other three, though hardly on equal levels, and would easily and without much trepidation award each of them the coveted four star rating - yes, even 'Jedi' - but how does one even begin to put into logical order the thoughts concerning the viewing of the newest installment in this saga, let alone the first in nearly 16 years? I pictured early drafts of this review that would lapse into considerable amounts of hyperbole, virtual years before seeing the actual movie, and I swore tonight, a mere hour after leaving the theater, that I would: a) write the review and get it out there before I passed out from fatigue; and b) try not to do what I feared I would do under pressure. But though the temptation may have been strong to over-dramaticize the greatness thereof before, it's remarkably easy not to after actually having seen it. As people talked about how incredible it was on the way out, remarked about the action sequences with flustered enthusiasm, and already began speculated about the way everything we saw is incorporated with the other three, I kept a mild and reserved contain on my emotions. A big grin plastered on my face, not merely because I had actually seen the most anticipated movie of all time two weeks before it is released to the general public in America (a feat I am almost certain I would have been killed for, or at the very least tortured inhumanely for), but also because it did in fact work for me. Thanks to several unexpected disappointments within the past couple years with highly anticipated movies that had actually blown, I made a conscious decision, say about six months ago, to not get too pumped up for any movie (and this includes new films from the likes of Greenaway, Egoyan, and Leigh), and thus lessen the impact of disappointment on me. Instead of building this new film up to be the Most Incredible Motion Picture Experience Or Else, I kept a handle on things, and by walking into the movie, I was more excited about actually being there, seeing a big exec from 20th Century Fox in person, et. al., than I was about the fact that what would unfold in front of me in a very short amount of time was yet another movie in the saga that is the most embraced cinematic saga of all time, and a personal favorite of mine. I was prepared for the mediocre, to put it bluntly. That may have backfired on me though. Instead of either really loving it above all or hating it above all, I just really liked it. I sat there watching the movie, nearly forgot that it was a Star Wars movie from time to time, and was just really entertained. The story was well told, the characters were for the most part nicely drawn, and the action was phenomenal. Even the CGI effects, which I swore would be its downfall (I mean, it looks so...fake...), worked extremely well and didn't bother me for a second. So in short, very recommended. But my big problem is this: do I really like it because I wasn't expecting much and it delivered more than I thought it would; and if so, am I sure this movie isn't really the mediocre mess my friend made it out to be (a non-Star Wars fan, for the record, who must be glad I haven't targeted him for scorn in this)? There were things that bugged me, namely the fact that instead of running smoothly like the other three, it seems to have adopted an ebb-n-flow technique that isn't incredibly satisfying, at least not as satisfying as it should be. It introduces elements to us that are terrific and mesmerizing in theory, but does it work as a whole in execution? I'd answer that with a reasonable "sort of, for the most part." Looking at the plot structure of the film from afar makes it sound incredibly incredible. The Federation may be overtaking the Republic with an illegal attack that may run its course due to corrupt politicians and legal technicalities. The Queen of the Republic of Naboo is saved by two Jedi Knights who stop by Tatooine on the voyage to safety due to a damaged ship and stumble upon no less than Annakin Skywalker at the ripe age of about eight. He helps them in their current predicament, gains their trust, and the fact that he is a Jedi is made known to everyone. The rest is, of course, predictable, but just look at the situation, by god. Annakin, the same guy who becomes Darth Vadar even before the original 'Star Wars' (or probably to be forever recognized under the more dour title, 'A New Hope'), becomes the completely ironic hero of the film! Star Wars geeks get to have a field day with this situation! If the most prominently figured character - a Jedi Knight named Qui-Gon Jinn (played marvelously by the ever-reliable Liam Neeson) - is the most wise character in the film, and he fingers Annakin as the messianic one of the Jedis who will bring everything together in peace and harmony, he's in fact dead wrong, isn't he? Or is he? Isn't by training Annakin to become a Jedi Knight only to have him turn to the dreaded Dark Side the good option since his becoming evil actually causes everything to come together so neatly in 'Return of the Jedi?' This is loads of fun to think through, especially for anyone who's ever given any serious thought to the 'Star Wars' saga in terms of novelistic entrapments, but does this automatically make this new film - called 'The Phantom Menace,' by the way, though there doesn't appear to be an 'official official' title for it - a brilliant piece of art? Is it great merely because it comes fourth in being made but first in terms of order, thus giving it a weight it wouldn't have to begin with? Lucas may have stumbled onto something quite clever by making the fourth episode first, but it doesn't automatically make this film anything great. Yet what I admire, perhaps most about this film, is how it doesn't at all play up to this contrivance. There isn't a lot of Lucas pointing out irony here in the delicious situation he's cooked up for us; no clever asides that gawk at the brilliance of himself, how he managed to make an entire movie that could potentially hold onto the reins of the previous moneymaking machines without doing any of the steering for itself. In fact, it seems, quite refreshingly, that Lucas is actually working to make this good. He actually cares about the storyline and isn't automatically set to shoot anything in front of us and feel confident that everyone will like it because it's Star Wars. No, Lucas is the real deal. He doesn't bullshit us with all the work he's done before creating this universe. He makes it all seem incredibly real and fresh and new. In fact, it hardly seems a thing like the other three. The irony is here, not only with Annakin, but with Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), the gentle, kind man who becomes the head of the counsel, but who by the next trilogy becomes the dreaded Emperor who shows up prominently in 'Jedi' and is done away with nicely by Vadar/Annakin (McDiarmid, by the way, is great). This paradox hadn't even occurred to me during the run of the film (though Diarmid also portrays Darth Sidious, who like Emperor Palpatine in the other films, is only seen with a cloak brought down over his head mysteriously), and only afterwards did this hit me. This kind of thing makes me excited, not only because this means we also get to follow his assured path to evil, but because that means this film is for real because it doesn't play it up. Even Annakin isn't overblown. The kid they've chosen to play him, Jake Lloyd, plays him like he was playing just a normal kid who's entranced with everything he sees. There's no sign of Vadar in him yet, and if you hadn't seen the other three (and had subsequently been living on Mars in a cave with fingers placed firmly in ears), you'd have no idea of the tragedy about to ensnare him. That he plays this completely straight is marvelously commendable for anyone else would have wanted to brag about the fact that they've developed something so immensely adroit. For most of it, it's an exciting, engrossing motion picture, mostly because it's slow paced enough to take in the situations and interestingly enough structured. Neeson commands most of the movie, bringing a realistic and natural feel to the first act and it's more standard escape-from-the-bad-guys stuff, and thus to the rest of the movie which plays out a whole lot smoother. In fact, once Annakin has popped up for the first time by around the 40 minute mark, the film begins to really take off. He becomes a source of selfless aid to Neeson and company (including his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi - played with dour temperament by Ewan McGregor - and Queen Amidala - played with reserve, dignity, and head dresses galore by Natalie Portman) during their tenure on Tatooine, and though some of the plot points are contrived (as are their explanations: "Nothing happens by accident." - gimme a break), it at least feels fresh while happening, mostly due to a state of intellectual tension that's there (read: if you think about the fact that if they don't hurry up and get the Queen to her rendezvous, more and more people will die, though they hardly keep reminding you). I was even impressed by the way Lucas seems to purposely gloss over the inclusions of characters from the next trilogy, including a brief appearance by Jabba the Hut, a couple scenes with Yoda (as a senator, walking cane firmly in hand), and introductions to both R2-D2 and C3P0. R2-D2 is even glanced over when he first appears, and C3P0 is given such a brief role that it's refreshing that Lucas didn't pander too much to his audience. The same goes for the inclusion of Samuel L. Jackson and Terence Stamp, two terrific actors given unglamorous cameo-sized roles. Still, a lot of the film feels like it was pasted together out of neat ideas that don't gel terribly well together, something not present in the other films. There's also an odd air of "we should be completely enthralled though we aren't that enthralled" throughout. My reason for this is because, with the exception of Annakin and Qui-Gon Jinn, there's no real source of emotional appeal. Neeson's likable just because he's commanding and wise and confident, and Annakin's likable because Lloyd makes him so darned appealing (also, kudos to Pernilla August for playing his mother so damn well, adding a considerable amount of emotional weight to the film). But most of everyone else is a bit disappointing. Amidala is underwritten, and the same times two goes for Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor turns in a 'not bad but not great either, is it?' performance, consisting of trying too hard to appear like a young Alec Guiness and coming up with vacuousness). The other films, even the first one, had sharply drawn characters that were full of personality if nothing else and only got better as the series went on. With these characters, I doubt much can be done, though. Amidala possesses some of Princess Leia's feistiness from time to time (probably because she's her mother), but she's mostly authoritative and kinda cold; I can already picture her reasons for wanting to marry Anakin in a later episode. And Obi-Wan's future seems painfully clear already: he'll learn more and more and become stern and wise as he gets older. For Annakin, though, it's wonderfully vague. I'm nearly anticipating the second episode already, just so I can see where Lucas takes his character on his journey to assured evil. While this all factors in the fact that I shan't be giving this a four star rating like the other ones (sorry, guys), I was at least totally thrilled with the film's final act, a juxtaposition a la 'Jedi' where three battles go on simultaneously and are shown via cutaways at key moments, that was exciting, filled with originality, and pulse-pounding. The inclusion of the character Darth Maul plays a key role in the impact of this section as he's probably the most incredibly fascinating minor character in the saga since Boba Fett: his face is painted red and black stripes, he has horns on his head that aren't revealed till the finale (and with lots of 'oo's and 'ah's from the audience), and he says all of one or two lines. A mysterious character like this, especially one so menacing, is all this film needs, and his final battle with both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon is nothing short of breathtaking. The orchestra adds choir voices and then pounds away with intensity, the acrobatics and choreography are probably better than the stuff in 'The Matrix,' and there's so much tension, namely in the survival of Qui-Gon, that it's sublime. Only problem is the other two aren't nearly as captivating, though still terrific, and every cutaway is like a massive jolt that lasts until the next time they come back to it. Same thing happened with 'Jedi'; why this structure wasn't avoided at all costs by Lucas is beyond me (well, really not; he probably thinks 'Jedi' is just flawless stuff). But still, this entire section, plus a nifty (and short) denouement cap the film off with an enjoyable feeling, leaving the audience pumped up. And while I left with a big stupid grin on my mouth, the thing I really respected is how divorced this is from the other films. It doesn't try and play like one of those films, and by playing it so differently, the CGI effects actually work. They don't look too unreal, as I feared, but they do give it a whole other feeling that wasn't there in the other films, which relied mostly on puppets and real creations, not CGI. But that all works with this film. The characters seem to have more life in them, and we're able to visit places where more diverse creatures dwell in large numbers. This didn't work at all in the re-releases (where you could visibly tell where they injected CGI), but it works here because it's consistent and clearly defines its reality (the flip-side ot this is it seems to have given Lucas the chance to add broad comedy to the brew - mostly in the form of 'comic relief' Jar Jar Binks - most of which falls flat and proves quite annoying). It'd be nice for a return, just because I prefer the look of those films, but if this is the direction Lucas is taking this trilogy in, I'm glad to follow along. His dialogue may still be shit, and he's lost a bit of his storytelling magic, but 'The Phantom Menace' is at the very least incredibly satisfying, which is commendable since this is, in fact, the most highly anticipated film of all time. It's nice not to be letdown by such a film, even if you have turned skeptical. MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2 Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 18 22:31:19 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Harvey S. Karten" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 13 May 1999 06:03:35 GMT Organization: None Lines: 154 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hdpvn$89e$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer24.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926575415 8494 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18262 Keywords: author=karten X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer24.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17469 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2296 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:289702 STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE--THE PHANTOM MENACE Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. 20th Century Fox Director: George Lucas Writer: George Lucas 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, Adrian Dunbar, Hugh Quarshie, Kenny Baker The plot hasn't the twists and turns of "Goodbye, Lover," the language hasn't the elegance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the pathos of "Cyrano de Bergerac" is lacking and the bon mots wouldn't challenge those of "The Importance of Being Earnest." Yet whether you're an eight-year-old addict of Nintendo or an eighty-year-old peruser of the films of Akira Kurosawa, be prepared to be caught up in the lavish video game that is "Star Wars--Episode 1: The Phantom Menace." While George Lucas's current offering lacks the eye-opening novelty of the first "Star Wars" shown in 1977 and the polished sentimentality of Richard Marquand's "Return of the Jedi" released six years later, this "Star Wars" engages by its sheer variety of characters, many of whom perform in a wonderfully stiff and mechanical style. While there may not be much to the theory that the entire "Star Wars" series possesses mythic resonance, this version, like all others, has its share of warfare, scientific gobbdygook, spirituality and a grandly epic style. One of the scenes--that of a pod race which recalls the writer-director's youth as a racer and fan of hot rods--is as stunning as any car chase you've seen in "Ronin," and one of the characters, Jar Jar Binks, will delight the young 'uns demonstrating more pratfalls than Chevy Chase and a stranger language than Mrs. Malaprop's. Perhaps there's no need to compare 1999 Lucas with the guy that broke new ground twenty-two years ago with the first of the "Star War" series. We've heard that the current offering does not match up to the prototype in terms of plot development and witty interludes, but oh, those special effects! Ninety-five percent of scenes utilize digital creations which in the not-too-distant future could threaten the small percentage of actors that actually can find work in Hollywood. Automation has hit the cinema so hard that theatrical director Gordon Craig's theories could eventually be realized. In the early part of this century, Craig, frustrated that actors constantly thought to exalt themselves by ignoring the director and casting their own impressions on their parts, favored the use of superpuppets, or ubermarionettes. These plastic figures would be capable of carrying out all demands of the director. While Lucas still depends on the voices of real human beings, most of his characters--indeed, the more interesting ones--are played by digital marvels. Still, the 132-minute movie is dominated by four human beings--Liam Neeson as Jedi knight Qui-Gon Jinn; Ewan McGregor as his apprentice, Obi-Warn Kenobi; Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala; and young Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. But their dialogue is often so wooden, their personalities so bland, that our attention shifts easily to such inventions as the aforemenetioned Jar Jar for comic relief, the adorable R2-D2 as a metallic robot with compassionate responses, the eponymous phantom menace, Darth Sidious as a mysterious, hooded figure who appears as a hologram, and arch-villain Darth Maul, who engages the two heroes in the culminating battle to the death. While a familiarity with the rest of the series is helpful, no prerequisites are essential. You can understand the plot, such as one exists, by recalling your high-school history lesson on the causes of all wars: nationalism, imperialism, alliances, the arms race, and international anarchy. For nationalism, you have the brave citizens of the planet Naboo, ruled by the courageous Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman)--determined to ignore the advisers that suggest she sign a treaty of virtual surrender to an invading force. For imperialism, count on The Trade Federation, a sinister energy determined to humiliate that otherwise obscure planet in a galaxy far distant from Earth. For alliances, look to the linkup of the Jedi knights with the nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd). The principal armaments are the laser pens used with mastery by the Jedi knights and their nemesis and an array of weaponry that appears low-tech by contrast. While a galaxy-wide body exists to oversee territorial violations, its leader is a weak chancellor who--like those in our world today who take a pusillanimous stand of neutrality in the face of ethnic cleansing--is fearful of upsetting the status quo. What is called "Episode I" actually takes place three decades before "Episode IV--a New Hope." The Naboo queen is held captive by the Trade Federation, which has sent a squadron of ships to the planet, and its honchos are determined to have her sign a treaty of surrender. Like medieval knights who have pledged their lives to the defense of womanhood, Jedis Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi- Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) take off to rescue her. The Federation may have the uniformly obedient droids as its foot soldiers--all under the precise management of a control ship-- but they will prove no match for the combination of the Jedis and the youthful Anakin Skywalker. (Those who follow the series will recall that this young man, who is being used as a slave, will later marry Amidala, later to become the parents of Luke and Leia Skywalker.) The cognoscenti in the preview audience who have followed the epic series with more rapt attention than they have given to "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" cheered most when familiar character re-appeared, individuals such as the adorable R2-D2 and the most Martian of all personalities, Yoda. Who can blame them? The only human being who inspires true empathy is Pernilla August who, as the mother of Anakin Skywalker is torn by her desire to keep her boy by her side until he is of age and her wish that he be freed from bondage by the brave and noble Jedis. Ewan McGregor is a fine actor who had turned in a poignant performance in the British comedy "Brassed Off" but despite his educated and resonant voice cannot mine the depths of Obi-Wan Kenobi's character as did his predecessor, Alec Guinness. Liam Neeson, who gave life to Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List," is pale and wan this time around. Natalie Portman will be remembered primarily for her succession of royal costumes, though she does exhibit reasonably solid chemistry with Jake Lloyd, who is himself the predictably darling movie kid. The vast array of digital images is at once a tribute to the level of technology that Hollywood has brought to the world's cinema and an unfortunate symbol of the glut that must be projected to a young audience to keep the targeted market involved. Adults will more likely appreciate the less cluttered beauty of the desert scenes, while game fans will happily go frenzied gazing at the astounding multiplicity and variety of creatures. As Roger Ebert said in his review of the original "Star Wars," the film was a technical watershed like "Birth of a Nation" and "Citizen Kane" that influenced many movies that came thereafter. For better of worse, George Lucas ushered in a barrage of megabudget movies that all but clobbered to death the more personal films of the 1970s. Happily there is yet an abundance of such intimate works, both comic and dramatic, silly and deep, on the indie circuit. If movies are to continue to survive and prosper against the fierce competition of the VCR, the Internet, and video games, material of the nature of "Star Wars" must reach out to those who would otherwise substitute the privacy of the home for the community of the movie theater. For his contribution to the continued prosperity of the cinema, we owe George Lucas a debt of gratitude. Rated PG. Running Time: 132 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 18 22:32:28 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Michael Dequina Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 13 May 1999 05:55:33 GMT Organization: None Lines: 124 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hdpgl$jk4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer20.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926574933 20100 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18256 Keywords: author=dequina X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer20.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17468 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2295 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:289701 _Star_Wars:_Episode_I--The_Phantom_Menace_ (PG) *** 1/2 (out of ****) There are a couple of angles at which to approach _Star_Wars:_Episode_I_--The_Phantom_Menace_: in comparison to the three episodes that have been released; or, ideally, as an individual film, in and of itself. In the latter regard, _The_Phantom_Menace_ is the type of exceptionally well-made, highly imaginative science fiction adventure that one would expect from the mind of series creator George Lucas, who makes an impressive return to the director's chair after a self-imposed 22-year hiatus. It is in the former respect, however, that the film cannot help but fall short. The shadow of the first three films released in the series--1977's _Star_Wars:_A_New_Hope_ (Episode IV), 1980's _The_Empire_Strikes_Back_ (Episode V), and 1983's _Return_of_the_Jedi_ (Episode VI)--looms large over _The_Phantom_Menace_, and it's not just because those landmark films have such an enduring legacy. Rather, it's because Lucas's _Phantom_Menace_ script is a hodgepodge of different elements from those three films. To start, the Gungan, an amphibious race on the planet Naboo, are scrappy warriors along the lines of _Jedi_'s Ewoks; a pod racing scene is pretty much _Jedi_'s forest speeder bike chase transplanted onto the desert; dual light saber-wielding villain Darth Maul (Ray Park) is a badass scenestealer in the tradition of Boba Fett, who first appeared in _Empire_. The installment that _The_Phantom_Menace_ most closely resembles, however, is _A_New_Hope_. There's a wise elder Jedi Master, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), not unlike _A_New_Hope_'s Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan is also in this episode, in a younger, wilder incarnation (played by Ewan McGregor) that recalls Luke Skywalker. Other similarities include a lavish celebration scene, the destruction of a space vessel, and the intricate, Princess Leia-to-the-next-level hair design of her future mother, Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) of Naboo. Unfortunately, _The_Phantom_Menace_ also falls into the same narrative rut that _A_New_Hope_ did in its first act, but to a much larger degree. After an interesting opening section, from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's rousing slice and dice through squads of battle droids aboard a Trade Federation spaceship to their rescue of Amidala from evil Federation forces on Naboo, the story gets bogged down in exposition once our heroes land on the desert planet of Tatooine. There, Qui-Gon discovers young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the future Darth Vader and focal character of this trilogy of _Star_Wars_ films. As Qui-Gon and Amidala's handmaiden Pradmé get to know "Ani" and his mother (Pernilla August), the film slows to a crawl. Making the proceedings no less tedious is the strained comic agony (as opposed to "relief") of Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), a chatty Gungan who becomes Qui-Gon's sidekick. Far from lovable, I wanted to strangle the critter by his second scene. Things pick up with the aforementioned pod race sequence (which, I must say, is every bit the thrill ride the _Jedi_ speeder bike chase is), only to fall into more talky exposition, which only serves to make _The_Phantom_Menace_'s main story needlessly convoluted and, as such, largely uninvolving. Basically the plot boils down to Amidala being violently strongarmed into a treaty with the evil Trade Federation, which has been working with the mysterious Darth Sidious (the "Phantom Menace" of the title), whose main enforcer is the deadly Darth Maul. However, this is not to say that the first two-thirds of _The_Phantom_Menace_ is as dry as a Tatooine summer (or spring... or fall... or winter). Far from it--though the story may not keep one consistently engaged, there are other things that do. Always capturing one's attention--and imagination--are the state-of-the-art visual effects on display. One of the greatest delights of this and the other _Star_Wars_ films are the new worlds springing from Lucas's fervid imagination. Tatooine is the only familiar pit stop; also on the travel itinerary are the Coruscant (briefly seen at the end of the _Jedi_ Special Edition), the city-covered planet that serves as the home of the Galactic Senate; Naboo; and the Gungan's hidden undersea home on Naboo. Then, of course, there are the various effects used to populate the streets of these worlds with exotic alien creatures, as well as those used to depict the spaceways and the crafts that travel them. Some CGI shots are more convincing than others, but they never fail to be the slightest bit believable or intriguing. The new troupe of actors holds their own against the largely digital landscape. Neeson exudes the right air of authority and solemnity as Qui-Gon, as does Samuel L. Jackson in a much-publicized cameo as Jedi Council member Mace Windu. While Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher did not settle into their acting stride until _Empire_, Portman and McGregor have comfortably nailed down their roles in their first outing, though McGregor's fairly limited screen time is somewhat surprising. On the other hand, not so surprising is the fact that Lloyd is the weak link in the core four. In all fairness, he does an adequate job as a whole, but that does not mean that he's immune to the stiff and cloying moments that often befall child actors; prepare to cringe when Lloyd lets out a forced "Whoopee!" The numerous slow patches ultimately just makes one more appreciative of the pure visceral excitement of the slam-bang third act. Lucas cuts loose, following no less than four concurrent battles in which many shots are fired from pistols and space craft, light sabers are crossed, energy balls are flung, and more than a little property is destroyed. The highlight by far is an exhilarating, series-best light saber duel pitting both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan against that dastardly Darth Maul, who more than lives up to his pre-release hype. That mostly all of the action comes at the end will undoubtedly disappoint die-hard _Star_Wars_ fans and casual moviegoers alike. But with so much hype surrounding it (largely generated, in a nice change of pace, by the fans, _not_ the studio), there was no way _The_Phantom_Menace_ could live up to the overinflated expectations. What it could have possibly lived up to is the _Star_Wars_ legacy, and in time, it very well may--with _Episode_II_ and _Episode_III_ still yet to come (in 2002 and 2005, respectively), it's impossible to judge how well _The_Phantom_Menace_ plays within the context of the entire saga. At this point in time, however, _The_Phantom_Menace_, as polished and entertaining as it is, has nothing in it that quite compares to _A_New_Hope_'s euphoric sense of wonder and discovery; the exciting action highs and the despairing emotional lows of _Empire_; or the emotional catharsis of _Jedi_'s highly resonant climax. (opens May 19) __________________________________________________________ Michael Dequina mrbrown@iname.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CompuServe Hollywood Hotline: http://www.HollywoodHotline.com __________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 18 22:32:32 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!howland.erols.net!torn!cyclone.bc.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Christopher Null Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 13 May 1999 06:03:06 GMT Organization: filmcritic.com / PC Computing Lines: 91 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hdpuq$i90$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer29.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926575386 18720 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18257 Keywords: author=null X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer29.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17465 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2294 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:289700 STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 1999 Christopher Null filmcritic.com [I promised no spoilers and I mean it. -CN] Break out the R2-D2 costume, the Yoda puppet, and Jabba the Hutt: STAR WARS is back, with EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE. If this were any other movie, it would have had the most horrible, over-long, dumb-sounding title in history. If this were any other movie, I'd have been laughing at all the wrong places. If this were any other movie... well, this *isn't* any other movie, is it? Far from it. The most anticipated movie, some say, since GONE WITH THE WIND, and when a screen of blue text reading "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." gets enormous applause, that's hard not to believe. Let's cut to the chase. EPISODE I is a worthy entry into the Lucas oeuvre, but die-hard fans of the series are bound to be disappointed, mainly because, plot-wise, the episode is largely recycled from the original STAR WARS and RETURN OF THE JEDI. EPISODE I is at its most thrilling when it's doing something completely new (and nobody's talking). In this case, it's the much-vaunted "pod race," where a young Anakin Skywalker (Lloyd, destined to become Darth Vader in an episode or two) shows off his uncanny agility, cunning, and precognition. The pod race lasts maybe seven minutes, and it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Lucas has really outdone himself when it comes to integrating computer imagery with reality. Screw JURASSIC PARK: This stuff looks real. I had originally thought the skinny droids from the commercials looked a bit fake. Not so on the big screen. Finally someone has crossed the line where reality and fantasy are indistinguishable. Sadly, there's not as much luck with the Gungan, the race of amphibioid creatures which our heroes (Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Neeson and McGregor, respectively)) band with to save the planet of Queen Amidala (Portman). The Gungan, personified in the Chewy-esque, floppy-eared Jar Jar Binks is not the best-animated digital persona I've ever seen. And he speaks a pidgin English that becomes bothersome after five minutes, incomprehensible after ten. And let's not forget that Lucas's last film was JEDI, a good movie when it came out in 1983, but hardly the best of the series. Apparently, 16 years haven't resulted in many new ideas: The climactic end of EPISODE I features (no surprise this one) intercutting among a space battle, an all-out land war, and a light-saber duel. Sound familiar? Well, that's the way all these movies have ended, more or less. And frankly, it's getting a bit predictable and tiresome. I won't tell you whether good or evil wins this time out. My disappointment with the ending notwithstanding, EPISODE I is a heart-thumper of a film. It really gets the blood going, and, for all its cliches, my soul was with the good guys here. Yes, I'm ready for EPISODE II, as watching young Skywalker become corrupted by the dark side has got to be one hell of a story. Again, it's a cliché, but that Good vs. Evil thing gets me every time. No, it's already been said that THE PHANTOM MENACE is not a "Great Film." It's an event movie. One made to be enjoyed on a visceral level, not something that you watch for its witty dialogue (think Mark Hamill). In the end, you'll have to decide how you're going to watch the movie. A piece of advice: Use the Force. RATING: **** |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| MPAA Rating: PG-13 Director: George Lucas Producer: Rick McCallum Writer: George Lucas Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd http://www.starwars.com Christopher Null - null@sirius.com - http://www.filmcritic.com - Buy my book! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0078825881/filmcriticcom/002-2549101-0837427 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 18 22:32:37 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Steve Rhodes" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 13 May 1999 06:14:38 GMT Organization: Whole Earth Networks News Lines: 112 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hdqke$m6m$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer16.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926576078 22742 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18265 Keywords: author=rhodes X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer16.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17472 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2297 STAR WARS EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** Let's cut to the chase and answer the second most important question in every moviegoer's mind. Is the new STAR WARS, more formally known as STAR WARS EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE, as good as the last 3? No. But, THE PHANTOM MENACE is a visually audacious triumph whose look far surpasses the first three. A thoroughly entertaining motion picture, it is a PG-rated treat for the entire family. This brings me to the most asked question, how do you snag some early tickets to the most widely anticipated film since GONE WITH THE WIND? To this cinematic conundrum, this review will offer no guidance. Written and directed by George Lucas, the movie works best when it’s at its busiest. As armies of computer-generated figures war with each other, the movie infuses the audience with a visceral excitement that's palpable. Your adrenaline will pump as if you personally are taking on those cleverly designed robotic soldiers of the future. If the look and the impressive sound are the picture's high points, the charisma-challenged characters are its low points. The uninspired casting features some well-known actors who seem oddly out of place and some new actors who don't. There isn't a Han Solo class character to be found anywhere on this mission. Harrison Ford, with his macho swagger and his humorous energy and charm, is sadly missed. No one with his abilities is found anywhere in this cast. If some are to the manor born, Ford's natural home is in a space opera series like STAR WARS or an old-fashioned adventure anthology like INDIANA JONES. In this STAR WARS prequel, Liam Neeson plays the Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ewan McGregor plays his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Giving restrained and wooden performances, these fine actors look like they feel awkward and somehow slightly embarrassed in their roles. I expected them to warm up to their characters, but they never did. Both act way below their potential. The biggest disappointment comes from the story's villain, Darth Maul (Ray Park), who looks like a lumpy-headed soccer hooligan. With all looks and no menace, Darth Maul's no Darth Vader, not even close. He's more like a video game opponent who's waiting to be sliced and diced. To emphasize how mean he's supposed to be, they give him a double-ended lightsaber. This reminded me of the scene from SPINAL TAP, in which they claim that their band is the best because the volume on their amplifier goes to 11 rather 10 like the other bands' amplifiers do. The pleasures in the casting come from relative newcomers Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala and Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Much has already been written about the latter, with people divided between those who find Jake Lloyd's performance endearing and those who think it's lifeless. I'm in the former camp. With his confident charm he is the one of the best reasons to get excited about the future episodes. The movie's most exhilarating scene comes in a big pod racing extravaganza that's lifted straight out of BEN HUR. The technological tour de force crowd scenes alone are worth the price of admission. A two-headed race announcer supplies the humor in a picture that is sadly bereft of much comedy. The lovable R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) are back, but they aren't allocated anywhere near the screen time that they deserve -- a waste of one of moviedom's best comedy duos. The dialog has classic STAR WARS lingo. ("Be wary, I feel a disturbance in the force," is one of the many canonical lines.) Yoda, with his famous fractured syntax, is back for a cameo part. "Ah, hard to see, the dark side is," he lectures Anakin. The retreads are fun, but what is missing are many memorable new lines. John Williams's wonderfully dramatic music draws heavily on his previous work for the series yet still manages to be fresh. Gavin Bocquet's lavish sets are visually enthralling with the Queen's large Italian Renaissance palace with its massive marble columns being among the handsomest. The typical STAR WARS plot involves the federation trying to kidnap the queen and enslave her people. But the thin and sometimes confusing plot is all just a backdrop for the action. The middle section of the movie gets bogged down with the machinations of Senate bureaucrats squabbling over issues ranging from taxes to trade to leadership. Sometimes, you may feel like screaming at the screen, "all right already, let's get back to the action." If we want to hear about bickering politicians, we can read the newspaper. So is THE PHANTOM MENACE a disappointment? A little. The first three movies were such a huge success and built such a loyal following of fans; the hype that ensued was to be expected. With such enormous hype comes an inevitable disappointment. But is the movie one that you wouldn't want to miss? Absolutely. See it on the largest screen you can find and with the best sound possible. This is a big event. Don't miss it. And don't even consider waiting until it comes out on video. STAR WARS EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE runs 2:11. It is rated PG for some sci-fi violence and would be fine for all ages. My son Jeffrey, age 10, thought it was almost better than the first 3 and gave it ****. He liked the dialog, especially, "destroy them (pause) all of them." He went on and on about the things he liked, including the music, the relationships, the figures and the action. He couldn't think of anything in the movie he didn't like. Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 18 22:32:41 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Wallace Baine" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 13 May 1999 06:14:43 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 146 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hdqkj$t6s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer08.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926576083 29916 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18266 Keywords: author=baine X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer08.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17475 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2298 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:289717 The Force not with "Phantom Menace" by Wallace Baine Santa Cruz Sentinel One of the enduring truths in the “Star Wars” cosmos is that the Force cannot be manufactured. It’s either with you or it’s not. You can take steps to attract it and manipulate it. But the Force defies mortal control. In the filmmaker’s lexicon, the Force is that ineffable magic that separates mere entertainment from the deeply satisfying stories that strike something deep in the collective psyche. That cultural “aha” moment is the Force and, I’m sad to report, “Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace” just doesn’t have it. Granted, expectations are impossibly high for the most hyped pop culture event since Moses dragged the stone tablets down from Mount Sinai. But in between the predictable reactions sure to follow from both the Skywalker idolators and the resentful grumps with the light sabers aimed at George Lucas is this one inescapable truth: For all its technical wonders, “Phantom Menace” -- which opens on 2,500 screens nationwide a minute after midnight on May 19 -- is severely lacking in the human appeal that burned the original “Star Wars” into our imaginations 22 years ago. In this case, the ghost in the machine is missing the ghost. Let’s weigh the successes against the failures, but first a bit about the story: As everyone over the mental age of six knows by now, “The Phantom Menace” is the first chapter in a planned trilogy that precedes the original trilogy in history by about 30 years. A trade dispute between a giant, malevolent organization called the Trade Federation and the proud queen of the planet Naboo results in the Federation’s de facto invasion of the small planet. Two Jedi knights from the governing Galactic Republic are sent to mediate the dispute only to find that the Federation has no plans to talk to them. Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his young sidekick Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) quickly become fugitives. With the help of Jar Jar Binks, a clownish outcast from the bizarre Gungan tribe, the Jedis find the planet’s queen (Natalie Portman) and spirit her away to Corsucant, the planet that serves as the Republic’s capital. Problems with their spacecraft, however, lead the heroes to the out-of-the-way desert planet of Tatooine. There, in an effort to score spare parts, Qui-Gon happens upon a nine-year-old slave boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who, the older Jedi believes, is the “Chosen One” of Jedi mythology (He is, in fact, the future Darth Vader). Qui-Gon shrewdly wagers with the boy’s owner, a pot-bellied hummingbird-type creature named Watto, to win both the spare parts and the boy’s freedom. With the boy in tow, the Jedis and the Queen’s retinue finally make it back to Corsucant where the Queen pleads for her planet’s safety to the Senate and Qui-Jon tries to convince the skeptical Jedi Council that young Anakin is the Chosen One. Eventually, the action shifts back to Naboo where the stage is set for combat between Republic and Federation forces and between the Jedis and the film’s dark lord, the evil Darth Maul. The good: While George Lucas hasn’t directed a film in 22 years, his animators at Industrial Light and Magic has been honing their chops for about as long in dozens of lesser movies with hopes of producing something transcendent in new “Star Wars.” Under the Lucas’s supervision, the wizards of ILM have created no less than four magnificent worlds: the white deserts of Tattooine; the claustrophic, super-urbanized, vertically oriented cityscapes of Corsucant (imagine a futuristic Tokyo that covers an entire plant); the lush Xanadu of Naboo; and, perhaps most spectacularly, the underwater world of the Gungan, a series of warmly lit, fairie kingdom bubbles hidden under the surface of an otherwise anonymous lake on Naboo. Many of the more stunning effects are, in fact, grace notes to the film’s central themes. For instance, in a too-brief sequence when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are cruising the waters of Naboo in search of an underground passage to the planet’s other side, they are pursued by a number of mind-boggling sea creatures. Just when it looks like the ship is about to be snapped up by some disturbingly ugly serpent so big it makes a whale look like a bath toy, here comes another even more immense creature to dispatch that creature. “There’s always a bigger fish,” says Qui-Jon wryly and indeed, the sense of scale of the underwater monsters is convincingly rendered. “Jaws” will never scare you again. The film’s computer-generated animatronics, virtually non-existent in the first “Star Wars” triology, takes a giant step forward. Instead of actors in wooly Chewbacca suits, Lucas this time opts for alien characters created wholly from ILM software. The goofy Jar Jar Binks, a tall, floppy-eared, horse-faced sidekick whose exaggerated gait suggests a drunk marionette puppet, is convincing enough to blend in with the backdrop of his human counterparts. Also impressive is Watto, a grubby, gambling Tatooine junkdealer whose fluttering little bee wings labor to keep aloft his bowling-ball belly. In the race to create wholly artificial live-action characters, “The Phantom Menace” is a significant advance. Also, this prequel gives “Star Wars” fans glimpses of those moments that form the basis of the “Star Wars” mythos: We see the point when the famous droids, C3PO and R2-D2, meet. When Qui-Gon introduces Obi-Wan to the boy who would become Darth Vader, the moment will give you the thrill of fate enjoined. The not-so-good: The failures of “The Phantom Menace” seem niggling in isolation. But taken together, they point to a frustrating lack of that undefinable something that made the original movies -- particularly the first “Star Wars” -- such a cohesive whole. They are, in the end, failures of writing and serve as strong evidence that suggests Lucas is more talented at marketing than storytelling. For starters, the plot is built around an arcane dispute over trade policy, not exactly a subject known for its sexiness. As a result, the reasons that the Trade Federation moves in on Naboo are never clearly spelled out. The planet’s stately queen, bedecked like a kabuki diva, intones about the suffering of her people, but we see none of that. More importantly, the story sorely lacks the kind of swaggering appeal and defiant humor that Harrison Ford’s Han Solo gave the first trilogy. Han’s rough-and-tumble cowboy ethos, which served as a nice counterweight to Luke’s boy-scout earnestness, is nowhere to be found. Both male leads carry the erect, humorless bearing of seminary students. Ewan McGregor, the wild-eyed and charismatic indie-film star (“Trainspotting”), is particularly gelded in his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is left as a weak, me-too lieutenant to the older Qui-Gon, who himself is Jedi nobility personified (read: dull). So many of the thematic elements of the original are missing in action -- the sexual tensions, the loyalties, the relationships, the this-is-never-going-to-work desperation -- with nothing to compensate but stiff political posturing and quasi-mysticism. Even the evil is a pale comparison: the horned nemesis Darth Maul, whose satanically painted face makes him look like a comer in the WWF, is given hardly any screen time to really scare you. His menace is measly compared to the labored, artifical breathing under the black mask of Darth Vader. Ultimately, however, this is the boy’s story and young Anakin is given a chance to strut his Jedi fighter spirit in a prolonged set piece called a “Podrace,” a no-holds-barred drag race through the desert vistas of Naboo. The race predictably leads to Anakin’s first combat mission (an accidental one, actually). It is here where the “Star Wars” cosmology gives way to adrenaline-soaked, video-game sensation that quickly becomes tedious and, I suspect, a stand-in for any kind of grand design. Then there’s Jar Jar Binks who is clearly meant as the film’s comic relief. The character’s braying pidgin English and exaggerated mugging never get beyond annoying and the cast, as if sensing the thing is a flop, don’t seem to get anywhere near him. Finally, I think, “The Phantom Menace” is hurt by lazy thinking. The reach into religious allegory is more than a little ham-handed. Young Anakin is not only tabbed the “Chosen One,” he’s also the product of a virgin birth (born as a slave in a dry desert landscape, no less). What’s more, the Lucas worldview seems tainted by, if not racism, at least ethno-centrism. Is it a conscious decision that the “Chosen One” is a tow-headed white boy with nice Americanized vowels? The boy’s grotesque owner, who speaks an Middle Eastern-sounding dialect, is a fat slob with a lust for a good bet. Offensive to Arabs? The strange pidgin spoken by Jar Jar and his fellow Gungan sound suspiciously like native Asians trying to master English. Offensive to Asians? George Lucas, the lord of Skywalker Ranch, clearly has a God complex and, considering the astounding deference given him the last 20 years, who can blame him? But George is as human as the rest of us with the same amount of hours in his days. In the four-plus years since “Episode 1” has been in the works, he has supervised the effects, controlled the marketing and publicity as well as having written and directed what will be another triology. Something had to give. “The Phantom Menace” shows the fruit of his hard work and how he spent his energy. Unfortunately, it also shows what he neglected. This time, the Force wasn’t with him. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 18 22:32:49 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Ssg722@aol.com (Susan Granger) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review:Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 16 May 1999 18:56:45 GMT Organization: None Lines: 30 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hn4dd$ma2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer22.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 926881005 22850 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18303 Keywords: author=granger X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer22.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17517 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2302 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:291899 http://www.speakers-podium.com/susangranger. Susan Granger's review of "STAR WARS: EPISODE I, THE PHANTOM MENACE" (20th Century-Fox) The Force is definitely with George Lucas in this first of three "Star Wars" prequels which attempt to awaken a mythic, sci-fi kind of spirituality as they chronicle the life and times of young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who eventually becomes Darth Vader. For those of you to whom this cultural icon is unfamiliar, rent videos of the original "Star Wars," followed by "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi." It also wouldn't hurt to read Joseph Campbell's musings on heroes and "The Uses of Enchantment" by Bruno Bettleheim, which analyzes how myths affect young people. "The Phantom Menace" tells how two stolid Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), meet nine year-old Anakin and join the Gungan, a scrappy race of amphibioid creatures, to save Naboo, the planet ruled by gutsy Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman). She is destined to marry Anakin and give birth to Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, but that comes later in Episode II in 2002 and III in 2005. Right now, the excitement lies in the action, particularly a heart-thumping "pod race," reminiscent of the chariot race in "Ben-Hur." Sure, there are flaws: die-hard fans may chafe at the recycled Good vs. Evil plotline and the chatter of one creature, Jar-Jar Binks, is almost unintelligible. Nevertheless, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Episode I, The Phantom Menace" comes at you with a thrilling, meteoric 10. Not only is it a fanciful phenomenon but it's also the most eye-popping spectacular special-effects picture ever made as George Lucas integrates the fantasy of computer imagery with reality. The only question is: Will it beat the all-time box-office champ "Titanic"? From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!feeder.qis.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: dewyngale@aol.com (DeWyNGaLe) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 20 May 1999 05:46:21 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 102 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07jd$ub4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179181 31076 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18422 Keywords: author=gale X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17626 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2304 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293537 STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE by DeWyNGaLe (John Sylva) Rating: A+ http://members.aol.com/DeWyNGaLe There is only one word in the English language that can describe my feelings right now. That word is "Woah!" Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, which is the most anticipated movie of the century, was released into theaters this week. Many early reviews have trashed The Phantom Menace, accusing it of not developing characters, and stating many other negative aspects of the film. How could you dare trash this amazing masterpiece? Many reviewers have reviewed the film in comparison to the other three Star Wars films that were released from 1977-1983, but not the actual film itself. Well, here's a review of the film itself, and I hope it's what you are looking for. The Phantom Menace takes place a few decades before the events in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope occurred. In The Phantom Menace, we are introduced to two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), who is a newcomer to the Star Wars series, and Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who is depicted in Episodes IV, V, and VI by Sir Alec Guinness. The two Jedi are off to save the innocent planet of Naboo from the evil forces of the Trade Federation, which is threatening to take over the planet. Upon their arrival at Naboo, they come across a creature of the species "Gungan", named Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), who they have tag along for their adventures to serve as a guide to them. The two came to Naboo to hopefully rescue the 14-year old Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) from the planet before it is too late to save her life. Knowing that the Trade Federation isn't in existence on the remote planet of Tatooine (sound familiar from Episode IV?), they take her there to hide her, and on their journey, discover a young child named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who they believe has the force strong inside of him. Also discovered at Tatooine is a new Sith, Darth Maul, played by Ray Park. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan realize that he has Jedi training and could be a huge threat to themselves, as well as the worried Queen Amidala. Above is a basic plot outline of The Phantom Menace, but there are many more details to each one of the plot, which all tie into Episodes IV, V, and VI. One of these major plots is the fact that Anakin Skywalker is actually a young Darth Vader, and if you have seen Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, you know so. The Phantom Menace ties in with Episodes IV, V, and VI in every way. It was amazing how George Lucas enabled everything to fit together so nicely, making it seem as if this film was released before the other three Episodes. The acting in The Phantom Menace isn't what I would call the best acting in a movie ever, but it certainly added much content to the film. Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman in particular stood out from the cast, making every line that came out of their mouths believable and realistic. Ewan McGregor, who I think should have been used more in the film, turned out the best performance of his career in the time that he was present on screen. Many reviewers are also trashing Jake Lloyd's simple but effective performance as the young Anakin Skywalker. Remember folks, he is supposed to be nine years old, so most likely his acting performance will be very immature and childish. Considering Jake Lloyd was supposed to be playing a nine year old, he did a great job. Ahmed Best, who brilliantly voices the cute, realistic, and hysterical Jar Jar Binks, was sometimes hard to understand, but added much comic relief to the film. Although I have stated some characters were underused, I am not saying it took away from the film at all. The point of Episode 1 was to build a bridge to the next two Episodes, and that it did. Sure, I would have loved to have seen Darth Maul for more than ten minutes, or some more of Samuel L. Jackson's character of Mace Windu, but nothing was taken away from the overall effect of the film. Where do I even start about the marvelous special effects? I guess I will just put it plain and simple- The Phantom Menace contains the best special effects you will ever see in a film. The armies of battle droids, the ships flying through the air, and the amazing podrace sequence soar above any special effect that I have ever seen used in a film. Those who were wondering if The Phantom Menace would have better special effects than The Matrix have now had their questions answered. The special effects in the lightsaber battle scenes are extraordinary. The choreography during these sequences is much better and are much more exciting than the lightsaber battles in Episodes IV, V, and VI. The use of sound in The Phantom Menace is overwhelming. I can certainly award The Phantom Menace with the loudest movie I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, the sound is not loud and obnoxious, and it is loud when it should be loud, and quiet when it should be quiet. The sound of podracers and ships speeding through space were the most effective of the many different sound effects in the film. Costume design and makeup both added quite a bit to the film as well. As you can probably tell, Queen Amidala makes up the majority of each one of these categories. Her outfits are so original, creative, and fun, it is amazing. Others, such as the eerie Darth Maul, or Senator Palpatine (later to become the dreaded Emperor Palpatine seen in Return of the Jedi), all of the outfits for each and every character are stunningly original. What George Lucas has done with The Phantom Menace is simply genius. How many filmmakers would be willing to do a prequel to the biggest movie saga of all time with little known actors, sixteen years after the last one has been released? I can only think of one, and that would be George Lucas. The Phantom Menace is done with style, and I mean George Lucas style. It follows pretty much the same feel, despite what others say, that Episodes IV, V, and VI followed. Although comparing the film to others is not any part of my rating, The Phantom Menace soars above all three of the other Star Wars films. In almost every way, The Phantom Menace stood out. I would say it is most like 1983's Return of the Jedi, which used to be my favorite of the Star Wars bunch, but has now been replaced with this brilliant piece of work, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The Bottom Line- Argue with me all you want to, but I think I just found the best movie of all time. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Curtis Edmonds ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:46:28 GMT Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services ~Lines: 135 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07jk$ub6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179188 31078 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18423 Keywords: author=edmonds X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17631 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2306 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293539 by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org The opening moments of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace brought back some memories for me, as it probably will for you. I remember sitting in my dad's beat-up Chevy station wagon and watching the first Star Wars movie in the parking lot of Texas Stadium. (They set up a drive-in theater in the parking lot during the summer to make some money when the Cowboys weren't playing.) I remember using my toy light saber as a flashlight to read comic books in bed. I remember standing in line for the second and third movies at the theater in the Forum Mall in Arlington, looking up at this big Star Wars mural they had painted in the lobby. But when I walked out of the movie, I was reminded most of this Pop Art exhibit they had at the Dallas Museum of Art a couple of years ago. There were the requisite comic book panels, of course, but there were quite a few paintings that were these big close-ups of brushstrokes, great big smears of color that I enjoyed, in an abstract way. (A little art humor there.) What I really liked, though, was this Roy Lichtenstein sculpture of a chair. The sculpture was comprised of the same kinds of brushstrokes I'd seen in the paintings, just as though they'd been lifted of the two-dimensional canvas and given new three-dimensional life. The sculpture was dependent on the earlier paintings -- it wouldn't have made sense without that context -- but converting the brushstroke images to actual shapes caused the sculpture to transcend its origins and become a stronger, better work of art. Star Wars was a great movie. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is not a great movie. Instead, it's a sublime work of art that's based on a great movie, that uses bits and pieces of the earlier movie to fashion a new visual masterpiece. Just as Lichtenstein transferred his imagery from painting to sculpture, George Lucas has transferred his imagery from film moviemaking to digital moviemaking. All of the elements are present -- light sabers, droids, the Force -- but they're just the frame for an awesome, unprecedented work of art. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is best described as an infinity of dreamscapes. To mix a sci-fi metaphor, George Lucas boldly takes us where no man has gone before: to the rolling plains of Naboo, the underwater refuge of the Gungans, the twisted desert landscape of Tatooine, the soaring towers of Coruscant, to a vast array of space battles and pod races and laser swordfights. The Phantom Menace offers us an array of sights so wonderful, so gorgeous, so jaw-droppingly amazing, that it's almost impossible to describe them. (The people who do audio description for moviegoers who are blind have their work cut out for them.) The backgrounds are lavishly illustrated and ornately detailed, and the foreground is filled with exciting, hyper-kinetic action and impressive new creatures from the Lucas alien bestiary. This is a work of art to be experienced on the huge silver canvas down at your local multiplex. If you set Star Wars: The Phantom Menace next to groundbreaking special effects movies like Titanic or What Dreams May Come, it emerges head and shoulders above its competition. It's a superlative example of the emerging new genre of computer animated movies, and art directors will be copying from it for years to come. But The Phantom Menace is a Star Wars movie, first and foremost, and it will ultimately be judged by the yardstick of the three prior movies rather than on its considerable artistic achievement. And based on that yardstick, The Phantom Menace falls slightly short of the mark. The Phantom Menace starts off full of promise, with audiences cheering the return of the classic logo and the initial plot crawling slantwise up the screen. Apparently, the peace loving planet of Naboo is being menaced by the Federation, an alien race responsible for collecting taxes on Galactic trade. The Federation is what the Internal Revenue Service would be like if it controlled a vast army of robots, and one hopes that nobody at the IRS gets any ideas. Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are dispatched to the planet to rescue the Queen (Natalie Portman), fighting duckbilled androids and giant fish and Dark Lords of the Sith along the way. The Jedi run across the young Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader (Jake Lloyd) at a pit stop on the desert planet Tatooine, discover his innate Jedi abilities, and make plans to train him in the ways of the Force. The plot is not the problem with the movie, so I won't give any more of it away than I already have. And the action scenes are on a par with anything in the previous movies. What's missing here -- what's been lost in the translation from adventure movie to work of art -- is the chemistry that the characters have with each other and with the audience. Neeson is fairly good as the elder Jedi statesman, but there's something reserved in his portrayal of Qui-Gon. Neeson is at his best when he's playing characters that have a fierce inner spark of motivation (Oskar Schindler, let's say, or Rob Roy). That spark isn't really present here. Neeson projects inner peace and Jedi self-discipline, but it might have been more fun if he had some of the roguish qualities of Han Solo. McGregor is given much less to do as Obi-Wan than you might think, although one would imagine him to have a prominent place in the second and third installments. He's a student here, not a teacher, and he has a subordinate and passive role most of the way in. Instead of Luke and Leia, we've got two very good young actors in Jake Lloyd and Natalie Portman, but they don't do much for the overall chemistry either. Lloyd, playing the six-year-old who is destined to grow up to be Darth Vader, shows exceptional maturity and self-assurance in his role. (If anyone out there is still interested in bringing Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game to the screen, call this kid's agent.) Portman has all the gravity and imperial bearing a Queen should have and does a fine job behind her ornate costumes and makeup. (The dead-white makeup looks pretty cool, but one hopes that it won't give Whoopi Goldberg an excuse to show up at the Oscars in whiteface again.) But both actors are pretty reserved as well. They don't bring with them any of the childish enthusiasm or passion that made Star Wars so enjoyable. Compared to their Star Wars predecessors, the characters of The Phantom Menace seem stiff and lifeless. Even Darth Maul, the much-hyped super bad guy, can't hold a candle to any of the formidable Star Wars villains. Additionally, the obligatory cutesy alien, a floppy-eared amphibian named Jar-Jar Binks, doesn't do a thing to help matters. Binks looks as though he was designed by the same malevolent committee that allegedly built the camel on Earth: he's got an incomprehensible computer generated lisping Caribbean accent, lame dialogue straight out of Wayne's World ("Ex-squeeze me?") or worse, Full House ("How wude!"), and an innate clumsiness we haven't seen since Martin Short stopped doing Ed Grimley. I kept hoping that Chewbacca would show up and pummel him. These flaws exist, and they keep The Phantom Menace from being as thoroughly fun and enjoyable as its predecessors. However, it would be wrong to call the movie a disappointment, no matter how annoying or pervasive the hype has been. The Phantom Menace is worth seeing, worth marveling over, worth enjoying both as entertainment and as a luminous work of art -- not to mention its considerable value as a passport back to childhood. (Where did I put that old light saber, anyway?) Rating: A+ -- Curtis D. Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org "First, you show up. Then you see what happens." -- Napoleon Bonaparte From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Scott Renshaw ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:47:52 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 107 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07m8$l4c$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179272 21644 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18433 Keywords: author=renshaw X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17632 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2307 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293540 STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (20th Century Fox) Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Jake Lloyd, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, Ray Park, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Ahmet Best. Screenplay: George Lucas. Producer: Rick McCallum. Director: George Lucas. MPAA Rating: PG (violence) Running Time: 131 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. Contrary to conventional wisdom, The Force is not a mystical, all-encompassing power; it's what George Lucas must be feeling in the middle of his chest as he revives the STAR WARS saga after a 16-year hiatus. In one sense, of course, EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE is the ultimate can't-lose proposition. It's also the ultimate can't-win proposition, a monolith nearly impossible to separate from the ridiculous expectations. Curiously, critics face a similar predicament. A rave could be interpreted as succumbing to the hype, while a jeer could be viewed as anti-hype backlash. How do you talk about a film that virtually demands the creation of a new set of rules -- for the film-maker, for the media, for the audience? I can only explain my reaction to THE PHANTOM MENACE this way: when John Williams' now-iconic fanfare burst forth over the sound system, I was 9 years old again, shivering with anticipation at being transported by Lucas' singular mythology. And transported I was...into a hard drive. There's no other way to explain the chilly experience of THE PHANTOM MENACE, which opens with Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) on a diplomatic mission to resolve a dispute between the Trade Federation and the planet Naboo. When it becomes clear that the Federation's trade blockade is part of a more sinister plan, the Jedis flee Naboo with the planet's Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and amphibian Gungan Jar-Jar Binks (Ahmet Best). A repair stop on the planet Tatooine introduces us to young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), a slave boy whom Qui-Gon believes is the Chosen One destined to bring balance to the Force. There are plenty of other plot fragments floating around in THE PHANTOM MENACE -- most of them involving political machinations -- but the ho-hum plotting may actually be the least of its flaws. Quite simply, this is a film devoid of personality, filled with characters who never inspire affection or close identification. STAR WARS, for all its dazzle, had three fundamentally solid characters at its core: conflicted hero-on-a-quest Luke; tough, no-nonsense Leia; and lovable rogue Han. THE PHANTOM MENACE counters with the stoic Qui-Gon, the slightly-less-stoic Obi-Wan, and the stoic-in-a-slightly-different-way Amidala. Meanwhile, young Jake Lloyd brings little gravity to the character which will become the crux of this universe, and Jar-Jar's brand of comic relief is intensely grating. It's almost funny to hear Qui-Gon described as rebellious, since he seems about as capable of a rash act as he is of cracking a smile. There may be heroes in THE PHANTOM MENACE, but there's really no one to like. And, for that matter, there's really no one to hate. Darth Sidious, the Sith who will be Emperor, is the primary villain of the piece, yet he only appears in the form of a jittery transmission, hardly the stuff of genuine menace. Darth Maul, meanwhile -- he of the marketing-friendly Day-Glo visage -- is effective considering his limited screen time, yet he's really a glorified henchman for all his double-bladed lightsaber tricks. THE PHANTOM MENACE is missing that unifying, ultimately hissable bad guy that makes for great archetypal conflict. What we do have is a triumph of art direction and technology which creates alien worlds like no film ever has before. The streets of a Tatooine town bustle with creatures both familiar and unfamiliar; the megalopolis of Coruscant, capital of the Republic, features eye-popping architecture and the kind of traffic flow of which civil engineering legends are made. Though the pacing of the opening hour is on the pokey side -- which places it in good company with the first STAR WARS -- Lucas eventually produces a few dynamic set pieces like the desert pod race. When THE PHANTOM MENACE goes for pure visual satisfaction, it usually delivers. Ultimately, though, there's a more basic satisfaction the film lacks. Its structure and imagery are reminiscent both of STAR WARS and RETURN OF THE JEDI -- particularly the latter in its three-ring climax -- but it doesn't even achieve JEDI's level of old-fashioned fantasy fulfillment. When Gungans and battle droids clash on the fields of Naboo, every last figure a digital concoction, you begin to sense the absence of a primally appealing human story in this blockbuster. It may be true that it will feel more complete a few years hence when its backstory has turned into relationships between Obi-Wan and Anakin, between Anakin and Amidala. For now, all that remains is spectacle without resonance, without magic, without even all that much fun if you happen to be over the age of 10. In this era of computer wizardry, Lucas has sapped his story of the thing that made it a phenomenon in the first place. The result is an adventure that feels...well, Forced. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 manic episodes: 5. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cyclone.news.idirect.com!island.idirect.com!xmission!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Christopher Meadows ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:47:57 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 260 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07md$vkg$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179277 32400 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18434 Keywords: author=meadows X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17642 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2311 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293544 STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE A film review by Christopher E. Meadows Copyright 1999 Christopher E. Meadows MPAA: PG (sci-fi action/violence) Written and Directed by George Lucas Produced by George Lucas (Executive) and Rick McCallum Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, etc Review Rating: 8 out of 10. (The first part of this review will be spoiler-free; if you haven't yet seen the movie, feel free to read it. There will be a spoiler warning and pagebreak at the end of the safe zone.) Long live _Star Wars_! I have only vague recollections of seeing _Star Wars_ when it first came out. I was only four years old at the time, and all I remember is that I found the Jawas really scary. Articles and even books can be and have been written on what _Star Wars_ was and is and did for our culture. On the face of it, it's such a simple thing--it took elements from mythoi as old as humanity itself and blended them together into an epic saga. Critics have attacked it for this very simplicity, calling it a predigested mishmash of old stories that are much better in their original form . . . and yet, are not _all_ stories taken from earlier inspirations? Regardless of what one thinks of the trilogy now, or what Lucas has done with it since, there can be no denying that when the original _Star Wars_ movie came out, it burst like a bombshell into young minds, and fired the imaginations of a generation. Who in his late twenties or early thirties now can hear that opening fanfare, see those famous words in blue appear on the screen, and not still feel that stirring deep inside? All right, I'll grant that some of you might, but I'll bet you're in the minority. Now, George Lucas is hoping to pull it off again for the youth of today's generation. Can he? Well . . . I doubt it. Not for lack of trying on his part--_Phantom Menace_ is a spectacular movie, and if you were to transpose it chronologically into the place of the original _Star Wars_, I have little doubt that audiences would respond just as well. But the atmosphere is different now. In 1977, _Star Wars_ signalled the end of what had been a ten or twenty year drought in big science fiction movies, and did it in a rather eye-popping way. There hadn't been a story quite like _Star Wars_ in a very long time--or ever, by some definitions. Not only was it science fiction, it was a science fiction _action_ movie; a movie that didn't just invent new worlds and technologies but _took them for granted_. While the audience is oohing and ahhing appreciatively at the Millenium Falcon, Luke says, "What a piece of junk!" It spawned a variety of imitators . . . even to this very day. And there's the problem. Sadly, if you show a kid of today the original _Star Wars_ trilogy, or even the _Star Wars Special Edition_, the odds are good he'll shrug and reply, "So?" and perhaps even make disparaging remarks about the films' special effects. The eighties and nineties have been, by and large, the biggest decades for cinematic science fiction since the horror movie era. Perhaps even bigger. Searching on "Genre: Sci-Fi" in the Internet Movie Database shows, at the time of this review's writing, 2,404 titles, and at a glance, most of these titles seem to be post-1977. Not having grown up in those days of little-SF-then- Star Wars, they simply don't see it as anything special. Unless they're _big_ science fiction fans, no matter how much they might like it, it's "just another science fiction movie." And so, I suspect, might _The Phantom Menace_ also be. I couldn't help but be amused by the contrast in opinions between a co-worker of mine and a person I happened to be standing next to in the movie line today. My co-worker was saying that _Star Wars_ should be for kids, and was complaining about all the adults who were snapping up tickets. This moviegoer, on the other hand, was saying that the first showing should be just for people who were old enough to see the original, and that anyone younger than that shouldn't be allowed in. Both of these people were being at least reasonably facetious in their opinions, of course, but it struck me as amusing and at the same time poignant--this new movie, _The Phantom Menace_, might have been _meant_ for the youth of today . . . but I suspect that, in large part, only those people who grew up on the original _Star Wars_ will truly appreciate it. George Lucas might have made it for the physically-young, but it will let those of us who are older relive our youth again--if only for a glorious two hours and fifteen minutes. And now we come to the movie itself. A comment posted to the Slashdot news-for-nerds website pretty effectively sums it up--"as good as we'd expected, but not as good as we'd hoped." The movie had action, adventure, special effects, and science-fiction settings in plenitude, and yet somehow it didn't quite manage to live up to the hype. This should come as no surprise; it is doubtful that even the original Star Wars could have lived up to this degree of hype, much less The Phantom Menace. But the big question is, is it worth the money? If you ever liked any _Star Wars_ at all . . . undeniably. If not . . . well, it's still a fairly good SF/action flick. If you have not yet seen the movie and wish to remain unspoiled, read no further. Mark this post unread, save it to a file and come back to it later, or otherwise wait for it. Don't spoil yourself. If you read further, on your own head be it. Like former _Star Wars_ films, _The Phantom Menace_ is action-packed from the very beginning. It starts with the two Jedi, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, arriving at a Trade Federation battleship to negotiate for the end of the trade blockade on Naboo. The Trade Federation representatives, under instruction from a shadowy cloaked figure we know and love from the later movies, try to kill them, and fail. They escape to Naboo, meet a friendly (albeit overcutified) alien, Jar Jar Binks, and go on to find a way through the "planet core" to the human Naboo settlement to warn them of an impending invasion. They arrive too late, however, and the rest of the film revolves around their quest to get Queen Amidala of the Naboo to Coruscant to plead for her people before the Senate, then to return to the planet to save it. Along the way, they pick up young Anakin Skywalker on Tatooine, who proceeds to save the day several times (which is sure to infuriate those people who dislike Wesley Crusher and his ilk). We also meet such worthies as R2-D2 (who saves the day once or twice himself) and the "naked" C-3PO (who was put together by super-prodigy Anakin to help his mother around the house), and of course Senator Palpatine, Naboo's senator, who uses the crisis on Naboo to become the Senate's new High Chancellor and, as those of us who've seen _Star Wars_ IV-VI already know, is also the mysterious figure in the cloak; he turns out to be a Sith Lord to boot. "Always there are two," Yoda says, "no more, no less. A master and his apprentice." The shadowy master (whom we know to be Palpatine), dispatches Darth Maul, his apprentice, to find and deal with the Jedi and the Naboo Queen. And deal he does, though he barely has five minutes of screen time and most of that is the climactic lightsaber duel with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. In the end, though there are sacrifices made, the Trade Federation is defeated, and peace and goodness reign once more . . . though as we older fans know, this will not last for very long. In fact, it is fairly easy to tell that _Phantom Menace_ is meant primarily as build-up, a prelude to the second movie that will, like _The Empire Strikes Back_, tell a darker story. Where to begin? The movie was very much a _Star Wars_ film. There was a new world, Naboo, an older world we'd not yet visited directly, Coruscant, and an old familiar place which will, I suspect, pass into and out of the _Star Wars_ limelight a number of times in this trilogy as well as the next--that being Tatooine. There were new races, new monsters ("There's always a bigger fish"), new characters, and new ships. The technical aspects of the film were, by and large, flawless. If the story and the acting fell a little flat . . . well, these things can be forgiven. It was good to see _familiar_ places and races and people again, too, to see how the Jedi lived in their heyday. A number of questions were answered, and others posed. As a friend put it, "The sourcebook [for the _Star Wars_ roleplaying game] for this one is going to be amazing." It's hard to say just when it really hit me--this _is_ a _Star Wars_ film. When you fully realize that, when you feel it deep inside of you . . . you just sit back and enjoy the ride. The fight choreography was stunning. From the very beginning, when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan mow through combat droids as though smashing pinatas, it's apparent. They move with a grace and skill that is almost poetry in motion, and makes quite a contrast to the later trilogy. There are, of course, a few things that are odd or don't make sense, but that's to be expected. A small sampler: are we supposed to believe that the Jedi actually journeyed through the center of the planet? And the sacred place of an underwater-dwelling people is above ground? How can Obi-Wan's master be Qui-Gon when he's said in the latter trilogy that it was Yoda? Then there's the fact that Jedi abilities apparently come from the equivalent of mitochondria . . . who are also, if you can believe it, Anakin's "father." And Jabba the Hutt seems a lot _bigger_ than "young Jabba" is in _A New Hope Special Edition_ . . . though perhaps this is meant to be Jabba Senior. And a couple of things are slightly annoying, not the least of which is super-genius-cum-Chosen-One, Anakin Skywalker. I'm not a Wesley-hater by any means, but I still find it a bit hard to swallow that this pre-adolescent boy could do all these things--make C-3PO, win the pod race, singlehandedly destroy the Federation ship controlling the droid army . . . it's kid wish-fulfillment. There's nothing wrong with that by itself, but this is laying it on just a wee bit thick for my tastes. Jar Jar Binks was a bit tiresome after a while, too, but not to an onerous extent. Oh, well. Chalk it up to incipient Ewok syndrome. Also annoying is that after all the buildup, all the "Join the Dark Side" T-shirts and caps with his face plastered all over them, the Darth Maul pocketwatches that say "At last we will have our revenge" when you open them . . . Darth Maul only has about five minutes of screen time, and most of that is lightsaber dueling. It would have been nice to see more of him, to make him more of a menacing character the way Darth Vader was, rather than a one-off throwaway. Oh, well . . . he wasn't meant to be the true villain of the piece at any rate. Perhaps we'll see more menace in Episode Two. As for the acting, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor were the stars of the piece, and they both seemed to handle their roles quite well. Ian McDiarmid also shone as the diabolical Senator-then-Chancellor Palpatine; it was interesting to see him sans makeup for a change. I completely didn't recognize him until I heard him called by name. If Jake Lloyd was a bit wooden in his acting, it is forgiveable; children often lack the experience they need to make their portrayals seem more real, and at any rate, he acted better than some adults I've seen. The same could be said for Natalie Portman. The special effects were top notch. It was easy to forget that Jar Jar Binks's head, as well as those of the rest of his race, was completely computer-generated. It all seemed so _real_. _Star Wars_ has finally moved beyond the realm of rubbery alien masks into completely lifelike CGI alien faces . . . and it's about time. The monsters in the "planet core" were also wonderfully done. The score is very interesting for the themes Williams chose to reuse (or foreshadow). You can hear hints of the later Imperial March in "Anakin's Theme," especially toward the end, and at a couple of points in the movie the distinctive wistful horn solo associated with Luke Skywalker in Episode IV makes its appearance. "Duel of the Fates," _Phantom Menace_'s signature theme (which is receiving airplay even on pop music stations, oddly enough), seems to have been inspired by the piece "O Fortuna" from "Carmina Burana". There is also, of course, the de rigeur "alien band"--"Augie's Great Municipal Band," which performs just before the end credits. In conclusion, _Star Wars_ Episode One: The Phantom Menace_ is not a _great_ film . . . but then, the original trilogy plus the uncontrolled _Phantom Menace_ hype are nearly impossible to live up to. But it _is_ a _Star Wars_ film to the hilt. The atmosphere, the effects, the _feeling_ is there. It's hard to explain, but for a brief two hours and fifteen minutes, it's like being a kid again, seeing the Trilogy for the first magical time. For a _Star Wars_ fan, no amount of wooden acting or mediocre writing can sour that (as the past amply demonstrates--consider _Return of the Jedi_). If you're a fan, this is a must-see . . . but then, you probably already know that. If you're a _Star Wars_ agnostic or, Force forbid, have never seen a _Star Wars_ film in your life, it will still be an entertaining ride. If you never really cared for "those _Star Wars_ films," well, be advised that this is another one. Review Rating: 8 out of 10. [This review is copyright 1999 by Christopher E. Meadows. Permission granted for Usenet distribution and associated archival, including the Internet Movie Database, but other distribution rights reserved to the author.] -- Chris Meadows aka | Co-moderator, rec.toys.transformers.moderated Robotech_Master | Homepage: robotech@eyrie.org | PGP: robotech@jurai.net | ICQ UIN: 5477383 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: James Brundage ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:48:02 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 115 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07mi$l4i$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer37.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179282 21650 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18435 Keywords: author=brundage X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer37.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17641 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2310 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293543 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Written and Directed by George Lucas Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Llyod, Frank Oz, Ray Park, and Ahmed Best Cameo by Samuel L. Jackson As Reviewed by James Brundage Seeing as I've been turning in about two reviews a week for several weeks now, there is no possible way I could have been standing in line all this time. No, I was smart about the affair. I found the best sound systems in the theatres outside of the city and then reserved a ticket. Opening day, I was surprised to find that there were still seats available, but that is another story. No, I'm not a Star Wars fanatic, and no, I didn't make lightsaber noises when I was stick fighting as a kid, but I like the trilogy. I've heard the hype by the people and I've heard the hype by the critics. Although I am not a Star Wars fanatic, I have had my own obsession about the movie that proves the 2nd Rule of the Critics Bible: Time, formerly measured in years, is now measured in movies. I mean who (besides the people CNN hand-picked to say they didn't) didn't know that May 19, 1999 was the day? I knew… that's for sure. Let's face facts, Star Wars has always been an event. It was an event 22 years ago when it came out, it is an event today when it attempts to break $200 million in the first weekend by enforcing a very strict embargo on passes. Star Wars was an event in box office records, always has been and always will be. It was also always an event in special effects, which it is now only by bulk. It was also always a story. In the case of The Phantom Menace, however, the story is its weak point. People have said that the weak point of George Lucas is that he has lost his touch directing. He hasn't. People have said that the weak point of George Lucas is that he can no longer think little. He can't, but that's not his mistake. His weak point in The Phantom Menace was threefold: he didn't hire someone to help him write the script, he didn't know when to stop with the Special Effects, and he didn't find a better coach for his actors. I will tell you first, before I begin my ripping of the bad, that The Phantom Menace is by far the most fun I have had at the movies since The Matrix, and is a fine adventure film. Taking the bad points down, the script for The Phantom Menace displays the bad dialogue that adventure films are infamous for. It isn't terrible, but its dialogue that gets on your nerves. Star Wars creates good characters, but The Phantom Menace seems to gain a few bad ones in the need for comic relief. A perfect example is Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), an annoying computer-generated creature that seems to serve no other purpose than to annoy adults. Good characters include the young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). Following my normal suit, I really love the central villain of the film, the already infamous Darth Maul (Ray Park). Yoda (Frank Oz) is the funny little guy he's always been. Another annoying tidbit about the script is that it is completely predictable. The special effects are best described in a Fruedian slip that I said on the way out: "The sloppy effects aren't as special as I expected them to be." The Phantom Menace represents a new era of film: one where the line between animation and live action is irrevocably blurred. One must remember that, in the field of special effects, blurred lines are exactly what we loathe. The animation is impressive in the fact that they were able to successfully incorporate as much as they did, but the special effects (which will, despite my vehement protests, win the 2000 Award for Best Special Effects) were highly inferior to the rather reserved and very innovative effects used in The Matrix. As far as the actors go, I hated the kid. I am extraordinarily glad that he is not, to my knowledge, signed on for the next one. If I have to stand through one more forced "Yippee" being uttered from the little boys lips, I will boycott Star Wars movies. Ewan McGregor, normally an excellent actor, does a fine job of his physical acting but fails utterly in his attempts to control his voice. He seems not to be able to decide whether he wants a British accent, a Scottish accent, or an American accent. Natalie Portman pulls her weight and then some, but, as I compare her performance in 1994's Leon (known in America as The Professional) and her role in 1995's Heat, I can only think of an ironic comparison. Her transition between character-driven stories without lavish sets and huge special effects to the world of computer animation and eight week dress designs is one of going to the dark side. Liam Neeson is a great Jedi Knight, and the only actor about which I have no problem. To laud the film, I will say that I had a great amount of fun. The battle scenes are a treat for the eyes, the chase scenes something to be praised on their energy (they are high-octane while not using fossil fuels). Lucas does an excellent job of setting up the film for his next one. Despite what others may think, it resembles his other films only peripherally. It is neither Star Wars, nor Empire Strikes Back, nor Return of the Jedi. Nor is it a mixture of the three. It is, instead, a film of its own. However, unlike the trilogy, of which each film can stand on its own, The Phantom Menace relies on the support of the other three. They are a tripod that surrounds the movie. The plot, to wrap up, is a very simple one. A planet is facing invasion and trade embargo. Two Jedi's are sent to negotiate, which sparks a conflict. Good and evil face of over the span of two hours, of which one hour is used to set up parts II and III. They enlist the help of aliens for impressive battle scenes and eventually, as always, good wins… with a shadow of evil in the wings waiting for the sequel. I still have no idea what the title means. It's enjoyable. It is a landmark. It is Star Wars, and this is the year of The Phantom Menace. If you are going to see it, my review will mean nothing to you. If you're not, than my review does nothing either. The very few people who are up in the air, I am giving it my blessing, albeit somewhat reluctantly. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: PBBP24A@prodigy.com (Edward E. Johnson-Ott) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:49:05 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 99 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07oh$oli$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179345 25266 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18439 Keywords: author=johnson-ott X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17636 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2308 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293541 Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999) Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Oliver Ford Davies, Hugh Quarshie, Ahmed Best, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Park, Peter Serafinowicz, Ralph Brown, Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Sofia Coppola. Music by John Williams. Written and directed by George Lucas. 131 minutes. Rated PG, 3.5 stars (out of five stars) Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to pbbp24a@prodigy.com On a Wednesday afternoon in 1977, I casually decided to catch an opening day matinee of "Star Wars." I knew nothing about the movie. Aside from a large, nondescript ad in the Sunday paper, there was no local hype for the film. The last sci-fi picture to play Indianapolis, "Logan's Run," proved quite a disappointment, so my expectations for this new offering were nil. At the uncrowded theater (the frenzy would not hit until the weekend), I entered with an open mind and emerged with an ear-to-ear grin on my face. 22 years later, I tried to attend a critics' screening of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" with a similar frame of mind. To hell with the hype, to hell with analytical viewing, and to hell with the plot, for that matter. I would just sit back and let the movie wash over me. When I left the theater 131 minutes later, my grin was far less broad than in my youth, but it was still a treat to revisit George Lucas' universe. "The Phantom Menace" is a feast for the eyes and ears. The images of exotic cities on distant worlds are spectacular and the myriad alien species wildly imaginative. John Williams' rich, sweeping score enhances every aspect of the production, from the action scenes to the quiet moments. Lucas offers larger than life characters and a mythic storyline tempered to a degree by comic relief. But despite the presence of so many of the right elements, the production leaves an oddly distant feel, because Lucas forgot the all important Han Solo factor. This film desperately needs a wisecracking swashbuckler, someone for viewers to identify with so we can vicariously experience the story rather than simply observe it. In Episodes Four, Five and Six, Han Solo fit the bill perfectly, always ready with a caustic remark, a glib aside and open expressions of anger, fear and, occasionally, heartfelt sentiment. He humanized the proceedings in a way that no character does here. In "The Phantom Menace," the primary players are a boy, two Jedi knights and a Queen. The Jedi Master and his apprentice project the inner serenity appropriate for disciples of the Force. The Queen, due to her station in life, must maintain an air of dignity and the child mostly remains in awe of the incredible goings-on around him. As a result, we witness a grand adventure enacted with far too much restraint and reserve. To truly engage us, we need at least one full- fledged adventurer. Instead, we must make due with a kid surrounded by royalty and Mennonites. The actors are all fine, but Lucas plops them into a stifling stylistic box. Comic relief is provided by Jar Jar Binks, a computer-animated sidekick who speaks in a fractured fashion reminiscent of Jamaican patois and falls down a lot. Initially, Jar Jar is phenomenally annoying, but he grew on me as the film progressed and, towards the end, was almost likable. Other humorous touches include a two-headed sports announcer who provides lively commentary during a high-speed race, and Ewan McGregor's hair. The Jedi apprentice sports a close- cropped 'do with a long rattail, the kind of style that was popular in the '80s and now is worn only by the young sons of aging rednecks. McGregor's hair serves as a reminder that the story is indeed set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Later scenes feature a vast army of battle 'droids whose bowling-pin heads suspiciously resemble that of Crow, the wiseacre robot from "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Coincidence? Perhaps, but I suspect their appearance is a sly homage from Lucas. Although set decades before "Star Wars: A New Hope," several treasured characters from the initial trilogy appear in "The Phantom Menace." The ever-cranky Yoda pops up, as does plucky little R2-D2 and a not-yet-finished version of C-3PO, history's first gay robot. As a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ewan McGregor adds a nice touch of continuity by echoing Alec Guinness' vocal cadences. But, for better or worse, personalities are the least of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace." The main pleasures of the film come with the spectacle of it all; from a wild flight past a magnificent underwater city to a razzle-dazzle pod race that is half "Ben-Hur," half Indy 500. While "The Phantom Menace" is emotionally remote, it is also unquestionably sumptuous. This installment of George Lucas' self-described "Saturday afternoon serial for children" may not be the best in the series, but it certainly has its share of rewards. To enjoy the production, do your best to forget all the hype and just let the movie wash over you. © 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Chuck Dowling ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:49:14 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 151 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07oq$sto$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179354 29624 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18441 Keywords: author=dowling X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17640 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2309 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293542 The Phantom Menace (1999) *** out of ***** Cast: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Terence Stamp, Frank Oz, Kenny Baker, Warwick Davis, Brian Blessed, Anthony Daniels Written and Directed by: George Lucas Running Time: 131 minutes Date Reviewed: May 19, 1999 I always wondered how I would review the original Star Wars trilogy if I was seeing it today for the first time. After all, I'm not a wide-eyed, impressionable youth anymore. Now I'm a tough-to-please, sarcastic, cynical film critic. I thought I would have this opportunity when George Lucas released the "special editions" of the original Star Wars trilogy back in 1997. The fact of the matter was that even though I hadn't seen these films in the theater in ages, too many childhood memories came flooding back as I viewed them to sway my opinion at all. Simply put, I love the original Star Wars trilogy. Growing up, I must have seen those three films hundreds of times. So now that there's a new chapter in the Star Wars saga, Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace, I get my chance for an unbiased review. The Phantom Menace is a prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, which were episodes 4-6 of George Lucas' science fiction vision. When the first trailer for The Phantom Menace hit theaters last year, I saw it once... maybe twice. I tried my best to withhold judgment against everything I saw, simply because I didn't want to have any preconceived notions about anything for the film. Months passed, and a second trailer was released. Again, I only saw it once, trying not to get my hopes up. I didn't read anything online about the film's production, and only briefly scanned through the preliminary reviews that flooded the web after the initial press screenings. On a side note: I saw all the people waiting in line for tickets weeks before the film's release, and I saw all those same people standing in line again so they could be the first ones into the theater for the Wednesday, May 19th 12:01am show. On a whim, I walked up to my local gigaplex at 12:15am that Wednesday and asked if there were any tickets available for the second show at 12:30am. I was told that over 300 were still available. So I purchased one, walked into the theater and got my usual middle of the theater seat... all of which took me about 60 seconds to do. Waiting an extra 29 minutes saved me hours of standing in line. When the 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm logos appeared on screen, the crowd I was with cheered. Those cheers exploded into energetic frenzy when the Star Wars logo came on screen to the familiar John Williams score. At this moment, I actually had a chill of excitement run through my body. I was seeing the new Star Wars movie. But despite my attempt at low expectations, by film's end I was disappointed. I won't even bother getting deep into the plot of The Phantom Menace simply because it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to you reading this because I'm sure you already know it, and it doesn't matter much to me because quite frankly, it's not very interesting. Two Jedi warriors try to save a queen and prevent a war... amongst trade negotiations and political debate and Senate meetings and the like. Most of it is as exciting as watching a futuristic version of C-SPAN. Yawn. At the center of all the political blah in the film is the introduction of Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd, not doing a very good acting job I'm afraid), who of course grows up to be the father of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, and also becomes Darth Vader. Now I must admit, one thing that I knew I would have a problem with is the character of Jar Jar Binks. Put simply, this might be one of the most annoying characters not only in the Star Wars films, but in film history. Completely computer generated and talking in an embarrassing Buckwheat-style slang, Jar Jar is an abomination to the Star Wars universe (take the annoying Ewoks and multiply them by a million and you still don't have the annoyance factor that this character produces). George Lucas has stated that he made this movie for kids, and so kids are supposed to love Jar Jar. Good for them. As a kid though, I hated the Ewoks... and I'm pretty sure I would have hated Jar Jar too. What makes me sad about this "kid humor" factor is that Lucas feels that fart jokes and Jar Jar stepping in piles of crap are funny. Is that how you reach a kid of the 90s? Poop? Now yes, the special effects in the film are great... but they are CGI effects. Now I don't know about you, but I just don't like CGI effects because to this day they just don't look real. Give me models and guys wearing latex masks and puppets any day. Until CGI effects blend in with real action, I'm not going to be a big fan of them. Of all the huge effects in the film, my favorite was the underwater sequence in the first hour of the film. Many will say that the pod racing sequence was their favorite, and maybe it would have been one of mine, but at that point in the film we've seen oh... 10,000 CGI effects! Nothing about it stood out, except maybe how annoying the two headed CGI creature that was announcing the race seemed to be. The most disappointing thing about the entire film is it's lack of a main villain. Darth Maul (Ray Park) is the closest thing the film has to a villain... he's the apprentice of another villain of sorts in the film Darth Sidious (who becomes the emperor that we see in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). But the character of Darth Maul (like all the characters in the film) is so underdeveloped that the only way you know he's a villain is because he scowls at our heroes when he sees them. As a matter of fact, you'll see more of Darth Maul at your local Taco Bell than you will here. This character had huge potential, and I would have loved to see more of him. But as I've said, Lucas didn't make this movie for me (nor does it seem he made it for the die hard fans either). A positive note for the film is it's final 20-30 minutes or so. Cutting back and forth between a land war, a space battle, and a lightsaber duel between Darth Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), the sequence is what Star Wars is all about. Had the whole film been on this level of interest and intensity I'd be delighted. Quick questions about the film: Why do the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 not recall any of the events in this film when we see them in Star Wars? Why are the battle droids used in mass number for anything? Sure they may look pretty cool, but the battle droids are the most ineffectual fighting force I've ever seen. I think I saw them hit exactly one target that they were shooting at throughout the course of the film. Why not use more of those droids that could roll into a ball and chase after you? Those were much more effective. What on earth was that force field contraption that the Jedi get trapped in during their battle with Darth Maul? And finally, what does the title The Phantom Menace even mean? Who is the titular phantom menace? Technically, this film could also be called The Pesky Ghost, or The Troublesome Spectre. When I left the theater I was left with the question "Is the new Star Wars film any good?" It's so hard to really say. Is it as good as the original trilogy? Definitely not. Is it even a good science fiction movie? Almost. The story lacks a human element to it. There's no Han Solo character for the audience to identify with, instead there's just a lot of Jedi jargon which sounds dangerously like Star Trek inspired technobabble. I'll say this for it though, even though at about thirty minutes into the film I started to feel the effects of the silo full of soda which I was enjoying, I didn't even consider leaving my seat. I wasn't going to miss a second of the film. Despite all of my disappointment, that has to say something about the film. So to you George Lucas... you made me not want to go to the bathroom. Cheers to you. [PG] The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net © 1999 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 20 11:08:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: gfoxcook@earthlink.net (Gregory Cook) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 20 May 1999 05:46:39 GMT Organization: Rice University ~Lines: 121 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07jv$ub8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179199 31080 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18424 Keywords: author=cook X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17629 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2305 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293538 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace A film review by Gregory Cook ©1999 Gregory Cook Let me begin by saying that over the past few months, I, and most of the members of rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc, have been inundated with spoilers and as of late reviews of this film. Unlike some, I chose not to avoid the spoilers (nor did I seek them out). But I read as many reviews as I could. Despite the overall negative tone from both professional critics and fans alike, I feel they had an overall positive effect of lowering expectations in those who had built up way too much faith in the film. I will not say that "The Phantom Menace" is "just a movie" as many have, but I will say that it is the product of humans, and as a result cannot be perfect. Disclaimers aside, I went in expecting to find "The Phantom Menace" more enjoyable than "Return of the Jedi," and I was not disappointed in this respect. The film was amazing. Many have panned both the writing and the direction. While I find Lucas' direction of the human actors to be lacking (as well as his dialogue), I do not agree with this overgeneralized condemnation of everything in the film. Well, everything but the music--John Williams has gone relative unscathed. The writing was fine. All of the action, and most of the interaction, are faithful to the feel of the original trilogy. Now, as to the character everyone had the most trepidation about: Jar Jar Binks did not, as many had predicted, "ruin" the movie. While his antics were a bit distracting and took up more than enough time towards the start of the film, he later became much less annoying--a process of adaptation to a new comic relief sidekick that most fans will no doubt experience. I was born in 1977, so unfortunately I cannot relate quite as well to the situation with "A New Hope," but I am sure many people had problems with C-3PO in May of that year. Jar Jar added too much humor for some, myself included, but this movie needs it. It has the most difficult task of any of the films (with the exception of whatever turns out to be the Star Wars' saga's finale), that of introducing an entire galaxy and its populations. Understandably, the film's running time is jam-packed full of explanations, events, the introduction of new species and civilizations, and, of course, action sequences. The pace, therefore, was at times much too breakneck, but again this was expected. The other computer generated characters were superb. Watto was excellent as Anakin's owner, most notably. The battle droids, while having poorer aim than the Empire's legions of stormtroopers, served as a good battleforce, since the two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), could not simply use their persuasive powers to win (though they did use their "push" ability a time or two to impact the droids physically). An army of human (or Neimodian) enemies would have been too easy for them to fight. Turning to the "real" characters, then: Ewan McGregor was perfect as Obi-Wan. His Alec Guiness impression aside, every bit of personality that shown through his sparse lines was right on the mark. Obi-Wan will no doubt continue to be portrayed this well by McGregor, and for that I am quite thankful. Liam Neeson brings a solemnity to Qui-Gon Jinn that balances Obi-Wan's (and Anakin's, for that matter) youthful rashness. Yet, he has his own careless tendencies as well. Both Jedi come across as very human; criticism of their woodeness is not really accurate--they were serious when the situation called for it, and this just happened to be the case quite often. Portman, who I immensely enjoyed in "The Professional," is good here. She only gets to express emotion in her few scenes with Anakin (Jake Lloyd), but we have a glimmer of things to come from those moments. While perhaps not exactly counting as a member of the supporting cast, Jake Lloyd was acceptible as a young Anakin Skywalker. Unfortunately for most post-teens, his gleeful repetitive shooting-galleryesque destruction of battle droids in two separate scenes are a bit overblown. However, I suppose they do forecast a bit of an unfeeling lack of compassion that he is to develop over the entire prequel trilogy, his tragic flaw. The single thing that was a bit too much for me to suspend my disbelief towards was his accident torpedoing of the main power reactor for the entire Neimodian ship, thereby saving the Gungan army on the surface of Naboo. His mother, Shmi (Pernilla August), is a bit underemotional at his leaving (crying either tears of sadness for him leaving her or tears of joy for him finally living his dream would have been nice--but the front she must put on to not give him additional guilt is appropriate, I suppose). Otherwise, she is great. Samuel L. Jackon, while not quite as "bombad" (as Jar Jar might say) as his characters in "Pulp Fiction" or "Jackie Brown," is nonetheless effective in his handful of lines. I look forward to seeing him in action in Episode II. Yoda looks a little too young (only a few decades have passed by the time "Empire Strikes Back" rolls around, after all), but his lines sound less corny in context than they did in the trailers. The villains were not the focus of this episode as much as they were in the original trilogy, but what little screen time they got was used to great effect. Darth Maul (Ray Park) is quite intimidating, and his pacing shark-like walk while waiting to fight the Jedi is tantalizingly suspenseful. The duel (or perhaps duel isn't the word for him taking on both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon at once) with the Jedi is magnificent. Without a doubt it surpasses EVERY existing lightsabre duel in the original trilogy, including the excellent one between Luke and Darth Vader at the climax of "Empire Strikes Back." Palpatine, a senator not yet come to imperial power here, is given subtle menacing touches by Ian McDiarmid here. Especially excellent was his foreshadowing of things to come with his comments to Anakin at the end of the film. Aside from the wonderful lightsabre fight, the best action sequence is, unsurprisingly, the pod racing sequence. However, at three laps it dragged on a bit too long. Still, it has me wanting to play the PC version as soon as possible, so perhaps I am only bitter at it trapping me into buying the game. The space battle that Anakin participates in is a little short, a little too simple, and not quite as engaging as I had hoped, unfortunately. All that will change in the next two episodes, though, so I am content to wait. No one knows if "The Phantom Menace" will break the box-office record, but frankly, it doesn't matter; as long as Lucas has enough money to finance the next installment, fans will be happy. And from all the foreshadowing in this film, I can guarantee that the next one will satisfy our curiosity. Can Lucas shape this trilogy into a three-part play, with the auspicious beginnings eventually becoming corrupted and destroyed? Yes. Will he do so and surpass his original trilogy? Perhaps. But I, for one, have faith in him doing so. Rating (0 - 10): 9.0 ------------------------------------------------------------ Greg "Fox" Cook -- Rice University 2000 -- English Major gfoxcook@earthlink.net - http://home.earthlink.net/~gfoxcook Robert Heinlein/The X-Files/Star Wars/Star Trek: NextGen fan U2/Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd/Tori Amos/The Who/David Bowie fan "Ahhh!!! I'm gonna die! Jesus, ____ Allah, Buddha, I love you all!" - Homer J. Simpson ____ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 21 13:21:30 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.alt.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: cbloom@iquest.net (Bob Bloom) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 19 May 1999 15:38:49 GMT Organization: None Lines: 147 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7hulu9$fik$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer12.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927128329 15956 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18390 Keywords: author=bloom X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer12.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17647 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2312 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:293929 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Jake Lloyd, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson. Written and directed by George Lucas. Something eerie happened when the 20th Century Fox theme blared from the screen and those magical words, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" appeared. I felt an adrenaline rush, and I leaned forward in my seat. Then the familiar strains of John Williams "Star Wars" theme blasted from the screen and I felt myself drawn into that mythical world created almost a quarter of a century ago by George Lucas. "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" is not a great film, but it is magical and majestic. Many people will dismiss it as an overblown, kiddie, Saturday matinee popcorn confection. And they would be right. And that is exactly what makes "The Phantom Menace" a wonderful viewing experience. It is a movie that resurrects the child in all of us. It recalls a time of innocence in movies in which a clear demarcation existed between the good guys and the bad guys. Like its predecessors, especially the first "Star Wars" movie from 1977, "The Phantom Menace" evokes a feeling of nostalgia, which is ironic, since it is one of the most technologically advanced features ever brought to the screen. More than 2,000 effects were used in this 130-minute fantasy, yet the movie does not feel cold or sterile. "The Phantom Menace" is a two-hour-plus appetizer, produced to whet our expectations for the saga to follow. That also is the movie's main drawback. It's more of a history lesson, a primer. Its main purpose is to introduce us to its characters and explain a little about them. The movie is like those briefings combat pilots get before flying sorties. They are shown the lay of the land and its outstanding landmarks in order to familiarize themselves with the topography. The only difference is that "The Phantom Menace" is much more enjoyable. The main objective of "The Phantom Menace" - besides being rousing entertainment - is to show the beginnings of the downfall of the old Republic as well as the machinations that lead to the rise of the evil Galactic Empire. Along the way we are introduced to younger versions of characters we have met or heard about in the first trilogy: a young slave boy named Anakin Skywalker; the Jedi master Yoda; a young Jedi apprentice named Obi-Wan Kenobi, a work-in-progress protocol droid named C-3PO and a feisty, round little droid called R2-D2. We also meet some new characters: the Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, young Queen Amidala of Naboo, Jar Jar Binks, a clumsy, childlike amphibious being belonging to an underwater race called the Gungans, Darth Maul, a Dark Lord of Sith who wields a double-edged light saber, and Lord Sidious, his master, who stays in the shadows as he plots to overthrow the Republic. Lucas fills "The Phantom Menace" with much exposition, but it is balanced with various and spectacular action sequences and jaw-dropping vistas. One of the most awe-inspiring scenes involves a pod race won by the young Anakin. It is the consummate high-tech drag race, inspired by its creator's fond memories of his hot-rodding youth. And, of course, what would a "Star Wars" film be without the obligatory dogfight in space. As usual, computer-generated vehicles roll, dive and soar like miniature hawks. Lucas has been accused of lavishing more time on his props and computer effects than on his human actors. And while a case can be made that he seems to have left Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor as young Obi-Wan to their own devices, it appears he put in many hours with young Jake Lloyd (Anakin) and Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala). Neeson gives a stalwart, dignified performance as the veteran Jedi. But he has played larger-than-life characters before ("Rob Roy," "Les Miserables," "Schindler's List"), so he is familiar with the territory. McGregor ("Trainspotting," "A Life Less Ordinary") is one of the finest young actors in movies today. And judging by his previous performances, he also has an intelligence and instinct that leads him to make the correct choices. However, to be fair, he really has little to do except say, "Yes, Master,"" over and over to Qui-Gon, as well as engage in various laser saber battles. With young Lloyd, Lucas walks a tricky path. Anakin, ostensibly, is the movie's hero. Lloyd is charming, confident and endearing, but ... This is the boy who, when he becomes an adult, is corrupted to accept the Dark Side and is transformed into Darth Vader, one of the most memorable villains in movie history. Lucas underscores this at time through the music of John Williams, who has created a resounding score. His Anakin's theme is a bit pastoral, yet undermining it are hints of the Darth Vader theme from the first "Star Wars" trilogy. Portman is regal and resourceful as the young queen, and it will be interesting to see her mature if she retains the role in the two sequels. Also bringing heart to the proceedings is Pernilla August as Anakin's mother. Their scenes together are poignant, the best in the movie. Also on hand are the vocal talents of Frank Oz as Yoda and, in what amounts to a cameo, Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, a member of the Jedi Council. Unfortunately, Jackson has little to do except sit, ponder and issue dire warnings about Anakin's future. The real stars of "The Phantom Menace" are the thousands of behind-the-scenes people at Industrial Light and Magic who brought Lucas' creations to life. This movie is a good 95-plus percent computer-generated effects. Yet the characters, especially Jar Jar Binks as well as the rest of the Gungan, seem so real, so human, that you soon forget they are pixels and bytes. "The Phantom Menace" is a rip-roarin' good time. Like its predecessors, it's a throwback to an earlier era in movie history, while at the same time it is in the vanguard of a cinematic future in which computers will create worlds and landscapes we could only imagine. The Force is alive and well and beats strongly in "The Phantom Menace." Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net cb Carol Bloom of Bloom Ink Publishing Professionals 3312 Indian Rock Lane West Lafayette, IN 47906-1203 765-497-9320 fax 765-497-3112 cbloom@iquest.net Committed to Lifelong Learning through Effective Communication From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 21 13:23:03 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Joe Chamberlain" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 20 May 1999 05:48:15 GMT Organization: The Movie Guy Lines: 147 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i07mv$10t0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: "Joe Chamberlain" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927179295 33696 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18437 Keywords: author=chamberlain X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17657 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2314 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:295480 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace A review by Joe Chamberlain Starring Liam Neeson; Ewan McGregor; Natalie Portman; Jake Lloyd & Pernilla August A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... I have to admit that when those words appeared on the screen, my heart skipped a beat, even if only ever so slightly. By the time the opening setup credits had finished, I was all set for a good time. After seeing Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, I was left wondering if I had seen the same movie that many film critics had seemingly taken great delight in eviscerating in the weeks leading up to its release. I certainly didn't experience the colossal disappointment that many a critic were predicting that fans would suffer. Nor did it appear as though anyone else in the sold-out theater where I saw The Phantom Menace was overly underwhelmed. At least, not judging by the applause that erupted when the film's end credits started to roll. Although, I suppose that could have been from just being relieved that the worst 2 hours of their lives was now over. Call me crazy, but I don't think so. Let me set the record straight on some of the more prominent criticisms of this film. 1) That director George Lucas went a little crazy on the computer generated aspects of the film. To be honest, the CGI was so subtle that I hardly noticed most of it. Since 95% of the scenes were in some way digitally enhanced, you would expect that it might get a little overwhelming. Much of it involved scenes where some element of the background had been enhanced in some small way. As for the big scenes such as the dramatic battle between the Gungans and legions of battle droids, the digital effects were so well done that I didn't even notice that everything on screen was CGI. Criticism number 2 -- that the story was seriously lacking. Admittedly The Phantom Menace is a setup for the next two films. But the way in which Lucas sets up these cliffhangers that will be resolved in the next films is brilliant. There are also more than a few winks and nudges directed to those who are diehard fans of the movie. 3) The computer generated character of Jar Jar Binks is really annoying. At first he kind of is a bit, but I found that he grew on me as the movie progressed. He also had some of the funniest lines in the film, provided you could understand them. Of my complaints that is the biggest. Jar Jar's whole race spoke in a backwards dialect that had its funny moments, but in most cases you really had to work to make out what they were saying. 4) Jake Lloyd, who plays young Anakin Skywalker, can't act. There are a few brief moments in the film where it is painfully obvious why Lloyd has gained the nickname of Mannequin Skywalker among some. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't half bad in most of the movie. Which is a credit to Lucas for keeping Lloyd's dramatic scenes to a bare minimum. Although, I certainly won't miss Lloyd in the next film. To be quite frank, I found most criticism directed toward this film was blown way out of proportion. I guess that is in keeping with everything surrounding The Phantom Menace. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, for those of you who are just emerging from your caves, is the first in a trilogy of prequels to the original Star Wars saga. This trilogy concerns how young Anakin Skywalker eventually grew up to be the evil Darth Vader (the father of Star Wars' Luke and Leia). The Phantom Menace begins with a trade dispute between the Trade Federation and the planet of Naboo. The Trade Federation sets up a blockade of Naboo to force them into submission. The Galactic Republic dispatches two Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jin (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), to try to settle the dispute. Once there, the two Jedis realize that there is something more sinister going on that just a trade dispute. The mysterious Darth Sidious (even more mysteriously uncredited) is secretly pulling the strings of the Trade Federation armies encircling Naboo. He orders his men to commence the capture of the peaceful planet. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan manage to rescue the ruler of Naboo, Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), from the clutches of the Trade Federation's army, and whisk her off to the planet of Coruscant where she can plead her planet's case before the ruling Republic's Senate. On their way, their ship experiences engine trouble and they have to land on the desert world on Tatooine for repairs. There, Qui-Gon and Amidala meet a young boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who seems to have a great connection with the Force. The rest of the film is more of less the Jedi's and Amidala's attempts to free her planet. Much of The Phantom Menace is a setup for Episodes II and III. A good portion of the movie is spent introducing the characters and their forthcoming intertwining relationships which we all know will eventually happen. At least those of us who have seen the first three films know what is going to eventually happen. Episode I gives us a sneak peak of sorts into what we know these characters are to become. For instance, we get the first hints of the romance that is to blossom between the Anakin and Amidala (Luke and Leia's parents). We also start to see the rise to power of the Senator from Naboo named Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) who would later become Darth Vader's master, Emperor Palpatine. We also have the first indications from the Jedi council, headed by Yoda (Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) that while Anakin may be strong with the Force, his future might be less than rosy. All of this, and other subtle hints, will be to the great delight of Star Wars fans. Those that have never seen the original trilogy or haven't seen it in a while, may miss out on some of the more subtle comments and hints. Lucas seems to have made The Phantom Menace as a teaser of sorts for what is to come, and in that respect he has done it brilliantly. The hints and anticipation about what is to come has left me wishing that I didn't have to wait three more years to see the next chapter. Aside from the setup for Episodes II and III, The Phantom Menace does stand up on its own. The plot may be a bit light in places, but I certainly never noticed. I was so caught up in the spectacle of it all. Visually, The Phantom Menace is one breathtaking movie. The computer technology available today has allowed Lucas' technical wizards to create whatever magical worlds that Lucas can dream up. Particularly staggering were the capital city on Naboo which featured grand waterfalls and ornate architecture. The underwater sequences involving Jar Jar Binks' totally submersed home are as stunning as anything you are ever likely to see on film. And of course, the final battle involving the thousands of battle droids is something that never could have been created without the use of computers. "How about the actors?", you are no doubt asking yourself. Liam Neeson displays the same abundant talent in this film as he did in Schindler's List. He, along with Natalie Portman, is the heart of the movie. Portman is incredible as the young Queen with the weight of an entire planet on her shoulders. I feel obligated to note that when you take away the Queen's strange outfits and even stranger makeup, Natalie Portman is absolutely stunning. I realize that she was cast for her enormous talent as much as anything else, but her classic beauty made me think that she was born to play a queen. I was a bit disappointed that Ewan McGregor and Samuel J. Jackson didn't have bigger roles in this film. I was especially shocked at how little screen time McGregor got. But both be and Jackson gave great performances in their roles. I also would have liked to see a bit more of Darth Maul (Ray Park) who was other character that fit into the under used category. The cast as a whole was an amazing one especially considering most of them were acting with blue screens and not real actors at any given time. And even those that weren't quite what they should have been (anyone who sees the film will know who they are) didn't detract from the movie. In fact, very little detracted from the movie. And if something did, you could be sure that some other nifty thing would come along to take your mind off any little bumps in the road. George Lucas threw enough small touches and tiny details in to make up for any deficiencies that may have arisen. Sure there were things that probably could have been done differently. I've never seen a perfect movie yet, so I didn't expect this one to be flawless either. Lucas has made a fun little movie that all ages will be able to enjoy. It may not be quite as good as Star Wars, but it certainly stands up well to The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. I only had one major complaint as I walked out of this film -- that I have to wait 3 more years to see the next one. That's the sort of complaint I wish I had with every film. 10/10 -- Well worth the 16 year wait Visit The Movie Guy http://members.tripod.com/~MovieGuy/index.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:04 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!uio.no!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Berge Garabedian" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 16:21:14 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 109 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i415q$udq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: "Berge Garabedian" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927303674 31162 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18443 Keywords: author=garabedian X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17669 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2320 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296232 STAR WARS: EPISODE 1- THE PHANTOM MENACE RATING: 8 / 10 --> Great movie For more reviews and movie quizzes, visit http://www.joblo.com/ I am not a Star Wars fanatic, but I do love the Star Wars movies, and own the first three in my personal collection (A little background on the critic always helps...). This first episode of the Star Wars films goes back 30-odd years before the first movie took place, and uncovers the origins of many of the films' biggest attractions, with an emphasized focus on the young Anakin Skywalker, later known simply as Darth Vader. PLOT: Suffice it to say that there is plenty of turmoil in the galaxy, and Queen Amidala needs the protection of two Jedis in an attempt to save her people from further suffering. Along their route, the Jedis pick up a bizarre creature who helps them out (sort of), and a young boy, who carries within him a very strong kinship to the Force. CRITIQUE: A visual feast. This movie is a perfect example of why the word "eye-candy" was invented. More enjoyable than THE RETURN OF THE JEDI, but not as interesting as THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK or STAR WARS, this film smashes all previous science-fiction flicks and their claim to futuristic authenticity with a flawless display of humans, robots, droids and every other kind of freakazoid in the universe, meched into a wonderful world of special effect wizardry of a society living in a galaxy far, far away...a long, long time ago. Every scene contains plenty of beautiful and impeccably integrated pieces of an artificial world made real by the genius of a man named George Lucas. This film is a joy to watch and a wonder to inhabit. Having said that, I found the story line confusing, a little slow in the midsection, and ultimately boring. I won't numb you with the details of the plot, but the bottom line is that there are bad guys, and there are good guys. The Trade Federation, chancellors, blockades, I could do without. Not very interesting. That being said, there is always something fantastic to keep your eyes on at all times, so boredom was never really a big issue with me. I also enjoyed the whole "getting to know" your characters information, with plenty of background info on most of the prime members of the Star Wars universe, and some fun cameos as well. The actors also kept up their end of the bargain with Liam Neeson excellent as the main Jedi Knight, and Natalie Portman pulling off a solid Queen. The little kid was also pretty good, but Sam Jackson distracting, due mostly to his enormous presence. My favorite new character was without a doubt Darth Maul who seemed to ooze evil and had some cool light-sabering scenes with the Jedis. Too bad they decided to use him in very little of the film. I also dug on young Anakin's boss early on in the film, who is a perfect example of a CGI-created character, who was fun to watch, and not overdone. On the other hand, my least favorite new character is one that has seemed to rub many adults the wrong way, and that is Jar-Jar Binks, the CGI-generated creature, which annoyed me mostly because I didn't understand 3/4 of the things that he was babbling about. Anyway, enough about him has been said already. All in all, the film managed to enrapture me in its web of fantasy and space adventure, strapping me in with its impeccable array of computer-generated characters, holding me down with its great action scenes and interesting background info, and blasting me off and into its exquisitely created universe of special effect magic, majestic palaces and quaint villages, and visually stunning characters. Note: Forget the hype, forget this review, cleanse your mind. Just remember that this is just a movie, so go stand in line and buy yourself some nachos and Coke, sit your ass down and enjoy the visual story as it floats past your eyes. Little Known Facts about the movie and its stars: (courtesy of the IMDb) George Lucas reportedly wrote this film in the same binder of yellow ruled paper in which he wrote the original STAR WARS, and apparently financed this $110-million film entirely out of his own personal stash. The character of JarJar Binks was named by George Lucas' son, Jett. During filming Ewan McGregor made lightsaber noises as he dueled. It was noted and corrected during filmmaking. McGregor is the real-life nephew of Denis Lawson, who played Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles in the original STAR WARS. In 1997, a fierce sandstorm destroyed several of the Tatooine sets in the desert ouside of Tozeur, Tunisia. Filming resumed two days later. Director George Lucas considered this a good omen, as the very same thing had happened during filming of the original STAR WARS in 1977. Natalie Portman re-dubbed nearly all of her lines after filming was completed. Lucas' reasoning was that her voice has changed mildly during filming and there was bad background noise during several of her other scenes. Her Queen Amidala's throne-room dress took eight weeks to design. During the first week of the first trailer's release, many theatres reported up to 75% of their audiences paying full price for a movie, then walking out after the Star Wars: Episode I trailer was shown. Review Date: May 19, 1999 Director: George Lucas Writer: George Lucas Producer: Rick McCallum Actors: Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker Genre: Science-Fiction Year of Release: 1999 --------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com --------------------------------------- (c) 1999 Berge Garabedian From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:04 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!erix.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!algonet!howland.erols.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Vince Yim <***xieze-qilin***@bc.sympatico.ca> ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 17:26:55 GMT Organization: Or lack thereof ~Lines: 75 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i450v$12gu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927307615 35358 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18453 Keywords: author=yim X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17667 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2318 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296215 WARNING: If you actually wish to see the film, stop reading this and see it. While I don't blow any plot details, the more you know about a movie, the more disappointing and built up it becomes (waiting a month to see Titanic did the same thing). But, in a nutshell, it's a good film. Star Wars episode I: The Phantom Menace Reviewed by Vince Yim Never having been the biggest Star Wars fanatic in the world (I was more into Star Trek: The Next Generation), it is difficult to relate to the mass fandom surrounding the latest installment, The Phantom Menace. However, it can't be ignored. Endless toys lining the shelves, endless news reports, and a multi-billion dollar advertising campaign makes it all the more difficult. With the level of this hype, one would recall an overhyped disaster from 1998, Godzilla, which definitely failed to live up to expectations. Thankfully, The Phantom Menace does much, much better. While the "first" Star Wars trilogy told the story of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, the prequels backpedal to tell the back-story of Obi Wan Kenobi and a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker (who would become the father of Luke and eventually become Darth Vader). Without blowing too much of the story, The Phantom Menace evolves around a peaceful planet Naboo, which is being held hostage by a greedy Trade Federation, and it's up to two Jedi Knights (Qui-Gon Ji, played by Liam Neeson and Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGreggor) to free it. The Phantom Menace has taken a literal beating from various film critics, leaving me to lower my expectations somewhat. Common complaints range from lack of characterization, weak narrative, poor direction of actors, the dated style, and too much focus over special effects. Still, film critics often apply much historical theory in regards to film criticism, much of which the average film buff does not care for. Hence, this film is a lot of fun and definitely an improvement over the previous films (even with the "improvements" in the Special Editions). There are many memorable sequences throughout the film, ranging from the fast and furious "pod race" sequence (which is a take on the chariot races in "Ben Hur") and the many fight scenes involving legions of battle droids. Utilizing technology that is light years beyond anything made before, special effects and computers are used to create everything from monsters to robots to amazing cityscapes with incredible detail. No matter how many times you watch this film, you will catch something new. The level of humour is a bit higher than the previous films as well, mostly conveyed through the reluctant hero Jar Jar Binks, who belongs to a race known as the Gungans. Best described as an Mr. Bean from the planet Naboo, he steals the show. Unfortunately, being that he is a computer-generated character, tells a bit about the direction of the actors (although Natalie Portman as the Queen is pretty effective, as is Jake Lloyd as the young Anakin Skywalker). With Star Wars mania at an all time high, there is the risk that the film will disappoint (I myself had my doubts), which this film does have a tendency to do at times. There are a few logic problems with the plot, several things are left unchecked, and at times seems to be made only for diehard Star Wars fans (although the appearance of the Tusken Raiders makes for more than a few laughs). That, and young Anakin Skywalker is a really annoying character, coming off as a smarmy, arrogant brat (with such an attitude, it's no wonder why he turns to the Dark Side). Still, it seems that many people, especially critics, are missing the point. The film is some of the most fun 2 and a half hours that you'll blow in your life, which is something I wouldn't mind doing again. While it may not have the psychological impact of an Academy Award contender, who really cares? The film is pure fun from beginning to end. And isn't that what really matters? Rating: 8/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:04 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Edward W. Morris, Jr." ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:34:23 GMT Organization: FASTNET(r) Internet for everyone! ~Lines: 124 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9l7v$tjq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer34.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927488063 30330 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18488 Keywords: author=morris X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer34.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17704 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2335 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299103 Minor spoilers below.... Rating: 4 of 4 stars. I saw this film at 6:30am before work, so there were only 12 people in the theater. I felt silly entering, but upon exiting realized I saw the film the way it should be seen: with no distractions. In summary, I felt the film was nothing short of spectacular. Does the film have flaws? Of course it does, as does most films. But remember what you're going to see when you enter the theater: you want to be swept away and entertained. You're NOT looking for character development and first rate acting. This is the biggest flaw with movie critism today: reviewing a movie based on a generalized perception of all movies rather than reviewing it based on it's intentions. The goal of this movie is to etertain you not by challenging your intellect, but to thrill you with action, plot, and special EFX. It certainly delivers on all three. While the movie does have some elements specifically for children, being an adult, I never felt insulted or uncomfortable. I believe George Lucas tried to please as many people as he could, but I take my hat off to the man: you could tell he did it the way he wanted to. Basically, the plot involves the military blockade of a planet in a Republic in a time of political turmoil. The Queen of the planet Naboo is being forced by the Trade Federation to sign a treaty with them over the taxation of trade routes to the planet. But she will not sign. Little does everyone know that the Trade Federation is being commanded by the mysterious Lord Sidious, who appears throughout the film (only to them) as a holographic image. His identity is secret, but one thing I noticed in the film is that it isn't really to hard to figure out whom he is. Listen closely to what he says during his scenes, and what plays out before and after his scenes. Two Jedi knights, who are protectors of peace in the galaxy, are dispatched by the Chancellor of the Republic to mediate the dispute. When Sidious finds out they're coming, he orders an excellerated invasion of Naboo, and sentences the Jedi to death. He then dispatches his disciple, Darth Maul, as muscle to kill them. Maul is incredibly underused in the film, considering the marketing of him in all forms of media. He has 3 lines and about 10 minutes of screen time. I found this puzzling, but my conjecture is that he might be frightening to very small children. The Jedi rescue the queen on the planet below and go to the planet Tatooine for parts, where they meet enslaved Anakin Skywalker (who will become Darth Vader in later films). One of the elder Jedi (Liam Neeson) feels he's The Chosen One, a powerful being who will balance the force between good and evil. Then the action shifts to the Republic planet of Coruscant, where the Chancellor bickers will all forms of alien life (including the Federation beings) over the taxation and blockade of Naboo. There, we meet a Senator Palpatine (played very well by Ian McDiarmid), who is trying all he can to help the Queen present her case to the Republic Senate. He advises her to vote "no confidence" to the chancellor, and in effect getting himself the Chancellorship. Finally, we travel back to Naboo where the invasion is in full swing and the occupants of Naboo team up to stop it. This ending involves 4 different storylines edited within one and other quickly cut to give the impression of it happening all at once, which is very effective. In one line, the Queen is trying to capture the Viceroy of the Federation, who is holled-up in her palace. In another, there is a space assault to small the contol of the battle droids that invade on the planet below, which is the third storyline. Finally, Darth Maul comes to Naboo to kill the two Jedi masters in a fantastic two-on-one fight scene. The action scenes are impressive, especially the computer generated armies of battle androids. There are litterally thousands of them on screen at one time, facing an army of computer generated Gungans, who are natives on Naboo. The CGI graphics are absolutely seamless. I think what we are seeing here is the future of film: being able to duplicate or create absolutely anything. The plot will please adults, but confuse children. The politics of the blockade, the Republic Senate scene, and all scenes with Lord Sidious and the Viceroy are very complex and must be paid attention to, lest you should become lost. Finally I'll touch on the performances. The always reliable Liam Neeson brings stateliness to his role as Senior Jedi. His character gives the impression that he's in total control of everything, even when we know he's not. Ewan McGregor, also suprisingly underused until the end, does very well as Obi-wan Kenobi, who's played later by Alec Guiness the Star Wars movies from years ago. He impersonates Guiness intonation and delivery, which I didn't feel was necessary. Natalie Portman's gotten mixed reviews as the Queen, but I felt she did very well in her scenes bringing regalness and compassion, where necessary. The boy, played by Jake Lloyd, doesn't fare quite as well, only hitting the mark about 50% of the time. Sometimes he's good, sometime's he's bad. I feel that when he's bad it's not all his fault: some of his lines must've been written by a boy his age, it seems. I'd say the film's greatest fault (not that you'd notice it) is the dialogue. Great actors Samuel Jackson and Terence Stamp have cameos as a senior member of the Jedi council and the Republic Chancellor, respectively. They bring a bit of class to the movie, albeit a small dose. There is a computer generated character called Jar-Jar Binks, who is a Gungan. He looks like a rabbit and serves as comic relief. MUCH has been written about his being geared towards children and how annoying that can be. I didn't feel he was all that bad, one of the reasons being you cannot understand his accent of English (yes, most of the aliens speak English, another eyebrow raiser) most of the time. Speaking of accents, I'll close by saying that the aliens are all based on racial stereotypes, when they certainly didn't have to be, given the imagination of Lucas. The Federation Viceroy is obviously Oriental, down to his eyes and robes. Yet the other Federation aliens don't have the accent. Watto, the Tatooine junk-deal who's enslaved Anakin, is somewhat Jewish. The Gungans are based on Jamacians, given their pidgin English. Picture an alien with long ears and bell-bottom pants saying "Weesa no like the Naboo. Theysa think deysa better dan us." Enough said. This doesn't detract from the movie, but still I noticed it. A fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon with your kids, or your friends. You won't be disappointed. Edward W. Morris, Jr. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Aaron M. Renn" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 18:34:51 GMT Organization: GNU's Not Unix! ~Lines: 205 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i490b$ufu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer23.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927311691 31230 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18463 Keywords: author=renn X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer23.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17676 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2324 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296250 WARNING! This review contains SPOILERS. You should probably not read it unless you have already seen the film. You have been warned. In preparation for today's debut of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, I re-screened the original trilogy on video. It's amazing really how bad the first three movies really are. Particularly the original Star Wars. The film is clearly aimed at a juvenile audience and the dialog and acting show it. ("But I was going into Tashi Station to pick up some power converters"). The characters are mere props, the plot cliched and transparent. The second two are much better, particularly The Empire Strikes Back, with better acting and a bit more mature themes. But the target audience is still clearly far below the age of majority. Those screenings brought my nostalgia-tinged rememberences of the first trilogy back down to earth. That, along with the generally poor reviews given to it by legitimate critics, had me braced for a letdown when I went to see The Phantom Menace. Perhaps my low expectations were one reason I was so pleasantly surprised by the movie. High art it was not, but it was good entertainment. And beyond that it was a lot of fun. Clearly much of the disatisfaction with this movie stems from the letdown that is almost inevitable after the mega-hype it has received. True, nobody was cheering and whooping, but then again nobody did that when I went to see the special edition versions of the original trilogy either. The good parts are fairly easy to identify: lots of action and solid special effects. Like the original Star Wars, this movie is somewhat a throwback to the old westerns. There are the Good Guys, the Bad Guys, the Damsel in Distress, the Dispute over the Ranch, the Gunfighters, etc. This movie, however, was released in a far different era than the original Star Wars. Today political correctness rules the day and post-modernism rejects all objective truth, especially old fashioned notions of good and evil. Almost all of the pricipal characters were white, and with the exception of Queen Amidala, male. I don't suggest that this is a good thing in and of itself. But it interesting to see George Lucas resisting the urge to create a PC multi-ethnic cast. (Indeed, the Jar Jar Binks character reminds me of an old blackface comic, something clearly out of step with modern sensibilities). There are numerous minority characters in supporting roles, and it looks like Lucas hired them because they were right for the part, not to fill some quota. As for good and evil, the line separating them is razor sharp. The good guys are very good, the bad guys are very bad. Of course the critics hate this. The New Yorker called the movie "crap". Among its supposed sins was having all the big players be male, and stereotyping the female queen as a damsel in distress. (Of course, later in the same review the New Yorker said this would be a boys' film since girls know junk when they see it. So much for stereotyping). Incidentally, I think the New Yorker is wrong about Amidala, and that is not the only review I've read that makes me think the critic was watching a different movie from me. The Phantom Menace is almost unrelenting action and/or battle. This endears it to me far more than its predecessors, each of which had long, boring stretches where the characters frolicked with Ewoks in the woods and such. I just love a good shoot-em-up. Good space battles are so hard to find these days. With the Prime Directive and assorted BS, it's a rare Star Trek episode when the Enterprise gets to fire up its phasers. No problem with that stuff here. The characters in this movie walk through life with their guns and light sabres half drawn. It's enough to give Handgun Control, Inc. a heart attack. Long, long ago there were no trigger locks on those blasters. People had weapons and they were meant to be used. Critics who want to blame this for Americans' supposed infatuation with high tech, remote controlled war can just shove it up their arse. I loved every minute of it. The special effects were cool, but hardly upped the ante like the original Star Wars did. In fairness, special effects have gotten so good these days that it's hard to tell they are effects. After Terminator 2, how much better can they get? We do get to see plenty of cool equipment and spaceships though. And a number of interesting planetary vistas, though I got the feeling Lucas threw these in just to impress. Most of the aliens had that same cartoon like quality from the original series, but this was doubtlessly intentional. (WARNING: Lots of SPOLIERS start here) Two particular highlights were the light sabre battles and the pod race. I though the sabre battles were far superior to the original trilogy and Darth Maul's double bladed sabre was super-cool. The pod race has been beaten to death elsewhere, but I thought I would second the almost universal praise it has been given. Many of the criticisms of the movie leave me scratching my head. For example, Salon Magazine complains that it is never made clear why the Trade Federation would want to embargo a backwater planet like Naboo. Well, could it be that Darth Sidious/Palpatine convinced them to do it in order to engineer his ascension to the position of Chancellor? If he can shoot lightning bolts out of his fingers he can surely use the Jedi Mind Trick on the two dolts running the Federation. There are some unanswered questions that might call for a pre-prequel - such as where Darths Sidious and Maul got their powers and ambitions from - but not nearly so many as this critic complained about. On the other hand, there were a number of legitimately annoying elements to the movie, most of them only of interest to Star Wars geeks. Here are several in no particular order: -- The movie suffers from the same bad dialog and flat characters as the first trilogy. All of the major actors in this film have had much better roles in other productions. Again, the plot is transparent and the film mostly predicatable. -- Qui-Gon Jinn is just a little too close to Qui-Chang Caine for my taste. -- The immaculate conception of Anakin Skywalker and this mysterious prophecy are pure fantasy elements that don't belong. Plus, if Anakin really has no father, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru can't really be related to Luke by blood. Indeed the Star Wars web site confirms they adopted him in cooperation with Obi-Wan in order to hide him from Vader. If so, why are Uncle Owen and Obi-Wan on such bad terms? It could have been a ruse or some falling out, but an inconsistency in the plot is more likely. -- Speaking of Anakin, the piloting abilities of someone that young are simply not believable, Force or no Force. -- Why is Qui-Gon so interested in this prophecy and the restoration of "balance"? What balance? It looks like the good guys are in charge. Balance could only mean more bad guys. Maybe we'll find out more about this later. -- Obi-Wan meets and spends time with R2D2 in Phantom Menace. Why didn't he recognize R2 on Tatooine in Star Wars then? He claims he doesn't remember owning a droid, which might be strictly true, but something tells me he should have reacted differently. -- How come no member of the Jedi Council can sense that Palpatine is a bad guy? The Force seemed to let them down. -- How can an apprentice Jedi like Darth Maul be so effective against both Qui-Gon and Obi-Won? They should have easily shredded him. Maybe the dark side is more powerful after all. -- Too many scenes lifted directly from the first trilogy. "I've got a bad feeling about this", the medal scene at the end, the light sabre fight around the huge shaft, Obi-Wan's last moments with a dying Qui-Gon, the canyon in the pod race. And did we really need to go back to Tatooine again? -- Samuel L. Jackson had little more than a cameo appearance. This was very disappointing. I hope he is more prominent in the next films. I seem to think he should be a bad guy somehow. Maybe he's turn out to be evil in the next film. He'd be a lot more fun that way. I miss his pony tail from Jackie Brown too. -- Why did they have to kill off Darth Maul? We learn nothing about him except that he goes around searching for and attempting to kill Sidious' enemies. Though he looked more clown like than menacing, I still thought he had great potential as a bad guy. I also wonder how they Jedi Council was able to determine that this person was one of the mysterious Sith. -- Speaking of the Sith, it was interesting to see this taken back from the spinoff novels, but we learn little about them in this film. This is intimately bound up with the origins of Darth Sidious, which is one of the things we learned nothing about. -- Darth emerges as a type of title or honorific. One presumes it means something like "Lord" as that is frequently used as an alternate. But IIRC in Star Wars Obi-Wan addresses Vader as "Darth". It seems unlikely to me that Obi-Wan would address Vader with the equivalent of "my Lord". -- Jar Jar Binks has been rightly criticized as hyper-annoying. He speaks with a thick Carribean accent such that you can't understand half of what he's saying (assuming he's even saying English words in the first place). He's supposedly there for comic relief, but I think he's really there to keep the seven year olds entertained. Since I'm not seven old Jar Jar made me want to punch George Lucas in the mouth. -- In Empire Obi-Wan says that Yoda trained him. However, it appears in this movie that he was trained by Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan also laments in Jedi that he took it upon himself to train Anakin in place of Yoda. However, in this film Obi-Wan trains him with the (admittedly reluctant) blessing of Yoda. It does not appear that Yoda is in charge of training young Jedis. -- Anakin is a child and we are told he is too old to be considered for Jedi training. It also appears one is not fully a Jedi knight until early adulthood. This makes about a twenty year training regiment. But Luke was able to get his Jedi training in a matter of weeks. -- To travel to the Naboo from the underwater city they supposedly go through the "core" of the planet, but it looks like they do little but pass through the oceans to me. -- The movie was about 10-15 minutes too long. Lots of nitpicks aside, I had a fun time watching this. When the opening weekend madness passes, I will definitely be seeing it again at least once. Until Episode II, may the Force be with you. -- Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!uio.no!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: wchamber@netcom.ca (Bill Chambers) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 16:23:02 GMT Organization: Film Freak Central ~Lines: 146 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i4196$j12$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: wchamber@NOSPAMnetcom.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927303782 19490 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18445 Keywords: author=chambers X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17670 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2321 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296234 THE PHANTOM MENACE **½ (out of four) -a review by Bill Chambers ( starwars@filmfreakcentral.net ) (For more critiques you'll disagree with, visit Film Freak Central: http://filmfreakcentral.net Bring a friend!) starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd written and directed by George Lucas I want this review of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace to stand out from the pack you’ve been reading, so I will forgo my typical essay-style approach and discuss the film in bits and pieces. I can’t promise not to spoil anything, but I will do my best to avoid giving too much away. The Plot: Menace takes us back three or four decades before the original Star Wars (A New Hope to us dweebs). It is the story of Qui-Gon Jinn, a rebellious Jedi master who becomes, along with his pupil Obi-Wan Kenobi, embroiled in a trade war. The plot seems vaguely modeled on The Last of The Mohicans’: Qui-Gon plays reluctant guard to nobility (including Queen Amidala) as he treks a path to freedom; his band is pursued by the Magua-esque Darth Maul, a bloodthirsty aide to the Trade Federation. The similarities to James Fenimore Cooper’s tale end at the point when Qui-Gon stops on Tattooine for vessel repairs and discovers a preternatural little slaveboy possessed of rare mental and physical gifts. Qui-Gon swears the kid, Anakin Skywalker, is "the chosen one," the future Jedi who will bring balance to the force. He even stakes his (shaky) reputation on it before the Council, which is headed by Yoda and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo). The Characters: Qui-Gon, who stands tall, walks swiftly and speaks softly, is the most compelling new presence in the Star Wars universe. Liam Neeson’s performance recalls the authority of Alec Guiness in the later films, which is most appropriate, given that Guiness portrayed the mature Obi-Wan—it’s now as if Qui-Gon’s self-confidence rubbed off on Obi-Wan more than any other aspect of his training. Lloyd also shines, especially in his scenes with Yoda and company; he has a sweet and innocent face, but there’s a trace enough of mischief in his narrow eyes to leave no doubt this cherubic munchkin will one day submit to his darkest urges. Jar Jar Binks ("Stomp" dancer Ahmed Best), the rabbit-eared, six-foot reptile (part of a race called the Gungan) who follows Qui-Gon around like a loyal servant (and talks like the stereotypical plantation worker, circa 1800s, an attribute sure to rankle those members of the black population who already feel misrepresented in the original trilogy), sporadically amuses but mostly annoys, especially with his inept soldier schtick during the climactic battle between the Gungan and hordes of Battle Droids. (While I’m on the subject of droids, C-3PO and R2-D2 make curiously perfunctory appearances in The Phantom Menace—though they normally supply the comic relief, only Jar Jar’s theatrics are mined for laughs this time around.) Also of note are Portman, McGregor, and Ian McDiarmid. The former plays surely the most beautiful queen in any galaxy—with or without the Kabuki make-up, she glows like a young Audrey Hepburn, but Princess Leia she’s not. Amidala is ballsy but lacks the sauciness that endeared Leia to little girls (and, yes, little boys) across the world. McGregor is marginally more successful as the eager Obi-Wan, but he is more or less a walking action figure, someone who asks a lot of questions mostly for the sake of nudging us into the next sequence. Finally, McDiarmid, as Senator Palpatine, brought a smile to my face whenever he was on screen; whether by virtue of some fine acting or the knowledge that Palpatine eventually becomes the dreaded Emperor, I cannot say. Perhaps the most disappointing character in Menace is Darth Maul. Fans have hitched their wagon to the wrong train, it seems (Maul was the most popular costume at the midnight premiere, and products bearing his likeness are the best selling Menace merchandise so far), for Maul is no less robotic than the machines who fight for his cause. His entire persona is summed up by his double-bladed lightsaber: cool at first, silly upon reflection. The Special Effects: Lucas didn’t want to make another Star Wars movie until CGI equipment caught up with his imagination. Indeed, Menace is brimming—overstuffed—with special effects whose detail is impressive. Yet there’s nothing sparklingly original about them, especially concerning the animated beings. Star Wars and Star Trek share a common flaw in their creature design. As weird as the bodies and skins get, the aliens of both galaxies usually have humanoid faces: two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Lucas also continues a trend begun in his refurbished editions of episodes 4, 5, and 6: the monsters of Episode 1 are clownish or juvenile (the appearance of a small Greedo-type recalls Jim Henson’s "Muppet Babies") and, dare I say it, uniquely synthetic. While the technology now allows for a group of computer-generated Gungans to flop around like so many Stephen Fetchits, I still find digital flesh, ninety percent of the time, thoroughly unconvincing. (The wisest directorial decision Lucas made was to have Yoda return in all his foam rubber glory, replete with strategically placed props to disguise puppeteer Frank Oz.) More successful are the CGI cityscapes of Couriscant and Naboo, as well as the many interiors and exteriors of ships. In fact, most of, if not all, of the non-creature F/X work is breathtaking enough to give pause to the most jaded viewers. The myriad explosions and close-calls and laser blasts do tend to overwhelm Menace’s narrative, but it’s safe to say that Lucas is a solid enough filmmaker that he pulls off the Pandemonium with much more grace than we’re accustomed to seeing in summer pictures of this sort. Yes, we’re dealing with a different George Lucas than the one who made Star Wars back in 1977—that director had budgetary restrictions imposed on him that really taxed his imagination. The trash compactor sequence in Episode IV, so basic it could easily be duplicated by enterprising teenaged videomakers, holds more suspense than any similar moment in Menace. ('90s Lucas is also the parent of a preschooler, and therefore eager to please all ages.) Sometimes, less is more. Why mince words? Less is always more. That’s also why a simple breathing appartus used by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan for an underwater jaunt in Menace fascinates more than the complicated machinery on display, because it's the kind of goofy prop one might find in schlocky B-movie serials, one of Lucas’ obvious inspirations. The Final Word: I’m tempted to say The Phantom Menace is uninspired, but it’s not. I’m tempted to say it’s uninvolving, but it’s far from that. The movie is burdened with having to lay the groundwork not only for two hypothetical movies, but a completed series of beloved films, and the best scenes in Menace (the Jedi Council conferences; Obi-Wan’s big number) indicate that episodes two and three will be more stimulating affairs. I’d have to say it’s a better picture than Return of the Jedi, but falls into the same third-act trap of juxtaposing a terrific swordfight with boring, slapstick scenes of combat. Ultimately, I’d like to see The Phantom Menace again, because there is so much to drink in. If I have some advice for Lucas it is this: for the sequel (read: second prequel), write and write and write until you’ve defined your characters, because (as any true fan will agree) it was the rock-solid personalities of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2—and the chemsitry between them—that endeared the Star Wars trilogy to audiences, not nifty production values. -May, 1999 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!uio.no!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: James Sanford ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 16:24:50 GMT Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. ~Lines: 97 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i41ci$dq4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer39.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927303890 14148 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18446 Keywords: author=sanford X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer39.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17661 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2316 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296189 There's a famous story director Alfred Hitchcock once told about working with Ingrid Bergman in the 1940s. Bergman, Hitchcock said, wanted only to appear in masterpieces and feared starring in a film that wouldn't live up to her lofty standards. Hitchcock couldn't understand why she spent so much time fretting over every single aspect of her work. "Ingrid," he told her, "it's only a movie." Those words could also apply to the fanatics who have camped out in theater parking lots, traded bits of trivia on the Internet and counted down the days until the opening of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," the first of writer-director George Lucas' "Star Wars" prequels. It turns out it is, after all, only a movie, and nothing ever committed to celluloid could possibly live up to the astonishing amount of hype surrounding this one. "Episode I" doesn't even come close. It's merely a two-hour parade of mesmerizing images, set to a stirring John Williams score and featuring an assortment of faces old and new. Is it fun? For the most part, yes. Is it a life-changing experience? Only if you reach puberty, give birth or die while watching it. Set alongside the previous installments, "Episode I" has considerably fewer cliffhangers than "Star Wars" and none of the complexity or terror of "The Empire Strikes Back," and shares with "Return of the Jedi" a fondness for the kinds of cuddly creatures only a toy vendor could love. What makes the movie a worthy addition to the series is its visual sense. Practically every frame of the film is drenched in bold colors and even the backdrops - such as an underwater city made of shining golden bubbles, or a planet entirely consumed by urban sprawl - are fascinating to study. Those who see "Episode I" more than once will want to take a closer look at the extraordinary details packed intoevery scene. Several of those scenes are exceptionally fine. "Episode I" kicks off with an exciting escape, follows that up with a dazzling invasion sequence then moves on to a nail-biting episode involving fish monsters and gigantic mutant eels. A "pod race" on the desert planet Tattooine is also smashingly well-crafted and a climactic, multi-level battle between Jedi Knights and a bloodthirsty Sith Lord provides a much-needed kick to the story's third act. "Episode I" introduces some memorable characters, a few of whom will figure prominently in the next two chapters: Amidala (Natalie Portman), the youthful queen who dresses like a supergeisha and fights like Princess Leia; Qui-Gon (a suitably heroic Liam Neeson), the stalwart Jedi mentor of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, who does a perfect vocal imitation of the young Alec Guinness); and Darth Maul (Ray Park), a merciless assassin in Kabuki makeup who brandishes a lethal double light saber and whose head is crowned by a ring of horns. Unfortunately for those over the age of 10, "Episode I" also brings in an asinine amphibian named Jar Jar Binks who speaks in mock Rastafarian tones and appears to have been inserted in the story by the merchandising arm of Lucasfilms. He's irritating from the moment he first appears and goes a long way toward bogging down the action. The movie further caters to the kiddie audience by casting the button-nosed Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker, the fledgling warrior whowill someday grow up to be Darth Vader. Cute he may be, but an actor he is not. Then again, many of the performances here seem underdirected, even that of the generally on-target Portman, who has some initial difficulty bringing Amidala to life. A similar problem keeps Pernilla August from making Anakin's mom into anything but a smiling cipher. The movie's dramatic sequences are frequently tepid and overlong, perfectly designed for trips to the concession stand. They're also indicative of the film's greatest failing, its inability to exert any sort of emotional power whatsoever. This might be partially due to the nature of the material itself; after all, this is basically a lengthy backstory for the intrigue and romance yet to come. But as a director, Lucas seems more caught up in dishing out digital magic than in working with flesh and blood. "Episode I" routinely dazzles the eye without ever engaging the other senses. Those expecting to stand up and cheer at regular intervals might be taken aback by the movie's almost weird restraint. Imagine taking a roller coaster ride after swallowing a handful of Valium and you get some idea of the tone. Awash in state-of-the-art sound and fury and devoid of feeling, "Episode I" is a technical triumph that seems untouched by human hands. In manufacturing, that's a plus. In filmmaking, however, that's not a good thing. James Sanford From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!uio.no!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: ram.samudrala@stanford.edu ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 16:24:40 GMT Organization: Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ~Lines: 101 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i41c8$dps$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927303880 14140 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18448 Keywords: author=samudrala X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17671 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2322 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296237 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/star_wars.html A long time ago, in our own galaxy and on our own planet, three movies became so popular that they created an intense amount of anticipation and hype for what would come next. The long wait is finally over with the release of /Star Wars: The Phantom Menace/, the fourth installment released by creator George Lucas but chronologically, it is the first episode in the /Star Wars/ universe. Could the movie live up to such hype? I wasn't sure but I didn't care. I went into the movie with the greatest amount of anticipation and I figured if George Lucas could live up to my high expectations, it would make this movie an incredible experience for me (more so than if I had gone in with lower expectations). I came away from the movie thinking it was perfect. That in and of itself isn't so unusual (recently, I felt the same way about /The Matrix/) but it is rare (many films in my mind have failed to live up to hype, including the recent /Saving Private Ryan/). What makes /Star Wars: The Phantom Menace/ special is that I had to overcome my bias against the hype to think it was perfect, since it was undergoing a more critical initial viewing than most films do. The plot is one of the most complex among the four movies, rivalling the rich dialectic observed in /Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back/ and definitely superior to the first and third episodes. Lucas takes advantage of the fact that a lot of the famous characters, such as Jabba the Hut, Yoda (voice by Frank Oz), R2-D2 (voice by Kenny Baker), C-3PO (voice by Anthony Daniels), and the evil Emperor are already familiar to us and narrates a story where these characters and the ancestors of the primary protagonists in episodes IV-VI interact together in an incredibly natural fashion. In the film, we're introduced to Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), a slave boy who is freed by two Jed Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). We're introduced to Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) who we later know marries Anakin and gives birth to Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker. We're also introduced to Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), a Sith Lord, who later becomes the evil Emperor (aka Darth Sidious), slowly consolidating his power. The film is primarily about Palpatine's first efforts to gain control of the Galactic Republic (while remaining consistent with the first three films and telling a self-contained story). In order to do this, he pitches the Trade Federation against the planet Naboo (ruled by Queen Amidala). When the planet is overrun by the Trade Federation droids, Queen Amidala and the two Jedi Knights sent as ambassadors feel but end up being briefly stranded on the desert planet of Tatooine, where they run into Anakin. After freeing Anakin, they go back to Coruscant to warn the Jedi council of Darth Maul (Ray Park/Peter Serafinowicz), an apprentice of the Sith Lord trained in the ways of the Jedi. Qui-Gon also asks the permission of the council to train Anakin. The final confrontation features the Knights, the Queen and her aides, and the Gungans, a group of amphibious creatures living on the planet, together trying to re-take control of Naboo. There have been several criticisms about the film but I find them baseless. The notion that this is a film for children for example only serves to illustrate, as I have long believed, that most adults are incapable of comprehending such subtle complexity. The movie adds just a bit more knowledge to our understanding of the Zen-like nature of the force and builds upon the previous mythology in an exciting manner. The effects are terrific but they are not over used. Lucas takes his time telling the story and fleshing out the characters slowly, and the pacing is just right. Each character is extremely well-developed yet the amount of time spent on a given character is perfect. For example, when the focus is on the evilness of the Senator, it's just enough to let us realise he is not what he seems to be but yet it's not so blatant as to be insulting. The look and feel of the film is exceptional and retains the same comfortable aesthetic we're familiar with from episodes IV-VI. The Darth Maul character is extremely effective and Ray Park's stunt work in this regard is brilliant. The martial arts-inspired fight sequences are extremely well choreographed. The acting is excellent---Liam Neeson is aptly cast as a stubborn Jedi Knight and Ewan McGregor is perfect as an earnest Obi-Wan. Jake Lloyd does a great job as young Anakin Skywalker and even at his age the chemistry between him and Natalie Portman is readily apparent. And the score... while the heavy passage announcing the arrival of Darth Vader in episodes four through six is barely present, the other parts of the score by John Williams, mixing the old with the new, sent shivers down my spine. The reason this movie worked so well was because it induced goose bumps in me on several occasions. These thrilling moments included the pod race which determines Anakin Skywalker's fate, and the battle scene at the end where Anakin destroying the droid control ship, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan battling a ferocious Darth Maul, and Queen Amidala taking control of her throne, are all juxtaposed with each other. This is the reason also it was able to live up to my expectations--it was exactly like I was watching the original trilogy when I was twelve or so. I can't think of a single thing that is wrong with the film and I can't wait to see it again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:06 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!erix.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: postmaster@cjc.org (Cheng-Jih Chen) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 17:23:18 GMT Organization: Interport Communications ~Lines: 123 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i44q6$8f6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: postmaster@cjc.org NNTP-Posting-Host: homer31.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927307398 8678 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18449 Keywords: author=chen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer31.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17660 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2315 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296165 "Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father... C3PO, _I_ am your father." We waited out in the rain at the 34th and Lexington movie theater. There were umbrellas up and rainslickers worn, but no lightsabres, no one dressed as Chewbacca. This was the 8:30PM show, and I suspect the folks who would have come that way were going to the Ziegfeld at midnight. The line started to form at about 6PM, though it didn't get serious until after 7PM. The smartest man on line had gotten there a bit earlier, and was sitting in a portable chair underneath the movie theater's marquee, out of the rain. We were in the first dozen feet of the bunched together line, half the group in the rain, half out of it. We did have a box of Krispy Kremes, so we were reasonably prepared. I have to admit -- sheepishly -- I took a bit of organizer's prerogative and ducked out for half an hour to have a burrito dinner at Blockheads out of the rain. I think "Star Wars" was the first movie I saw in a movie theater. I guess I was seven. This was the old RKO Keith's in Flushing, now a burned out shell after a real estate development dispute. A pity: it was a landmark, decked out in a Beaux Arts style. There's, of course, great affection for the saga, though I realize that there's a certain cheesiness to it all, that Harrison Ford doesn't figure out how to act until about halfway through "Empire", and so on. The momentum of the movie carries all such deficits away, making them irrelevant. It's part of our secular mythology. The new movie does well, and is not a godawful Godzilla-sized disappointment, which is what some of the worst reviews make it out to be. Not as fun as "Star Wars", not as dark and somberly open-ended as "Empire", but not as stupidly goofy and Ewok-ridden as "Jedi", it's more an introduction, the first step on a path to Anakin's Greek tragedy two films away. Despite the cluttered plot and the slow wait for things to get moving, it's not bad. We see new vistas and familiar characters in different settings; since this movie cannot be seen outside of context, there is a purposeful, barely perceptible cloud of doom hanging over some of these first meetings. The action, once it gets going in the second half, is fantastic, culminating in the lightsabre duel between Darth Maul and the two Jedi. It's a worthy beginning, but it could have been better. As noted, things took a while to get moving. In "Star Wars", before we settle into the story, there was a fantastic first punch of action with the boarding of Leia's ship. No such luck here -- the pacing failed for me -- though we do have a fascinating view of what fully trained Jedi in their prime can do, how much of a One Man Army they are. Yes, it's just like the computer game. Darth Maul had too little to do. We understand that he's bad, but he doesn't do more than be the apprentice of a greater power, and participate in the climatic sabre duel. Vader, at least, had more to do in the first film, and especially in the second. His casual evil is demonstrated in action, not simply signified in bad-ass black garb. That the whole conflict was sparked by some sort of trade dispute is somewhat silly. I think it's Lucas's attempt to create a relatively inconsequential reason for the Federation to go to war against Naboo: mercantile issues shouldn't motivate combatants with thoroughgoing passions in the way nationalistic fervor, the will to power or the fight for freedom might. At the end of the movie, the Federation's leaders can be carted off for trial and the stripping of their trade privileges, leaving the status quo ante relatively intact but the insidious motivator still hidden. My problem with this sequence of events is that the trade dispute turned massively bloody. It is far too pat an ending. I'm sure someone could have come up with a more credible conflict to get things rolling. I disagree with Lucas's attempt to give a pseudo-scientific explanation for the Force. It's deeply lame, deeply distracting: you think they're basically mispronouncing "mitochondria", which is a real symbiotic bacteria found in multicellular life. This attempt robs the Force of its mysticism, undermining the long-elaborated theme from the previous films of spirit triumphing over machine. Better for the Jedi to feel a great stirring in the Force when around Anakin than to take a blood sample. I'd be thrilled silly if the following two movies never bring up this point again. By the way, I'm not touching Anakin's immaculate conception with a ten-foot pole. The fight choreography of the lightsabre duel between Darth Maul and the Jedi is spectacular, far more dynamic or energetic than the duels between Luke and Vader, or the somewhat stiffly geriatric duel between Vader and Kenobi. I suspect this is due partially to better effects technology: a guy doesn't have to sit there and hand paint all the glowing sabres frame by frame, because a computer can do this, following the arc of a fast moving sabre more effectively. Perhaps more importantly, the fight choreography of martial arts films has become more mainstream than it was in the Seventies and early Eighties. We expect flashy aggressiveness and balletic spins in this sort of combat. Anything bordering on stiff and clumsy is deemed insufficient. Interestingly, while the wonderful dynamics of the sabre combat exists when the Jedi face Darth Maul, but it's not quite there when the Jedi hack their way through hordes of battle droids. Partially, this is intentional: the droids pose no serious challenge to Jedi. A more compelling argument is that the actors have nothing to react to when they're supposed to be facing the droids, whereas Darth Maul is physically there in the form of Ray Park wielding a prop sword. I remember at least two instances where Ewan McGregor twirls and swing the sabre casually into a droid. There seemed to be no force, no urgency in the action. Well, there was nothing there to act against. No wonder, then, that Liam Neeson wants to quit movie acting; no wonder McGregor found the filming a chore: they spent a great deal of time interacting with CGI characters. This can't be fun for an actor, spending weeks in front of a blue screen, talking to things that aren't there. Such is the result of technical change over the past decade. Perhaps an intriguing analogy may be made with the introduction of sound in film. Silent film actors who were adept at the exaggerated facial expressions and gestures of that type of film had a difficult time adjusting. What we may see in coming years is a cadre of actors well-suited to the blue screen for one reason or another. Consider, though, Ebert's statement about an upcoming golden age of visual style at http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/clear18f.html. I suppose we'll have to see what happens in the subsequent films. Clearly, Anakin, as an apprentice Jedi, will attempt to free the slaves on Tatoonie, and perhaps his passion to save his mother will be his undoing, the tragic flaw through which he becomes Vader. Hopefully, Obi-Wan will be less stiff and constipated, with more screen time. We'll just have to see, but I think it's a good start. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:06 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-stkh.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: David Sunga ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 17:26:29 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 101 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i4505$uoc$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927307589 31500 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18450 Keywords: author=sunga X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17663 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2317 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296199 Review: Star Wars: Episode I --The Phantom Menace (1999) Rating: 3 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars - Debatable 2.5 stars - Some people may like it 3.0 stars - I liked it 3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga Directed by: George Lucas Written by: George Lucas Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Natalie Portman Synopsis: In Phantom Menace the galaxy is divided into power groups whose interests will inevitably collide in later sequels. There is an overarching galactic United Nations-type organization called the Senate presided by a weak Chancellor. Within the senate two camps are at odds: a bickering, isolationist alliance called the Republic and their aggressive rival the Trade Federation. Preserving law and order are a council of Jedi Knights who are meanwhile searching for a prophesied chosen one of virgin birth. Manipulating events behind the scenes is a dangerous, reemerging clan called the Dark Lords of Sith, so shadowy and secretive that they comprise a "phantom" menace. Jedi knight Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) witness an invasion of teenage Queen Amidala’s home planet Naboo and befriend a Gungan named Jar Jar (Ahmed Best). On the desert planet of Tatooine the two Jedi, Jar Jar, and Amidala (Natalie Portman) attend a lengthy drag race involving the young boy Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd). The five protagonists try to solicit help for freeing Naboo by visiting the city planet of Coruscant where a lot of debate and political maneuvering takes place. Can they free Amidala’s helpless planet? Opinion: On TV last night I watched young, wannabe celebs pay $400 a ticket and come running out of theaters to bask in front of news cameras, gushing with testimonials of The Phantom Menace’s greatness in exchange for a few seconds of being on national television. Given this kind of media mania I wondered if Phantom Menace, the most anticipated movie of 1999, could possibly live up to the extraordinary hype that preceded it. Does Phantom Menace match the exaggerated hype? Director George Lucas answers, "It’s only a movie." To me, any movie with Russian-sounding accents for bad guys, Jamaican accents for good guys, and Middle Eastern-sounding accents for seedy gamblers accents can be expected to be more tongue in cheek than profound. Visually, Star Wars: Episode I --The Phantom Menace (1999) is a kid show where parents can take their young ones to marvel at child-friendly CGI characters and wondrous backdrops even if the character dialogue (mostly geopolitics) is beyond the level of children. It is left to parents to patiently explain the conversation: droid origins, family lineage, the definitions of terms like blockade, appeasement, federation, alliance, symbiosis, satellite-controlled robots et cetera. At least this much is clear: there’s plenty of eye candy, and in the last few minutes it’s good guys and Joe Camel lookalikes versus a caped, horned red devil character and his mechanical hordes. Weaknesses: Weaknesses lie in the writing and in the performance. At first it seems like the film is to be an invasion story, but then Phantom takes an hour-long detour to cover one chariot race before returning to the invasion theme. This dilutes the central story. Additionally, smaller scenes seem written self consciously, as if they were added more to fill us in on extraneous background information for other movies rather than form an integral part of the present movie. Veteran actors Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor noticeably outperform the other acting leads. Better ensemble chemistry between the five leads and background information that is central to a tight story line could have made have given Phantom stronger performances and storytelling punch. Strengths: On the bright side Phantom Menace as a big-budget production is far ahead of the competition in terms of making whimsical creatures, worlds and vehicles appear real. The film boasts sophisticated, top-of-the-line visuals and quality exotic costumes, a musical score entertaining enough to stand alone, and three worthwhile sequences in the second half. Bottom line? Seeing the film is entertaining and informative, like a visual theme park with Star Wars filler information serving as dialogue between impressive money shots. We are bound to be completely inundated by Star Wars publicity, music and tie-ins for the next few months. Reviewed by David Sunga May 19, 1999 Copyright © 1999 by David Sunga This review and others like it can be found at THE CRITIC ZOO: http://www.criticzoo.com email: zookeeper@criticzoo.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:06 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!erix.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!algonet!newsfeed.globecom.net!mandrake!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: CleverGrrl@aol.com (Stacey Oziel) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 17:26:43 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Share what you know. Learn what you don't. ~Lines: 184 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i450j$12go$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927307603 35352 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18452 Keywords: author=oziel X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17668 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2319 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296218 STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE (The Phantom Menace) by Stacey Oziel You've heard all the hype. You've seen all their faces - Natalie Portman (The Professional) as Queen Amidala, Liam Neeson (Schindler's List) as Qui-Gon Jinn, Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jake Lloyd (Jingle all the Way) as young Anakin Skywalker. If you've read any reviews, you've also probably heard that this movie fails to live up to the magic and humanity of the first trilogy. You also may have heard that this one's too kiddie-friendly, and doesn't have enough content for adults. Believe the hype. The effects are stunning, the digitalized creatures are amazingly realistic, the lightsaber duels are amazing, and Queen Amidala's sumptuous robes are fit to be worn by Queen Elizabeth. But there's something missing here, and it isn't budget or effects - it's everything money *can't* buy. The actors struggle as best they can to flesh out broad-stroked and flat characters. The most successful at this is Liam Neeson who, as Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi master to young Obi-Wan Kenobi, has quiet dignity and a wise, commanding presence. He is the anchor to this movie, as he is the one character who George Lucas apparently spent some time fleshing out. Portman's Queen Amidala and McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi don't fare nearly so well. Amidala, the future mother of Luke and Leia and the queen of a peaceful planet being invaded by the Trade Federation (?!?), comes off as stoic, stilted and caricatured (it appears as though she was a Vulcan Geisha in a former life). And Obi-Wan, although McGregor makes him very endearing, has so little screen time that he's nothing but a Robin to Qui-Gon Jinn's Batman. However, McGregor does struggle manfully to infuse this surprisingly small supporting role with a spark of genuine insight and humanity, and he does a good job. He also absolutely NAILS Alec Guiness' (Obi-Wan in Episode 4 - 6) Scottish accent, and that really makes his presence in the film more profound than it might have been otherwise. In fact, Lucas seems to bank on that preexisting knowledge quite a bit, and that's one of the problems with this film. I would never call myself a "Star Wars" fan - especially not considering what it means to be a fanatic these days - but I've always enjoyed the films along with everyone else in America. However, if you are the one person in America who *hasn't* seen the films at all or even recently, or who doesn't bother to brush-up on the names of obscure characters, you may be hopelessly lost. For example, one of the film's main (nefarious) characters is Senator Palpatine. For those of you not recently steeped in "Star Wars" trivia, Emperor Palpatine is that scary hooded apparition who was Darth Vader's master in "Return of the Jedi" and "Empire Strikes Back." So, obviously, his appearance in "Phantom Menace" is meant to stir some echoes of his later role in the series, thus making his role here more meaningful. A lot of the movie is like that. R2-D2 and C-3PO make token appearances, and it's obvious that Lucas is banking on the audience's pre-existing fondness for them... because he doesn't do much to add to it in any way. Same goes for Jabba the Hutt, who doesn't look as much mean here as he does corpulent and lazy. Even *planets* make foreshadowing guest appearances in this film - Tatooine (the desert world where Luke grew up), Coruscant (the cloud city from "Empire Strikes Back"), and Alderaan (Leia's home planet - which we never actually see - that gets blown up in "Star Wars") show up or are mentioned briefly in passing. What's the result of tying so many plot points and characters to future films? The answer is that this one seems surprisingly empty. There's no meat - no substance - that makes you want to love the characters as they are, not as they will be. Another problem is that there are actually *too many* alien characters in the film. I was distracted by the fact that two of the main evil characters - strange looking aliens who looked like Gila monsters - had mouths that barely moved, making them look more like Muppets than actual characters. And Jar Jar Binks, a silly Roger Rabbitish amphibious character, is intended as comic relief, but what he really becomes is annoying - and fast. Unlike Chewbacca and C-3PO, who got their humanity (if you'll pardon the expression) from their interactions with the human characters, Jar Jar is often left to interact mostly with others of his kind, at times making the movie seem like nothing more than a very expensive "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Furthermore, the dialogue is often stilted and corny, and sometimes downright infantile, thereby rendering some characters into nothing more than bystanders to the plot. Oddly, this isn't just *my* judgment - Lucas has said that he designed this film for kids. Well, he's done a good job. The hero of this film, of course, is young Anakin, but it was very hard for me to feel any kinship or identify with an eight-year-old boy. That's not Jake Lloyd's fault, though - he does a good job of being a cute kid, which is apparently all Lucas asked of him. That's another mistake, of course, because the cute tyke becomes Darth Vader. WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!!!! In my opinion, there was not nearly enough foreshadowing of Anakin's future evil in the film. The boy is all blond flowing hair and rosy cheeks, and there's nothing more than a spark of aggression in him throughout the entire movie. He has a doting mother (Pernilla August, making her first English- language film) and is a slave to a gross flying gnome on Tatooine. But the only indication the audience gets that this kid isn't all hearts and roses is Yoda's hesitation in allowing him to train as a Jedi under Qui-Gon Jinn. His explanation? "His future is clouded." (Warning: MAJOR spoiler ahead. Enter at your own risk.) Of course, the noble Qui-Gon dies at the hand of Darth Maul, a scary-looking Sith lord who excels at the Jedi arts, but has turned to the Dark Side. This dude has maybe two lines in the entire movie, but he establishes his presence through his amazing moves with his double-sided lightsaber, and his scary facial makeup. Because Qui-Gon never gets a chance to train the young Anakin in the ways of the Force, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon's young Padawan apprentice (one level below Knightdom), must take over the training himself. So, at the end of the movie, we end where the saga actually begins - with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his young apprentice, Anakin "Darth Vader" Skywalker. Did this story need to be told? I would say no. But is it a worthwhile movie to see? Absolutely. If you don't enter the theater with Jedi-size expectations, and you simply want to be treated to an enjoyable visual spectacle, then this is your movie. The Tatooine pod races are a triumph of effects and computer animation. The digitalized backgrounds on some of the planets are an astonishing sight. And Yoda and young Obi-Wan are worth seeing for their origins in a simpler, happier time. Above all, this is a fun movie. Not deep, not meaningful, and not profound. But fun. Maybe next time, Lucas will hire Lawrence Kasdan to co-write the script, and the guy who directed "Empire" will direct. Because if Lucas does the next one himself, it will be lacking the one thing it needs the most - potential. :) My Grade: B. Stacey Oziel --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.--- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:07 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nuq-peer.news.verio.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: FilmFan16@aol.com (Dustin Putman) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 18:32:12 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 177 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i48rc$o6s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer24.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927311532 24796 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18459 Keywords: author=putman X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer24.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17677 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2325 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296255 Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace * * 1/2 (out of * * * * ) Directed by George Lucas. Cast: Liam Neeson, Jake Lloyd, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Pernilla August, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Park. Voices: Ahmed Best, Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker. 1999 - 131 minutes Rated PG (for mild violence). Reviewed May 20, 1999. "Star Wars" fans across the nation have been waiting sixteen years for the promised prequels to the most popular series in motion picture history. The original trilogy somehow captured viewers' imaginations like no other movie possibly could, taking them on a wild ride through never-before-seen places and meeting unforgettable characters and creatures. The most die-hard fanatics have been sitting outside the Mann's Chinese Theater in L.A. for over a month, simply to be the first in line to see director-creator George Lucas' latest opus. On Wednesday, May 12, advance tickets went on sale at 3:00 p.m., and I was instantly in amazement, arriving at the theater almost two hours before the tickets were to be sold, to see a line going all the way around the building. Many people were said to have camped out overnight (and this is in the small town of Frederick, MD!), and the two guys next to me in line both said that they had called off work on that day. Ultimately, I waited three hours to get tickets to the 7:30 nighttime showing on "May 19," a date that will probably be forever ingrained in some peoples' minds. Expectations were so high for the film, with many nearly treating the impending release as "The Second Coming." On the other hand, I have never been that big of a fan of "Star Wars." I like them, and in the case of 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back," I nearly loved it, but I am far from a crazed devotee. I couldn't, however, pass up going to see this "Event" on the day it opened. The film in question is, obviously, "Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace," set many years before the goings-on in the original trilogy, Episodes IV, V, and VI. Going in, I chose to not have any sort of expectations (although they admittedly were kind of low), but to simply hope the film would do its job in amazing and exciting me. Early critical reviews have not been very kind, but there have been a slew of overwhelmingly positive ones, including Roger Ebert and Janet Maslin (of "The New York Times"). And so, without any certain presumptions, the final word on "The Phantom Menace" is that it is perhaps the most visually astounding motion picture I have ever seen, far more stimulating than the previous "Star Wars" movies, due to such extravagant technological visual effects advancements since the late-'70s/early-'80s. Unfortunately, those movies by-and-large had one vital element that this movie is sorely lacking, and that is any sort of character involvement. While Han Solo, Lucas Skywalker, and Princess Leia were likable characters with distinct personalities, "The Phantom Menace" holds no such close scrutiny. But then again, that leads to another predicament, which is that this film is only the first in a planned prequel trilogy, meaning that many of the characters will, no doubt, be further explored and development in the later installments, currently due out in theaters in 2002 and 2005. Problems abound in "The Phantom Menace," many more than there needed to be, but George Lucas truthfully had an overwhelming amount of elements to handle here, as he had to do the most difficult thing so far in the series, and that is to start it with the first vital chapter in the "Star Wars" legacy. You would be out of your league to say Lucas succeeded on every level, but he did do a respectable job, and treated me to extraordinary images that are worth the price of admission alone. "Episode 1" begins as The Trade Federation are preparing an attack on the planet of Naboo, headed by the 14-year-old Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), whose life is in jeopardy. After a narrow escape from the Federation, who turn out to be more twisted and corrupt than expected, two Jedi Knights, the no-nonsense, scruffy Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), set off for Naboo to rescue the Queen and take her to Tatooine, a planet of safety. When their spacecraft breaks down, they venture out into a small desert town where they come into contact with two slaves, Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) and her 9-year-old son, Anakin (Jack Lloyd). Sensing the Force is with Anakin, and that he is destined to become a powerful Jedi, he hesitantly leaves behind his mother to join Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, promising to return and set her free one day from a slave life. Since "The Phantom Menace" has the tiresome task of setting up everything to come later on, the villains come off more as an afterthought. The main one, I suppose, is Darth Maul (Ray Park), a fiendish sith with red-and-black face makeup, but he is literally given about four scenes and three lines of dialogue. How are we supposed to feel negatively towards Maul when we don't really even know who he is, and we never actually see him do any bad things, save for the inevitable climactic lightsaber battle between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and himself? Villains probably aren't the point in this installment, though, and since they are so uninvolving and slight, it doesn't come off as a major problem. Sure, this movie is basically an arrangement for everything to come, but that still isn't an excuse for what does come off as a problem, and that is the performances, which are as lifeless as a piece of chopped-up wood. Neeson and McGregor are the centerpiece of the film, but we learn almost nothing about them, and they recite their lines without any feeling, as if their hearts weren't really into it. Maybe it is not the actors' faults, since they are so thinly written. At any rate, I'm sure McGregor felt especially out of place since he is a real actor, and probably not used to being what is essentially a background prop who stands there like a good boy and rarely says anything. Jake Lloyd, as young Anakin Skywalker, later to become Darth Vader, is an unctuous child actor if I ever saw one, with almost nary a line of dialogue that he is able to pull off. Surely, Lucas could have found a stronger, more assured actor to fit the bill of what is the most vital character in the film, as Lloyd is annoying and seemingly always aware that he is "in" a movie. Out of the four central roles, Natalie Portman easily fares best, but did you expect anything less of her? At 17-years-old, she is already a near-veteran, popping onto the scene in 1994 with her heartbreaking performance in "The Professional," and carrying it over to what was a performance snubbed of an Oscar nomination, in 1996's "Beautiful Girls." Portman knows how to make a scene work, even when the material isn't up to her level, and it will be intriguing to follow her character's development in Episodes II and III. Pernilla August, a Swedish actress in her first American film, is touching as Anakin's solemn, caring mother, and in each of her scenes she gives Neeson and Lloyd a run for their acting money. Also making brief appearances are Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), who sense an underlying uneasiness within Anakin, as well as friendly androids, R2-D2 (voiced by Kenny Baker) and an unfinished C-3P0 (voiced by Anthony Daniels). Brought to life as "Star Wars"'s first-ever major character that is completely computer-generated is the amphibious Jar Jar Binks (voiced by Ahmed Best) who, judging from his thick accent, must have been born and raised in the outskirts of Jamaica. Much talk has been raised about how Jar Jar is an annoying, kid-friendly addition to the film, and although he is probably more targeted for the children in the audience, I actually did like him, and his goofy, lovable nature. He is integrated seamlessly into each frame, never really looking like a special effect, and gives a better performance overall than any of the humans do. If the characters are lacking depth and three dimensions, no one can accuse "Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace" of not being original and often awe-inspiring. The landscapes and marvelous city vistas are never anything less than powerful, majestic, and sumptuous, picture-perfect images that I could stare at for hours on end. Words really can't describe the visual experience of "The Phantom Menace," but every frame in the 131-minute movie is gorgeous to look at. Some images I will never forget include: the atmospheric, dreamy overhead views of the city skyscrapers in the planet, Coruscant; the endless green fields in Naboo where a climactic war is held; the Queen's kingdom, which is surrounded by curved, bubble-like buildings, as well as a crystal-clear waterfall leading into a river; and an underwater city in Naboo, populated by fish, giant water creatures, and Jar Jar Binks' own race of giant, floopy-eared pseudo-hares. "The Phantom Menace" is such an optical triumph that, like "Terminator 2"'s liquid-metal and "Jurassic Park"'s dinosaurs, stands as a new turning point in visual effects artistry, this time proving that every frame can look completely believable, as if no effects were even actually used. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Naboo, Tatooine, and the underwater city were actual places that exist. "The Phantom Menace," although more dialogue-oriented than action-inclined, as in 1977's "Star Wars," nonetheless includes some startling setpieces, including an exciting, superbly-crafted pod race that Anakin enters in with a pod he has made himself. Soaring through rock passageways and down cliffs, this sequence is the first true sign that we are back in "Star Wars" territory, and it is further carried out in the climax, which intercuts between three separate action storylines, including a war in the fields of Naboo between an army of robots from the Confederation and the amphibious Naboo residents; a fight to the death between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Obi-Wan Kenobi; and the weak link, due to the corny, throwaway one-liners and weak acting by Lloyd, a space battle between Anakin and enemy troops. Flawed as it is, "Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace" captured my imagination and I enjoyed it. With a more tightly-written screenplay and characters, George Lucas would have really had something, but just as with "Episode IV," you have to look at the movie as a jumping-off point for the two later films, which most likely will be better on the story and, hopefully, on the performance levels. Going into "The Phantom Menace," I wasn't actually a "Star Wars" fan, but coming out I wanted more; I wanted to see what was going to happen next. "Episode II" may be three years away, but I'm already highly anticipating it, and the imperfections of "Episode I" have only sparked my interest even more since, like "The Empire Strikes Back," it is sure to be superior. - Copyright 1999 by Dustin Putman Http://hometown.aol.com/FilmFan16/index.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:07 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.wli.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 18:32:03 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 191 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i48r3$o6m$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927311523 24790 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18458 Keywords: author=polenz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17679 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2327 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296282 The Phantom Menace Chad'z rating: ***1/2 (out of 4 = very good) 1999, PG, 131 minutes [2 hours, 11 minutes] [fantasy/science fiction] Starring: Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn); Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker); Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala); Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi); produced by Rick McCallum; written and directed by George Lucas. Seen May 19, 1999 at 5 p.m. at the Crossgates Cinema 18 (Guilderland, N.Y.), theater #1, with my brother John for $8.50. [Theater rating: ****: excellent seats, sound and picture] (Critic’s note: This review is the longest I’ve ever written and still only scratches the surface. I’d recommend this be read only by those who have seen the film as a form of critical analysis.) As my friend and fellow film critic Ted Prigge said in his review of “The Phantom Menace” - how do I even write this review? Never mind the fact that I’ve been waiting for a new “Star Wars” movie since I was seven years old. Never mind the fact everyone on the Internet had already dissected and discussed the movie before it was even released. Never mind that there’s so much going on in this movie in terms of plot, action, special effects and long-term story that to analyze every aspect would take a lot of time and energy and still wouldn’t cover everything. And also like Ted does in all of his reviews, I’ll try to review this in a way different from my usual reviews and instead write as casually as possible as if I was talking directly to you, the reader. Before we can begin analyzing the specific aspects of the film, many of the most general and most significant factors must be considered (to get the specifics of the film, skip this and the next four paragraphs). As has been made obvious for the last several years, another trilogy of films will be produced to account for the [missing] initial three installments of the “Star Wars” series (the first of the films was actually episode four, not one). George Lucas, the creator of the series, has probably just assumed most people know the first-produced trilogy (“Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return Of The Jedi”) is actually the second trilogy, chronologically. In media interviews in the past he has explained why the movies were made out of order, but I can’t recall his reasons. With this new film he as writer and director has also assumed viewers are at least vaguely familiar with the storylines and significant plot points of the first trilogy (err... second trilogy... well you know what I mean). And in order for this review to be thorough many of those significant points must be mentioned which, unfortunately, may serve as spoilers so proceed with caution. [Critic’s note #1: It is one my personal policy not to intentionally analyze spoilers because I would like my reviews to be able to make sense to the reader both before and after viewing the film reviewed, but it would be nearly impossible to do the film justice here without breaking the rule. Critic’s note #2: Reviewing this film also breaks the universal critics’ law of reviewing movies, which as Roger Ebert coined, “It’s not what a movie is about, but how it is about it.” Because so many outside factors come into play in the film’s plot and significance as part of a trilogy, and just considering modern society, it again would be difficult, if not impossible to simply review the film as a completely autonomous story.] First of all we have to catalog what we know about the film before even going into it. We know that young Anakin Skywalker will grow up to become the evil ruler Darth Vader who is also the father of Luke Skywalker, who will lead a successful revolution against him and his Empire. We know Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi was the trainer of Anakin in the ways of “The Force” in attempts to become a Jedi Knight, but would fail and thus Anakin would fall to the “Dark Side.” We also know something about “The Force” itself, that it is some kind of universal force which determines fate and can be manipulated by those whose minds are expanded enough to believe in it and feel it (the Jedi). What we don’t know for sure is the history of the ruling of the galaxy, which is most likely much longer and more complex than any government we have had here on Earth. To me, this was one of the most fascinating aspects of the first three films because there seemed to be a subtle, definite order to all the complexity. Also, it seems that we’re supposed to be familiar with a few other details about the story which have come out of the thousands of comic books and paperbacks published in the years since the movies ended. Most notably, details regarding the Emperor from “Empire” and “Jedi,” and that he was once a senator and his last name is Palpatine. For those who haven’t kept up with all the “Star Wars” paraphernalia over the years, there is still a way to know these details simply by recognizing an actor (or his voice at least). With “The Phantom Menace” being the first chapter of a long saga, one would assume the basic groundwork would be laid, including the history behind all the major factors of the series, especially “The Force” and the Jedi Knights. Unfortunately, this film does more of the opposite as it simply builds on top of what must be a history so long and detailed it could never be explained. I didn’t liked that aspect to this film and is one of the reasons it falls just short of greatness. If you’re going to tell a story from the beginning - tell it from the beginning (is it possible that after this trilogy is complete there could be another trilogy of episodes -1 through -3 to clarify the back story even further?). But I digress. I’ve said so much and yet I haven’t even touched on the specifics of the film itself. All these necessary “disclaiming” elements should go to show just how vast the story of the “Star Wars” series is and this individual film itself. What we get here is a movie not unlike any of the other three we’ve come to know and love since the late 1970s. Its similarity to the other films helps to keep the spirit of the series familiar, but at the same time seems to be a flaw in the filmmaking process itself since it sometimes rings of unoriginality. The basic story is rather sorted, complex and even confusing at times. We’re told that an army known as “The Trade Federation” has set up a blockade around an seemingly insignificant planet called Naboo. We’re not given too many details to clarify the back story of what the federation is and what their purpose is, instead the film opts to get its story moving quickly. We’re introduced to two Jedi, the master Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor). The two are acting as ambassadors of some sort in hopes of ending the obvious hostility between the federation and the planet’s queen, Amidala (Portman). The leader of the federation, an alien called Viceroy, is following the orders of a strange, mythical character - an older human man whose face and body are covered and shadowed by the black robe and hood he wears. He is referred to as Lord Sidious but considering his appearance, and especially that creepy evil voice of his, he is a obviously one of the most significant characters in the series. Sidious communicates to Viceroy only through digital transmissions and never in person. Clearly his actual whereabouts are something he wants to keep secret because that would also reveal his identity (which is never openly revealed in the film, but should be clear to most viewers. I have a feeling we’ll delve into his background in the next two films). But it doesn’t take the film long to spring into action and within minutes our hero Jedi are fighting for their lives and the film’s story begins to move along. The film doesn’t have one specific plot and works in the same manner as the other films in the series where as what we get is one mini-plot and adventure on top of another. There are so many of these mini-plots-within-plots in this film I would not describe them all because it is what gives the movie its hook. The other films have relied on this type of storytelling, but because of the limits of the technology at the time, the films’ screenplays were also limiting. The sense of limitlessness here is what gives “The Phantom Menace” its unique traits. As we already know, the film takes place at least a generation or two before the original “Star Wars” trilogy which means a lot of the background which was unclear and/or unexplained may be cleared up here as it is the beginning of the vast epic story. And here the most significant storyline is that involving the discovery of 10-year-old Anakin Skywalker (Lloyd), by Qui-Gon Jinn and his introduction to the Jedi Council. To briefly summarize the story, Jinn stumbles upon Skywalker in an attempt to buy parts for Queen Amidala’s spaceship which was damaged in efforts to free her from the federation. Their meeting on Tatooine is mostly chance but of course Jinn chalks it up to the will of the Force. Jinn can feel that Skywalker has a great natural power in the Force, and through another sub-plot involving a bet on Skywalker in a fantastic race he will enter, more and more details of his significance begin to reveal themselves. This also provides for a new elaboration and explanation of the Force which has never been mentioned before. In fact, it seems to be something so important it is upsetting it has never been mentioned before. The element seriously undermines the mystical aspect of the Force and transforms it into something more physical and scientific which is completely unnecessary. By the film’s third act all the major significant elements become tied together in a rather familiar execution of the plot. It’s funny how the reality of the “Star Wars” world seems so embedded in mythology, New Age-like philosophy and religion and yet the solution to all the major conflicts in the series has been violence. Not that this technique hasn’t been used in movies and in real-life situations countless times throughout history. And at least it’s all in the spirit of the ultimate powers of good versus evil in a fun and exciting matter. It does border of the cartoonish sometimes, but that’s just the film appealing to our inner child, which is the basic reason the entire saga exists and has become such a big part of our modern society. “The Phantom Menace” delivers exactly what you’d expect from a “Star Wars” film which is why it succeeds as well as it does but is always why it never truly achieves greatness. So many things in the film we’ve seen before and done with more heart because the filmmakers concentrated just a bit more on story and character because they were limited. But this film is far from bad because it at least embraces the spirit of sheer fun at the movies. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:07 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Homer Yen ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 18:35:17 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 71 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i4915$q8g$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927311717 26896 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18466 Keywords: author=yen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17678 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2326 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296279 “Star Wars: Episode I” – The Force Is Still with Us The hype has finally begun to diminish and after months of waiting (and years for others), the highly anticipated “Phantom Menace” has finally come to a theatre not too far, far away. Even I was swept with anticipation, for I am of the Star Wars generation. I bought my ticket a week in advance, and I was ready to once again be a part of the Star Wars phenomenon. The crowd showed an equal level of heightened enthusiasm. When I arrived at my local Loews theatre 30 minutes in advance, many of the seats were already taken. I was lucky enough to find a good spot, and when the lights dimmed, a hushed silence swept across the rows of patrons who had come, like me, to relive our childhood and who had hoped that the film would live up to its hype. In many ways, the film does live up to its hype. Like the original Star Wars that changed the landscape of movie making, this film shows off many new advances in sound and imaging technology. Visually, the movie is absolutely gorgeous – eye candy galore! Clearly there is much imagination at work that can be seen in every shot. Colors are breathtakingly beautiful, settings are wonderfully detailed, and scenes are beautifully envisioned. For example, there is a bustling metropolis filled with towering skyscrapers and an underwater city whose landscape resembles a collection of light bulbs on a crystal chandelier. I was impressed with a battle scene pitting thousands of evil battle droids against a small army of humanoids that looked like a cross between a dragon and a duck and was captivated by a race sequence that can only be described as a futuristic combination of Ben Hur and Speed Racer. The sound was equally impressive, especially a scene involving a Senate debate. To truly appreciate the spectacle of this film, you’ll need to see this film on a big screen with an advanced sound system. But is there as much force with the story and characters as there is with the visual and sound effects? The answer, unfortunately, is no. The beauty of the original Star Wars is that it involved uncharted frontiers and growing up in the face of adversity. That’s not really the case here as it is a story about an epic battle that may shift the balance of power. In Episode I, the evil empire is determined to assert its power and dominance. They use a group called the Trade Federation to further their goals and take over planet Nabooie, which has immense importance in terms of regional commerce. But to secure their victory, they must force the noble and strong queen (the Geisha-adorned Natalie Portman) to sign a treaty. She escapes with the help of Jedi Knights (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). In their quest to regain control of her home world, they also meet up with the future Darth Vader, Annekin Skywalker (played by Jake Lloyd). Annakin is able, inventive, and becomes a great asset to their cause. To stop the good guys, the empire dispatches an evil warrior who has tremendous agility and fighting skills. He does battle with the Jedi knights with a very unique light saber staff. Though impressive, this film couldn’t manage to evoke that same feeling of awe that I had hoped. I’m sure that the amount of hype that preceded the movie biased me as I watched the film. Also, the characters were not as well-defined nor as memorable as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. I also think that when I saw the original Star Wars, I was only 11, and at that time in my life, I was completely mesmerized by what I had seen on screen. As I’ve matured, my tastes have taken my senses in a different direction that favors stories about the darkness of humanity (like “The Matrix”) over films brimming with cuddly extra-terrestrials and star ships. You won’t come out of the film feeling that you’ve experienced an event. But, this is a film that is stunning in many ways and always manages to be enjoyable. Grade: B+ _____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:08 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: brianlt@aloha.net (Brian Takeshita) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 21 May 1999 18:44:55 GMT Organization: Hawaii OnLine - Honolulu, HI ~Lines: 141 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i49j7$dp2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: brianlt@aloha.net NNTP-Posting-Host: homer13.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927312295 14114 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18467 Keywords: author=takeshita X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer13.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17681 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2329 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:296307 THE PHANTOM MENACE A Film Review by Brian Takeshita Rating: *** out of **** The opening crawl tells us that the galaxy is in turmoil over the taxation of trade routes, and the greedy Trade Federation has used it's armada of powerful space battleships to blockade the planet Naboo. We soon find that the Federation plans to invade the planet with an enormous army of warrior robots and force Naboo's ruler, the young Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) to sign a treaty giving the Federation control. However, the galactic Republic has sent Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) as emissaries to the Federation in order to negotiate for the ending of the blockade. No sooner do they arrive than the Federation leaders are instructed via holographic transmission by a mysterious cloaked figure to destroy the Jedi, and the first battle begins. It seems that for me and thousands of people like me, the love for George Lucas's trilogy of STAR WARS movies has only grown over time. We're the fans, not the freaks. We won't go dressing up like Darth Vader (although you have to admit those Imperial uniforms are pretty darn cool), and we won't incorporate lines from the script in our everyday conversations (not all the time, anyway), but if someone wants to challenge us to a little trivia contest, we're throwing down. All right, stop looking at me like that. We have been faithfully and patiently waiting. Waiting for this movie ever since the end credits of RETURN OF THE JEDI started to roll. You see, The Trilogy is not just a set of movies, but a religion of sorts to we, the faithful disciples, and THE PHANTOM MENACE is tantamount to the second coming of the Messiah. Unfortunately, it is not Our Savior. For weeks beforehand, I was going around telling people that this movie had better be damned good - stupendously good - miraculously good. Anything less and it'll be the biggest disappointment of the century. I didn't want the doomsaying prophecy to come true, really I didn't, but this film nevertheless fails to reach the pinnacles of filmmaking. Character development is virtually nonexistent. With the possible exception of Qui-Gon, most of the film's characters seem left with nothing to do but go through the motions. None seem very affected by their experiences, and few even show any passion at all. Contrast this with the horribly irritating comic relief we are nearly continuously subjected to in the form of Jar Jar Binks, a creature belonging to a race which lives in underwater cities on Naboo, in precarious symbiosis with the land dwellers led by Amidala. Jar Jar's life is saved by Qui-Gon early in the film, and travels with our heroes for the sole reason of making us laugh (or supposedly so). His speech mannerisms are so "cute-ified" that I couldn't understand a third of what he was saying, and the slapstick he performed was just distracting. His head gets caught in an electronic field, his foot gets caught in the stirrup of some large beast, he describes being in trouble as "deep doo doo," and even manages to step in some of the same while walking around in Mos Eisley Spaceport. Therein lies a key difference between this film and one of its predecessors. In STAR WARS, we had Obi-Wan telling us Mos Eisley was a "wretched hive of scum and villainy." In THE PHANTOM MENACE, we get doo doo. The films of The Trilogy took me away from my everyday life and immersed me in a story "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." This film, on the other hand, constantly reminds me that it's only a movie by including situations and phrases that are so uniquely modern American that they seem incredibly out of place and serve to jerk the viewer from the experience. Perhaps the most blatant offense occurs during a scene where young Anakin Skywalker enters into a pod racing competition (it's kind of like chariot racing with large engines instead of horses), and there are a couple of commentators in a press box delivering Indy 500-like play by play. I liked the pod race; it was really exciting and ratcheted the tension, but when the heck did Lucas think up the idea of putting in the sportscasters? The race would have been even more exciting without the distraction. This aspect, coupled with the emphasis on humor simply baffled me. I suppose one may say that Lucas was trying to appeal to the younger viewer, but would more intelligent scenes and dialog hurt this appeal at all? Didn't millions of youngsters still go back to see the original STAR WARS in 1977 over and over again? Didn't the action figures still sell like hotcakes? Of course they did, and it's only poor judgment that allows the most-eagerly awaited film in history to be marred by pandering to children who would still have enjoyed a film with more appeal for adults. One aspect that will appeal broadly, however, is the use of special effects. The people at Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic, the world's premiere effects house, outdid themselves in providing seamless integration of computer-generated images and real-life footage. Some of the scenes have to be seen to be believed, especially the shots of a land battle between the Federation's robot army and Jar Jar's countrymen. The space battles are also impressive, although improved over past efforts by only subtle margins to the casual observer. This, however, is a testament to the work which ILM produced two decades ago and still holds up well today. John Williams is back, of course, providing a score for the film as only he can. His music is pervasive throughout, as rousing and as dramatic as ever, always serving to punctuate scenes noticeably and appropriately. Since this film is supposed to be the first installment in a nine-episode story (STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI being episodes four, five and six, respectively), THE PHANTOM MENACE has the daunting task of setting up the origins of several characters we know already, in addition to those with whom we unfamiliar. As a result, attention to history and characterization was spread a little thin. It would have been nice to get more in depth with Yoda and Obi-Wan, for example, but given the fact that there were several new characters to cover, it is understandable that some of the development has been left for the next two films. One of the new characters is Darth Maul, hailed as the new villain with as much hype as marketing forces could muster prior to this film's release. In spite of the hype, Darth Maul is a character which almost didn't have to be in the film, his role is so insignificant. He has maybe three spoken lines (believe it or not, a second actor voices the character) and the rest of the time just scowls and looks mean. With that working against him, he never has a chance at being interesting and instead ends up an utter disappointment. Lucas seems to have wanted to develop the spiritual nature of the STAR WARS universe, something which has been prominent throughout. However, he does so largely by paralleling the STAR WARS spirituality with the bible, offering an easy out for story-writing and once again bringing the viewer back to planet Earth with a real-life connection. Oddly, while trying to capitalize on spirituality, Lucas at the same time introduces the fact that mastery of The Force is dependent upon having little Force-loving parasites in your body's cells. This only serves to de-mystify the workings of The Force a few notches by offering a scientific connection. Don't let me mislead you too far. THE PHANTOM MENACE, by most standards, is a good film. It contains a lot of visual treats, sets the stage for an epic story, gives us a bit of excitement here and there, and even allows us to revisit some of our old friends. It's just that when held up to it's predecessors (and to not do so would be unrealistic), this film simply pales. Review posted May 20, 1999 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:08 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Nathaniel R. Atcheson" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 18:41:32 GMT Organization: Film Psychosis (http://www.pyramid.net/natesmovies) ~Lines: 150 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9i4s$t8o$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer31.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927484892 29976 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18471 Keywords: author=atcheson X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer31.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17688 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2330 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299046 Star Wars:  Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999) Director: George Lucas 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 Screenplay: George Lucas Producers: Rick McCallum Runtime: 131 min. US Distribution: 20th Century Fox Rated PG: mild violence, thematic elements Copyright 1999 Nathaniel R. Atcheson A fellow critic once stated his belief that a reviewer should not speak of himself in his own review. I've attempted to obey this rule in recent months, but to do so would be impossible in this case. The fact is, nearly every person who goes to see The Phantom Menace brings baggage in with them. The original Star Wars trilogy means so much to so many people. For me, they calibrated my creativity as a child; they are masterful, original works of art that mix moving stories with what were astonishing special effects at the time (and they still hold up pretty darn well). I am too young to have seen Star Wars in the theater during its original release, but that doesn't make me any less dedicated to it. On the contrary, the Star Wars trilogy -- and The Empire Strikes Back in particular -- are three items on a very short list of why I love movies. When I heard that George Lucas would be making the first trilogy in the nine-film series, I got exited. When I first saw screenshots from the film, well over a year ago, I embarked on a year-long drool of anticipation. And when the first previews were released last Thanksgiving, I was ready to see the film. But then there was the Hype, the insane marketing campaign, and Lucasfilm's secretive snobbery over the picture. In the last weeks before the picture opened, while multitudes of fans waited outside of theaters and stood in the boiling sun days in advance just to be the first ones in the theater, I was tired of hearing about it. I was tired of seeing cardboard cut-outs of the characters whenever I went to KFC or Taco Bell. I just wanted to see the movie. Reader, do not misunderstand. I did not have an anti-Hype reaction. The Hype was unavoidable. I understand and accept the Hype -- it's just what happens when the prequel to the most widely beloved films of all time get released. Five minutes into The Phantom Menace, I knew there was a problem. "Who are these Jedi knights?" I asked. "Why are they churning out stale dialogue with machine-gun rapidity?" "Why aren't these characters being developed before their adventures?" "Why is there a special effects shot in nearly every frame of the entire film?" These were just some of my questions early on. Later, I asked, "Where's the magic of the first three films?" and "Why am I looking at my watch every fifteen minutes?' By the end of the film, I was tired, maddened, and depressed. George Lucas has funneled his own wonderful movies into a pointless, mindless, summer blockbuster. The Phantom Menace is no Star Wars film. Take away the title and the Jedi talk and the Force, and you're left with what is easily one of the most vacuous special effects movies of all time. It's an embarrassment. I looked desperately for a scene in which a character is explored, or a new theme is examined, or a special effects shot isn't used. There are a few of each, but they're all token attempts. The fact is, George Lucas has created what is simultaneously an abysmally bad excuse for a movie and a pretty good showcase for digital effects. This is not what I wanted to see. I didn't want to leave The Phantom Menace with a headache and a bitter taste in my mouth, but I did. The story centers mostly around Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson, looking lost and confused) and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, who scarcely has a line in the film) and their attempts to liberate the people of the planet Naboo. Naboo is the victim of a bureaucratic war with the Trade Federation; their contact on Naboo is Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), the teenage ruler who truly cares for her people. After picking up Jar Jar Binks (a completely CGI character, voiced by Ahmed Best), they head to Tatooine, where they meet young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and his mother (Pernilla August). Qui-Gon knows that the Force is strong with young Anakin, and so the Jedi Knights take the boy with them on their journeys. The bad guys are Darth Maul and Darth Sidious, neither of whom have enough lines to register as characters. There isn't anything particularly wrong with this story when looking at it in synopsis form. The way Lucas has handled it, however, it unsatisfactory. First of all, we don't learn one single thing about Qui-Gon Jinn. Not one thing. What was his life like before this film? Well, I imagine he didn't have one. That's why he feels like a plot device. This probably explains why Neeson looks so hopeless in the role, and why he's recently retired from film (I don't blame him, honestly). Obi-Wan, a character I was really looking forward to learning more about, is even less interesting. McGregor has just a few lines, so anyone hoping to see the engaging young actor in a great performance is urged to look elsewhere. Since these two men are the focus of The Phantom Menace, Lucas has served us a big emotional void as the centerpiece of his movie. Things start to pick up when our characters reach Tatooine; young Anakin is perhaps the only truly fleshed-out character in the film, and Lloyd does a thoughtful job with the role. I was also hugely impressed with the sand speeder scene; rarely is an action sequence so fast and so exciting. And when Anakin says goodbye to his mother, I found it moving. Also fairly good is Portman, and she manages to give a little depth to a character where no depth has been written. Jar Jar Binks is one of the most annoying characters I've ever had to endure, but he's more interesting than most of the humans. As soon as the relatively-brief segment on Tatooine is over, it's back to the mind-numbing special effects and depthless action scenes. I've seen many movies that qualify as "special effects extravaganzas," but The Phantom Menace is the first one I've seen that had me sick of the special effects fifteen minutes into the movie. The reason is obvious: George Lucas has no restraint. I can't say that I didn't find the effects original, because I did -- the final battle between Darth Maul, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon is visually exceptional, as is most of the film. But I also found the effects deadening and tiresome. My breaking point was near the end of the picture, as Anakin is getting questioned by Yoda and the other Jedi masters; in the background, we see hundreds of digital spaceships flying around through a digital sky, and I wanted that to go away. Can't we have one stinking scene that isn't bursting at the seems with a special effects shot? I got so sick of looking at the CGI characters and spaceships and planets and backgrounds that I really just wanted to go outside and look at a physical landscape for a few hours. And then there's the question of magic. What was lost in the sixteen years between The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi? I have a feeling that Lucas was so focused on how his movie looked that he forgot entirely the way it should feel. John Williams' familiar score is no help, nor is Lucas' direction. I think it comes right down to characters: there are none here. I longed for the magnetic presence of Han, Luke, and Leia, but I got no such thing. And what about the ridiculous expectations? Mine weren't that high; I simply wanted a film that showed me the roots of the films that I grew up loving, a story that had a few characters and a few great special effects. Instead, I got two hours and fifteen minutes of a lifeless and imaginative computer graphics show. I don't hate The Phantom Menace as much as I resent it: I'd like to forget that it exists, and yet I can't. It's here to stay. I can only hope that Episodes II and III have something of substance in them, because if they don't, then Lucas will have pulled off the impossible task of destroying his own indestructible series. Psychosis Rating: 3/10 **********/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\************ Visit FILM PSYCHOSIS at http://www.pyramid.net/natesmovies Nathaniel R. Atcheson **********/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\************ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:09 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Jon Popick ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 18:49:29 GMT Organization: Planet Sick-Boy ~Lines: 34 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9ijp$10kk$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer22.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927485369 33428 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18474 Keywords: author=popick X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer22.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17691 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2331 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299048 PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com It’s hard to effectively rate a movie like The Phantom Menace. If you compare it to its previous three films, it comes up a bit short. If the first three films were never made, viewers would likely be as floored as they were when the first Star Wars film was released over twenty years ago. Was I disappointed? A little. Am I going to see it again? Yes. Two more times? Probably. Taking place about forty years before the beginning trilogy (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), Menace shares only a few characters familiar with audiences. Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) is back and appears to have less ear hair. A much younger Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, Trainspotting) plays a limited role, but promises to be a much bigger force in the next two installments, due in 2002 and 2005. But, most importantly, a very young innocent named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd, Jingle All the Way) – soon to become the enigmatic Darth Vader, as well as the father of Luke and Leia – is discovered by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson, Les Miserables). Menace seems like more of a set piece for Episodes Two and Three of George Lucas’ current trilogy. This is the first film Lucas has directed since the first Star Wars film – and it shows. Acting and story take a back seat to the special effects, which are nothing short of goddamned unbelievable. The script offers too many flat one-liners and jokes geared to pre-school-aged kids. And don’t get me started on the Muppets and computer-generated characters. The worst is Jar Jar Binks, a horrible Roger Rabbit knock-off that is immediately hated by anyone without either a diaper or a pocket-protector. (2:11 – PG for violence and the possible implication that Qui-Gon banged Anakin’s slave mother, Shmi) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:09 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-stkh.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!uninett.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Brian Adelstein ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:03:07 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 61 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9jdb$rl8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer39.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927486187 28328 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18479 Keywords: author=adelstein X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer39.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17699 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2333 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299065 Star Wars I- The Phantom Menace (Review) **** Stars out of **** Short Background/ Why Star Wars fans SHOULD love this Movie I would like to personally start off by mentioning that I am NOT a die hard Star Wars fan and have never been one. I did enjoy the original trilogy, but I found Empire Strikes Back (1980) to be one of the most boring films of all time as no one really died and no special "war" took place. The whole Hoth scene was simply filler. I think people have been mystified by the unbelievable relevation "Luke, I am your father!" and have gone ga-ga over it more than anything else As for Return of the Jedi, I think my enjoyment quickly ended when Teddy Ruxpin and his buddies started slugging the empire. I mean, come on! I was laughing my way through the whole thing. That leaves us here, almost sixteen years later. Would Star Wars go back to its cutsie roots from Jedi or bore us to sleep like Empire? I am happy to say, definately NEITHER. The TRUTH Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has to be considered one of the best films of the year, definately better than the last two sagas. I mean, think about this: There were REAL ACTORS in this film!! Sit back and think about it: Mark Hamill has done nothing since the trilogy and Carrie Fisher has disappeared off the face of the earth too. The only actor of any merit who survived was Harrison Ford, and he hadn't learned how to act by the original trilogy either. Liam Neeson and Ewan MacGregor were masterful in their roles and kept me smiling the whole way through. Ewan even mimiced Sir Alec to a certain extent! As for the rest, Natalie Portman did her job and little Jake Lloyd was fine too. I mean, did you really expect to hear those infamous hissing noises from a little boy? Give me a break...he played the role very well. Lastly, I really LIKED Jar-Jar Binks. His so called "accent" was not intentional in my humble opininon. He was just a little side kick who did his job. For your information, I truly HATED C-3PO from the original trilogy. Talk about an annoying piece of space trash! All he could say was "You did it!" and "Oh my, Ive forgotten how much I hate space travel" yada, yada, yada. Let it go. I let C-3PO go too. What made this episode really special were the action scenes and REAL intellectual stimulation. Just in case you didn't catch it, (and LOTS of you didn't, unfortunately) "Master" Darth Sidious IS the Emperor from the first Trilogy and Senator Palpatine is one and the same. That is the whole concept of the Phantom Menace: Darth Sidious was the one wrecking havoc on the Star Wars universe by making an issue out of an otherwise non-important "trade" dispute and influencing Princess Amidala to have himself promoted in the Senate. Consequently, the victory on the planet down below was a hollow one and probably "forseen!". As far as the action scenes, they were much better than the original trilogy as well. Darth Sidious may not have talked, but he was pure evil nontheless. As far as I am concerned, if Phantom Menace is heralding similar sequels, I am happy for it. If I wanted the original trilogy, I would wish for bad acting and a silly, brainless love triangle in space/evil father/ soap operal plot. Phantom has none of the above. What a fantastic film!! -Brian Adelstein From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:09 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Dennis Schwartz ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:03:52 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 209 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9jeo$rlu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer22.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927486232 28350 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18485 Keywords: author=schwartz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer22.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17700 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2334 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299067 STAR WARS: EPISODE I--THE PHANTOM MENACE (director: George Lucas; cast:(Qui-Gon Jinn) Liam Neeson, (Obi-Wan Kenobi) Ewan McGregor, (Queen Amidala) Natalie Portman, (Anakin Skywalker) Jake Lloyd, (Jar Jar Binks) Ahmed Best, (Shmi Skywalker, Anakin's mother) Pernilla August, (Yoda) Frank Oz, (Mace Windu) Samuel L. Jackson, (Darth Maul) Ray Park, (Chancellor Valorum) Terence Stamp, (Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious) Ian McDiarmid, (R2-D2) Kenny Baker, 1999) The new Star Wars trilogy, as a prequel to the Star Wars saga, will go back in time a full generation to tell the story of Anakin Skywalker, the innocent boy who will one day become the dreaded Darth Vader, who was the father of Luke Skywalker, the young farmboy who became a hero in the struggle to overthrow an evil empire and had to confront one of the Empire's staunchest henchmen, Darth Vader. In this movie, that goes beyond the boundaries of what a movie is, because it has become a trademark name that is as easily recognized as any popular brand name is; if I mentioned KFC, you would know that I am talking about a fast-food chain that sells fried chicken (ugh!), and if I mentioned Star Wars (ah!), the same familiarity would ring a bell with you. Since the movie first surfaced in 1977, it has been a very popular film, basically over-taking many other types of films that took on the moral battle of good and evil, such as the Western, and it created a new myth that does not challenge the old myth, but incorporates pieces of mythology not only from the Judeo-Christian roots of the Bible, but from the Eastern religions, as well. It has become so commercially successful a film and enterprise, that even though the film cost about 115 million dollars to make, its profit margin is a sure thing, since it has merchandise deals tied into its release, that are estimated to be around 3.5 billion dollars. With this in mind, there can be no ordinary viewing of this film, since it is already hyped and promoted beyond any reasonable level of expectation, it is therefore hardly likely that it could meet such expectations, even with its fanatical fan base, willing to stand on long lines for a long time in order to get tickets and who will most likely see the film a number of a times, and a public that is primed and ready for the product. How many times will viewers want to see it, is hard to gauge at this early date, though what is guaranteed, is that it will draw large crowds and pump life into the movie industry, as many will see this film as an event, therefore making it critic-proof and ensured of being a legendary film no matter what might be perceived of it on screen. What takes place on screen, if I can consider myself, a voice of moderation on this subject, is not as terrible a storyline and acting job as one could be led to believe by listening to some film critics, nor is it as great a film as many unabashed fans might think, who feel taken with the innovative special-effects, and are really caught up in the aura and excessive exuberance the total film's package presents to them, from John William's recognizable Star War themes, to some original musical scores he added, as special for the film. There should be something in this film for everybody to like, especially in a THX theater, where the digital sound system and wide screen is best suited for viewing it. The tremendous effort put into the details and scope of its project, makes it seem stupendous at times, and, even throughout the film, when there are lulls in its story, it still sets a very galactic mood, that is trance-like and illusionary in a positive hypnotic sense, but it does suffer, at times, from being too talky and lacking enough emotions and depth in its story and in its characters, and is scripted with a banal dialogue, plus there is no romance in it, which makes it a film that is more geared to a younger audience, an audience that will be around to follow all the other episodes that will surely come forth. As a positive feature of the film, it is not interested in gratuitous violence, and for that it scores high marks, as there is no blood in it, as all the action scenes involve mostly robotic things being dismantled. As we read the screen for the opening scene, we learn that two Jedi are off to arbitrate a dispute caused by the Trade Federation against the planet Naboo, that is being interfered with unjustly by the Federation, who are blockading it. The two Jedi sent, are master Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), who is a first-timer to the Star Wars series, and his apprentice, Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who was played by Alec Guinness in Episodes IV, V, and VI. They encounter difficulties and get caught in a trap sprung by the evil Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid), who wants to take over the Galactic Republic, and they are forced to use their lightsabers to fight their way out of the jam, which they successfully do, then realizing that they could use someone familiar with this planet to be their guide, as they escape Naboo, they use this thing they came upon when entering Naboo, someone named Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), a non-stop talking and jittery alien, who is some sort of a combination of a frog, who acts like a cartoon creature that children could gravitate to, but whom I found somewhat offensive because of his speech patterns, which were subservient and stereotypical, like Hollywood sometimes uses to depict certain ethnic groups, only in this case, he is only a representative of these Gungan creatures on Naboo, except he did talk in a West Indian patois. After the Jedi rescue the 14-year old Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) from the planet and her favorite droid, R2-D2, they are forced to land, due to broken parts, in a remote desert planet called Tatooine, that is not part of the Federation. Here the Jedi meet Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), a slave child, born by means of immaculate conception, working for a junkman that has the parts to fix the space craft. Qui-Gon Jinn recognizes in Ani, the possibility of him being "The Chosen One", that is, a special Jedi, with a tremendous potential in the Force, though there is, also, a sense of uncertainty about him. Darth Maul (Ray Park), is the evil force, with Jedi-like powers, who is sent here by Sidious to track and kill the Jedi and prevent help for the people of Naboo. The pace of the film picks up with its most innovative addition, an exciting and, I might add, dizzying racing sequence featuring "pod" space ships, as Ani has to win the race to gain freedom for himself and for the Jedis to get their needed space craft parts, as a wager is made with Ani's junkman boss on the pod race. This is pure video game stuff, that should thrill its younger audience, perhaps more than it did me, but it was effective and added something new to the Star Wars legend. What gives Star Wars all its charged up energy are its great duels, with lightsaber weapons, as good versus evil is clearly the theme that propels it, and here the duels are accomplished in a top-notch fashion, better than in other episodes, as the villain, with a painted black-and-red tattooed devil's face and short horns, and menacing sneers and graceful martial-arts movements, Darth Maul, battles the master Jedi, admirably portrayed, by a low key Liam Neeson, in a role that he doesn't seem to be having much fun in, but is, nevertheless, convincing as a wise Jedi, teaching his more rambunctious apprentice Jedi, Ewan McGregor, the ropes, as they both have a chance at dueling with Darth Maul. Delving into the evil nature of politics, there is the dual role played by Ian McDiarmid, as Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious, cast perfectly as a shadowy villain and a hypocritical senator, who in future episodes will become Emperor Palpatine and should provide more chills for viewer's to reckon with. Without its frightening villains, Star Wars would be stripped of its soul. Some of the actors did not impress me enough as the above mentioned. It is probably not fair and not nice to criticize a youngster like Jake Lloyd who plays Anakin Skywalker, but I thought, that though he was sometimes bearable to see on the screen, as when he played with his computer toys, he was, nevertheless, miscast and did not have the skills to pull off the difficult role he was asked to fulfill. Anikin's mother, the great Swedish actress, Pernilla August, is just right for the part; in fact, she is too good for the part, because she makes the boy seem very amateurish and not caring enough when he is teamed with her and can't respond with the proper emotional responses expected from his role, while she is fluid and graceful in her role, even though she is stuck in a wooden part. There were non-distinguished cameos by Samuel L. Jackson and Terrence Stamp, that have neither added nor distracted anything from the film. I would have preferred seeing unknown actors in those minor roles, giving them a chance to get known and earn some "bread." Some of the more exciting scenes, that weren't crammed too tight with every computerized gizmo Lucas could throw at us, so that we were literally choking on too much alien and droid consumption, came from the just gorgeous and eye pleasing set designs on the planets, such as the submerged underwater city on Naboo, filled with dangerous sea monsters, and a Coliseum-like stadium on Tatooine, where the "pod race" transpired, covered by talking head sport's personalities. Then there's Coruscant, the Republic's capital - a planet where the single city encompasses the entire globe.With its soaring skyscrapers and a sky filled with exotic spaceships and its views of the world, that was just too stunning to fully grasp. That is where the council chamber is, where Queen Amidala makes a plea for her people, amidst the overwhelming effects of the Senate chamber floating in space. All these space landscapes gave the film all the color and spectacle it could ever need, making it a most entertaining and enjoyable movie experience, which is really what this movie is all about anyway, since I find it difficult to get too worked up over its so called "new mythology," Joseph Campbell blessed or not, since this movie only expresses what is just a shell of what myths can mean to a society. Be that it as it may, I do understand that many feel that what is missing in today's society, is some kind of positive myth, that there is something that has gone wrong with our culture, and this film does offer some encouragement for those who feel movies have caused a certain amount of degeneracy in this country's cultural war, and they should be pleased that Lucas's film reasserts, his personal belief, that good can triumph over evil, as many feel restless and unsure about the world they live in and need reassurance that we have the same positive values other generations of Americans have had, and they should look forward to seeing a film such as this one, that has such a rosy outlook. And again, it should be remembered that this is an action film, that lives for its battle scenes, that has the "bad guy" droid army fighting the "good guy" army of Naboo, in a computer game war, as the victorious Naboos feel the pride and relief of victory over their enemy, for the moment, as the film ends with the insidious Senator Palpatine taking over the Galactic chancellorship. It is a movie about the taming of nature in the future but made for the age we live in, and will be remembered by future movie viewers, not for its trite dialogue, but as a step up the ladder in our technical and computer skills, and in our deep yearnings to find hope in the world we live in. It seems regretable that we have to wait three more years for the next installment of these episodes to be released. I would say that this imperfect film, is still, a not-to-be missed film, and even if it has become tied-in with corporate America, nevertheless, George Lucas used his great technical skills to make this film as artistically good looking as he could, not aiming to make an exploitive film. And for that, we should all be grateful. I have immensely enjoyed the film for what it was and was not overly concerned about what it was not. I think it is fair to say, that when you plunk down your money and see this film, you will be getting your money's worth. "May the force be with you!" REVIEWED ON 5/19/99 GRADE: B Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" http://www.sover.net/~ozus =A9 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:09 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Mac VerStandig" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:34:12 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 87 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9l7k$tjm$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer15.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927488052 30326 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18486 Keywords: author=verstandig X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer15.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17705 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2336 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299106 Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace 3 Stars (out of 4) Reviewed by Mac VerStandig critic@moviereviews.org http://www.moviereviews.org Director George Lucas' fourth undertaking of the Star Wars legacy is his strongest. Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace has qualities that make it a fine film. The special effects are some of the most dazzling and amazing ever seen on the big screen. In addition, the acting is excellent. However, that is met by an exceptionally weak plot that makes the 130 minute film, about a half-hour too long. The latest Star Wars installment takes place in the realm of space at a time unknown. The evil Trade Federation is plotting to take over the planet Naboo. The key to this task is having Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) of the Naboo people sign a treaty. Having intelligence and courage far beyond her young years, the Queen refuses in the interest of her people. In an attempt to negotiate a trade agreement, Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) come to the Trade Federation, acting as peacekeepers of sorts. The Trade Federation is opposed to the Jedi, and therefor tries to kill these two ambassadors at once. If this situation seems a little sketchy or lacking explanation and detail, that is probably because the movie has none, something that is inexcusable for a film calling itself "Episode One." As the plot, or lack thereof limps along for the next two hours, you meet several new characters. This long list includes some robots called R2-D2 and C3-P0, creatures named Jar Jar Binks and Yoda, and a little boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who is thought to be the so called "chosen one" of the Jedi Force. The other blunder in relation to the story is its complexity. This is a film aimed at all audiences, proudly wearing a PG rating. But some of the political aspects are far too elaborate for young audiences. A key point of the film's later stage focuses around an intergalactic senate. As is, that is a concept needing explanation for children. But almost all youngsters are bound to be lost when the primary focus of a scene shifts to a no confidence vote, again with no definition offered for those who are not already familiar with this form of political assassination. In this aspect, the film fails to truly reach a versatile audience of all ages. Some 22 years ago, a little film called Star Wars revolutionized special effects. The director had created something once thought to be an oxymoron: low budget eye candy. Today Lucas has once again produced a film that is delightful to watch. The light saber fights that the series is famous for, are astonishing to see once again. For instance, take a climatic scene where Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi find themselves fighting an evil creature named Darth Maul (Ray Park). This is a moment that would ordinarily be ruined by the gross predictability of the scene, but the dazzling choreography and vivacious site of laser beams striking each other, hold the audience over and actually makes watching the moment a voluptuous surprise. Despite early bickering to the media about the experience of making an effects driven science fiction film, Liam Neeson gives an immense performance. Ewan McGregor does so as well. They bring quality to a script plagued by obscenely distressed dialogue. Almost always on screen as a duo, the two clearly have chemistry together. The finest example of this occurs in the beginning of the film when the two are acting as ambassadors in the Trade Federation, and come into their first battle scene alone together. The surprise displayed by the two as they realize an attack upon them is imminent, in combination with their performance fighting the creatures, is simply magnificent. Despite the positive screen presence of the film's key actors, and enjoyable effects, Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace is about a half-hour too long. It is slow to start in the beginning and there are fewer action sequences in this installment than previous versions. It would come as little surprise if the die-hard fans who stood in line for days to get opening night tickets, caught up on some much needed sleep during the film's slower parts. Some movies are just different. They are not like the other films that come out each year. They are unique. That is not necessarily to say that these productions are the best works of cinema. Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace is certainly one of these movies. It does not matter how good or bad the various elements of this production are, because most people aren't going to see it for the normal reasons. When you consider the aforementioned fans that camped out for tickets, the 22 year legacy of the series, and just the overall zest that Lucas gives each of these works, you come to a simple conclusion: Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace is not so much a film as an event, and because of that, everyone should see this movie. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:10 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Mark O'Hara" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:34:34 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 121 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9l8a$tju$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927488074 30334 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18490 Keywords: author=o'hara X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17706 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2337 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299107 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) A Film Review by Mark O'Hara Visit Online Film Critics Society at http://www.ofcs.org The verdict: my wife and two children and I liked it more than we thought we would. With all of the hype surrounding the first episode of the 'Star Wars' saga, who would expect any mere human effort to succeed completely? Yes, we had heard lots of lukewarm reviews from critics - but hey, critics are not the main target audience of George Lucas. As for us, we were enthralled more than we were skeptical. The premise we knew before going to view: LucasFilm's finely-tuned advertising had exposed us umpteen times to the main characters and their quest. At the heart is political intrigue: the huge Trade Federation has blockaded the small planet Naboo, whose queen is Amidala (Natalie Portman). Two shady heads of the Federation have already tried to assassinate the Jedi knights sent as ambassadors - Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his master, the hulking Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). After the Jedis liberate the queen and her retinue, her highness appears before the galactic senate, complaining about the persecution of her tiny planet. What follows is a series of complications typical of the other installments. The underdog, equipped with cleverness and unfailing determination, faces off with the darker forces, equipped with superior numbers and weaponry. The hidden card is a supposed legend: the Federation lackeys report to a mysterious Sith lord named Darth Sidious. We discover that the Sith are in fact real, and that there are only two at any one time; Sidious' apprentice is named Darth Maul. Really the plot is thin. Lucas is obliged to incorporate countless elements that had their genesis in episodes four, five and six - so many that there is little room for plot development, aside from the knights guarding the queen from being coerced into signing a treaty with the despicable trade ministers. Another necessary plot detail is the introduction of Anakin Skywalker. He's a slave boy on Tatooine, the planet where the Jedis have landed to repair their ship on the long voyage to Coruscant. The boy, played by Jake Lloyd, soon joins up with the venerable warriors. His advantage is that the Force seems incredibly strong within him. Qui-Gon (pronounced 'KWAI-GONE') recognizes this latent gift, and insists the boy become another apprentice. The plot detours into various complications, but it turns out that this boy has talents that belie his years. On the whole, the movie has preserved a good deal of the light-heartedness and camp of the earliest treatment. True, there is not a character of Han Solo's ilk, nor of Chewbacca's; but the tone is light in the right places, and the pace does keep the interest it needs to keep. I had the impression that the plot would find better and grander settings sooner than it did. Hence my judgment that the first minutes could have moved faster, a la flicks in the 'Star Trek' series. The wandering plot builds, however, a series of wonderfully rich subtexts. We see an astonishing underwater city inhabited by the Gungans, the home of the computer-generated Jar Jar Binks. The other architectures are equally eye-catching: Amidala's Italian Renaissance palaces, for instance. It's true in this episode that the backgrounds - and thus the special effects - play an even greater role than they did in the other episodes. Perhaps this prominence is noticeable because some type of CGI appears in 95% of the shots; but perhaps it is because of some lapses in acting. Jake Lloyd is cute, but some of his lines include the Beaver-like "Yippee!" Plus, in many scenes he looks like he's trying to act: the absence of contrivance is not yet perfected. Even worse, when Queen Amidala dons a disguise, dressing as the handmaid Padme, Natalie Portman delivers the most wooden style in the picture. She is much better as the subdued queen. Then there is Liam Neeson as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. His bearing is always natural and stately, and he delivers his lines with the dignity and wisdom fitting his role. Qui-Gon is especially effective when chiding Obi-Wan, his apprentice who is almost a full-fledged knight. I'd argue that just as imposing a presence as Neeson is McGregor - this actor commands our attention in much the same ways as the originator of the role, Sir Alec Guiness; McGregor seems to have the solid demeanor of a host of British actors - Trevor Howard, even Claude Rains. In short, if you are reading this, Mr. Lucas, put more focus on the best actors that you probably already have in the bag for the next two films! Ewan McGregor should be the cornerstone of Episode Two. Finally, the baddest villain here is the physicality of Darth Maul, played by Ray Park. His evil stare is unmatched by the threatening visages of any other baddie in 'Menace'. The light saber fight - a three-way between Maul, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan - is perhaps the best small-scale combat footage in all of 'Star Wars'! (On the topic of combat, my son complained about the paucity of space dog-fights. I personally missed Wedge, who appeared in Episodes 4, 5 and 6.) As for Jar Jar Binks, he is a wonder of computer animation, but does speak in a quasi-Carribean accent that makes him annoyingly marble-mouthed. He's an ineffectual side-kick, along as a guide as he owes a life-debt to Qui-Gon. He provides occasional comic relief, especially in a large battle with the Federation's droids. But, uh, Mr. Lucas, say it won't be Jar Jar who is the only Chewy wannabe in the next flick! Some assorted tidbits of amusement: we get to see the origin of CP30, the droid voiced by Anthony Daniels. Typically, in his first acquaintance with R2D2, CP30 acts flustered over his nudity (his gold "coverings" are not yet installed). "Artoo" collects his laurels of heroism by saving the queen's ship, and later by acting as the rear-riding sentry in a craft filched by the precocious Anakin. A bigger bit of fun is the pod race, which has been compared to the chariot races in 'Ben Hur' (in keeping with the Biblical symbolism that pervades the narrative); this race is exciting and fast. The vehicles themselves are plain cool, uncontrollably dangerous - two jet-like engines with a cockpit suspended somehow behind them, a stream of neon electricity coursing about. Though it is gripping and displays Anakin's prowess as a pilot and thinker, the race does not play an important role in the plot - unlike the speeders in the forest of 'Return of the Jedi'. Cartoonist Jim Borgman of the 'Cincinnati Enquirer' drew two teens emerging from a cinema showing 'The Phantom Menace': "The movie was good, but I liked the hype better," is what one says, which leads me to believe overexposure can hamstring the best of entertainments. But entertainment value is high with this episode, and I have to admire the PG rating. As parents of a girl nearly eleven, we would have had to compromise our usual enforcement of the ratings. Go to see 'The Phantom Menace' and do it in a theater first; it's never the same on a home screen. _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:10 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Steve Kong ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:34:29 GMT Organization: The Hard Boiled Movie Guide (http://boiledmovies.sbay.com/) ~Lines: 150 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9l85$tjs$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927488069 30332 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18489 Keywords: author=kong X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17720 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2339 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299158 STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999) A film review by Steve Kong Edited by Steve Kong Copyright 1999 Steve Kong Don’t Miss Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. There’s just so much to say about this film. But, lets get one thing out of the way before we begin. Does The Phantom Menace live up to the hype? No. This doesn’t mean that it’s not a fantastic film though. This film has enough eye candy, ear shattering sound effects, and action to satisfy everyone. Strip away the hype and what you have is a popcorn film that entertains for its full running time. The Phantom Menace is a feast for the eyes and ears but not the brain it’s all dessert and no main course. Much like the first film in the original trilogy, this film serves as the basis and introduction for the coming two films. Being so, the film has a lot of exposition which sometimes slows the film down, but this isn’t a bad thing because when George Lucas lets loose of his imagination, it is something that makes you forget about all the slowness of the film. There is an evil force working to eliminate the peace that exists in the galaxy and to also take control of the Galactic Republic. When the Trade Federation sets a blockade of a peaceful planet, Naboo, a Jedi Master, Obi-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and his Jedi Appretice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), are sent to negotiate. The two Jedi’s are met by an attempt on their lives, which sends them down to the planet of Naboo. At Naboo they work to protect Princess Amidala (Natalie Portman) but are no match for the army that is sent down to the planet. From here the movie moves to the planet of Tatooine where the group meets Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and the apprentice to a mysterious Sith Lord, Darth Maul (Ray Park). >From Tatooine the movie moves to a few other worlds and the story moves along with a reasonable pace. The Phantom Menace story does not have any of the wonder or awe that the first three films had, nor does it have a strong character that people can like from the original trilogy I found Han Solo the coolest. Among the other characters featured in the film are some familiar faces like Yoda, Jabba the Hutt, R2D2, and a barely recognizable C3P0. The actors in the main roles all give decent performances, though most of them are a bit wooden. Liam Neeson is perfect as Obi-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master who is wise yet sometimes rebellious. Ewan McGregor picks up the mannerisms and voice of Alex Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi from the original trilogy) perfectly. He is enjoyable onscreen, but he is not given enough screen time though I think this will change in the second and third films. Natalie Portman is somewhat flat as Queen Amidala, but she does fulfill her role adequately. The only performance that I thought was sub-par was that of young Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. He does fine in the quiet moments, but when he is asked to become ecstatic onscreen it comes off wrong watch as he flies around in a Naboo defense fighter near the end of the film. The cameo that I enjoyed the most was that of Samuel L. Jackson. I knew that Jackson had a cameo in the film, but I didn’t know when and where. Jackson has been high on my must-see actors list for a long time now and it was a joy to see him in a movie of this magnitude though he did have a role in the second largest first-day-grossing film, Jurassic Park, his presence in The Phantom Menace was more memorable. I hope that he has a larger recurring role in the next two films. Another actor who didn’t get many speaking parts but was very memorable was Ray Park as Darth Maul. Park doesn’t get to speak much, but with that hideous make-up and his lightning quick moves, his presence onscreen is ominous and quite scary. His make-up, for me, at first made me wonder what Lucas was thinking. But, after seeing Ray Park with the red and black face paint and the little devil horns in action, I was convinced that Lucas is brilliant in bringing Darth Maul to life in such a manner. Is Darth Maul as fear-inducing as Darth Vader? No, but he’s more of a formidable enemy than Darth Vader was, as Darth Maul sports a double Lightsaber and has the moves of a martial artist on speed. I got John Williams’s score for the movie the day it was released, about a two weeks ago. I enjoyed listening to the score especially the track titled “Duel of the Fates” but, a film score is always missing something when you hear it before you see the film. After listening to the score many times, I got used to the cues that were presented in the score and during the screening of The Phantom Menace I got a taste of just how brilliant a composer John Williams is. Williams’s score plays for most of the two hour plus running time of the film and at the 74 minute capacity of a CD, you can see that there was a lot of music missing on the CD. The film score adds a whole new dimension to the movie. As George Lucas writes in the insert for the CD, “I like to think of the Star Wars films as silent movies, movies whose stories are carried forward visually and by a musical score.” John Williams not only helps tell the story with his musical score; his score at times is the story. His score is restrained enough that it does not overwhelm the audience and distract them from what is onscreen, but it is powerful enough to move you. Kudos to John Williams for this dazzling score. Lucas uses The Phantom Menace not as a storyboard to tell an elaborate story with twists and turns. Instead, he uses the film as a canvas. At the most basic level, The Phantom Menace is a film as a painting. The beautiful settings and sets in the film are enough to go see the film again just to enjoy the views. From the waterfall laden valleys in which the capital city of Naboo resides to the underwater city to the ever-busy Coruscant to the raceway on Tatooine to the Senate chamber, The Phantom Menace screams of polished art, set, and production design. The Phantom Menace is a visual feast. Not to let the art, set, and production design overwhelm you, Lucas throws in gobs of “Isn’t this cool?” type special effects. Most every scene in the film seems to have something digital added. This brings me to one complaint, although special effects can be used to help an audience see the image that a director has in mind, sometimes the overuse of special effects is detrimental. And in some places in The Phantom Menace, the special effects are just gratuitous, which jars the audience. Science fiction has to be somewhat believable and with some of the special effects Lucas pushes the use of special effects a bit too far. The biggest example of this would be Jar Jar Binks, a completely computer generated actor. Serving no real purpose next to some comic relief, every time this character was onscreen I flinched a little his presence was not as bad as the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi though. Don’t get me wrong, there are some special effects that are jaw dropping good. The best example of that would be the pod race. The action in The Phantom Menace is top notch. The two standout sequences are the aforementioned pod race in which we get to experience, both visually and aurally, a high-speed race. The race utilizes small pods mounted behind big jet engines that gain speeds that are break-neck. This race had me at the edge of my seat, even though I knew how it was going to turn out. The way that the special effects were integrated and used in this sequence was amazing. The second standout action sequence is the Lightsaber battle between Obi-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul. I’ve never been so engaged by an action sequence before. The sound in this sequence shook the floor every time Lightsabers clashed the floor shook and the visuals of this sequence had my eyes glued to the screen. The sequence shows just how exciting a well-choreographed and tightly edited fight sequence can be. Both of these sequences were exhilarating. Is The Phantom Menace flawed? Yes. Does it overcome its flaws? Yes. Should you go see the film? It probably doesn’t matter what my answer is, but, yes, you should see this film. Don’t Miss Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. This movie can be enjoyed if you leave all the hype that you’ve been exposed to at the front door of the theatre. This film doesn’t have the awe of Star Wars or the smooth storytelling of Empire Strikes Back but what it does have is enough visuals to make you want to come back for multiple screenings. May the Force be with you. --- Steve Kong reviews@boiledmovies.sbay.com if you love movies, i love you. i'm your hard boiled movie guide. http://boiledmovies.sbay.com/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:10 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Jamey Hughton ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:58:16 GMT Organization: SaskTel - Sympatico ~Lines: 77 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9mko$pis$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: bhughton@sk.sympatico.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: homer05.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927489496 26204 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18502 Keywords: author=hughton X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer05.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17708 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2338 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299145 STAR WARS: Episode I - THE PHANTOM MENACE Review A Review by Jamey Hughton ***1/2 (out of five stars) Starring-Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Jake Lloyd Director-George Lucas Rated G For more MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton, visit: http://welcome.to/movieviews With all the hype that Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace has been receiving, it seems almost impossible to avoid interest in seeing the film. The movie is easily the most anticipated motion picture ever, with a marketing campaign so strong it has brought Colonel Sanders, the Taco Bell Chihuahua and Pizza Hut together. Can George Lucas succeed yet again with transporting us back a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....? YES. This Star Wars prequel may be the worst of the bunch, with amateurish dialogue and an overall lack of humanity. But that doesn’t mean it fails to comply on the basis of solid entertainment. The Phantom Menace features the most eye-catching, jaw-dropping visual look in cinematic history. The tremendous action sequences will have you clinging to your arm rest, and the special effects are nothing short of the best (and most plentiful) to ever be caught on film. The vast digitized worlds and sheer imagination that was applied to this project is astounding. The Phantom Menace is a delectable feast for the senses, even if it has some disappointing aspects. After we’re treated to the famous prologue in the sky, with John Williams’ thundering score, we meet Qui-Gon Jonn (Liam Neeson) and young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), a Jedi master and his trainee “Padawan”. They are on the ship accommodating the fleet headquarters for the evil Trade Federation, and have been sent to settle disputes regarding the taxation of trade routes to the planet of Naboo. Oh, but enough about that. The prime concern for this prequel is introducing young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) into the picture. As you already know, this seemingly charming lad is the boy who will soon become Darth Vader. A spectacular Pod Race comes soon hereafter. This particular race is the most exciting, energetic, high-octane action sequence that you’ll ever see. One of the delights of the series is meeting the newest set of strange alien creatures that Lucas has devised, and The Phantom Menace is no exception. I loved Sebulba, the rat-like scoundrel whom Anakin has to face in the Pod Race, and Boss Nass, the leader of the Gungans (who are a neighbouring species to Naboo). One character who has been subject to criticism is Jar-Jar Binks, a member of the Gungan race. Jar-Jar speaks like Roger Rabbit on a hallucinogenic drug, and is there for the sole purpose of supplying comic relief. Yes, he is initially annoying, but I can admit to laughing over some of his harmless, goofy antics. There is some lack of dramatic pull in this Star Wars entry, but the presentation almost makes you forget the plot and character lapses. The final light-saber battle, between the Jedi’s and the horrific (and terminally underused) villain Darth Maul, is spectacular to behold. Jabba the Hutt, Yoda, C-3PO and R2-D2 have cameo appearances. Lucas has not forget how to captivate an audience, even if his latest shows obvious signs of tiredness. One can only wonder what the possible technology will present for the next two installments, Episode’s I and II. When they arrive, you’ll know where to find me. .................... MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton: http://welcome.to/movieviews movieviews@hotmail.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:10 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Paul McElligott ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 19:58:20 GMT Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. ~Lines: 127 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9mks$piu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927489500 26206 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18503 Keywords: author=mcelligott X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17726 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2342 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299192 Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace Liam Neeson: Qui-Gon Jinn Ewan McGregor: Obi-Wan Kenobi Natalie Portman: Queen Amidala Jake Lloyd: Anakin Skywalker Ian McDiarmid: Senator Palpatine Samuel L. Jackson: Mace Windu Written and directed by George Lucas Having seen the original Star Wars films more times than I can count (more times than any adult cares to admit), I so wanted to love this movie. I was mentally prepared to be swept back into a world I haven't seen anew since I was 17. With the imagination behind the first trilogy re-invigorated by a long rest, and equipped with technology not even imagined in 1977, I expected an unequalled triumph of the imagination. Okay, there were a few warning signs along the way. Two years ago, when the first trilogy was re-released with new effects, the key scene where Han Solo (Harrison Ford) guns down the bounty hunter Greedo was re-edited so Greedo fired first. Not only did the new version look ridiculous, it also emasculated a key character, softening his rough edges. This told me that Lucas was not making creative decisions purely on artistic merit, but that a politically correct element had crept into his thinking. The trailers, however, looked good, filling me with hope that Episode I would take the Star Wars saga to new heights. Such is not the case, however. The Phantom Menace is such a mixed bag of small pleasures and major disappointments that it's hard to decide whether or not I actually liked the movie. (I'll probably have to see it four or five times to be sure). The biggest problem with the film is the relative flatness of the characters. The first film had clearly defined personalities that contrasted well. They were archetypes, of course (the farm boy, the princess in distress, the soldier of fortune and the old wizard), but they were well-drawn archetypes inhabited by talented actors. In The Phantom Menace, everyone seems to be of the manor born, always speaking in high, formal language. None of the personalities stand out well from the others. In the first film, even when the characters were speaking more formal tones, there was still a spark of humanity and humor ("I thought I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board"). Something else missing was a clearly defined threat to care about, such as in the first film, when the Rebels had to destroy the Death Star to keep themselves and their planet from being blown to tiny bits. There is no such easily understood threat here. Part of the problem is that, although we are told that the people of Naboo are suffering greatly at the hands of the Trade Federation, we don't see any example of that on screen. I'm not asking for the film to wallow in unpleasantness, but rather just for anything that would have personalized the situation and given it some urgency. In a sense, the title of this film seems rather apt, since the true villain of this peace never really materializes. The on-screen threat, the Trade Federation viceroy and his battle 'droids seem to be a poor substitute for Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin and Imperial Storm Troopers. The really interesting threat, in the persons of the Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Maul, get far too little screen time. Darth Maul is a great villain, as far as he goes, but is far too underutilized here. I'm not going to fault the quality of the acting too much, since the actors were given so little to work with. Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) seems especially wasted in a rule that should have had far more spark and humor. Liam Neeson () gets a little more meat to chew on, but even he seems a hemmed in this role. And as much as I like Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), I have to wonder how much of a long distance bill he ran up while basically phoning in his brief appearance. On the plus side, Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala) brings sweetness and surprising strength to her role. Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker), despite early rumors that his performance was a problem spot for the film, is also charming and affecting as the ordinary boy who grows up to be Darth Vader. Ian McDiarmid is also effective as Senator Palpatine, the future Emperor, but it is the two young stars that almost save this film's bacon. I have to admit that I did not mind the character of Jar Jar Binks, Qui-Gon Jinn's reluctant comic sidekick. So much negative hype about how annoying this character was going to be had spread like wildfire though the Star Wars fan community that it was impossible for Jar Jar to live down to it. My only reservation about this character is that he was essentially the only source of humor in this film, and it was almost all slapstick. There was none of the witty dialogue that typified the characters of Princess Leia and Han Solo ("It was a boring conversation anyway") in the first trilogy. That is one element this film sorely needed. I won't give away too much, but the ending of this film seems to depend far too much on luck and accident, both in the ground battle and up in space. As far as the space battle goes, it may be Anakin's abilities with the Force manifesting themselves, but that is not made clear enough if it is true. >From a technical standpoint, of course, the film is faultless. Director and writer George Lucas creates totally fantastic and believable worlds on which we can feast our eyes. Never once did I find myself looking at a creature or environment in this film and thinking, "That's a special effect." It's a shame that the story doesn't quite live up to the setting. Of course, Titanic had the same problem, and it didn't do too badly. Still, Lucas needs to get a better handle on dealing with characters and the actors who play them as he goes to work on the next film. I can't help but think that a director who hadn't been in the chair in more than 20 years could have tried a smaller, more intimate film before attempting the most technically ambitious film of all time. On the plus side, this film more than whets my appetite to see Episode II, coming in 2002. The Phantom Menace sets up a number of future sub-plots that are potentially far more interesting than anything in the film. I give the film a 7.5 out of 10. That's 5 out of 5 for technical merit and 2.5 out of 5 for artistic impression This review copyright to Paul McElligott http://home.earthlink.net/~plmcelligott "Subvert the dominant paradigm" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:11 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: saitiau@aol.com (Sai Tiau) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 20:12:58 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 151 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9nga$lhq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer23.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927490378 22074 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18506 Keywords: author=tiau X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer23.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17722 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2340 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299175 “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menac” Review by Fontaine L. (SPOILERS. SOME YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT, SOME YOU PROBABLY HAVEN’T.) **This review is dedicated to Lori “McGregor,” who yelled “SEXY!!” whenever Obi-Wan appeared on-screen.** “May the force be with you.” Imagine someone who’s never seen or heard about Star Wars before coming up to you and asking you what “Phantom Menace” was about and what kind of movie it was like. It would mostly likely be difficult to describe creature fighting with atomic gumballs, a little boy who is allowed to race “pods” at hundreds of miles per hour, and villains who are never entirely introduced without some misgivings. But this is “The Phantom Menace,” the prequel sequel to what is perhaps the most successful science fiction franchise in the history of the western hemisphere. This is LucasFilms moviemaking, where they rely on mindboggling effects, breathtaking graphics, and moviegoers’ partiality to win the hearts. This comes from me, X-Phile extraordinaire who has never been especially inebriated by the Star Wars phenomenon. I am no “Star Wars groupie,” as a friend attempted to label me a few days ago. I have no Skywalker or Han Solo action figures. I never dressed up as Princess Leia during Halloween. I never _wanted_ to be Princess Leia. I don’t own the trilogy. I don’t _remember_ most of the trilogy. I did not see “Phantom Menace” the first day it came out. But nonetheless, the characters in Star Wars has become as familiar to me as they have become to the millions of Star Wars fans out there. R2D2, C3PO, ewoks, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, Jabba the Hut. Oft-used terminology. To sum it all up, I find it extremely difficult not to extol this movie with high enthusiasm and let that be the end of it. The idea that the “complete” story will be told in three sequels is enticing, ingenious, but unfortunately, the integrity of “Phantom” was sacrificed because of the same reason. Those of you who were under the delusion that we would find out how little Anakin becomes evil will be disappointed. Most of the characters were given little treatment, with the primary focus being in Anakin. At the end of the movie, we know little about Qui Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan, or even Queen Amidala (except that she is an extremely dedicated queen.) These are all characters that I would’ve liked to spent more time with. Darth Maul, who makes an interesting villain, only appeared when he was required to look intimidating or to be the enemy of the good forces. He makes an appearance in only two to three fantastic “duels” but is killed off too swiftly, too easily. Goodbye, painted face. The primary villain in the movie is thus wasted. The federation, it seems, is entirely subject to the control of the hooded hologram, and the hologram’s purpose remains unknown (a story to be told in Episode II, I suppose.) Most of the action scenes are filled with typical Lucasian improbabilities. The Naboo troops never seem to take aim when they fire, and yet they rarely suffer even a bruise. The ultimate improbability comes when the movie pulls an Independence Day -- oh no, we can’t disable their shields, here comes little Anakin who can do it just be flying into the ships interior and flying randomly, thus enabling a swift victory on ground. Of course I realize that all of these events are essential for the movie to continue, and they weren’t quite so annoying given the context. This is Star Wars, after all. The cheesy dialogue is no rumor, folks; it seems great directors are incapable of writing sensible dialogue (see Chris Carter’s monologues or James Cameron’s “Titanic.”) Any angst I felt during the Anakin/mom parting scene dissipated with the soap opera ish writing. In contrast, the Qui Gon Jinn death scene was more effective because it had more matter, and less art. Again, the cheesiness seems oddly in place in the scheme of things. Nobody goes to this movie expecting “The English Patient.” Most annoying character of the year goes to--yep, you guessed it- Jar-Jar. He is comical, yes, maybe even funny (though I find most of the humor forced), if he hadn’t been used so much and if his jokes were more aptly-placed. Portman, McGregor and Neeson were all reasonably satisfying in their roles: Portman successfully portrayed the different qualities of the queen all-dolled up, the decoy queen, and the gentle “handmaiden” queen. She looked for all the world a 14 year-old teenager forced to take on the responsibilities of a planet yet strong enough to shoulder it. Neeson was also convincing as the wise Jedi Knight, and his “moves” were none too shabby for a man his age; McGregor was often reduced to saying “Yes, master,” but when the occasion called for it he put an admirable amount of intensity into Obiwan Kenobi, foreshadowing the future that is to come. All three were aptly cast. Jake Lloyd is extremely adorable, but sometimes the artificiality of his acting comes through; but I suppose that’s okay, because 12 year-olds don’t have a tremendous degree of depth anyhow. In any case he compensates with his innocence and charm, which is all the more poignant given the fact that Anakin turns into the monstrous Darth Vader. Most of the other minor characters (for example, Anakin’s mother and the captain), however, seemed lifeless. I think most will agree that the most successful element of the film was its graphics and effects. Lucas combined his powerful vision with state-of-the-art technology and the best artists in the trade to produce a world more breathtaking than even the previous Star Wars trilogy. Tattooine excites a degree of nostalgia; and the underwater city, the Capitol, and the Naboo city are all works of arts on their own. Each city offers its share of curious creatures: the amphibians, the oddballs at the Tattooine marketplace, the creatures of the Jedi Council (I especially got a kick out of Mr. Conehead). The dress and language seem to be successful combinations of different world cultures -- I did not have a big problem with the accents as others do. I think it is mere coincidence that many of the creatures ended up sounding like some ethnic groups on this planet. After all, if an actor is to emulate an accent, he’s got to model it after something he knows. It just goes to show the diversity that exists in the Star Wars universe. Some people also find the CGI art to be to unrealistic, but this also wasn’t a problem with me -- this is a fantasy, and how can you make a fantasy world look realistic? It would take away the surreal quality of it. While I am mindful of the flaws this film has (plot, characterization, acting), I admit that for the most part they went unnoticed during the 2 hours and some minutes I was in the theater (except Jar Jar -- you just *can’t* tune him out). I was simply too much in awe that I was watching Star Wars, that I had a chance to participate in this even like my parent’s generation had been able to do with the first three Star Wars movies. Seeing Portman and Mcgregor I couldn’t but see shades of young Hamill, Harrison, and Fisher. However, I am not saying the flaws are excusable; I make no attempt to disguise the fact that I am extremely biased when it comes to Star Wars. It’s Star Wars. Basically it comes down to this: if you are as enchanted with the universe that Lucas singlehandedly created as I am, you will enjoy this film; if you go in as a casual viewer, you’d enjoy the film as well; but if you watch the movie as a critic, you probably won’t enjoy the movie. I say let go for a while. Let the force take over for a bit. It’s Star Wars. (I will say that again and again, and I am sure its meaning will not escape anyone who is in tune with pop culture to any extent. When you see the movie in this light, it becomes not just a movie but part of a whole, an event that symbolizes the creation of an entire new world. A continuation (precursor?) of the saga. A chance for two generations to connect in the collective worship of a phenomenon. As mentioned in the beginning, this film relies heavily on the success of its predecessors to engage the audience and to make them care for its characters. I’d say, for me at least, that they’ve succeeded. I think I’ve found the ideal fantasy heros for my generation.) It’s light and magic, sound and effects, heroes and princesses, science fiction and drama, the allegorical good and evil. And y’know? It’s funny how, in the end, no matter what misgivings and cynicism I might have had about the film, it all added up to one neat little ball of elation and belief. It’s Star Wars. “There’s something about that boy.” Rating: A- (First viewing, 5/21/99) *Tip I got from somebody: Stay till the end of the credits. You’ll get a “surprise” (or more like a foreshadowing). *The federation aliens look a lot like the “little green men” we are so familiar with today. *Thanks to Catherine for the “amphibians” idea, and Spero for the character names. Silver-Screen List Administrator and PVPHS Class of '99 http://members.aol.com/saitiau/welcome.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:11 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: gbv_adam@hotmail.com (A. Estey) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 20:13:11 GMT Organization: @Home Network Canada ~Lines: 83 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9ngn$li0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer07.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927490391 22080 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18508 Keywords: author=estey X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer07.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17725 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2341 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299177 Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Written and Directed by: George Lucas Rating: **1/2 out of **** Perhaps the only thing I find more disturbing about the fact that I had to give such a disappointing rating to the first episode of Star Wars, is the fact that part of me feels overly generous about it. I mean, I'm talking about Star Wars, the film series that has transcended the boundaries of the silver screen and infused itself as part of our social consciousness. Everyone who is alive and actually interacts with the rest of society knows the story of Star Wars; and they know who all the characters are; and they know at least a handful of quotes from the film. Even if they've never seen the movie. So I find myself in a rather frustrated position when I have to sit down and announce that this film simply isn't as great as it's predecessors, because the reality is: it isn't. The story opens as two Jedi knights: Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) set out to diffuse a potentially hostile situation dealing with unfair taxation levied against the small planet of Naboo by the Federation. Unfortunately, for all those involved, the hostile situation changes from potentially to authentically, and the Jedis have to rescue the Queen of Naboo (Natalie Portman) before she is taken prisoner. Eventually they all leave Naboo to find Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd). Also, on the surface of Naboo, the Jedis meet up with Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), an amphibious creature who thereafter becomes a central character. Now if I were forced to point out one reason why I had such distaste for this film, well it's Jar Jar Binks. In all honesty, this character should have been completely written out of the picture. His brand of intellectually deprived humour is so unbearably annoying, that I'm still in shock that Lucas thought it was a good idea to include him in the cast. The pain of having to watch this character is roughly equivalent to someone screeching their fingernails endlessly on a chalkboard hooked up to a guitar amplifier turned up to 10. If the mindless banter provided by C3P0 even slightly annoyed you in the previous films, prepare to be squirming in your seat and squinting in pain as you endure the cinematic catastrophe that is Jar Jar Binks. After enough exposure to this character, I was lamenting the fact that the concession stand didn't sell painkillers to help ease my Jar Jar viewing experience. This illustrates another fundamental problem of Episode One: the tone of the picture is far too light-hearted. Not for one minute did I feel that any of these characters were in any real danger (with the exception of the Jedi duel towards the end of the picture, but I'll discuss that later). There are also no characters which challenge what's being presented to them, they just sort of go from point A to point B as if their lives are a scripted movie (and although there's a pretty cool sense of irony about that, it's not a good thing). In the previous three films, Han Solo was the character whose motivations were, to a certain extent, guided by personal interest. He also perfectly counterbalanced the juvenile antics of C3PO. None of that is present in this picture. However, it would also be a mistake to argue that there is nothing in Episode One which deserves commendation. Of course, the special effects are breathtaking, and the scenes which focus on the Jedis are especially interesting. If the film had only decided to examine more of the lives of the Jedis and brought more screen time to the antagonist Darth Maul (Ray Park); Episode One could have easily been the greatest entry into the series. The lightsaber fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul is absolutely incredible and managed to alleviate a lot of the boredom I felt from earlier parts in the film. I really wanted to love this picture. Personally speaking, I love the Star Wars trilogy - not in the quasi-insane "I'll camp out for eight weeks to get tickets for a movie that will be in theatres for eight months" way, but I do think they're really great movies. What Lucas has produced with The Phantom Menace unfortunately resembles a two-hour cartoon rather than an epic tale of good and evil. I hope that future Star Wars films will be an improvement over this one. Reviewed by: A. Estey Copyright 1999, by A. Estey (gbv_adam@hotmail.com) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:11 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!feeder.qis.net!newsfeed.nyu.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Eugene Novikov ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 20:13:22 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Share what you know. Learn what you don't. ~Lines: 95 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9nh2$li4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer16.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927490402 22084 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18510 Keywords: author=novikov X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer16.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17728 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2343 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299200 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com Member: Online Film Critics Society ***1/2 out of four Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Jake Lloyd, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson. Rated PG. The event of events is upon us. People have waited twenty-two years for the prequel to Star Wars and die-hard fans have been camping out at theaters for months to get tickets to see it. I don't think that America will ever actually recover from what this hurricane of a film has caused. It is not a bit of an exaggeration to say that this is the most highly anticipated movie in history. Anyone who tells you "It's just a movie" is either lying or clueless. It is clearly obvious that after the waiting and the hype actually seeing the movie will be anticlimactic. The second coming of the Lord could not live up to the kind of buzz (which is far too weak a word) that Star Wars Epsode I: The Phantom Menace so effortlessly generated. But that does not mean that the film itself is bad. In fact, it is terrific. I strongly suspect that many of the people who were dissappointed by it have simply surrendered to the media machine and the inevitable backlash. It is set some decades before the events of the original 1977 Star Wars took place. The film focuses on the fledgling Republic of Planets and the conflict that is raging: The Trade Federation, angry at some tax raise that was recently put in place has invaded the small, peaceful planet of Naboo. The Republic sent two Jedi Knights (people that can actively communicate with what is affectionately known as "The Force"), Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to negotiate. Unable to stop the tide of events that was about to occur, the Jedi and the Queen of Naboo (Natalie Portman) escape Naboo and head for Coruscant to try and get the Republic Senate to intervene. On the way they get sidetracked to a planet called Tatooine, where they meet the movie's real focal point, young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd). He is an innocent slave boy, but "the force is strong with him" so Qui- Gon is determined to take him with them to the Jedi counsel and get him trained as a Jedi. As any self-respecting Star Wars fan should know, Anakin will grow up to be Darth Vader and give birth to Luke Skywalker. >From the beginning it is evident that this is not an actor's movie. Around 70% of the characters, if not more, are computer generated in one form or another, and though the effects are seamless, the movie lacks soul. I think that although the computer has played an incredibly instrumental part in moviemaking this decade, cinema should still be a human art and The Phantom Menace nearly defies this. This is the lightest installment in the Star Wars saga thus far, with plenty of broad comic relief to go around, much of it courtesy of an irritating knew character named Jar-Jar Binks. He's essentially a computer-animated sidekick who says things like "Exqueeze Me?" and "Mesa go now, okeday?", and although it is often amusing it is also inherently annoying. The visual effects are astounding (although director George Lucas often chickens out by cutting away from them) and the movie is a thrilling triumph. If it lacks in plot and in acting it makes up for it through imagination and excitement. The climactic lightsaber battle (oh, come on, as if you didn't already know), among other things, is outrageously entertaining and defines the term "popcorn movie". What made me surrender and give this movie ***1/2 stars was the score by John Williams. Even though it does seem like the man scores every single movie that comes out these days, his work here is nothing short of brilliant. His use of opera during the climax really does add a punch and his ingenious way of utilizing the Imperial March as a sort of prophecy is chilling. The Phantom Menace is probably most effective as pop nostalgia. When you see "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away", when the familiar music plays, when the words "Star Wars" appear on screen, you'll feel a tingle even if you didn't see the movie when it first came out in '77. It feels oddly exciting to be introduced to young Anakin, a boy whose innocence, we know, will be taken away and who will soon cross over to the dark side. It is the perfect example of dramatic irony to see the Jedi masters aspire to get him trained in the Jedi arts; we know that it will do more harm than good, but they do not. We not only feel more involved in the story, but we feel like we're seeing the beginning of a saga that we have cherished for years. The Phantom Menace, although lacking in human aspects of the story, is a very worthy installment in the Star Wars. It works as an action flick, visually eye-popping and often paralyzingly exciting; it also works as an elicitor of memories, a piece of exquisite nostalgia. ©1999 Eugene Novikov‰ --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.--- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:11 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!isdnet!newsfeed.axxsys.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: softcell@geocities.com ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 May 1999 03:27:59 GMT Organization: The Bleeding Tree ~Lines: 96 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7iie3v$hqg$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927775679 18256 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18520 Keywords: author=cell X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17757 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2350 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:303804 I’m not sure how to review Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Watching it was, for me, a little like finding an old love. It’s fairly easy to speak intellectually about my memories, like it was to review the original trilogy, but sitting there in a darkened theater on opening day with the darkened lights, seeing the words “Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace” scroll up the screen, I had that kind of inner reminder of how much I love the “Star Wars” series. I was on the edge of my seat through nearly the entire movie, stressing and cheering and laughing along with the characters and the plot, exactly the way I should. The controversial elements, Jake Lloyd’s acting, Jar Jar Binks, etc. all worked out for me. The things Jar Jar said that seemed so obnoxious, didn’t seem so in context and Jake Lloyd’s performance as the young Anakin Skywalker was quite good, I felt. The only major complaint I’d offer is with the underwater sequence, which I didn’t think did much to move the story along and lacked any sort of dramatic tension. It merely felt like it was there to keep some “action” in the film and to introduce the “There’s always a bigger fish” philosophy, which was something of a running theme. The level of sophistication, which is the key issue people take with the film is a more complicated subject. Reducing a movie that hinges on complex political plotting to a “kiddie” movie somehow doesn’t make sense, yet it would seem equally ridiculous to try to pretend that a movie with Jar Jar Binks and a child prodigy military pilot is some kind of new Manchurian Candidate. It fits into a very strange gray area that I think is part of what makes the “Star Wars” series such a delight. A lot of the information that comes in layers, but you have to be paying attention. The story of Queen Amidala and Padme is woven carefully through the story, using both Lucas’ storytelling and Natalie Portman’s acting, developing her as an interesting, believable and well- rounded heroine – and ultimately among the smartest characters in the movie. The villainous background scheming, which being the “phantom menace” is of more importance than the foreground dueling and droid battling, is a delight, but still feels incomplete. We’ve clearly only begun to learn the whole story of where this goes… But all of that is to somehow neglect the ass-whuppin’ Destroyer Droids, the mighty fighting Gungans, which I think manage to more effectively do what the Ewoks were meant to, the breathtaking views of Coruscant, the dazzling effects, the highly engaging pod race scene, the assorted fun characters and the best light saber duel ever. The action moves quickly and intensely, but that should go without saying… although I guess some are saying differently. And then there’s Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi played by Liam Neeson with a level of cool just below the level with which Alec Guinness played the old Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is the focal character. He leads the story to where it’s going and he is the gel that holds it together. He has a calm that feels very real and plays well off the younger Obi-Wan and his attempt to accomplish that state. Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan is a brilliant step of a brash young man trying to become the Obi-Wan we saw in the later films and a promise of what he will do with the part in the next two films. I think that’s the problem that haunts judging this film is that it’s like trying to judge a long prologue to a book. It can seem at once shallow and sophisticated and it will be impossible to judge properly until 2005 when I can watch all six movies and see how all the pieces fit together. As for my movie-going experience in itself, loving something the way I love this series can blur one’s ability to judge properly. Sometimes they look and feel better than maybe they are, but this I can say for sure. The Phantom Menace is more fun than The Empire Strikes Back but not quite as fun as Star Wars. The writing is deeper and more sophisticated than the writing for Star Wars but not so much as the writing for The Empire Strikes Back. The sum of that equation is that it’s definitely right in there in the middle of the best of the series, but isn’t quite as good as either of them overall. That’ll do for now, I guess. When does the line form for Episode II? Thanks for listening… … and may the force be with you. N.S. -- The Bleeding Tree http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/3271/ --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.--- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:12 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!newshub.northeast.verio.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: George Wu ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 May 1999 04:53:19 GMT Organization: Prodigy Communications Corp ~Lines: 127 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7iij3v$els$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer18.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927780799 15036 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18529 Keywords: author=wu X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer18.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17740 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2345 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:302973 STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999) Reviewed by George Wu **1/2 (out of 4) Like it affected others of my 20-something generation, Star Wars left its indelible impression upon me. It defined the ultimate goal of escapist cinema for the worse, though that was not George Lucas' intention. Star Wars came amidst attempts by other directors to make the Great American Film -- from Nashville to The Deer Hunter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Network. But it was Lucas who succeeded, at least in the minds of the American public. And he did it with an (apparently) apolitical fantasy. Today, (attempted) apolitical fantasies are practically all Hollywood produces. Because this is the context that Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace arrives in, it is only special because it has been 16 years since the last Star Wars film. Whatever one thinks of the original Star Wars, it did not lack what The Phantom Menace suffers from -- a strong sense of vision. Despite Star Wars' comic book-like origins, Lucas refused to play it for camp and for the most part, that worked. The lack of self-consciousness about the material helped make Star Wars feel new even though its story was not. Lucas loses that focus in Menace, which is entirely too cute and self-aware. R2-D2, C-3P0, even Jabba the Hutt are not here because of the demands of the story, but because they serve a sentimental purpose. The result is to make the Star Wars universe entirely too incestuous. It was bad enough that Lucas made Luke and Leia siblings in Return of the Jedi. Now we learn that Luke's father, Anakin, created Luke's later happenstance companion C-3P0 and that Anakin was also assisted by R2-D2 in his own fateful space battle. This is just too capricious. Seemingly taking part in every major event in galactic history, R2-D2 must be the Forrest Gump of the Star Wars universe. Lucas' lack of focus leads to a very uneven motion picture. The story begins with two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), attempting to reconcile a (unspecified) conflict between the Trade Federation and the planet Naboo. After a failed assassination attempt against them by the Federation, the Jedi stowaway on ships bent on invading the planet. There they encounter the Gungans, amphibious creatures who inhabit an underwater city. The sole purpose of this meeting is to set up the Gungans for later in the plot, and as such this otherwise seemingly pointless encounter feels incredibly awkward. However, the worst thing to come out of this is that the Jedi get a Gungan companion named Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar's sole purpose is to act as comic relief, but not only is he not funny, his perpetual jabbering is endlessly annoying. Jar Jar's reputation as the first fully-digitized character in a live-action film falls into the same category as The Jazz Singer's being the first talkie -- unmeritorious. Too much of the time, Menace feels like its only going through the motions. Qui-Gon seems to take for granted that he can take Anakin (Jake Lloyd) from his mother (Pernilla August) and neither will object. When the time comes to do so, Anakin and his mother display only mild hesitation. This would have worked perhaps if the film had stressed their lives as slaves so that Anakin's mother would obviously want him to escape to a better life. As it is, the mother has some vague notion that Anakin is special, so why not put him in the hands of this Jedi she hardly knows? The whole scenario in which Qui-Gon gets Anakin under his wing is convoluted and could have been greatly simplified. The Menace script needed two more drafts. Despite the obfuscated plot, the film feels very rushed. Establishing shots go by quickly, often wasting the effort that went into creating some stunning digital landscapes. The climax mirrors that of Return of the Jedi, intercutting among a lightsaber duel, a ground war, and a space battle, but the pacing is too frenetic. Although sporting supposedly superior special effects, these sequences are less involving than those in Jedi. This is particularly surprising with the space fight. This sequence suffers from the film not establishing how to accomplish the goal. When it is finally achieved (and who doubts that it would be), it happens completely by accident. In terms of action, the highlight of Menace is the lightsaber duel in which Darth Maul takes on Qin-Gon and Obi-Wan. The choreography, taking note of Hong Kong cinema's recent influence in Hollywood, far surpasses that in the three previous Star Wars films. On the other hand, there seems to be far less at stake. Taking the conflict for granted, Lucas does not even have the antagonists speak to one another, thus lessening the emotional involvement over why they are fighting. In only a couple of instances during the duel do we even get a sense of momentum shifts. The beauty of the choreography takes precedence over who wins or loses. None of the actors ever really get to let loose. They all feel too uptight. One of the problems is that they do not have an internal conflict, only an outside goal. In the original Star Wars, Luke yearned for more in his life but was also plagued by the self-doubt festered upon him by his uncle. Han Solo had to decide what was more important to him, money or risking his life to help others. The only internal conflict in Menace is Qui-Gon deciding whether to break the Jedi council's prohibition to train Anakin and this situation only arises halfway through the movie. Everyone else's main goal is to save Naboo. Characters who have no inner life are not very interesting. Instead the focus should have been put on Anakin. Menace hints at his desire to free the slaves on Tatooine, but this is only spoken, not shown. Yoda cites Anakin's fear, but this too is enormously abstract. Unfortunately, Jake Lloyd would not have been up to the task to carry the film anyway. Like most American child actors, he overacts or is too self-conscious (which I blame on the watching of too much television acting). Compare Lloyd's performance to that of the children in the British Hope and Glory or the Swedish My Life as a Dog, and we see how much is wanting. Lucas does not help him by putting all sorts of 1990s colloquial expressions in his mouth, which will date the film quickly. (In general, the film is filled with bad dialogue.) Anakin's relationship with the Naboo Queen, Amidala (Natalie Portman), also feels forced (no pun intended). While we know the two will eventually become Luke and Leia's father and mother, the strains of their caring for each other rings false when these two barely know each other. No chord is struck between them. Perhaps had Lucas given them the playful antagonism between Han Solo and Leia, this could have worked. As it is, their relationship is sterile. All this said, the appeal in The Phantom Menace is simply that it gives us the first chance in 16 years to return to the Star Wars universe. In terms of fulfilling this nostalgia, from the opening fanfare to the lightsaber duel, Menace succeeds. Menace is also more of a stand alone story, a prelude to the "epic" events to come, like J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Luckily, Lucas can use Menace as a testing ground and learn from his mistakes for the next two installments, which will be desired all the more for the lackings in this one. http://pages.prodigy.net/zvelf/index.htm From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:13 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: redman@indepen.com (Michael Redman) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 May 1999 04:53:32 GMT Organization: ... ~Lines: 92 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7iij4c$hu4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: redman@indepen.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927780812 18372 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18531 Keywords: author=redman X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17744 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2346 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:302974 No matter what, it's still Star Wars Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1999 By Michael Redman ***1/2 (Out Of ****) "The Phantom Menace" is possibly the most anticipated film of the last 50 years. "Star Wars" has transcended cinema to become one of the world's mythologies. Obi-Wan Kenobi may not be more popular than Jesus Christ, but he's giving him a run for his money. For the two people who don't know, here's the Cliff Notes. This film takes place a few decades before the first Star Wars movie. Obi-Wan Kenobi (now Ewan McGregor) is a young Jedi apprentice to master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). The two are dispatched to the planet Naboo which is being blockaded by the Trade Federation. There they meet teen queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and amphibian Jar Jar Binks (played by a computer program). Then they make a stop on Tatooine and encounter Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), a slave boy exceptionally strong in the Force and destined to become Darth Vader. The bad guys are Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Maul. There are lots of light saber battles, weird creatures and space ships. First of all: yes, it's great fun. The effects are magnificent, the best of their type ever seen. A phenomenal high-tech hot rod race is guaranteed to wake up the dead. The battle between Darth Maul and the two Jedi is the most stunning yet. The eye candy is beyond reproach. Forget the popcorn. Forget the cokes. Forget the restroom. Don't take your eyes off the screen. It's strange watching the first part of a story you know the ending to. When young Skywalker's mother tells her son to go with the Jedi and live his dream, you can almost hear a deep voice saying "To rule the universe." As usual, director George Lucas cobbles together pieces of various cultures to create an eerie but familiar atmosphere. When hordes of faceless droids under the command of the Trade Federation Viceroy with an Asian accent attack the peace-loving orange-robed inhabitants of Naboo, it feels like an intergalactic re-enactment of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. But then there's the rest of the movie. Acting has never been the strong point of the "Star Wars" films. Mark Hamill worked well as Luke Skywalker, but if you want to judge his acting skills, take a look at the Marsh commercials. It's especially disappointing in "Phantom Menace" because of the caliber of actors. Neeson is remarkably flat. Samuel Jackson in a cameo as a Jedi master is horrendous. Darth Maul seems to exist primarily to sell action figures. There is an odd emotional distance to the movie. It's telling that the only character who shows much humanity is the computer-generated alien Jar Jar. There's no one the audience can identify with. The Jedi are too squeaky clean; the villains, too dastardly and the kid, too damned cute. Where's Han Solo when you need him? There are flaws with the story. The Force is a mystical energy. Attempting to explain it away with scientific babble is a bone-headed mistake. Too many things happen by happy accident. The attack droids fall over at the slightest provocation and are terrible shots. You know how the battles are going to turn out: the good guys win. Or do they? The major problem with the plot is that a very important element isn't clear. Exactly who or what is the "phantom menace" is guesswork. The relationship between the future Emperor and another character is key to understanding what is going on and that relationship is only hinted at. Revealed in the "Star Wars" novels, but not in the film, this knowledge completely changes what the film is about. Having said all of that, I'm going to make a confession and the first few words of the next paragraph will forever brand me as an unrepentant fanboy. Watching the film the second time a few days later, all of my problems with it melted away. Jar Jar became enjoyable rather than annoying. Having figured out the relationship mentioned above, the movie was much more intricate. Expectations gone, I could settle back and have a great time. Despite numerous flaws, it's still "Star Wars" and I was a kid again. That's good enough for me. (Darth Redman has written this column since before the first "Star Wars". He considering starting to re-live his own prequel.) [This appeared in the 5/27/99 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at Redman@indepen.com.] -- mailto:redman@indepen.com This week's film review: http://www.indepen.com/ Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman Y2K articles: http://www.indepen.com/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:13 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Roger Gerbig" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 May 1999 04:53:37 GMT Organization: The Grid ~Lines: 131 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7iij4h$em6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer25.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927780817 15046 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18532 Keywords: author=gerbig X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer25.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17746 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2348 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:302976 STAR WARS EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE w/ Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman Dir: George Lucas The Thumbs For Sale! review by Roger Gerbig --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Believe it or not, these Thumbs! hitchhiked all the way from the sunny Central Coast of California to Columbia, Tennessee (business trip) to catch an opening night show of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace." Sometimes you do what you have to do. After all, this self-styled movie critic and his army of droids--er--interns is but one of the legion of complete and total "Star Wars" fans who when all else seems boring and mundane, turn to tracking small disturbances in the Force like some turn to bickering about tiny variations in a day's weather. That's what I call an active lifestyle. Fortunately though, I never let this obsession get the best of me. I've remained cool, collected and placidly normal over the years--never even once showing up to a job interview brandishing my lightsaber. In the sixteen odd years since the last installment, some things in the "Star Wars" universe have changed, while others haven't. "Phantom Menace" opens up roughly 30 years (or about the time it would take George Lucas to crank out 5.45 "Star Wars" movies) before the original trilogy. The tiny planet, Naboo--featuring what may be the first viable ecosystem of any planet visited in the Lucas universe--is under siege by the Trade Federation, which appears to be quite a sinister Political Action Committee replete with deep pockets, an army of droids, and leaders who have no noses. And judging by their near complete inability to lip sync to their dialogue, the Viceroy and his sidekick may just have been borrowed from the Japanese touring company of "Star Wars on Ice." Being that this is sort of a dicey situation, the Republic wastes no time sending in a couple of Jedi Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor), to negotiate a settlement of sorts. Of course, things go a bit wrong and soon those lightsabers are pressed into action. Then things get worse when the Trade Federation decides to stray from the peaceful pasture of planetary orbit and stage a full-blown invasion of Naboo. All of which illustrates the first major problem I had with this flick. You see, the Jedi are basically a couple MBAs (that's Mythical Bad Asses in Thumbs! speak). Every line they utter (when not rehashing "classics" from the first trilogy) drips with self-importance and excessive knowledge of the way things are. And Lucas makes it abundantly apparent that when it's a lightsaber vs. a legion, the lightsaber reigns supreme. Sure, in the first 45 minutes alone they're chased by battle droids, forced to stow away on enemy ships, nearly stomped on by the Federation's war machine, hunted mercilessly by the really big fish in the pond, and finally driven to flee to the far corners of the galaxy. But there's never really any sense of danger during any of this turmoil. They're just a couple of Jedi, caught in an amazing universe of special effects. The furious pace of plot and planet hopping are nearly guaranteed to make you feel like you've embarked on an extended bus tour of the universe. Sure, it's great to see the sights, but Lucas the driver leaves you wondering if you'll ever get a chance to make a pit stop. In fact, it's debatable whether or not this tour guide would ever stop long enough at a roadside stand for you to buy some trinkets for the folks back home. The rather thin plot labors under being a setup piece for parts II and III of this trilogy, and suffers from some ill-begotten cloning of certain characteristics of "Return of the Jedi." When all the films are completed, I can assure you that this one will be the least able to stand on its own. As our heroes rocket across the galaxy collecting cast members and bumper stickers (Tattooine is for Lovers!), it suddenly occurred to me how deficient the characters were--at least in comparison to those in the first series. It's not bad acting, it's just the purely functional nature of the dialogue. Apparently, as a species, humans aren't all that funny (Han Solo being a notable exception). Just forget your dream of having a career in stand-up comedy in the ring of clubs dotting the edge of the Republic. Unless you've got floppy ears, fur, or skin tones that lean toward the blue end of the spectrum, that is. Which leads us to the requisite Jar Jar Binks paragraph. Every other critic has one, so why can't I? For those of you doing time in Jabba's dungeons, Mr. Binks is the klutzy amphibious alien dude entrusted with 96% of the humor present in the script. Already the most controversial character in the "Star Wars" universe, I'll limit my critique to one point: Upon occasion, someone really needs to come between Lucas and his marketing "yes" men and casually mention that, "um...this ain't necessarily funny." Now, if we could just schedule him and a squad of Ewoks to engage in a little Ultimate Fighting between themselves... There's a pay-per-view event even I'd pay for. While it's obvious that I have a few complaints, I will say your entertainment dollar isn't wasted. Not only are the visuals spectacular, but Lucasfilm had enough common sense to keep some of the better ones out of the previews. And, if you missed subtlety the first time around, as I did, rest assured. A second viewing does wonders for the actors' performances. Portman's regal Queen Amidala makes a plausible case against business casual dress in the workplace, and Darth Maul's actually pretty evil despite his vaguely devilish good looks and M.C. Hammer-inspired getup. Subtlety also befriends the finer points of production design. These are fabulously-realized worlds we're visiting here, though I still wish I could open the bus's window! Unfortunately, I'm completely incapable of lowering my expectations of an event such as this, which didn't serve me well. "Phantom Menace" just isn't a good enough movie to shatter said expectations. But it is an event. It is entertaining. And it's got enough of those classic holes in the plot (why wasn't Obi-Wan able to sense a certain dark presence when he was standing less than five feet away?) to merit much frivolous discussion over the next few years until the next installment arrives. And here's one perhaps all of you can help me out with: since main Jedi characters tend to have hyphenated first names like "Obi-Wan" and "Qui-Gon", why wasn't that other famous Jedi named something like "Luke-Warm Skywalker?" At any rate, a good show! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the Thumbs! online at www.thumbsforsale.com ©1999 Roger Gerbig From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:13 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: serdar@thegline.com (Serdar Yegulalp) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 May 1999 05:01:28 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Share what you know. Learn what you don't. ~Lines: 140 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7iijj8$a2o$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer07.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927781288 10328 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18534 Keywords: author=yegulalp X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer07.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17745 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2347 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:302975 Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999) * * 1/2 A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp Copyright 1999 by Serdar Yegulalp Let me start by stating the obvious. "Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" is wonderful to look at. Every scene is littered with activity: ships flitting across the horizon, people and creatures scurrying from hither to thither. One of the major characters, the splendidly-goofy-bordering-on-annoying Jar Jar Binks, is entirely a creation of computer graphics, and we're never less than convinced that he's there in front of us at all times. This is one of the hallmarks of the "Star Wars" universe: things that would be the centerpiece of another movie will simply insert themselves casually into the frame. The movie is exploding with sights and sounds. And that's the problem. Here is a film that was created with the most magnificent of panoramas, and one of the most flimsy of screenplays. It's full, but not fulfilling. It does everything... except tell a story that engages us emotionally. Friends of mine have said that the movie improves on repeat viewings -- but shouldn't a movie like this just work the first time around, period? Twenty years, it seems, have made all the difference, in both us and George Lucas. "Star Wars" exploded out of nowhere and changed the level of expectations for moviegoers everywhere, permanently. "The Phantom Menace" is evolutionary, not revolutionary, and for that reason is not as remarkable a movie. But it's also hampered by a muddled, one- dimensional drama and a gallery of characters who engage everything except our sympathies. "Star Wars" was about adventure; this movie is about people talking at each other and occasionally fighting. No one is REALLY put to the test. The movie is worse than soulless -- it is gutless. In the abstract, there's plenty of story to work with: a brutal blockade of a planet that could turn into a full-out war; light-saber duels; closed-chamber politicking; a forbidden attraction between a queen and a young slave; a father-and-son apprenticeship; a deadly and mysterious assassin with vicious weapons. But somehow, Lucas and his team of compatriots haven't spun these elements together in a compelling fashion. The film drags. There are far too many scenes of people explaining everything to each other, again and again; there are endless moments where we HEAR about what's going on instead of SEEING it, or its consequences. For a "kid's movie", as Lucas has billed it, it's distressingly complex, static and talky. There is no one person we are carried through the whole of the story with -- and no suspense. Nothing ever really seems to be at stake; it all just seems to be a rather large inconvenience. Some examples. Part of the movie's major lack of empathy is found with Natalie Portman's character, Queen Padme. Her planet is being blockaded by the Trade Federation, and she has to go undercover (in a sense) to save her planet. Lucas goes to great effort to present her to us as a queen, but all of her sympathy for her people is verbal, not tangible. We admire her, but we don't care about her. (PLOT SPOILER!) There's some tedious bait-and-switchery with one of her handmaidens that's less fun than it should be -- probably because we're not privy to it until it's too late to delight in the subversion. Then there are our two Jedi, who feel obligatory without feeling neccesary. Ewan McGregor is excellent as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi; he inhabits the part with great grace and unforced style. He is fun to watch. Liam Neeson, as Qui-Gon Jinn, however, seems vaguely bored and dissatisfied with the whole thing; his expression always seems to be saying, "As soon as I can get out of here and have me a Guinness..." I also mentioned Jar-Jar Binks, who is so convincing as a digital creation that it only makes him all the more insufferable. He is a comic relief whose lifespan was extended far beyond any reasonable amount. And then there is Jake Lloyd, as the young Anakin Skywalker. He is possibly one of the few totally unproblematic things in the movie -- he is simply nine years old, nothing more than that, and we accept that on face value. The problem is the movie often exploits that for developments that aren't even internally consistent -- such as when he strikes a blow for the heroes by accident... again and again. Another problem is that watching all these characters deal with each other is a chore. Lucas has written his own script, and the dialogue is cheesy without ever being enjoyably so. It doesn't have the fun and frolic of a high-camp adventure. Instead, it's just pained and forced. There's none of that kidding by-play we all loved. When Leia said, "Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?" we all laughed. Nothing is that spontaneous and unforced here. The high points, of course, are when the movie's set-pieces kick in. Here is the only time "The Phantom Menace" actually feels like a "Star Wars" movie. The action centerpiece of the movie is a high-tech race sequence that borrows freely from "Ben Hur", "Bullitt", and even the speeder chase from "Return of the Jedi"; apparently Lucas's creative exhaustion has extended to the point of autocannibalization. Yes, the chase is exhilarating and excellently done -- but because it's not hooked into anything we really care about, it's disposable. It's just another random something to look at. My criticism of "The Phantom Menace" is not with its surfaces, but with its core. The original "Star Wars" movies possessed a kind of cultural telepathy, a power to tap directly into a silent sense of wonder and possibilities. Yes, it WAS possible for a farm boy from Tatooine to become a Jedi knight (and have Darth Vader for a father), and for a band of rebels to strike a blow for freedom against the all-powerful Empire. Goofy and hokey as it was, we bought it. The new trilogy, judging from its opening chapter, is full of images, but somehow none of the wonder and the narrative gravity. In place of wonder, we have comings and goings, explanations and justifications, and never a quiet moment when we are allowed to have it all sink in. In place of narrative, we have picaresqueness without impact. We go a lot of places, but we never really get out of the bus. Roger Ebert reported in his own review of the movie: "We are standing at the threshold of a new age of epic cinema, I think, in which digital techniques mean that budgets will no longer limit the scope of scenes; filmmakers will be able to show us just about anything they can imagine." True. But digital filmmaking technology is like the movie camera itself. Point it at something and all of its attributes are magnified, good and bad. "The Phantom Menace"'s visual splendor explodes tenfold when given a CGI treatment, but so does the thinness of its underlying story. Epic movies like "Lawrence of Arabia" were full of intriguing people and conflicts; "The Phantom Menace" is little more than a glossy tour booklet, all setup and no payoff. Presumably, that's by design, but the original "Star Wars" movies also worked magnificently as standalones. I re-watched them before seeing "The Phantom Menace" and felt like I was revisiting old friends at a party. "The Phantom Menace" plays more like a noisy Shriner's convention where nobody really wants to talk to anyone else. One more thing. There is a single moment in the original "Star Wars" where Luke Skywalker stands outside his house and watches a dual sunset. The suns bathe Luke's face in red; the music swells; we feel his need to escape. It's an elementally simple moment, unadorned and moving, and it works. "The Phantom Menace", too perpetually busy to be really interesting, never lets itself have a moment like that. --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.--- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:14 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "David N. Butterworth" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 May 1999 20:10:20 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 123 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7ik8rc$jba$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer21.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927835820 19818 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18549 Keywords: author=butterworth X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer21.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17767 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2351 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:303860 STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1999 David N. Butterworth **1/2 (out of ****) It was an overcast, muggy Tuesday afternoon, the day before the eagerly-awaited "Star Wars" prequel was slated to blast into theaters. I walked up to the bored-looking ticket seller at my local multiplex (twenty-four screens to be precise) and asked "So what's the deal with "Star Wars" tickets?" Anticipating a long, drawn-out answer about nothing being available until the 27th and having to wait "over there," the lethargic teenager simply asked me what show I wanted to see. "When's the first one?" I asked. "10am." "And you still have tickets?" "Yes." "Then I'll take one for the ten o'clock show please." Hmm... No hoopla. No lines. I didn't even have to camp out! At 9:30am the next morning the parking lot was already pretty full, and you can bet people weren't there for the new Jet Li movie. The ticket taker told me to hang onto my stub at all times, and to sit as close to the middle as possible, as the show was sold out. For a sold-out show there were a lot of empty seats, but by that point all I could think about was my hankering for some gummi sourpatch nightcrawlers. If you go to see "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," as it's correctly called (and I suspect you will), I recommend you get there early. Not just in case your particular show happens to be sold out too, but to listen to "Star Wars" junkies complaining about this, that, and the other. My favorite comment came halfway through the film when some numskull whispered reverentially "Shmi Skywalker's the Virgin Mary!" I saw the original "Star Wars" back in 1977 when it first came out. A lot of hoopla surrounded it at the time and for the most part it was deserving. The special effects were light-years ahead of their time and the story was a classic case of good vs. evil, beautifully realized, and inspired by Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress." That blast from the brass section as the "Star Wars" insignia appears from out of nowhere and slowly pushes its way into the starry screen still gives me goosebumps. A little context for you. Although I can't tell a bantha from a Grand Moff Tarkin, I do believe that Harrison Ford can't act his way out of a brown paper bag. I believe that Mark Hamill didn't even try. I believe that Carrie Fisher is a better novelist than she is an actor, I believe that Chewbacca was the series' best character and they should have brought him back for "Episode I," and I believe that the Ewoks were a big mistake (their TV series spin-off an even bigger one). I believe in the twin moons of Tatooine, the golden orbs of Unrath, the curve of Natalie Portman's back, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days... But getting back to "The Phantom Menace." What did I think of it? It's okay. We've been so deluged by special effects-laden movies in the 1990s that we take a lot of today's technical wizardry for granted. The new "Star Wars" film is purported to contain some 2,000 "effects shots" (compared to the 800 or so in "Titanic"), the most in any one movie, but all that stuff seems like overkill at times. We miss what we're supposed to be looking at because there's just too much of it. "Star Wars" did exponential things with technology. Relatively speaking, "The Phantom Menace" would have required special footwear, probably, to have had the same impact. Nevertheless there are some glorious paintings, models, and backdrops in the film. These cities and civilizations really come alive. The craftsmanship is top-notch, state-of-the-art, exquisite. The costumes, not to mention Natalie Portman's hairdos (she plays Queen Amidala of Naboo) are breathtaking. That's right, breathtaking hairdos. The Jedi commission is made up of a bunch of funny-looking characters ... and Samuel L. Jackson! Terence Stamp is barely in the film. The baddie, Darth Maul, is appropriately named because he looks like some WWF spokesperson in a monk's habit. He's pretty cool. On the other hand, the Federation's computer-animated droids can't hold a light saber to those imperial storm troopers. Ewan McGregor (as Obi-Wan Kenobi) is as stiff as a post and I hate to say it but the film actually gets a bit boring at times. The need to explain connections to the original trilogy results in a lot of talky sequences and deja-vu, some of it welcome and some of it not. Jar Jar Binks, a walking, wisecracking Rasta duck-billed platypus whose catchphrase is "How rude!" provides much of the comic interest but after a while he tends to blend in with the rest of the lop-eared platypi. One of the film's big set pieces is a "pod race" featuring the young, fatherless Anakin (Jake Lloyd), an homage to "Ben Hur"'s famous chariot race. The point of all this spectacle is so that Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) can win a bet to pay a winged muppet called Watto for spare parts to fix a crippled spaceship. I know Jedi knights must have some code of ethics but couldn't they have found an easier solution to their problem (like, maybe, steal the hardware, or at least borrow it?). Similarly, part of the deal is to have the enslaved future Chosen One freed but unfortunately our heroes are forced to leave the boy's mother behind. "I tried to win her freedom but Watto wasn't having any of it," says Neeson's character, or words to that effect. Sounds rather pathetic from a Jedi, doesn't it? "I wanted to kill Darth Vader, but when I got to the Death Star, he wasn't home." Puleez. The dialogue and plot elements aren't the reason to see the film, of course. You expect the general good-guys-have-to-stop-the-bad-guys scenario (here, taxation plays a key role). It's all those brave new worlds, intergalactic shoot-'em-ups, strange reptilian and mechanical creatures, and characters with funny names you can either cheer or hiss, that matters. And "The Phantom Menace" has got 'em by the score. It's a frenetic visual feast indeed; there's nothing quite like it in the galaxy. Let's just hope that Episodes II and III spend a little more time on character development, that's all. Written and directed by George Lucas. -- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 12:49:14 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: akiva@excite.com (Akiva Gottlieb) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 23 May 1999 18:41:27 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 83 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7i9i4n$t8m$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer24.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927484887 29974 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18470 Keywords: author=gottlieb X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer24.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17692 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2332 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:299049 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace *** rated PG 20th Century Fox starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Ahmed Best, Ray Park written and directed by George Lucas So..."Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" has arrived, and as we all know, it is less a movie than a national phenomenon. Over the past two decades, we have grown to love the characters that George Lucas created in his trilogy; the films entitled "Star Wars", "The Empire Strikes Back", and "Return Of The Jedi". These movies have changed pop culture as no other movies ever have, creating a mass following of people whose love for "Star Wars" can be best described as...religious. I have to admit that I rented the "Star Wars" trilogy last week, and it was the first time that I had seen a couple of the films in their entirety. In other words, I have never been much of a "Star Wars" fan. But seeing the films, I realized that this cultural phenomenon began because a film had finally taken the time to transport viewers into a new, entirely different world. When watching "Star Wars", time stops, and the viewer learns the lessons of the characters. "Star Wars" is about the conflicts between good and evil, and how good will always prevail eventually. The films in the "Star Wars" trilogy were episodes 4, 5 and 6, and they told the story of Luke Skywalker's rise to Jedi stardom. The latest entry into the collection, "The Phantom Menace", is episode I, and it takes place a long time before the Dark Side of the Force transformed Anakin Skywalker into the lord of evil, Darth Vader. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...special effects were much more developed and everything looked a lot cooler. I'm not going to give away much plot, since everyone in the world will no doubt see this movie. It is the tale of how two Jedi knights, a young boy, a queen, a couple of droids and a sea monkey attempt to save the galaxy. Is the film any good? Well, it is definitely "Star Wars", as any fan will be able to tell. The special effects are absolutely incredible, but it's too bad the plot isn't. The film feels like merely an introduction to bigger things, hopefully setting us up for a mind-blowing Episode II. It's a lot of fun, but it lacks many of those quiet "Star Wars moments", despite the fact that we get a glimpse at a lot of familiar characters, such as a younger Yoda, a half-built C-3PO, and a newer R2-D2. A lot of characters are left underdeveloped, and Darth Maul, the hyped villain who was supposed to have had such a large role, is merely a secondary player. Also, Obi-Wan Kenobi comes off as uninteresting, quiet and selfish. Most of the performances, however, are top-notch. Liam Neeson as the swashbuckling Qui-Gon Jinn and Natalie Portman as the Queen Amidala are both playing their roles with typical "Star Wars" vigor. It is Jake Lloyd, though, the young boy who plays Anakin Skywalker(Darth Vader as a child) who grabbed my attention the most. Lloyd, who appeared in "Jingle All The Way" and "Unhook The Stars" has a long career ahead of him. "The Phantom Menace" is by far the most anticipated film of all time, and despite not being nearly as good as the other "Star Wars" films, it is not in any way disappointing. The cash is rolling in in large numbers, and hopefully George Lucas will use it to craft an amazing Episode II. Despite huge production costs, "The Phantom Menace" is actually an independent film, since Lucas raised all the money on his own and made the film without a major studio(Fox then stepped in to distribute the film). "The Phantom Menace" is nothing great, but it is another solid entry into an ongoing saga that has changed the world as we once knew it. a review by Akiva Gottlieb, The Teenage Movie Critic akiva@excite.com http://www.angelfire.com/mo/film _______________________________________________________ Get your free, private email at http://mail.excite.com/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun May 30 17:20:23 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: faust667@aol.com (Jerry Saravia) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 29 May 1999 16:51:37 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 75 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7ip5up$77e$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927996697 7406 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18592 Keywords: author=saravia X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17806 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2355 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:306129 Review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace By Jerry Saravia I can't even begin to tell you what a big Star Wars fan I used to be. The "Star Wars" movies were terrific entertainments, full of sound and fury and encompassing great characters, who by the end of "Return of the Jedi" became our own best friends - we knew them as if they were family. Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and those two witty robots have become a permanent fixture in our pop culture psyche. "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" has to be the most anticipated blockbuster event in the last decade or so. The prognosis: It's thrilling but never truly involving. Episode I marks the beginning of the Star Wars saga, and it is a world only Lucas could have conceived. During the rousing title sequence following the familiar 20th Century Fox logo, we learn that the Trade Federation wants Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), ruler of the planet Naboo, to sign a peace treaty. Her refusal sparks a war between her planet, which includes the Galactic Republic, and an Empire-of-sorts regime ruled by Darth Sidious and his apprentice, a red-faced, anti-Jedi named Darth Maul (Ray Park). It is up to two freelance ambassadors (!) named Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), a Jedi master, and his apprentice, good old Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) with a ponytail, to rescue the Queen and take her to the relatively safe planet of Tatooine. It is there where the fate of the Jedi lies with a young, precocious boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the future Darth Vader, who has a way of repairing machines such as pod racers, and creating droids like the unfinished C-3PO! He also has this dream of becoming a Jedi. The movie unfolds with one amazing sequence after another. We see vast landscapes of different planets and underwater cities. We watch in extreme derision an explosive pod race, presided by good old Jabba the Hutt, where these flying race machines make accelerated turns through rock formations and narrow tunnels resembling Monument Valley - they are too fast for the eye to catch. We see dozens of digitally created creatures, including wildly ferocious sea animals, and there are the bland-looking battle droids that easily come apart. The most distracting of the creatures is a floppy-eared, amphibious Gungan animal named Jar-Jar Binks, who speaks with a Jamaican accent. We witness many battle sequences, and the most electrifying is a lightsaber duel between Darth Maul and the two Jedis that is pulse-pounding and superbly staged and edited. George Lucas certainly went out of his way to create a world unlike anything we have ever seen before, even as far as the previous "Star Wars" films. This time, however, he has invested less interest in the human characters. Lucas may have never been a great storyteller but he always paid great attention to character details and subtleties. The most profound and memorable character is the Jedi Master Qui-Gon, nicely underplayed by Liam Neeson, who resorts to having too much faith in the young Anakin - he wants to train him despite the Jedi Council's objections. MacGregor's Obi-Wan mostly nods and obeys his master, but he may be a more prominent character in Episode II since he reluctantly becomes Anakin's trainer in the Jedi arts. Portman's Queen Amidala is to be the future mother to Luke and Leia, yet here she seems cold and distant - very uncharacteristic of her future daughter's stubbornness or sex appeal. And there are fleeting cameos by Samuel L. Jackson as Jedi council member, Mace Windu; Ian McDiamid as Senator Palpatine, the future evil Emperor; Terence Stamp as a Supreme Chancellor; and the exquisitely restrained Pernilla August (from "The Best Intentions") as Anakin's mother, a slave to some floating bug named Watto. These characters are so noble and fascinating that you wish Lucas gave them more screen time, and less to all the sluggish, superficial exposition given to the Trade Federation and their plans. And I would have loved to seen more of the nefarious Darth Maul - one of the best, most enigmatic villains since Boba Fett. "The Phantom Menace" is still one helluva show and definitely a treat for all Star Wars fans, including myself. I loved the experience of watching it, and it was great to see brief appearances by C-3PO and R2-D2 again, not to mention the great Yoda and the hysterical cameo by Jabba the Hutt. But the movie does not have the freshness, sense of wonder or magic that the other films had - some of it is too plodding and superfluous. You'll come away wanting more (and wish there was less of Jar-Jar Binks). Perhaps that is what Lucas had in mind all along. You can find more reviews at JERRY AT THE MOVIES located at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun May 30 17:20:23 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newnews.hk-r.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Mikel J. Koven" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 29 May 1999 16:51:25 GMT Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland ~Lines: 116 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7ip5ud$jn8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 927996685 20200 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18590 Keywords: author=koven X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17808 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2356 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:306130 The following was originally published in The St. John's Express (Newfoundland Canada). The copyright is held by both the author and Robinson-Blackmore Publishers. http://www.rb.nf.ca/express/expcol5.htm Star Wars: impressive, but offensive By Mikel J. Koven 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.' Those words still echo through my memory, when 22 years ago, an excited nine-year-old saw Star Wars for the first time. It changed all of our expectations about what could be shown in a science fiction movie. Over two decades later, and 16 years after the last installment of the series, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace may very well be the most anticipated film in cinema history. Unfortunately, although noteworthy for the unprecedented hype, special effects, and anticipated box office, it will not be remembered as the kind of classic Star Wars was. Set a generation before Luke, Leah, and Han battled the dark side of the Force, Episode I presents us with Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman - a democratic monarch?) who is placed in the unenviable position of watching as the evil Trade Federation invade her planet of Naboo. Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his young apprentice, Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are sent to negotiate a peace settlement with the Federation. While moving the Naboo queen and her court to safety, their ship crashes on Tatooine (remember, that's where Luke came from), and there they meet a 10-year-old wunderkind named Anakin Skywalker, who just may be the prophesized one who will bring 'balance to the Force'. The press notes identify five separate storylines in Phantom Menace, and that is probably the first indicator this movie has gone seriously wrong. George Lucas, the mastermind behind the entire Star Wars legacy, has returned for the first time to the writer/director's chair since his 1977 epic, and in the interim it looks like he forgot how to tell a story. Ever notice how little kids tell the plot of their favorite movies? "So the Queen goes and does this. And then the Jedi guy goes and does this. And then they get together. And then the ship crashes. And then ... yadda, yadda, yadda." That is how Lucas wrote Phantom Menace; it does not feel like a script as much as an outline for a script. There is no character development, or emotional engagement with any of the characters. Lucas writes like a five-year-old with Attention Deficit Disorder. Any single plot line in the movie would have been sufficient to develop a film around. With five separate storylines, nothing gets beyond the level of a blueprint. We identified with Luke Skywalker, because he was 'us', the every man, trapped on a desolate rock with dreams of something better. His adventure was our adventure, and why we go and see movies like this is to vicariously experience that which we never will. There is no one to identify with in The Phantom Menace. Therefore there is no one to care about. Because of this, Phantom Menace feels very cold. For all of its positive messages about heroism and spirituality, it is profoundly misanthropic; an anti-human picture. So misanthropic, in fact, that Lucas, disappointed with Natalie Portman's voice, altered it with a synthesizer. Yes, the special effects are fabulous, but they should support the human cast, not the other way around. Even more disturbing is the blatant racism of the movie. To dismiss the characters as just fantasy figures is not a valid argument. Lucas, to his credit, develops definite cultures for his alien races, but unfortunately, he chooses Earth stereotypes as his models. And even though these creatures are computer generated fictions, they still resonate with Earthling cultural stereotypes. The invading Trade Federation are clearly modeled on the Japanese. And at the beginning of the movie, when we first see Queen Amidala, I was struck by how Chinese the costumes and sets were. I thought this might be an interesting exploration of Japan's imperial take-over of Asia in the 1930s. Nope, just racist stereotypes. Then we meet comic relief Jar Jar (computer generated, but voiced by Ahmed Best), and he takes us to his 'under the sea' colony on Naboo. Since an African-American actor is the voice of the character, it is reasonable to expect that the character will take on some of those cultural and ethnic attributes. But in the 'sub continent' (get it?) of Jar Jar's people, the African stereotypes flourish, even with an Idi Amin type leader. And making Jar Jar lazy, shiftless, incompetent, stupid, and a functional 'Uncle Tom' figure to the rest of the clean, intelligent, white characters really made me cringe. Finally we get to the slave owner who owns Anakin and his mother, and has them working in his shop. With his clearly hooked nose, stubbly beard, and his unscrupulous business practices, not to mention his 'Mediterranean' accent, I couldn't figure out whether he was supposed to be Jewish, Arab, or even Italian, but then I'm not so sure Lucas makes a distinction between those groups either. Having your invaders modeled on the Japanese, your comic relief based on African-Americans, and your shifty business men Semitic are too specific cultural references, and presented too stereotypically. So on the one hand, I was horrendously offended by the blatant racism of this movie. But on the other hand, the special effects are impressive. Unfortunately, too much of the spectacle has already been given away in TV ads and 'behind the scenes' footage on Entertainment Tonight. The big adventure moment, the fight scene between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon and Obi Wan, has been ruined by advanced promotions: we know that Darth Maul uses a two-ended lightsaber, so it's no surprise when he lights up the other end, punctuated with a musical 'ta-da'. It was months after the initial release of Star Wars that we got the 'making of' specials, which demonstrated how those amazing effects were done. Now we've been so inundated with information about the movie before hand, it all feels anti-climatic. This is not to say the movie isn't a fun two-hour time waster. It is. And Ewan McGregor does a great impersonation of Alec Guinness. Science fiction fans in general, and Star Wars fans in particular, are an undiscriminating lot. They'll see Episode I - The Phantom Menace a dozen times, buy as much merchandise as their student loans will allow, and sell out movie houses for months. I know I'll be among them. But when even the fan reviews are luke warm there is something wrong. Rating (out of 4): ** 1/2 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jun 3 15:27:52 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Matt Pusateri" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 3 Jun 1999 03:49:07 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 176 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7j4tvj$r6a$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928381747 27850 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18658 Keywords: author=pusateri X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17872 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2357 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:310696 STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999) Review by Matt Pusateri Few movies evoke nostalgia, enthusiasm, and affection like George Lucas' 1977 classic, Star Wars. The original blockbuster film and its two sequels not only evoked wonder and passion in a generation of filmgoers, but has deeply entrenched itself in American pop culture. Arguably, more Americans today can explain what "The Force" or a "Jedi" is than a budget deficit or a Serb. So 22 years after the release of the original, and 16 years since the third film, The Return of the Jedi, how can any new Star Wars film withstand the weight of incomparable expectations and anticipation? Can a new storyline and a new cast of characters possibly compete with the legends of the first trilogy - Luke, Han Solo, and Darth Vader -all cultural icons? Against this challenge, the fourth Star Wars film, Episode One: The Phantom Menace hit the screens last week. And despite some early critical reviews in the major media, the film is neither a flop nor a disappointment. While The Phantom Menace is certainly not the finest film in the series, it is nonetheless engaging, exciting, and visually breathtaking. It is a worthy sequel - er, prequel - to the original Star Wars films. The Phantom Menace takes place decades before the setting of original films. As the film opens, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), the wise old master who introduced Luke to the Force in the original Star Wars, is only a young Jedi apprentice, still learning from his fellow Jedi and instructor, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). The Republic government has sent the two Jedi to settle a trade dispute that has developed into a blockade of the planet Naboo by a shifty Trade Federation. The Jedi quickly find themselves not in negotiations, but in the middle of a planetary invasion, rushing to protect Naboo's young Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman). Later, after eventually rescuing Amidala and helping her escape Naboo, they are forced to stop at Tatooine to repair their battle-damaged ship before bringing her to the Galactic Senate to make an appeal for justice. On Tatooine, Qui-Gon discovers a young slave boy, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who not only can help them get the parts they need, but displays uncanny intelligence, insight, and instincts. Qui-Gon senses the child is "unusually strong" with the Force and begins to suspect that he may be "the One" prophesized to "bring balance to the Force." As anyone who has watched the original Star Wars trilogy knows, far from being a galactic savior, the innocent-looking 9-year-old will in time become the ruthless Darth Vader. Complicating matters further is a mysterious hooded figure, Darth Sidious, is behind the trade blockade and invasion of Naboo, and sends out a lethal apprentice, Darth Maul, to find and capture Queen Amidala. While Amidala and the Jedi fight to save her planet, they soon also have to deal with the deadly and relentless Darth Maul. If the plot sounds a bit complicated, it is. The Phantom Menace not only introduces an earlier generation of characters and an immediate crisis, but sets up the foundation for the events that will eventually lead to the fall of the Republic, the demise of the Jedi knights, Anakin's turn to evil, and the rise of the dark Empire of original trilogy. But the complexity is not overwhelming. The story moves quickly, with the only drawback being that many questions, predictably, remain unanswered at the end of the film, setting the stage for the next episode. One of the reasons the film's story seems hazy is not that it is too confusing, but too unfocused. It's unclear whose story Phantom Menace is. In the original trilogy, the movies were clearly Luke's story, with the stories centering around his growth from farmboy to rebel hero to Jedi knight. But it's unclear whether this new film is Anakin's story or Obi-Wan's. If this trilogy is centered on Anakin, it's a shaky foundation. Lloyd, like many child actors, lacks the subtle acting skills of adult performers, and as a result, his character seems shallow and unimpressive. On screen, we see nothing that suggests a dark side lurking underneath his little-boy face, or for that matter, any presence that would make him seem so special that Qui-Gon is willing to believe he is "the One." The rest of the cast does fine, though they often work with some iffy dialogue by Lucas. Neeson is perfect as an aging Jedi knight. McGregor is well-cast as Obi-Wan and conveys a balance of youthful energy and calm sensibility. Portman fits the role of a young queen well, but her lines were often very formal, giving her little room to give her character much personality. The biggest problem with The Phantom Menace is not the plot or the characters, but the interaction between them. Individually, the characters in this new film are no less developed than those in the original Star Wars, and the storyline is not more confusing than previous films in the series. But unlike the previous trilogy, Lucas doesn't do as good of a job playing the characters off one another. In Star Wars, there were immediate contrasts and memorable exchanges between Luke and Han, Han and Obi-Wan, and Leia and Luke. The ensemble played off each other and immediately showed their distinct attitudes and personalities. In the sequence in where Luke, Han, and Chewbacca attempt to rescue Leia from her cell on the Death Star, the audience learns a lot about all four characters in the ways they react to the immediate problems and each other. There is no comparable sequence in The Phantom Menace to flesh out the characters and their relationships with each other. Individually, they are interesting characters with clear motivations and interests, but Lucas develops little chemistry or tension between the them. This is perhaps the most glaring weakness of this film, and is probably the reason it has disappointed many reviewers. But despite the need for a richer dialogue and stronger character interaction, the film is still very engaging. Many of the wonderful elements of Lucas' previous films make The Phantom Menace both memorable and entertaining. First, of course, is the remarkably rich and imaginative universe Lucas creates. The characters visit magical underwater cities, evade dinosaur-sized sea monsters, fight battle droids and menacing "destroyers" on Venetian-looking planet of Naboo, watch a spectacular event, part Roman-chariot race, part Nascar circuit, on the arid desert planet of Tatooine, then head to Corsucant, the gothic urban capital of the Republic and home to the Galactic Senate and the Jedi Council. Each location is elaborate and complex. Lucas never settles for vague ideas about the look of his settings, he creates rich, spectacular landscapes, palaces, and skylines. Most of the new special effects in his re-released Special Edition trilogy in 1997 were changes that allowed him to give the earlier movies the look and feel that just weren't possible when the films were made. More than ever, in this new film, Lucas' universe is filled with a menagerie of creatures, robots with personalities, and a supporting cast of aliens who interact with the main characters. The best such character is Watto, a greedy Tatooine junk dealer who owns Anakin and his mother as slaves. Watto has a scratchy Italian voice and a short, paunchy body with oddly mismatched wings that flutter like a hummingbird as he floats around the room. Of all the computer-generated characters in the film, Watto is the best done and most enjoyable. Speaking of computer-generated characters, no review of The Phantom Menace is complete without mentioning the most controversial figure in the film: Jar Jar Binks. With more than 80 minutes of screen time, Jar Jar is the realization of George Lucas' dream to include a fully computer-generated character into the cast of the new trilogy. Jar Jar, a clumsy amphibian and member of the Gungan race, literally stumbles his way into the path of the Jedi knights early in the film and becomes Qui Jon's accidental sidekick. Jar Jar usually performs a comic-relief role in the film, lightening scenes with his mishaps and inability to stay out of trouble. The animation of Jar Jar is nearly seamless, and he interacts with the characters throughout the film as if he were really on the set with the actors. However, despite the technological magic that makes his character possible, Jar Jar isn't completely convincing. He still moves and sounds too much like a cartoon to blend into a scene. Throughout the movie, Jar Jar never transcends a "Roger Rabbit"-like presence. You accept that he's there, but you never lose sight of the fact that he is an animated character. Initially, I found Jar Jar annoying, but grew to enjoy the humor he added to the film. On my second viewing of the film, Jar Jar was a lot of fun and I didn't mind him at all. A second reason this film continues the fine tradition of Star Wars movies is that the film is replete with humor and small details that flesh out the world Lucas creates. Despite all the film's struggles between good and evil, and the sober musings about one's destiny and "the Force," like all Star Wars films, The Phantom Menace never takes itself too seriously. Fortunately, Lucas hasn't lost sight of the fact that his films are entertainment, not high art. From the bumbling Jar Jar, to a one-man, two-headed announcer team calling the action at the film's thrilling pod-race sequence, to a cameo appearance by E.T. in the film, The Phantom Menace is simply a lot of fun, with lots of half-hidden jokes and humor that can easily be missed. And finally, The Phantom Menace works because, as in all his films, there is no shortage of speed and action. From beginning to end, there are light-saber battles, hair-raising chases, and thrilling duels between good and evil. The pod-race sequence on Tatooine is one of the most entertaining and exciting scenes in any Star Wars film, and the final showdown between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul is arguably the best choreographed, most thrilling fight sequence Lucas has filmed. The Phantom Menace won't win any major Oscars. It probably won't beat Titanic's box office record. And it's not even the best Star Wars film (I'd put it third, after the original and The Empire Strikes Back). But it's an exciting and entertaining film, far better than your typical summer blockbuster. The film can't live up to it's hype - no film, not even the original Star Wars, could have done that. But it's still worth seeing... probably more than once. GRADE: B+ Copyright 1999 Matt Pusateri Check out other film reviews, game reviews, features, and columns at The Separate Radio Volume Knob (http://www.pusateri.org/knob.htm) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jun 3 15:27:52 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Walter Frith" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 3 Jun 1999 04:00:13 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 103 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7j4ukd$k62$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer13.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928382413 20674 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18663 Keywords: author=frith X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer13.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17875 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2358 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:310704 'Star Wars - Episode I - The Phantom Menace' (1999) A movie review by Walter Frith wfrith@cgocable.net Member of the 'Online Film Critics Society' http://www.ofcs.org When 'The Godfather Part III' was released in 1990, people knocked it as disappointing and not living up to the standards of the first two films. There was a 16 year gap between II and III and Francis Ford Coppola was able to find a fresh story and I thought the film was well executed. When such great films play on our sub conscious minds for years and we replay every exciting moment in our heads over and over again, it is human nature to expect the roll to continue. How many of us want our favorite sports team to win the championship every year? It simply won't happen. George Lucas once commented that he wanted to wait many years after 1983's 'Return of the Jedi' to tell the story contained within the first three chapters of his 'Star Wars' saga because he wanted film technology to excel and become what it has today. There is a 16 year gap between 'Return of the Jedi' and 'The Phantom Menace' and the original three 'Star Wars' films generate as much debate as they do entertainment. Many are split on what film is better, 'Star Wars' or 'The Empire Strikes Back'. Certainly 'The Empire Strikes Back' was a better character enhancement of its leading cast and isn't it odd that Lucas had no hand in the film's finished screenplay or the direction of the film. Lucas was responsible for the film's story line, however. Those credits for the movie's finished script belong to Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett and the man who directed it was Irvin Kershner. Most agree that 'Return of the Jedi' was the weakest chapter and Lucas not directing it makes you wonder if he's a better businessman that filmmaker with the success of all the merchandising tie-ins and his creation of many post production facilities for motion pictures 'The Phantom Menace' begins about thirty years before the original three films started. The peaceful planet of Naboo is involved in a dispute with the sinister trade federation. Two ambassadors who are also Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are sent to peacefully negotiate the trade dispute but the trade federation, who would eventually become the evil empire seen later in episodes IV, V and VI try to wipe them out and pursue the good Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) into signing a treaty that will do more harm that good for her people. Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid) is the most evil of the federation members. A trait that would serve him well in eventually becoming the Emperor, Darth Vader's lord and master. Throughout the course of the Jedi's adventures, they come upon a young slave boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) whom they will train to become a Jedi knight since the force is with him so strongly. This idea is brought fourth by Qui-Gon Jinn but Jedi master Yoda is unable to see his future through the force and fears the boy may be an element drawn to the dark side of the force and is against his training as a Jedi. The story is sort of self defeating in many ways because we know how the events will play out later so this is a major setback for the film. It also has a silly and unnecessary computer generated character named Jar Jar Binks thrown in for no other reason than to mildly entertain children and even then, some little ones may find his antics too silly. On the redeeming side of things are a space pod race halfway through the film that is absolutely mesmerizing and a climax that manages to include four major conflicts that keep our eyes glued to the screen. Combined with the introduction of a new master villain named Darth Maul (Ray Park, Peter Serafinowicz), and a look at the origins of R2-D2 and C-3PO and Jabba the Hut also making an appearance, the film is marginally well done from an academic stand point and superb from a technical outlook. Does 'The Phantom Menace' live up to its hype? No. It has major character weaknesses that make many of the film's actors look like life size action figures with little personality or complexity. The story is well told in part but is a bit tiresome and bears the markings of trying to go home again which is usually not possible. For technical zest and the memory of old friends seen in the film, I recommend 'The Phantom Menace' to be savoured as an experience that will only be a one time deal for many but I am also recommending it as giving George Lucas the benefit of the doubt that he will improve in the weak areas when episodes II and III are released in the coming years. Maybe his plan is to build a slow burn uphill and not downhill. Time will tell. OUT OF 5 > * * * 1/2 Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith http://www.cgocable.net/~wfrith/movies.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * * - a must see * * * * 1/2 - don't miss it * * * * - an excellent film * * * 1/2 - a marginal recommendation * * * - can't quite recommend it * * 1/2 - don't recommend it * * - avoid it * 1/2 - avoid it seriously * - avoid it AT ALL COSTS 1/2 - see it at your own risk zero - may be hazardous to your health From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jun 7 15:21:14 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Greg King Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 5 Jun 1999 15:57:05 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 79 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jbhch$vhs$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928598225 32316 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18691 Keywords: author=king X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17907 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2359 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:312541 THE PHANTOM MENACE (PG). (Twentieth Century Fox) Director: George Lucas Stars: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Terence Stamp, Samuel L Jackson, Frank Oz, Ray Park, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Pernilla August, Ralph Brown, Hugh Quarshie, Ahmed Best Running time: 130 minutes. Expectations have been high for this eagerly awaited and long overdue prequel to George Lucas' classic sci-fi adventure Star Wars. Given the barrage of hype that has preceded the movie, Star Wars Episode 1, subtitled The Phantom Menace, was always going to have a hard job living up to those lofty expectations. Inevitably, The Phantom Menace is a little disappointing! The original Star Wars was a film ahead of its time; The Phantom Menace is merely a film for its time! Returning to the director's chair after a twenty year absence, Lucas takes the audience back to the beginning of his envisaged nine part saga, and introduces us to the young Anakin Skywalker. As every Star Wars fan knows, Anakin is the Jedi knight who, of course, later grew up to father both Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia before crossing over to the dark side of the force as the evil Darth Vader. Caught in the middle of a trade war between the powerful Federation and the peaceful planet of Naboo, Jedi knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) try to negotiate a settlement. While on the planet of Tatooin, Jinn recognises the nascent power of the young slave Anakin (played with charm by Jake Lloyd), and decides to take him under his wing. In many ways, The Phantom Menace follows the broad plot threads of the original Star Wars, although without the same sense of wonder and inspiration. What was once a simple fable about the battle between good and evil has become far more mystical and mythic, and occasionally bogged down in more complex ideas. In establishing the framework for what follows, Lucas raises nearly as many questions as he answers. One of the main problems is that the film is occasionally a little slow, with some passages of plot development that will prove tiresome and a little boring for younger audiences. The film also lacks any villain as imposing or as intimidating as Darth Vader. Instead, the best Lucas can offer us here is the rather bland and forgettable Darth Maul (played by martial arts champion Ray Park, in his film debut). There is a much more obvious emphasis on slap stick humour throughout this film, especially with antics of the accident prone Jar-Jar Binks, a computer generated character who speaks his own strange language. However, some of the action sequences are quite exciting, with a couple of light sabre duels and a battle sequence between two digitally created armies. The undoubted highlight is the pod race, an incredible sequence that resembles a futuristic version of the famous chariot race from Ben Hur for the Nintendo generation. The special effects and state of the art computer generated imagery, which took some two years to complete, is indeed spectacular, and represents the future direction of film making. Unfortunately, it is a pretty heartless and soulless future in which human performers are dwarfed by increasingly spectacular effects and technology. About 90% of The Phantom Menace has been digitally created, and the human performers seem a little lost when called upon to interact with their brilliantly realised cyberspace universe. In many ways this is symptomatic of Lucas, a pioneer of digital effects, who shows little understanding of the emotional development of his characters. Lucas seems to regard his human cast as mere accessories to his whiz bang technology and cynical mass marketing techniques, and, in this aspect, he is light years ahead of Hitchcock in his reputed disdain for actors. Neeson, who normally has a powerful screen presence, seems a little awkward here, while McGregor seems as bewildered and as uncomfortable as Alec Guiness did in the same role twenty years ago. Performers of the calibre of Terence Stamp and Samuel L Jackson are wasted in small, undemanding roles. Many of the new characters introduced here are fairly unimpressive. Whereas we once might have followed the charismatic Han Solo, the impetuous Luke Skywalker and the feisty Princess Leia to the ends of the galaxy, I'm not so sure that I'd follow this bland and forgettable lot for a stroll in the park! *** greg king http://www.netau.com.au From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jun 7 15:21:15 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Justin Felix ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Epsiode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 6 Jun 1999 18:35:53 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 123 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jef29$sts$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer07.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928694153 29628 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18721 Keywords: author=felix X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer07.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17927 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2360 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:312965 THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999) (a.k.a. STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE) A film review by Justin Felix. Copyright 1999 Justin Felix. All of my film reviews are archived at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Justin+Felix This review also appears in the Shrubbery -- http://www.theshrubbery.prohosting.com/0699/movie2.html Any comments about this review? E-mail me at justinfelix@yahoo.com Rating: ****1/2 (out of five) Written and directed by George Lucas. Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman. Rated PG (contains violence) 131 mins. Synopsis: Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, protect the cute Queen Amidala and the computer-generated Jar Jar Binks from bad Federation trade aliens and the menacing Darth Maul. In the meantime, they meet a young Anakin Skywalker and have their faces plastered on T-shirts, boxer shorts, computer games, coloring books, potato chip bags, action figures, and Taco Bell cups. Comments: It is finally here. After months of near-continual hype and fan speculation, the first STAR WARS movie in 16 years has been released. The product tie-ins can only be described as an onslaught. Walking into any Wal-Mart or K-Mart right now is like entering Mel Brooks' store in SPACEBALLS (a parody of the original STAR WARS trilogy). Lines began forming nearly a month prior to THE PHANTOM MENACE's release, and its first-day box office total is a record. Amongst all the interviews, trailers, and plastic Taco Bell cups, one may ask "Is this all worth it?" Despite whatever negative thing you may have heard from movie critics privy to advance screenings, the answer is "yes it is!" Whether or not THE PHANTOM MENACE "beats" TITANIC as the biggest-grossing film of all time seems largely irrelevant to me. THE PHANTOM MENACE, whatever it ultimately grosses, may be the biggest movie event of the decade (it certainly is the most anticipated). As such, it seems to be attracting some controversy: Is it as good as the ground-breaking STAR WARS, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and RETURN OF THE JEDI? Is it too childish? Is it too hyped? The answer to all three, as far as I'm concerned, is yes. But who cares? Going to the theater and watching THE PHANTOM MENACE was fun. It was very fun. From start to finish. I can't wait to see it again. This is a movie to see in the theaters again and again. How many times does one honestly feel that way about a film? (Science fiction fans, by the way, are having a good year. THE MATRIX, released a month or two ago, was also very entertaining, though, unlike THE PHANTOM MENACE, it isn't a movie for the kids.) Before rambling on and on about the movie, perhaps a brief overview is in order. THE PHANTOM MENACE is a prequel to the earlier STAR WARS trilogy. Yet, anyone who has seen the last STAR WARS movie, RETURN OF THE JEDI, can most certainly tell, right away, that technology has advanced considerably. At its heart, THE PHANTOM MENACE is a visual movie. George Lucas has created a jaw-dropping whopper of a visual feast for the eyes. Using, once again, ground-breaking technology, he has constructed convincing alien vistas. One planet, Coruscant, featured giant skyscrapers and countless ships which continuously zigzagged across the horizon, while another planet, Naboo, contained vast underwater cities. Stunningly designed creatures inhabit these places. In a memorable scene early in the movie, the Jedi Knights and Jar Jar are nearly consumed by a giant fish. They are saved only when an even larger fish preys on the smaller. One common criticism of THE PHANTOM MENACE is that it lacks well-developed characters. While this complaint does hold some validity, it did not really seem to hinder the movie's overall impact. The human characters are well-played by fine actors. Qui-Gon Jinn is played by Liam Neeson, a wonderful actor perhaps most notable for playing the lead in the powerful World War II film SCHINDLER'S LIST. Obi-Wan Kenobi is handled ably by Ewan McGregor (yes, amazingly, the same Ewan McGregor who played Rent Boy in the heroin flick TRAINSPOTTING). The young and appealing Natalie Portman played Queen Amidala. She's appeared in a number of other films, including one of my favorites, HEAT, one of the most overlooked and underappreciated action films of the decade. Throw in Samuel Jackson as a Jedi, and you've got some serious talent at your disposal. Yet, if anything, the acting seems subdued and takes a second stage to the visuals of the film. The most memorable characters, in fact, are memorable for their appearance. Queen Amidala, for instance, changes outfits in nearly every scene, several of which are strikingly offbeat, bizarre, and, well, alien. My favorite of the new characters, Darth Maul, has a look that is well-conceived. Bloodshot red eyes, scarlet and black tattoos(?), and bony protubrences make him seem like the devil himself. Darth Maul, unlike his counterpart in the original trilogy, Darth Vader, has very few lines. He rasps something about gaining revenge, at last, on the Jedi, but, for the most part, he just looks evil and tries to kick the living crap out of the Jedi. As I watched the film, I wanted to know much more than was revealed about this character, but, afterward, I changed my mind. Somehow, in retrospect, he seems more evil having not been developed. Once again, the most memorable scene involving this character was a visual not a verbal scene. In the climatic battle between the Jedi, Darth Maul is seperated from his opponents by some sort of transparent blast shield. Maul paces the length of the shield back and forth, like a wild animal in a cage, glowering at the men he is about to fight. If you haven't seen the movie, trust me, this is good stuff. Maul seems to have the habit of just appearing at certain times, immediately ready to kick ass. Jar Jar Binks, a computer-generated character, was perhaps my biggest concern going into the film. I'm not a big fan of the goofy, cutesy stuff in the original trilogy. The Ewoks, for instance, are too teddy bear-ish for my taste. Yet, to my surprise, the comic relief coming from Jar Jar was usually quite effective. The floppy-eared character stumbles from one scene to another, and, though not always on target, its humorous exploits often elicited a laugh from me. A couple of minor things did bother me enough to downgrade this movie from a five-star rating. These things, by no mean, subtract from my recommendation of this movie to anybody. I was disappointed, however, that Lucas chose to give some kind of biological, scientific explanation for the Force. Qui-Gon, for instance, has Anakin's blood analyzed because it is unusually concentrated with some gobbedlygook. This seemed to take a lot of the mysticism out of the Force. Also, occasionally, Lucas gets a little too carried away with "the messages" in his screenplay. Some of Anakin's dialogue suffers because of this. Overall, however, THE PHANTOM MENACE receives my high recommendation. It is a fun movie that can be enjoyed by all ages. Don't over-analyze it like I just did. Just sit back in the theater seats and enjoy the sights and sounds (John Williams, by the way, returns to add another magnificent score to his body of work). And, if you must, wear that Darth Maul T-shirt and eat Pez from Star Wars dispensers while you're at it. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:46 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newshub.northeast.verio.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: jabii@aol.com (John Beachem) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Revew: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 18 Jun 1999 15:46:13 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 74 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7kdpk5$g72$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929720773 16610 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18925 Keywords: author=beachem X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18144 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2379 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:321335 A review by John Beachem * * * * 1/2 CAST Liam Neeson - Qui-Gon Jinn Ewan McGregor - Obi-Wan Kenobi Natalie Portman - Queen Amidala Jake Lloyd - Anakin Skywalker Ahmed Best - Jar Jar Binks Pernilla August - Shmi Skywalker Ian McDiarmid - Senator Palpatine I will assume that the majority of the movie going public have either already seen this film, or aren't going to see it at all. Therefore, I'm going to keep the rather confusing plot summary quite brief. Trade routes have been further taxed by the Galactic Senate. The Trade Federation, in an attempt to remove the taxes, has boycotted the small planet of Naboo, ruled by the benevolent (and elected) Queen Amidala. The Senate hopes to resolve this by sending two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to force a settlement out of the Federation. That about sets up the film, and I don't wish to give much more away. Let's just say they go to several different planets and pick up young Anakin Skywalker, who will one day be Darth Vader along the way. Suffice to say that I loved this movie. I've always been something of a Star Wars fanatic, so I went in fairly certain that I would enjoy the film. This is not to say the film is flawless, but then, few films are. However, in my personal opinion, the movie's strong points outweigh its flaws considerably. First, I'll go through the things I thought were truly great in the movie. 1) I must say would have to be the acting. Particularly that of Liam Neeson, as the righteous, kindly Jedi Master; Ian McDiarmid, as the slimy Naboo senator and Natalie Portman as the strong willed Queen.The other actors, I should mention, are quite good. 2) The Pod race, at about the midway point is really quite spectacular. A wonderful sci-fi version of the Ben Hur chariot race. 3) The final half hour is remarkable. Four seperate conflicts taking place at once. The most amazing of which, would have to be the lightsabre duel, which puts those in the other three movies to shame. 4) The effects. I know this is obvious, and that everyone has said it, but I felt obliged to repeat this. 5) John Williams's new score "Duel of Fates", which was played during the sabre duel is truly phenomenal. Now come the points whish I did not personally find so wonderful. 1) Jar Jar Binks. I know this poor fellow has been much maligned, and I did in fact find many of his antics quite amusing. However, there also lies the problem. A Star Wars character is not supposed to have antics. He simply doesn't fit into the Star Wars universe. 2) I rather wish Lucas had stuck to his original idea of Aliens either speaking in a subtitled dialect, or in one that we simply weren't meant to understand. Having them speak in a strangely accented form of English did not seem quite right. 3) More screen time for Darth Maul would have been quite nice. He was a wonderful character in the grand tradition of Boba Fett from "The Empire Strikes Back", and I wish we'd been able to see more of him. 4) Lastly, I do wish Lucas had not given the force a scientific explanation. So, is The Phantom Menace the best Star Wars movie ever made? no, that title still belongs to "The Empire Strikes Back". Is it a great film? Without a doubt. See it in theatres, don't wait for it to come to video because it will lose much being on the small screen. * * * * * - One of the greatest movies ever made, see it now. * * * * - Great flick. Try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad. See it if you've got nothing better to do. * - One of the worst movies ever. See it only if you enjoy pain. E-mail with comments at: JABII@aol.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:46 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Peter Booth ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 6 Jun 1999 18:29:17 GMT Organization: Cha Ching! It's a love thing! ~Lines: 108 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jeelt$ni4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928693757 24132 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18717 Keywords: author=booth X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17936 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2361 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:313516 A review by Peter Booth... OK, let me start off by saying that this movie is of an entirely different calibre to the "previous" three. No, I'm not talking about the millions of dollars more injected into it, or the plethora of mind-bending special effects, but the feel. It is one seriously disjointed film, and in places, ceases to make sense and becomes somewhat incoherent. The pre-release hype and marketing does the actual film almost zero justice. Darth Maul, portrayed as the next version of the Ultimate Bad Guy by fans and some elements of the press is largely a mute non-event...he says about three lines of dialogue in total and is hardly an imposing character, despite his devilish makeup. Nevertheless the scenes in which he actually fights are excellently choreographed and make the sabre duels of the "previous" three films look wooden and contrived. Back to the disjointed bit...well, the movie is about a trade embargo...ho hum, yawn yawn to most people. The trouble is, the actual embargo of Naboo doesn't seem to truly affect its citizens, nor is their any evidence of the "my people are dying" or "the deathtoll is catastrophic" allegations made earlier in the film...you just have to believe that this trade embargo is a Bad Thing. Why Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine has bankrolled this manoeuvre in order to gain ascendancy is an odd decision. It is patently obvious that there must be better ways. It sort of flies in the face of what we are told in "The Journal of the Whills" back-story presented in the original Star Wars novelisation done in 1977...still, Star Wars is Lucas and he can do what he likes...and that's precisely what he has done here. One very large act of self-indulgence totally paid for by himself. It is chiefly disjointed by the almost total lack of character building. None of the protagonists of the film could be described as fleshed out, especially Qui-Gon Jinn and moreso Obi Wan Kenobi. They are virtually marionettes acting out Lucas' fairytale. Faceless folks running on rails, as it were. Ewan McGregor is woefully under-utilised, almost in a role of Neeson's yes-man and sidekick...both men are exceptional actors clearly struggling to portray characters which could only be classified as cardboard cut-outs... ...and kudos to anyone who understood Jar Jar Binks on first viewing...Ahmed Best makes him sound like some digital Charlie Chan on a bumbling excapade through life. The younger actors, Natalie Portman and Jake Lloyd do quite well, by comparison. I can't agree with elements out there that say Lloyd's performance was hammy and hollow. He is quite good in his role as boyhood Darth Vader even if at times, you feel he's playing some outrageous video game. Portman lends the film an air of gravitas; surprising for an actress of her age and experience with her steadfast denouncements of Federation intentions... Ian McDiarmid plays his dual roles as well as expected, especially as Senator Palpatine, representative of Naboo...the consummate politician, appeasing all comers and all sides. Well, I've been all negative so far...what good was in this film? Everything else, essentially. There have been enough reviews of the jaw-dropping SFX posted for me to make further impression, but they are eminently effective, and don't necessarily drown out the uneven plot and development. The "flight" of the Gungan craft as it swims through the planet's core is excellent, with amazing creatures seeking to make this ship their next meal...quite awesome. The pod race is simply amazing too, not only for the vertiginous ride it gives you, but the hilarity in the alien participants...the Humpty-Dumpty look-a-like who stalls at the start had me in stitches as did the expression on the face of another as he is about to collide with a canyon outcropping... ...and then we had Tusken Raiders taking potshots at racers along the way... ...and a two-headed race commentator... The entire pod race sequence is quite a delight. Sebulba is the ultimate win at all costs hot rodder, and a bizarre little creature who walks on his hands. Lucas goes for laughs quite often in his battle sequences...the Federation's droids coming undone at the hands of blue electric balls unleashed by the Gungans is comical, as is Lucas' penchant for severed limbs and people going bump on things they shouldn't... In essence, the Phantom Menace is a good film...nothing phenomenal or abysmal...simply a good film that needed some serious ironing out, especially in the categories of plot and character development...you are left feeling that none of these players can be taken seriously, something hammered into you in the "previous" three films...you did take Darth Vader seriously...Darth Maul or the Viceroy of the Trade Federation? Cartoons... On a final note...I swear I saw E.T's in the Republican Senate chamber...this has probably been discussed in various SW forums/newsgroups to death and is possibly common knowledge among SW cognoscenti, but as I don't frequent them, i don't know if that' in fact what they were. Wouldn't surprise me considering Lucas' friendship with Spielberg. In summary...a wooden, cartoony movie giving a taste of more serious matters to come in 2002 and 2005. Don't pick holes in the plot, for you'll find them in plenitude, don't admire the characterisation of the protagonists too closely, but sit back, and simply enjoy a visual and aural blast of a film... Peter Booth -- Cybiades: ICQ# 2822923 Computing for fun! http://www.ticnet.com/azenomei/fels/fels.html The antepenultimate place on the WWW! Essendon, Zimbabwe, Oporto Portuguese Chicken Victoria Bitter, and a cast of thousands From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:46 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!newsfeed.lejonet.se!news.utfors.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: sage_5@email.com (Gargoyle_Lord) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 6 Jun 1999 18:29:12 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 34 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jeelo$ni2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928693752 24130 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18716 Keywords: author=gargoyle_lord X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18014 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2371 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:316854 This is a review of StarWars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. It will probably not be like most reviews I won't cover the acting special effects and all of the visuals. What I want to talk about is the charectarizations in it. Especially a very strong positive image for young girls. Quenn Amidala is a very good role model for young women. She is strong, confident, and very capable. She handles herself with poise, dignity, and confidence in whatever situations she is involved. I applaude George Lucas for her. Long has it been since such a strong young lady has graced the silver screen that isn't screwed up or warped or played as an airhead. Her charectar alone has given me a renewed hope in the art of scriptwriting. In an age that shows young ladies as hardened or dumb blondes or any of the other stereotypical archtypes she is a breath of fresh air. To those that say that "science fiction" has nothing to appeal to women or "girls" will be woefully wrong if they think to include The Phantom Menace in the group without first watching it. Episodes 4-6 had Leia that was a strong female prescence and a good image for women to see. But in Phantom Menace and hopefully the next two movies of this trilogy there is Queen Amidala, a strong vibrant powerful caring young lady of 17 that is a good image for not only females but a generation of young adults that are looking for something out there. Let us hope that the charectar of Queen Amidala will give them something to believe in and to inspire them all. Flesh of stone beating heart. Gothic or Renaisance... The difference is where the shadows fall From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:46 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Long Che Chan ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 8 Jun 1999 05:39:40 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 130 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jiaas$c6e$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer31.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 928820380 12494 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18740 Keywords: author=chan X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer31.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17949 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2362 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:313881 Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace directed by George Lucas starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Jake Lloyd, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz Rated PG (sci-fi action and violence) *** out of **** / B+ I wish I could say that there is something more to the new Star Wars installment than what you see in the commercials, but there isn’t. George Lucas is an expert at crafting triumphant, special effects-bound flicks and he has done it again. This is the first Star Wars film I’ve seen on the big screen, so, of course, the impact was much greater than when I watched the three original episodes on video. What is compelling about The Phantom Menace is not its disposable story, but its amazing visuals. Basically, the film’s plot is centered around trade disputes between two planets. Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) and his young apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) set out with the animated Jar-Jar Binks to fix the mess that may result in war. When their ship breaks down and they are stranded, they find a young boy, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and his slave mother. Qui-Gon strongly believes that Anakin is destined for Jedi greatness and immediately takes him under his wing. Anakin participates in a heart-pounding Podrace, one of the highlights of the film, to get the equipment needed to fix Qui-Gon’s ship. However, most everyone is doubtful about entrusting the future to some unknown slave boy. Meanwhile, Queen Amadala (Natalie Portman) is frustrated and at wit’s end, being naïve and young and having so much responsibility on her shoulders. There are hardly any emotional scenes in the film- even when we discover that Anakin will be leaving his slave mother behind to begin Jedi training, the frenzied excitement of the whole film wears down the poignancy to the size of a crumb. This does not prove that The Phantom Menace is poorly made for it is brilliantly made. In all the Star Wars films, human emotions that we, the audience, can identify with are usually nil, but the films are for pure enjoyment, not for uplifting purposes. Despite the fun of watching the movie, The Phantom Menace is not without flaws. For starters, we have the ill-conceived, moronic character Jar-Jar Binks who should be considered a threat to Star Wars galactic society and to the audience. What a klutz! George Lucas clumsily tried to create a fun character that would be as memorable as, say, Yoda, R2-D2, or C3-PO, but, alas, his efforts were in vain. Secondly (this may be good or bad, depending on your point of view), the movie’s atmosphere is so different from the familiar comic-book feel of the previous three Star Wars installments. This is due, perhaps, to the utter complexity to this movie’s plot and the higher level of sophistication of the visual effects used here. The movie seems to be reaching for epic proportions. I can’t say much about the acting, though acting has never been what you saw Star Wars movies for anyway. However, there is absolutely no pizzazz to the performances- they are straightforward and, at times, stale. Natalie Portman has a great presence, but her turn as Queen Amadala makes the queen a stoic, unfeeling… enigma. There is nothing we can hold onto in her performance to make us believe the trade predicament is anything of importance. Jake Lloyd is the only actor here who has an ounce of evident spunk. Despite the inevitable faults, there is so much to enjoy about the movie. The heightened excitement of the final sequences doesn’t quite surpass the famous The Empire Strikes Back climactic scenes, but they are amazing and edge-of-your-seat fun in their own rite. The film is a treasure to look at. The visual effects are astonishing 99.8% of the time- the awe-inspiring, mouth-opening, eye-popping sight of the underwater city is nothing short of production design and special effects genius. Not since 1997’s The Fifth Element has there been a film as drenched in visual treats as this one. The production design is reminiscent of The Fifth Element, the previous Star Wars movies, Kubrick’s 2001, maybe even of Fritz Lang’s classic silent Metropolis. However, all the sets are so original. The original Star Wars movies can’t even match the grandeur of this film’s visuals and that is a sheer pleasure for the viewer- it gives us hope of even greater things for the upcoming episode. The costumes are remarkable and have Jean-Paul Gaultier written all over them. Whether its Queen Amadala’s gigantic wardrobe complete with gold-embroidery and feathers, or the Jedis’ simple brown uniforms, the costume designer has fused talent with outrageousness. The costumes are one of the true delights of watching the movie. As for John Williams’ score, I don’t think he’s done one as complex or powerful since… I can’t even remember. It is as epic as his Schindler’s List score and as thrilling and zestful as Jaws. It includes the bare bones of his music from the previous three films, but Williams has added on, made the music much more intense and moving. What with the overwhelming hoopla that circled this movie, one might come in with high expectations and be disappointed. There is very little to hate in the film: it’s a very accomplished and skillfully made flick. It is the best "fun" film and the best big-budget film out today, most definitely. by Andrew Chan From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:46 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Luke Buckmaster" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 11 Jun 1999 04:50:43 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 111 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jq4j3$lgu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929076643 22046 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18799 Keywords: author=buckmaster X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17983 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2365 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:314983 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 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:47 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: saitiau@aol.com (Fontaine Lien) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 12 Jun 1999 04:44:03 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 159 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jsoij$ukk$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929162643 31380 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18806 Keywords: author=lien X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18018 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2372 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:316903 "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" Review by Fontaine Lien More reviews: http://members.aol.com/saitiau/cinema.html (SPOILERS. SOME YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT, SOME YOU PROBABLY HAVEN'T.) **This review is dedicated to Lori "McGregor," who yelled "SEXY!!" whenever Obi-Wan appeared on-screen.** "May the force be with you." Imagine someone who's never seen or heard about Star Wars before coming up to you and asking you what "Phantom Menace" was about and what kind of movie it was like. It would mostly likely be difficult to describe creature fighting with atomic gumballs, a little boy who is allowed to race "pods" at hundreds of miles per hour, and villains who are never entirely introduced without some misgivings. But this is "The Phantom Menace," the prequel sequel to what is perhaps the most successful science fiction franchise in the history of the western hemisphere. This is LucasFilms moviemaking, where they rely on mindboggling effects, breathtaking graphics, and moviegoers' partiality to win the hearts. This comes from me, X-Phile extraordinaire who has never been especially inebriated by the Star Wars phenomenon. I am no "Star Wars groupie," as a friend attempted to label me a few days ago. I have no Skywalker or Han Solo action figures. I never dressed up as Princess Leia during Halloween. I never _wanted_ to be Princess Leia. I don't own the trilogy. I don't _remember_ most of the trilogy. I did not see "Phantom Menace" the first day it came out. But nonetheless, the characters in Star Wars has become as familiar to me as they have become to the millions of Star Wars fans out there. R2D2, C3PO, ewoks, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, Jabba the Hut. Oft-used terminology. To sum it all up, I find it extremely difficult not to extol this movie with high enthusiasm and let that be the end of it. The idea that the "complete" story will be told in three sequels is enticing, ingenious, but unfortunately, the integrity of "Phantom" was sacrificed because of the same reason. Those of you who were under the delusion that we would find out how little Anakin becomes evil will be disappointed. Most of the characters were given little treatment, with the primary focus being in Anakin. At the end of the movie, we know little about Qui Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan, or even Queen Amidala (except that she is an extremely dedicated queen.) These are all characters that I would've liked to spent more time with. Darth Maul, who makes an interesting villain, only appeared when he was required to look intimidating or to be the enemy of the good forces. He makes an appearance in only two to three fantastic "duels" but is killed off too swiftly, too easily. Goodbye, painted face. The primary villain in the movie is thus wasted. The federation, it seems, is entirely subject to the control of the hooded hologram, and the hologram's purpose remains unknown (a story to be told in Episode II, I suppose.) Most of the action scenes are filled with typical Lucasian improbabilities. The Naboo troops never seem to take aim when they fire, and yet they rarely suffer even a bruise. The ultimate improbability comes when the movie pulls an Independence Day -- oh no, we can't disable their shields, here comes little Anakin who can do it just be flying into the ships interior and flying randomly, thus enabling a swift victory on ground. Of course I realize that all of these events are essential for the movie to continue, and they weren't quite so annoying given the context. This is Star Wars, after all. The cheesy dialogue is no rumor, folks; it seems great directors are incapable of writing sensible dialogue (see Chris Carter's monologues or James Cameron's "Titanic.") Any angst I felt during the Anakin/mom parting scene dissipated with the soap opera- ish writing. In contrast, the Qui Gon Jinn death scene was more effective because it had more matter, and less art. Again, the cheesiness seems oddly in place in the scheme of things. Nobody goes to this movie expecting "The English Patient." Most annoying character of the year goes to--yep, you guessed it-- Jar-Jar. He is comical, yes, maybe even funny (though I find most of the humor forced), if he hadn't been used so much and if his jokes were more aptly-placed. Portman, McGregor and Neeson were all reasonably satisfying in their roles: Portman successfully portrayed the different qualities of the queen all-dolled up, the decoy queen, and the gentle "handmaiden" queen. She looked for all the world a 14 year-old teenager forced to take on the responsibilities of a planet yet strong enough to shoulder it. Neeson was also convincing as the wise Jedi Knight, and his "moves" were none too shabby for a man his age; McGregor was often reduced to saying "Yes, master," but when the occasion called for it he put an admirable amount of intensity into Obiwan Kenobi, foreshadowing the future that is to come. All three were aptly cast. Jake Lloyd is extremely adorable, but sometimes the artificiality of his acting comes through; but I suppose that's okay, because 12 year-olds don't have a tremendous degree of depth anyhow. In any case he compensates with his innocence and charm, which is all the more poignant given the fact that Anakin turns into the monstrous Darth Vader. Most of the other minor characters (for example, Anakin's mother and the captain), however, seemed lifeless. I think most will agree that the most successful element of the film was its graphics and effects. Lucas combined his powerful vision with state-of-the-art technology and the best artists in the trade to produce a world more breathtaking than even the previous Star Wars trilogy. Tattooine excites a degree of nostalgia; and the underwater city, the Capitol, and the Naboo city are all works of arts on their own. Each city offers its share of curious creatures: the amphibians, the oddballs at the Tattooine marketplace, the creatures of the Jedi Council (I especially got a kick out of Mr. Conehead). The dress and language seem to be successful combinations of different world cultures -- I did not have a big problem with the accents as others do. I think it is mere coincidence that many of the creatures ended up sounding like some ethnic groups on this planet. After all, if an actor is to emulate an accent, he's got to model it after something he knows. It just goes to show the diversity that exists in the Star Wars universe. Some people also find the CGI art to be to unrealistic, but this also wasn't a problem with me -- this is a fantasy, and how can you make a fantasy world look realistic? It would take away the surreal quality of it. While I am mindful of the flaws this film has (plot, characterization, acting), I admit that for the most part they went unnoticed during the 2 hours and some minutes I was in the theater (except Jar Jar -- you just *can't* tune him out). I was simply too much in awe that I was watching Star Wars, that I had a chance to participate in this even like my parent's generation had been able to do with the first three Star Wars movies. Seeing Portman and Mcgregor I couldn't but see shades of young Hamill, Harrison, and Fisher. However, I am not saying the flaws are excusable; I make no attempt to disguise the fact that I am extremely biased when it comes to Star Wars. It's Star Wars. Basically it comes down to this: if you are as enchanted with the universe that Lucas singlehandedly created as I am, you will enjoy this film; if you go in as a casual viewer, you'd enjoy the film as well; but if you watch the movie as a critic, you probably won't enjoy the movie. I say let go for a while. Let the force take over for a bit. It's Star Wars. (I will say that again and again, and I am sure its meaning will not escape anyone who is in tune with pop culture to any extent. When you see the movie in this light, it becomes not just a movie but part of a whole, an event that symbolizes the creation of an entire new world. A continuation (precursor?) of the saga. A chance for two generations to connect in the collective worship of a phenomenon. As mentioned in the beginning, this film relies heavily on the success of its predecessors to engage the audience and to make them care for its characters. I'd say, for me at least, that they've succeeded. I think I've found the ideal fantasy heros for my generation.) It's light and magic, sound and effects, heroes and princesses, science fiction and drama, the allegorical good and evil. And y'know? It's funny how, in the end, no matter what misgivings and cynicism I might have had about the film, it all added up to one neat little ball of elation and belief. It's Star Wars. "There's something about that boy." Rating: A- (First viewing, 5/21/99) *Tip I got from somebody: Stay till the end of the credits. You'll get a "surprise" (or more like a foreshadowing). *The federation aliens look a lot like the "little green men" we are so familiar with today. *Thanks to Catherine for the "amphibians" idea, and Spero for the character names. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:47 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Movie_Critic@prodigy.com (Jonathan Richards) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 12 Jun 1999 05:08:02 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 35 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jspvi$rh8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929164082 28200 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18826 Keywords: author=richards X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18028 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2373 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:316925 TOY STORY STAR WARS I: THE PHANTOM MENACE Written and Directed by George Lucas With Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor UA North, De Vargas PG 131 min Say this for George Lucas: he still knows how to dazzle us visually. The hardware, the architecture -- there's plenty of eye candy in this retro opening episode of the Star Wars franchise. There's very little for the heart, and nothing for the brain. Lucas's imagination fails him when it comes to spaceoid critters; he seems to have cut a devil's pact with Toys R Us. If the Gungan Jar Jar Binks doesn't get on your nerves pretty quickly, you're probably under twelve. And for all the 20 years of computerized advance in special effects, there's no moment to tingle the skin like that first "Star Wars" jump into hyperspace. The pod race here is exciting, but it feels like a video game. The ground is dutifully laid for the next episode with the anti- Christ Anikin Skywalker (9-year-old Jake Lloyd), born of a virgin, and destined to father the twins Luke and Leia and then turn to the dark side as Darth Vader. Yoda and the Jedi council have misgivings about him, and right they are. But he's successfully championed by Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, effectively played by Liam Neeson. Ewan McGregor as his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobe is good at anticipating the great Alec Guinness, but he gets a bit too emotional for a Jedi. Natalie Portman is Queen Amidala, and she's convincingly regal but not much fun. Nobody's much fun -- there's no cocky Han Solo, no feisty Princess Leia, no doofus macho innocent Luke Skywalker. In "Star Wars", Lucas created a futuristic "American Graffiti" with jalopy jockeys and teen-age types he understood. Now that he's become Joseph Campbell, he's sunk beneath the weight of his own significance, and been seduced by the trivial side of the Force. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:47 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!netnews1.nw.verio.net!netnews.nwnet.net!news.verio.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: tlcclp@aol.com (Christian Pyle) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 12 Jun 1999 05:12:51 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 103 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7jsq8j$cq4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer31.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929164371 13124 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18830 Keywords: author=pyle X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer31.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:17999 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2367 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:316020 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) a review by Christian Pyle I had the good fortune to be eight years old in 1977 when "Star Wars" appeared at the recently-constructed two-screen theater in Danville, Kentucky. I vividly recall how the destruction of the Death Star seemed the most spectacular thing I had ever seen. I saw the movie several times and accumulated an impressive collection of action figures which has long since disappeared with my lost youth. I remember reading in "Dynamite!" that George Lucas planned for "Star Wars" to be the fourth part of a nine-movie series: three trilogies, the next to be set fifty years before "Star Wars," the third fifty years after. Twenty-two years later, Lucas has lowered his expectations to six movies and has finally released "episode one" of the saga. By its very nature, "The Phantom Menace" will probably disappoint a lot of moviegoers: it's the first chapter of a serial, so it only hints at the conflicts to come. We shouldn't be surprised; after all, we've already seen the second half of the serial and know how it all comes out. After seeing "The Phantom Menace", I shoved the fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes into the VCR and reflected on what a tall task Lucas had set for himself in making "episode one." There's no Empire and no Rebellion; all of that will come later, out of the events set in motion in this chapter. Instead, "Phantom" concerns a smaller conflict as the Trade Federation, spurred on by "the phantom menace" of a Dark Lord of the Sith, creates a blockade around the peace-loving planet of Naboo. The Republic, also a peace-loving bunch, dispatches two Jedi knights to settle the conflict. Enter Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). Within a few minutes, the two Jedis are being chased by the bad guys, befriending the Naboo queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), and taking on a comedy sidekick, Jar Jar Binks (a computer-generated character voiced by Ahmed Best). Escaping from Naboo, they take refuge on the desert planet of Tatooine. While hunting for parts for their ship, Qui-Gon discovers a slave boy, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who seems to have a powerful connection to the Force. Anakin, we learn, was a virgin birth (prediction: the Christian Coalition will not be happy about this), and Qui-Gon becomes convinced that Anakin is the prophesied Chosen One who will bring balance to the Force. (This is a puzzling turn-of-events-Darth Vader is the Jedi Messiah? But I suppose by being both the champion of the Dark Side and the father of Luke and Leia, who eventually defeat the Dark Side, he did bring balance. Or maybe Qui-Gon was just wrong.) Meanwhile sinister forces are brewing. The Dark Lord Darth Sidious sends his apprentice, Darth Maul (body of Ray Park, voice of Peter Serafinowicz -- it's strange they paid somebody to do the voice; Maul's dialogue is limited to "Yes, master") after Qui-Gon. Naboo's Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who will become the evil Emperor Luke faces in "Return of the Jedi," uses the conflict to begin his rise to power. (The movie hints heavily that Palpatine is Sidious without actually revealing it even though it hardly seems surprising since we know that Palpatine is Darth Vader's master). Along the way, we find some old friends: R2-D2 and C-3PO (played as always by Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels), Jabba the Hut, and Yoda (voiced as always by Frank Oz). As required there are several big battle sequences and a climactic light-saber duel. John Williams provides a score with many familiar themes. There are a lot of reasons to dislike "Phantom Menace." First and foremost, there's Jar Jar Binks, who seems to be universally hated by fans and critics alike. He is a slapstick oaf who speaks in a pidgin English usually reserved for native sidekicks in old adventure movies (you'll also discover that the Trade Federation leaders sound exactly like Japanese officers in WWII movies and that Tatooine junk dealer Waddo sound like an Arab with a head cold). Jar Jar even brings with him manure and fart jokes, which seem out of place in the "Star Wars" saga. Also, many of the most interesting characters, especially Darth Maul and Obi-Wan, are underdeveloped. Lucas seems more concerned with creating impressive computer-generated aliens and landscapes than in dealing with the human characters. He should remember where this all started. The special effects of the original "Star Wars" are, by contemporary standards, cheap and cheesy, but that movie has pleased audiences for twenty years. Special effects are a means, not an end. There's a huge battle sequence between Jar Jar's people and a legion of battle-droids that generates little interest -- no character we know except Jar Jar is involved, so we don't care who wins. And the movie's most impressive "special effect" doesn't come from Industrial Light and Magic. It's McGregor's Alec Guinness imitation, which is entirely convincing. When he was cast in the role, my first reaction was "Obi-Wan the young heroin addict?" and my second was "how the heck can he pull off the illusion that his Obi-Wan will grow up to be the old Ben we know and love?" He did a great job; I only wish his part was bigger. Despite the film's weak points, I still enjoyed "Phantom Menace." The primary reason is that Anakin appeals to the nine-year-old in all of us. He gets to pilot a starfighter in battle with R2-D2; that's all I wanted when I was nine. To enjoy "Phantom," you have to view it as "Episode One" -- it's the first chapter in a six-chapter serial. The goal of the first episode is to set the central conflicts in motion and to get you to come back for the second episode. I can't wait. Grade: B- © 1999 Christian L. Pyle Read my reviews and others at the Mad Review: http://www.wpd.net/madreview/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:47 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: pierce80@aol.com (M. Pierce) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 15 Jun 1999 05:02:37 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 37 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7k4mpd$9ve$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929422957 10222 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18885 Keywords: author=pierce X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18069 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2374 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:318417 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace A simple review by M. Pierce I have never seen a man so in love with himself than George Lucas. With the overt success of the three original Star Wars films, Lucas has become, not necessarily a filmmaker, but the head cheeze at a huge toy company, with The Phantom Menace the new product on the shelve. Only this toy was made for $115 million, but every kid wants it, and, like all other expensive toys, falls apart within an hour after playing with it. The product in question, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (jeez!), is pure and simple: Its about the money, baby! No one in their right mind would create such a fiasco if they knew it wouldn't make a ton of money before its fourth week of release. I come to the SW franchise as a stranger, since I have absolutely no idea why the SW movies are so popular. I find them rather boring and full of nothing but eye candy. Phantom Menace is like the first SW, minus 10. Nothing in the whole concept is remotely enjoyable. Even the special effects seem rather bland. The story in this new one is a mindless mess...the acting wooden...and the action sequences like something out of a video game. SW: Phantom Menace is one of the worst films of the year so far. With a title like SW E1: TPM, Lucas has one big head on those shoulders. I thought Chris Carter did for releasing an X-Files movie, although, that movie adaptation was an excellent way to spend two hours. PM is one long headache. *1/2 (out of ****) 1999 (c) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:47 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Shane Burridge ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 19 Jun 1999 17:11:57 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 107 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7kgj0t$12dq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer09.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929812317 35258 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18961 Keywords: author=burridge X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer09.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18173 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2380 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:322015 The Phantom Menace (1999) 131m PART I: ANOTHER BEGINNING The fourth (or is it first?) STAR WARS movie is finally with us (I resist the urge to make any pun along the line of 'May the fourth be with you' as it's probably already been - oops; too late). So confident am I regarding the critical reaction to this film that this review has been written prior to any actual viewing of same. Critics around the world have made up their minds about it already, so why shouldn't I jump on the bandwagon too? I should point out firstly that I am not a STAR WARS fan - never have been, although I've seen each episode on the big screen three times - so I'm not out to grind any axes. I just see the whole business as an interesting chapter in pop culture. It's taken the act of film reviewing out of the cinema and turned it into something else - a reaction not to a film but to a cultural and economic phenomenon. It's where Art and Commerce mix, in a galaxy not too far, far away from your local KFC or Toyworld. This of course, is anathema to Serious Filmgoers. Who said that these films were supposed to make money, especially lots of money? God forbid, that might actually empower producers and directors to make more movies in the series. I haven't read any reviews for THE PHANTOM MENACE yet, but you can tell I've already guessed their tone. Nor have I seen any any Making Ofs, interviews, picturebooks, or trailers. If you're not going to listen to the anti-hype you don't listen to the hype either. But the little that I have heard telegraphs the direction many critics' arguments are sure to have taken. THE PHANTOM MENACE is devoid of humanity, quoth they. Its digital world - the computer generated sets, locations, and characters - will have them lamenting the film's lack of humanity (I guess there's nothing more upsetting than a bunch of aliens and robots with no humanity). They will also complain about how the latest episode is merely more of the same - bigger battles, the same story elements, the same STAR WARS icons, and another wall-to-wall John Williams score (although the Bond films have been following the same formula for decades and I don't remember anybody ever getting worked up about them at any time). They will object on principle: that actors should not be replaced by CGI fabrications because human actors deserve center stage on our screens, dammit (in that case, goodbye E.T, goodbye Pinocchio, Dumbo, the Muppets, HAL 9000, King Kong, everything by Ray Harryhausen, Stan Winston, Pixar…just write your own list). The critics have been sharpening their claws for months now, I'm sure. George Lucas copped a bad year - the pendulum of Fickle Favor has swung against him, just the same way it had swung in favor of James Cameron's TITANIC the previous year. The irony is that thirty years ago when he made THX-1138 he was receiving plaudits for the same 'dehumanization' that he's being taken to task for now. But wait a minute. TITANIC was based on a real event, and THX-1138 had real humans. STAR WARS, on the other hand, is all made up. It never happened. It's meaningless. Therefore it is just a gigantic conceit. Furthermore, by purporting to be yet-another-episode in a larger saga it has franchised itself, a thought that is sure to get the critical bile rising. The universe is expanding, and the STAR WARS universe is no exception. It has become so all-pervading that it has replaced a simulacrum of reality with its own complete alternative. To which there can be only one argument: exactly. What validates THE PHANTOM MENACE's worth as a film (as opposed to a 'movie') is that it has used every tool available at its disposal to create something that would otherwise exist only in one individual's imagination. It *shares a vision*, surely the guiding precept of all cinema. I'm looking forward to THE PHANTOM MENACE. It's going to be every comic book I read as a boy and every game I played with plastic action figures. Most of which, I might add, were never 'human'. PART II: THE STORY CONTINUES I have just seen THE PHANTOM MENACE. In lieu of a second protracted rant I offer the following observations: · It's interesting seeing Jake Lloyd playing the young, tousle-headed Annakin Skywalker - it's not until afterwards you remember that the cheerful boy hero of this film turns into the villain of the series, slaying his mentor, torturing his daughter, and attempting to kill his son. It's in the nature of prequels to be ironic. · In this installment it is revealed that microorganisms within the Jedi act as a conduit for the Force - maybe the next story could take us into an inner universe as opposed to outer space. · The Jedi might be wise and powerful but they still can't cure Yoda of dyslexia. End every sentence on a verb he does. · The Trade Federation sound like Samurai and the Gungan speak like Jamaicans. · Conclusion to above point: Lucas has been spending too much time with Joseph Campbell. · Is Lucas trying to fit the phrase 'I've got a bad feeling about this' into every episode? This is at least the third film it appears in. · Lightsabers are still the coolest weapons in the universe. · One too many 'oops' in Jake Lloyd's dialogue. · The twist involving Natalie Portman's character isn't too surprising if you can recognize Portman on screen and already know what part she plays. · The worst line of dialogue is easily the alien sports commentators use of that worn-out 90s phrase 'That's gotta hurt' · Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor make great Jedi Knights. · The screening was packed with families, reminding us once again that STAR WARS is not made for a bunch of stuffed shirts armed with notebooks and their own five-star rating system, but for people that like to have a good time. · Lucas and Spielberg are friends, aren't they? How about Spielberg directing one of the remaining two installments? The petition starts here. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:14:47 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Tim Voon ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 19 Jun 1999 17:24:17 GMT Organization: Edge-Internet-Services ~Lines: 59 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7kgjo1$1140$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer24.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 929813057 33920 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #18974 Keywords: author=voon X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer24.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18181 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2381 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:322022 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 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jul 31 15:04:57 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Julian Gold" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 21 Jul 1999 16:07:50 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 94 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7n4r8m$srq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer08.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 932573270 29562 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19473 Keywords: author=gold X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer08.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18676 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2402 Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace 123 Minutes 1 Star Out of 5 Reviewer: Julian Gold UK release date 15/7/99 Some phenomena have such a profound cultural infulence that one cannot but help being swept along by them. Such was George Lucas' Star Wars in the late 1970's, which gave thrills and spills to millions and spawned two more films, The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. For me, the original and bafflingly IVth Episode, was a shallow but enjoyable affair lifted by a pleasant quirkiness, the presence of Sir Alec Guiness and of course the unprecedentedly accomplished visuals. These were further lifted in the second (Vth!) film, with many more fast-moving spaceships per frame, and a superbly dark if fragmented plot which had, for once, the Goodies on the receiving end. The final film in that trilogy tied up the story, but also managed to make most adults cringe by having an army of unconvincing teddy bears called Ewoks help the heroes to do much the same thing as they did in the first film. Deeply unsatisifed, on learning of his intentions to make Episodes I to III, I yearned for Lucas to make amends for this disappointment and return to the form of The Empire Strikes Back. Having attracted the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Ewan Macregor and Liam Neeson, and with the years of Industrial Light and Magic experience to draw on, the endless possibilities for creating a masterpiece of science fiction/fantasy made my mouth water. Sadly, the reality was that Lucas carried on where he left off. Episode 1 is a child's film propped up by special effects that are now so realistic they are almost not special, even if they are outstandingly beautiful. But I would not deny that the majority of the credit, such as it is, go to the post-production crew. For all others concerned: shame on you! You could have done anything, but you chose to produce a film with a plot so confused and paced so atrociously that I found myself yawning on occasions. I wasn't even sure what the title was about (what menaces there were were anything but Phantom)! Set against the fascinating (sic) background of intergalactic taxation, two Jedi warriors (Neeson / McGregor) are sent to sort out a blockade by the Trade Federation. Why that blockade is there is never explained, indeed Lucas is happy to assume throughout that we are all fans and we know the ins and outs and nerdy details of the previous three movies. This is surprising when you consider that 15 years or so have passed since Episode VI and that much of the target audience may not have even seen the original three films. And those that did will be adults now and may well demand more from a film. One things many adults might not demand in a movie is one of those stooge characters who despite their intrinsic and irritating buffoonery manage to win battles. Unfortunately, Episode 1 gives us just such an individual quite early on. Jar Jar Binks is a bug-eyed, long-eared big-handed alien. If that were all, Lucas might have gotten away with it, but he is clumsy, and talks in an only partially intelligible and uncomfortably stereotype-Afro-American-slave fashion. Worse, he walks like a Bro' too: for those that know the Simpsons episode where Itchy and Scratchy gain an extra character, Binks is very like Poochie the Dog and just as effective an addition to the film as Poochie was to the meta-cartoon. So the plot labours on, held together by the effects team, though sometimes the gratuitous use of CGI only adds to the confusion. The acting is wooden, even from those who have some acting pedigree. Anyway, said blockade becomes an occupation, though it is the squeaky-cleanest occupation you ever didn't see, because though we are often told of the people suffering there is no visual evidence of it. Consequently, it is hard to care, indeed the film finds it near impossible to build a sense of drama or tension throughout. The central character is really Anakin Skywalker, who we meet half-way through the film as a precocious10-year-old child. We know that he's destined to be Darth Vader, the big baddie of the earlier (ie later) episodes, but for now he's the teeth-clenchingly wholesome Kid With Special Powers who loves his mommy. Indeed Lucas dwells on this in one yawn of a scene that has remarkably little CGI but a lot of tedious dialogue, as if we are to believe that he will become the scourge of the galaxy because he misses his mum. The rest of the film is as predictable as it is long-winded. There are some political machinations that are as tedious as they are naive, a bit of swashbuckling with the McGregor/Neeson, and a boring space battle resulting in another one-small-fighter-succeeds-where-many-big-fighters-failed scenario. There's also a ground battle involving warrior droids who conveniently fall to pieces at the slightest provocation and talk to each other in Battlestar Galactica Cylon voices. Star Wars: Episode 1 is a turkey of a film, not simply because it is intrinsically bad (which it is), but because it could have been an awful lot more. No doubt it will collect the pounds and dollars from the public to break whatever records, but it will probably not do as well as predicted (certainly if the US attendances are anything to go by). George Lucas is a very smart man with a track record of style, vision and flair. He has not yet proven he can acknowledge his mistakes though, let alone learn from them, and against that, I must say I am less than desparate to see the forthcoming Episodes II and III. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jul 31 15:04:57 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "David Wilcock" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 22 Jul 1999 20:11:56 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 84 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7n7tuc$c10$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer23.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 932674316 12320 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19488 Keywords: author=wilcock X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer23.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18693 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2403 Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman Directed By George Lucas Running Time: 2 hours 11 minutes. (20th Century Fox) Lucas was wise to start his Star Wars trilogy with Episode 4: Episode 1 is a boring, empty spectacle that features some nice special effects. After the familiar 'A long time ago....' opening, the film starts with the opening yellow crawl that features in every Star Wars movie and computer game. The plot is that the trade confederation are blocking off supplies to the peaceful planet of Naboo, ruled by Queen Amidala (Portman) Jedi Knights Qui-Gon (Neeson) and Obi Wan (McGregor) are sent to negotiate a deal with the confederation to stop the blockade. However, this simple blockade is not all it seems, and the Jedi Knights soon have to deal with many more dangers, including facing the evil Darth Maul (Ray Park.) They also meet the future Darth Vadar, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) Star Wars is largely a failure in all the major areas of filmmaking: script, direction and characters. The script desperately tries to make an thin and boring story into a two hour epic. The trade confederation plot is just not as exciting as the death star, and as the film goes on the drama becomes more and more non-existent. There's no underlying tension, and no urgent need to see what the outcome is. The film also takes a leisurely pace in telling the boring story, which doesn't help. There's no snap to make the film work, it moves at a plod. The script is boring: all the characters speak in morals, especially Anakins mother. There's no group spirit evident here, and when all characters can speak only in profound statements or bark orders, it's evident that not much is going to happen. The two leads are hideously boring, static characters given little to do and too much time to do it. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan hold no presence on film, and give little for the audience to root for. The audience will probably warm more to bad guy Darth Maul, if he had been given more screen time. Maul is one of the most underused bad guys in film history, even if he does provide the only 'straight' plot line in the film (all the other plots in this film are to be concluded throughout the trilogy.) Anakin is annoying and unlikeable., instead of cute and huggable as Lucas no doubt intended. It's probably not surprising that his hateful little boy, unfortunately blessed 'Ani' by everyone he knows, joins the dark side and kills everyone as quickly as possible. The comedy relief is supposedly provided by the gangly Jar Jar Brinks, although in the end none is provided in the film by him. Although his floppy features will no doubt be great for stuffed toys, the lines and actions he is given are painfully unfunny. The only good laugh is when his tongue is burned by a 'pod' racer, because I knew he wouldn't be able to talk for a while. Queen Amidala is a nothing in the film, she serves no real purpose apart from the fact that she must 'serve her people,' and go goo-goo over Anakin. Again, her role will become more important in the later episodes, and is given little to do here. The actors don't help the movie much either. Liam Neeson seems bored and embarrassed, and seems desperate to leave the movie as quickly as possible. McGregor comes across as a posh mothers boy, with little charm. The casting director must have chose him because he's Scottish like Alec Guinness: there's little other explanation for it. Natalie Portman is plagued by hideous costumes and a poor script, but she delivers a spunky performance. And Jake Lloyd looks at everyone with hateful eyes and delivers his lines in a bored voice. There's very little talent evident with him, it's hard to see why Lucas chose him when there are better child actors out there. He's not even very 'cute.' The main claim of the film, the special effects, are okay. There's nothing impressive about them, yet they complement the story well. The CGI takes away much of the human element, however. The battle droids for example, the replacement for the stormtroopers, are characterless little computer graphics, lacking the humour and humanness that came from the stormtroopers. Episode 1 is just disappointing. It's got high production values, but little else. The music is meandering, except near the end. The plot gives us no-one to root for, or even care for. The effects are nice, but dull. The plot goes on for half an hour longer than it should. There's an air of manufacturing among the whole sorry affair, and many clichés are catered for throughout the film. Apart from a remotely exciting pod race sequence, Episode 1 is a dry affair that serves little purpose, except to make money and to get us to watch Episode 2 to see what happens to the many unfinished plot lines in the film. Disappointing is barely the word. RATING=** OUT OF ***** A David Wilcock Review ©1999 DAVID WILCOCK david.wilcock@btinternet.com Visit the Wilcock Movie Page for U.K film reviews! http://www.wilcock54.freeserve.co.uk From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jul 31 15:04:58 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!newsfeed1.swip.net!swipnet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Jeremiah \"Spassvogel\" Rickert" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - the Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 27 Jul 1999 04:53:34 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 122 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7nje0e$l40$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 933051214 21632 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19567 Keywords: author=rickert X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18743 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2406 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:334263 Stars Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace A Review By Jeremiah Rickert Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd Written and Directed by George Lucas Hype hype and more hype! After a while soon the large amount of hype itself became a news story, in essence they hyped the hype. Would it... could it live up to the hype? George Lucas has been teasing, hinting, and out and out whetting our appetites for this film for the last twenty years. It's been believed that he has written a nine part story and that someday we'd see the other six parts. Recently his tune has changed and it's now a six part story, and we're two-thirds of the way there. I waited until this film had been open a while before I reviewed it, mostly because I wanted to insulate myself from the hype, which I think was a good idea. First of all, I wanted to watch this film with perspective. This is the first part of what Lucas calls his six-film epic. Just like the prologue to a book, I knew right off that the groundwork for a variety of plot threads was going to be laid down, most of which would not come to fruition until 2005 when the final film in the prequel trilogy is released. Most people expected the same sort of whizz-bang here it comes feeling of the original Star Wars. You have to remember that the first film was written without the expectation of sequels, so George had to pack as much as he could into it. The Phantom Menace on the other hand was written with the thought that pretty much barring his death, the other two films are going to be made. As a writer, that leaves him a lot more time to develop plots slowly and carefully; good for film fans, bad for the casual movie-goer perhaps. The other thing that I noticed about the film is that most people, especially fans, were dissing the film after only seeing the trailer. People wondered why Natalie Portman's accent changed, for example, and were saying that George was sloppy. Of course, that is all explained in the film. Finally, people complained that the ships and such looked like they were "higher-tech" than the later films, and that again George was sloppy. It's obvious that the Republic was about at its apex during the film, the height of its power and scientific advancement, and that after the wars of the 2nd and 3rd films, things are in a bit of a dark age. These are things that most film goers didn't get. The plot is very Machiavellian. A greedy Trade Federation is illegally blockading the small planet of Naboo, taking advantage of the endless bickering and bureaucracy in the Galactic Senate. We soon learn that someone referred to as Lord Sideous, who looks and talks like a certain Emperor from the later films has put them up to it. The Senate Chancellor (Terrance Stamp) sends Jedi Master Qui Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to force a settlement, but they are soon attacked. As the Federation starts their invasion it's up to the Jedis to protect the Naboo Queen (Natalie Portman) from attack. After fleeing the planet with the Queen, they end up on Tantooine with a damaged ship and are forced to enlist the help of a slave boy named Anikan Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who also happens to be very strong with the force. Can this motely crue stand up to the droid armies of the Trade Federation? What of Lord Sideous and the mysterious Sith who seem to be behind the attack? Stay tuned... Lucas has again taken "the next big step" in film. He's created a virtually photo-realistic computer-generated universe, which basically means he is now only limited by his imagination as to what he can create. Are there times when you can easily tell it's a computer effect? Well, yes, but not very often. I was slightly disappointed with the sound. I was told before the film's release that Lucas was going to use the new Dolby Surround EX sound system, and demand that theaters showing The Phantom Menace upgrade if they want to show it, however that doesn't seem to have happened. The acting in the film was not as bad as many had reported it to be. McGregor's Obi Wan was a great precursor to Sir Alec Guinness' more experienced character that we meet later. Pernella August as Anakin's mother Shmi Skywalker was paticularly good, conveying an incredible array of emotions in her face and eyes. Reviewers who said this film was cold and sterile must not have paid attention to her performance. This was George's first trip behind the camera since 1977's Star Wars. For the most part he was all right, but at times traded a little directorial artistry for technological artistry. I thought this was most apparent during some of the various fire-fight scenes, when it looked like he was pretty much reusing shots and camera movements from the original Star Wars. I'm almost sure it was intentional that he aped the first film, but it did come off as a bit obvious. Jar Jar Binks is a character who has inspired some rather heated words from fans. Speaking as someone who bought the toys, read the comics, and played the video games, I didn't think he was that bad. I do agree that at times he was difficult to understand, particularly when he is explaining why he was expelled from Gungan City. I do, however, agree that instead of making new races, more familiar ones should have been used for the main villains and creatures we see in the film. This would have not disturbed the story any, and would have made the film have a slightly more familiar look to it. I realize that George probably has a back story written where a certain race would be seen on a certain planet, but it is information that we just don't have. This was an infinitely detailed film, with small little touches that I didn't even notice without repeated viewings. The score by John Williams is again very effective particularly during the big Jedi Lightsaber Duel. His song "Duel of the Fates" compliments the action so well it almost seems as if they were created in some sort of symbiotic fashion. Once people are able to put their expectations and their prejudices behind them, they will be able to appreciate The Phantom Menace more. Also, when viewed in the context of the other two films in the trilogy, I'm sure that for most people, their questions will be answered to their satisfaction. Of the 4.75 I paid for this film, it was worth $8.00 (c) 1999 Jeremiah Rickert -- ----------------------------------------- Jeremiah "Spassvogel" Rickert 6'7" 320 lbs of Dr. Pepper and Pez Candy. ----------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 8 11:49:36 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "R.L. Strong" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Manace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 5 Aug 1999 04:58:03 GMT Organization: The Delphian Dungeon ~Lines: 214 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7ob5kr$te8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: rs080455@pacbell.net NNTP-Posting-Host: homer16.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 933829083 30152 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19814 Keywords: author=strong X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer16.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:19003 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2416 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:336041 STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE Liam Neeson Ewan McGregor Natalie Portman Jake Lloyd Ian McDiarmid Anthony Daniels Kenny Baker Ray Park Samuel L. Jackson Original music by John Williams Cinematography by David Tattersall Executive Producer Rick McCallum Film Editing by Ben Burtt & Paul Martin Smith Produced by George Lucas Written and Directed by George Lucas A LUCASFILM PRODUCTION RELEASED BY 20TH CENTURY FOX "A long time ago.. in a galaxy far far away". No other phrase can conjure such images of bravery and adventure. George Lucas, the creator of the epic 'Star Wars' series has crafted an effortlessly complex and remarkably simple tale of heroes and villains. A series of films that deserve their classic status, if for no other reason than their value as pure escapism. 22 years after the release of the original 'Star Wars (Episode III: A New Hope), George Lucas has returned to the saga that has remained vivid in the imaginations of all who have seen it. "STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE" brings us to the beginnings of the tale, giving us the history before Luke Skywalker. The opening title crawl of the film continues the serial approach established by the earlier Star Wars films. "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo. While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace, to settle the conflict...." It is here that we are immersed into the political world of 'Star Wars', for the first time. As Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) board a Trade Federation ship in an effort to negotiate a treaty. Unbeknownst to the Jedi, is that the negotiations are not to take place. On the command of Darth Sidious, the Jedi are attacked. In an epic battle, the two men escape on board an armored transport. A full-scale invasion of Naboo is emanating. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan must reach the city to warn the Queen Amidala of the subterfuge that is taking place. Reaching the palace with the assistance of an exiled Gungan, Jar-Jar Binks. The two Jedi succeed in contacting the Queen who requests that they return to the Congress of the Galactic Republic and report to the senators of the events. Along for the trip is the Queen's envoy Padmé Naberrie (Natalie Portman) and Jar-Jar Binks. It is during the escape that from Naboo that the ship is damaged and forced to land on the planet Tatooine. While attempting to repair their ship, Qui-Gon meets Annakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), a boy / slave working for a junk dealer. Impressed with the boy's expertise with machinery and sensing something unique, Qui-Gon tests the boy believing the young Annakin to be "The Chosen One" predicted in Jedi mythology, "the one who will bring balance to the Force". What must be said first and foremost about "The Phantom Menace" is that its visual effects are absolutely mind-boggling. There has never been a film that has created such vistas so continually as this film has. The cities, forests, and swamps of Naboo are wondrously realized. So much detail to attention has been lavished that one feels that these worlds are real. The cityscapes of Naboo, Tatooine and especially the galactic capital of Coruscant with it's Senate Chambers and Jedi Temple. Every single location of the plot is fully realized. The only film that could come close to this level of visualization would be the silent classic "Metropolis" (1925), "Forbidden Planet" (1958), and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). I can't mention any film since the original 'Star Wars' (1976) as every film since then has used that film as a template. What George Lucas has done here, is enlarge his template and his mythology to include so much more depth and resonance. This is not to say that the film does not have flaws. The performances in the film are adequate if not fully drawn out. Liam Neeson plays his part of Qui-Gon Jinn with a stoic demeanor that could be seen as lethargic. I did not find this performance as troublesome as others did, simply because of the characterization of the Jedi. The doctrine that one must not give into their fear or anger, gives resonance to Neeson's performance. Being a mentor to Obi-Wan, he must hold himself to a higher level. His demeanor throughout the film is one of cautious resolution. He knows that his fate is leading him is a particular direction and he refuses to move against his fate. This is a classic characterization of the 'Ahab' principle. Qui-Gon has found the 'Chosen One' and must, by any means bring this savior (?) to his full potential. Ewan McGregor makes an enigmatic Obi-Wan, a man who is just coming into his prime. Just mature enough to understand his responsibility but not enough to realize the consequences of his actions. McGregor does carry the film, even from the background. His character is the only one that we readily recognize from the previous Star Wars films. And that being said, McGregor does a reasonable job in the performance, one that I am certain will grow (as Mark Hamill's did in the original trilogy) in depth and nuance. Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala and her guardian Padmé Naberrie has the hardest role in the film. Having to portray a character of 14 that must rule over a planet and it's citizenry is some problematic. Having to establish Queen Amidala as a stern and compassionate leader, it becomes very surprising when as Padmé, she must emote some of the inquisitiveness that someone her age would naturally have, while still holding a level of maturity. Portman does this fairly well, and in moments actually raises the character to a more mythic level. A performance similarly to Carrie Fisher's, Princess Leia in the original Star Wars. The other performances in the film are either background characters or Computer generated. Much has been said about the character Jar-Jar Binks. Most of it negatively so. For my viewing, I found the character less than delightful, but far from insufferable. I think the most bothersome characteristic about the creature is its design. The legs are just far too long for any creature to walk on land, hence his natural clumsiness. That being said, I found the character's comic value appropriate to the film, in as much with all of the stern and troubled characters in the plot, having one that was behaving like "Jerry Lewis" in a Godzilla suit was appropriate. If only to lighten the film. The set and costume design for the film is ravishing. There is so much to take in, in every scene that it forces the viewer to concentrate on the main characters and the story (which may have been reason for some of the more faint reviews). The visuals of the film, as stated before are staggering in their complexity and all invasiveness. I don't believe there is one scene in "The Phantom Menace" that does not carry a visual effect. That being said, the effects are seamless, blending into the film in such a way that one feels that huge sets and dioramas have been constructed for the actors to perform in. No faint praise. George Lucas has managed to create a good old-fashioned adventure film. While his dialogue is at time trite and forced ('There's always a bigger fish'), it works in the context that this film (as all of the other Star Wars films) is a fantasy for children. Lucas has managed to delve deep into his belief in eastern philosophies and bring new depth to the mythology of the Star Wars saga. Having a biological essence as being a precursor for being a Jedi is interesting, if not completely acceptable. Also, there is the continuing adaptation of Judeo-Christian faith and mythology into the story in the idea that Annakin Skywalker may have been birth by a virgin. But these tracks are but fleeting thoughts in the film, brought to fore only in a single line of dialogue. This, like the reference to the "Clone Wars" in the original film may be there just to create a more complete universe. Lucas's direction is straight forewarn and unobtrusive. His staging of the many battles and fight scenes are masterfully achieved. While the climatic light saber battle between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and the evil Darth Maul is powerful and exciting, after years of seeing martial arts displayed on screen from Jackie Chan to this years "The Matrix", the fights have nothing new to offer. Also, I found the fights lacking in character in all but the suspense sequence wherein Qui-Gon and Darth Maul must suspend their battle, separated by force fields. This particular scene leads a certain tension to the battle, as well as giving an opportunity to move to one of the other simultaneously accruing plot threads. Unfortunately, it's a short-lived moment. The fight scenes could have used more character. Hopefully, in the next films in the series an action choreographer can be brought in to help define the different styles and individualities that each character would really have. Lucas has also peppered the film with loving references and tributes to earlier films and influences. One marvelous (and blatant) scene is when Qui-Gon uses his light saber to melt through a series of metal doors on the Trade Federation ship. The scene wonderfully recreates the famous climax of "Forbidden Planet", wherein, the invisible Creature from the Id, melts through the impenetrable doors of the Krell lab to get at it's victims. This brings me to what I found to be the weakest thread in the film, and that is the performance by Jake Lloyd as Annakin Skywalker. While I can see the plotting that is taking place, some of Annakin's scenes do not work simply because they are either too abrupt or Lloyd's performance is not tuned well enough to embrace it. The most jarring moment comes when Annakin agrees to leave his Mother, Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) to go with Qui-Gon to the Jedi counsel. The emotional drama and angst here is almost non existent, being brought to it's conclusion with the dialogue exchange of Annakin: 'Will I ever see you again?" Shmi: "What does your heart tell you?!" While it fits into the mythology, it doesn't fit into the drama of the scene. The structure of the film is similar to "Return of the Jedi". In fact, in retrospect it seems that 'Return of the Jedi' was the template for the film. The differences between the two are the depth with which the political drama is played out. For this reason "The Phantom Menace" is a richer film. I must comment on the negative quotient of the film. There have been several vocal reviews of the film. Some valid, some not. Some reviewers have gone out of their way to disdain the film simply for the sake of it. I recall back in 1977, with the release of the first 'Star Wars' that most critics praised the film for its special effects but disliked the poor characterizations and performances. One critic, David Sheenan even claimed that the film served no purpose other than to show how to choreograph laser beams and explosions. That being said, I must say that while some have not enjoyed the film as much as others have, that is no fault of the film. There has to be a certain suspension of disbelief involved. And for some (especially those that do not care for Sci-fi or fantasy) is equivalent to lifting an anchor over their heads. Now for all intents and purposes, is 'The Phantom Menace' a good film. Yes! Is it the best 'Star Wars' movie. No. "The Empire Strikes Back" still holds that distinction. Now is this film a worthy successor. Yes. In fact "The Phantom Menace" manages to do something that no other film in recent years has been able to do. Take us to a place and time we've never been before and make it seem familiar. On a scale of 1 to 5, 'STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE" rates 4 stars. A good forebear of things to come and a marvelous return to classic filmmaking with new and wondrous technology. Copyright 1999 R. L Strong All rights reserved Nothing in this article may be quoted or re-printed without the express written permission of the author. -- Visit the Dungeonmaster Cornucopia of Film http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Makeup/5594/reviews/main.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 8 11:49:36 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Peter Berry" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 30 Jul 1999 05:45:02 GMT Organization: Customer of Planet Online ~Lines: 249 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7nre4u$11b2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer23.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 933313502 34146 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19658 Keywords: author=berry X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer23.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2413 rec.arts.movies.reviews:18834 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:335020 STAR WARS: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (Certified U; 133 Minutes) Written & Directed by George Lucas As the days wore on, plodding a slow course towards the 15th July, I said to myself, whenever I saw yet another article hurling abuse at The Phantom Menace, I would wait until I had seen it before passing any kind of judgement. The day of reckoning arrived. Today I would see, for the first time, a really bad film. Usually, I buy a medium sweet tub of popcorn to see my stomach through the film. I made the decision to forego it this time, (maybe I wouldn't need it), as I wanted as few a distractions as possible. From the start, the omens were good. Nobody sat in the seat directly infront of me, I could watch the film without having to worry about some hyperactive idiot squirming throughout, or having to stare at a very tall persons head with an afro, and a bowler hat. As I sat and watched the various advertisements and film trailers beforehand, which seemed to go on and on, (I was getting impatient now), my haed was filled with worry and trepidation, and......worry and trepidation. Worry because all I'd heard over the last two month's were accusations that the film was a huge disappointment, and that it was all a big waste of time. Trepidation for myself, did I want to go on, did I want to find out after all this time that I couldn't sit through such an undoubted pile of trash? Then it started. Great. And it was. Then it finished. Bloody hell. And I meant it, I wanted to go and see it again. It wasn't the best film I'd ever seen, but let me see, what had people been saying about it? Crappy and badly used characters, much too reliant on SFX, bad guys under-used, bad guy's not bad enough, stilted script, etc......... All I can say in response is rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, etc............ Yes, unhook yourself from that lampshade and listen, my opinions on The Phantom Menace are overwhelmingly positive. I know, I know, I'm leaving myself open to endless abuse and should probably be shot in order to put me out of my misery. It's just that, well, it's just that I think all the bad press that The Phantom Menace has recieved is totally unjustified, and all that critics firmly on the warpath are fundamentally wrong. I'll start with what many people blame for the film supposedly being so bad, for eclipsing everything else, the SFX. Many people had written that The Phantom Menace was merely a showcase for digital technology saying look, c'mere, this is what we can do. I thought that the SFX brought the film to life like no other film has ever been able to do, it's not just there to paste over the films problems, it compliments it perfectly. If George Lucas had had the same technology in the late seventies and early eighties that is available now, he would have done exactly the same thing. I expect Chewbacca would have been CGI! Oh my god! Therefore, he would have been crap to would I suppose. Don't say anything yet, I'll come back to that particular hornet's nest later. The SFX built on the original trilogy, pissed on the original trilogy, not because they obviously look better, but because they allow for so much more imaginative scope to be employed by Lucas. Nobody, when the original trilogy was released, could have ever imagined some of the things that The Phantom Menace has done. Not even Lucas himself. It just wasn't seen as possible. To all The Phantom Menace's critics, suppose that Star Wars had looked as good as The Phantom Menace, shown as much visual imagination, would it to have been crap? On Tatooine, there was a scene in which Jar Jar Binks had an unfortunate encounter with Sebulba. It was entirely computer generated. I suppose that makes it shit does it, too artificial to be any good. If Star Wars was being made with such technolgy available, Lucas would probably have done the same kind of thing. It looked great, it added another dimension of life to the space port. In Star Wars, everything looked naff, everything, yet that is being praised to the hilt. The original Star Wars suffered from what I call Star Trek Syndrome. This is telling us that we are seeing another alien culture, but actually it looks like what, off camera, it actually is, a few buildings in the middle of nowhere with a politically correct selection of rather human looking aliens. The Phantom Menace actually appears to have not just one, but many alien cultures, in every nook and cranny. You can believe it. I can't look at the original Star Wars, (anymore), or any Star Trek, without knowing that there is a camera just to the left. I can gladly say that that thought didn't enter my head during The Phantom Menace. Basically, the point that I am trying to make is that The Phantom Menace has made a huge effort to surpass it's predecessors; and in doing that it was going to be different and snazzy, most certainly not looking camp and corny. What, I ask, is so wrong with making a film, particularly a science fiction one, look as good as it possibly can? What next, ah yes, Jar Jar Binks. Or, bastard bastard bastard as most people would probably re-christen him. He's a computer generated character. That's the first thing that should be praised. He's not a man in a suit. Chewbacca yeah, Chewbacca great. Actually, man in a suit and a bit crap. Jar Jar accent is not racially insulting. In an alien culture, they would probably not have the same racial problems that we have. I don't expect they get so hung up on how people sound or what colour skin you have. IT DOESN'T BOTHER THEM, IT'S NOT AN ISSUE. It concerns us because we are idiots. The same goes for Jar Jar's accent, (which does take some time to understand, there's no denying that), and the Gungan's accents in general. It's just how they speak. It's not directed at anybody. Only deeply paranoid people could think that it is. Everybody compares Jar Jar to the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi. That, I believe is a bad comparison. A comparison with Chewbacca is much fairer, as they have both, (I've read), will have appeard in all three of their respective trilogy's. Chewbacca is basically a monster, tamed. He illustrates really well the things which sorely limited the original trilogy. Jar Jar is an imaginative creation, with a personality derived from more alleyways than one, because now Lucas can. Alright, sometimes his personality was a little overplayed, but as I said, this isn't the greatest film ever made. I know that. I accept that, so please don't bother telling me. What about all of the, shall I say, less contentious characters. Namely, all of them. Yes, I know, they're crap to. But wait. Maybe, just maybe they're not. Leave that lampshade alone and listen. This is what I thought of the other characters. One slight admission before though. I did think that a little bit more character development would have been a good move. I did think that they were as good as the original trilogy's characters, or gang as they'd probably rather be known: Qui-Gon Jinn - An accompolished and very efficent Jedi Knight. Whenever he did somthing, he did it because he knew that he was correct, and it was the right thing, in the long term to do, (Anakin). There was no charging in and hoping for the best, that, as far as I was concerned, made him much more believable than you're usual run of the mill action adventure hero. Obi-Wan Kenobi - A little under-used I thought. Worryingly, it didn't immediately strike me as to why. This, in my book, makes him the weakest link in all the characters. He seemed to spend too much time servicing the plot developments that were, all too often, executed by Qui-Gon. This was especially prevelant on Tatooine. But, never mind, he's an apprentice, not the hero of the piece. He will become the hero. The Phantom Menace isn't his, it's not supposed to belong to him. Just because he is protrayed by a big star, does that give him the right to do everything? No, I don't think it does. Just because he is a well known and well loved character, and is destined to become a major player in the future, does that mean he has to be a major player now? No, I don't think it does. Anakin Skywalker - Tremendous. He becomes Darth Vader, fine. He was seduced by the dark side, fine to. But not here, not now. Now, he is a little boy. A slave. Bought and sold for money. I believe that the fact he is a good little boy, makes it even more interesting. It makes you even more mindful that something truely monumental and dramatic will happen to turn him. If he was a little tear-away, he would have got even more criticism thrown at him. People would have whined on about the fact that it was soooooooooo obvious that he had a troubled future ahead of him. Yoda senses much fear in him. That, at this point, is all we need to know. If you were seeing this film with a blank canvas, you would emerge with a geniune feeling of worry about little Anakin's future. You don't because you know his future, so worry is impossible. Remember, these films, when finished, are meant to be seen as a six part opera. You are not meant to have prior knowledge of what is going to happen. But, as you do, it allows Lucas to load the film with foreboding. Anakin is, because he is the chosen one, a fragile character, unlike Luke who was very strong and un-wavering). It shows so well how the dark side is so easy to fall into. Anakin IS fearful. Darth Maul - People have been slagging the character off for not appearing often enough. Personally, I believe this was a good move by Lucas, it provides us with some of the mystery surrounding him that the Jedi Council feels. He is not well known to the other characters as Darth Vader was. The characters are continually stating that they don't know who he is. Is he a Dark Lord of the Sith? They, and we, are not supposed to know. The only reason that people have been disappointed by his scarcity is because he has recieved so much publicity as the big baddie. He is not, he to is an apprentice. The film doesn't have one. That is a problem that the film does have, it does need a more prominent bad guy. Neither Darth Maul, or Sidious, are prominent enough. But, as I said, there is a good reason for that. The Phantom Menace tries to create a conspiracy feeling, in that nobody has a monopoly on evilness, something that I didn't think it did too well. Darth Maul is an introductory character to familiarise is with the Sith. When the Duel of Fates arrived on screen, (wow), the fact that you hardly got to know Maul helps wonderfully to portray the sense of mystery that surrounds him, and all the Sith. Just because we are watching the film, we like to think we know everything, it gives us a pleasent sense of superiority over the characters. This is mercilessly removed from our grasp with Darth Maul, and I thought that was a wonder to behold. If you had gone into the cinema having not seen any Star Wars, (which, after all, is the idea), you would hsare the Jedi Council's worry that they don't know who he is. Is he the master, or the apprentice? Senator Palpatine - Sensational. Stole the show. Although, he does embody a great contradiction. You need to have seen the original trilogy to understand how significant he is and will become. That's a problem. But, accepting that, it is tremendously ironic that the start of his rise to power is sanctioned by a goodie, and the mother of Luke Skywalker, (problem, relies on original trilogy), Queen Amidala. Queen Amidala - It was a weeny bit confusing as to when it was, and when it wasn't her on screen, what with her handmaidens and other such shenanigans. However, she successfully portrayed a geniunely distressed head of a small planet who was way out of her depth. That is why she was so easily influenced by Senator Palpatine. Who is, as long as it suits him, on her side. She wouldn't sign the treaty to allow the invasion of Naboo. This showed that she could clearly see the distinction between good and bad, (light and dark), but when the two are so cleverly intertwined as they are with Senator Palpatine, she is nothing more than a pawn. Yoda - Puppet like figure said most people, that, he is not. Ace, was he. Mace Windu - His lines were a bit waffly. Boss Nass - Couldn't understand a word. Darth Sidious - Menacing to say the least. That's about all I can say about him at the moment. So then, it all boils down to what you were expecting. If you were expecting another brain dead action adventure, then don't see it. However, if you want a wide ranging piece, with action in the right amount, and unfortunately dodgy political bit's, (necessary to document Senator Palpatine's rise to power. You wouldn't want the future Emperor of the Galactic Empire explained away in one scene, or even worse, one long speech would you), and boiling over with imagination, then go see it. Now. This minute. Finally, and in conclusion, the plot. This was also universally slated as being crap. Supposedly, the plot is plot-less and lacking any discernable direction. Again, I disagree. The Phantom Menace set's everthing up wonderfully. The plot thickens at marginally below optimun speed, which isn't ideal but is nowhere near as bad as what had been said. It moves about, doesn't stay in one place for too long, and climaxes in a fantastic battle scene containing many threads that come together in just the same way that they did in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. The Phantom Menace brings together all the best bit's of the original trilogy, (yes, despite what I've said, there are many), and mixes them with a whole bunch of fantastic new ones. Super, smashing, great. So, contrary to the over-riding consensus that The Phantom Menace is no good. I reckon that it is far, far superior to A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, and as good as, if not better, (gasp), than The Empire Strikes Back. Even though it is marketed as a kid's film, it does show a greater maturity than the original trilogy. There are places i nthe film that require something above the level of intelligence of a 12 year old to enjoy. Taht is, of course, if you bother to try to enjoy it at all because, after all, it's very, very bad isn't it? The Phantom Menace isn't hit and hope, it's hit and know. No cowboy's. No silly womanising actions heroes like Han Solo. I'm not saying he was bad, far from it, but The Phantom Menace doesn't need anybody like that. The Phantom Menace has a much more accomplished buch of individuals, we don't have to sit and watch then all grow up. Lastly, I have read a lot of reviews whinging on about the crawl, costumes and Darth Maul's red face paint. These people are presenting biased opinions. They were going to hate the film, and went in with a notebook to note down all the things that they were going to slag off. And the things they are talking about in their reviews are desperate attempts to do just that, slag it off. That, is not good reviewing. The Phantom Menace is really Act One. Now, we're at the first intermission. I've just finished my ice cream, packet of crisps, coke, and have used the toilet. I want to settle down to Act Two. Unfortunately, it can't be shown yet, as the theatre has to repeat Act One, somebady wasn't paying attention. Overall Rating - Four out of Five. "At last we can reveal ourselves to the Jedi, at last we can have revenge." From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 8 11:49:36 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!isdnet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: sircritic@aol.com (Eric Robinette) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 31 Jul 1999 05:42:08 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 66 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7nu2bg$121s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer05.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 933399728 34876 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19669 Keywords: author=robinette X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer05.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18842 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2414 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:335222 Review by Eric Robinette SirCritic@aol.com Turmoil has engulfed the movie-going public. The worth of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a sensible, clear-eyed review, the errant knight, Sir Phil M. Critic, endeavored to offer his own opinion, even if he was a little late with it, to help settle the conflict. As far as Sir Critic could see, it was like a period of civil war amongst the moviegoers. A handful blindly loved the movie, having been starved of a "Star Wars" film for 16 years. Another surly and disgruntled group tried to score a victory against what they called "The evil Lucasfilm empire" by leveling accusations of racism at the film. A third large and unruly group complained that the movie was all flash and fire, with no true sense of heart or emotion Sir Critic immediately dismissed the racism claims of the surly group, believing its arguments had enough foolishness to embarrass an entire profession. Alarmed by the group's cynical tone, the knight branded them as the sort of charlatans who like to spend time looking for messages that simply did not exist, with their real purpose being to draw attention to themselves. "What utter nonsense!" the knight declared. The Trade Federation aliens speak in a Japanese accent, I believe, because this is homage to the Japanese films of Akira Kurosawa, who inspired the "Star Wars" series in the first place. As for the sidekick Jar Jar Binks' Jamaican overtones, that is because this is the accent that the voice actor, Ahmed Best, actually uses." Evading the dreaded racist claims, Sir Critic tried to begin his proper review. However, the other critics, obsessed with shooting the film down, dispatched hundreds of angry barbs at the film, in particular assailing the sidekick character of Jar-Jar, whom they labeled as a constant nuisance. Sir Critic conceded that Jar-Jar's pidgin English, which sounded like a warped form of Pig Latin, was off-putting and unnecessary, but aside from that, he found the character amusing in the role of a clumsy oaf, which gave the film many lighthearted moments of humor. The unruly group then changed tactics, focusing on a new, pointed attack even more powerful than their first. They argued the film was nothing more than an overstuffed visual feast, with plenty to look at, but little to care about and no depth of character or storytelling to be found. Sir Critic had to concede this argument, but only up to a point. He agreed that the movie was basically two-hours plus of setup for the darker chapters in the saga that were to follow, and this particular episode had little in the way of emotional heft. Even so, Sir Critic predicted that when the entire series was completed, "The Phantom Menace" would fit in nicely with the entire series. He found it especially interesting that Obi-Wan Kenobi trained Anakin when he was an inexperienced Jedi, which makes for some ominous foreshadowing. "But do not forget the most important point," Sir Critic advised the others. "When all is said and done, the most important question is 'Was the film an entertaining, exciting time at the theater?' My answer is yes, very much so. 'The Phantom Menace,' is, like the other films, an adventure story at heart. As an adventure, it succeeds grandly with great set pieces like the pod race and the final battle with Darth Maul, which are worth the price of admission by themselves. "Could it have been better? Yes, it could have, but no movie could possibly live up to the expectations that had built up behind it. 'The Phantom Menace' may not be the best of the series, but it has one thing in common with the other films: it is a lot of fun." From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 8 11:49:37 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.kth.se!uio.no!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: franknseus@aol.com (Mr. Bryan Frankenseuss Theiss) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc ~Date: 4 Aug 1999 05:49:49 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com ~Lines: 403 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7o8k9t$7fs$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer03.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 933745789 7676 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19790 Keywords: author=theiss X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer03.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18987 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:335870 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2415 Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace Why I love it, despite Jar Jar, and why it will be remembered I have a pretty vivid memory of being on the playground when I was in third grade, either just before or just after Return of the Jedi came out. Some of the older kids already knew the names of the characters from the movie, and they were running around playing Return of the Jedi. Not with action figures, but with themselves. "I'm Han Solo!" They fought over who got to be Salacious Crum, Jabba's gremlin-like pet who I had yet to set my eyes upon. And as we ran around the soccer field and through the geometrically arranged tires, we talked about Star Wars movies and how there were supposed to be three others that took place before Star Wars. "They're called 'prequels.'" I think we knew about them even before then, though. I remember a neighborhood kid who prided himself on knowing these types of things when they pertained to Star Wars. (He also liked to pee in ziploc bags and carry them around with him, but that's irrelevant.) He had read many Star Wars novels, which he thought were the movies yet to be made. He was fond of a book called "Han Solo's Revenge" which he didn't seem to understand the title of. He pointed at a piece of space debris on my sister's Empire Strikes Back t-shirt, a part of some exploded space ship no doubt, and said, "That's a piece of Han Solo's revenge." He thought "revenge" was the name of a machine, but he still knew what a prequel was. In recent years the anticipation grew as Lucas made it clear he was finally making these things. I was in college when the Star Wars Special Editions came out, and I must admit it was one of the happiest times of my life. As a freshman living in a dorm for the first time, I had bonded with my roommates by staying up all night talking about which Star Wars toys we had owned as children. It seemed to be the universal connection between people our age, and we watched the movies together in great excitement when they were re-released on video in new THX editions. A few years later we were rescheduling our classes and meetings so we could wait in line for the first shows of the Special Editions. Now we had an excuse to write and think and talk about Star Wars all day long. Being college students our favorite place to eat was Taco Bell, which had now become Star Wars hype central. We could almost literally eat Star Wars in addition to the sleeping and breathing and what not. It is also important to note at this point that a) we traveled the city by foot and by bus and b) Toys R Us was located directly across the street from Taco Bell, i.e. within walking distance, and was stocked with many fine Star Wars themed leisure products and accoutrements. In the school's computer center I read an Ain't It Cool News prequel rumor about C-3PO being a computer generated mass of wires without his gold sheathing. I thought it was a cool idea, if it was true, but it was time to stay away from these rumors. I didn't want to know anything. But I could hold myself off by re-living the old movies. This time around there were levels to the movies I had never noticed before. Aspects I had never appreciated. They were truly growing better with time, even while beginning to seem dated. I have never been one of the hardcore Star Wars obsessives who knows the names of every character who ever had an action figure, but the entire Star Wars phenomenon has a strong connection to my heart, so the time of the Special Editions was like a religious experience for me. And I just kept thinking, "Man… if it's like this now, imagine what it will be like when the prequels come out." I bring up these personal details because being one of the most anticipated movies of all time means bringing along a whole lot of baggage. Whether or not you were part of that generation who grew up talking about Star Wars prequels, you've certainly heard more than enough about them by now. Some people will never be able to accept a new Star Wars movie after 16 years of waiting. Others already wanted to hate the movie to prove they're above the hype, or the geeky guys with the plastic light sabers, or whatever. No one, no matter how eloquent, will be able to change your mind on The Phantom Menace. It's a movie that, even more than others, cannot be reduced to a consumer report. But most critics (many of them in a speeder bike chase, kessel run or pod race to be the first to hate the new Star Wars movie) have urged people to stay away, making The Phantom Menace out to be an abomination against cinema. And this after several summers in a row of absolutely shitty summer blockbusters from Batman Forever to Armageddon - movies lacking in imagination, common sense and even style. Although I'm sure these critics genuinely didn't like the movie, many of the reviews seem more like cultural grandstanding than legitimate criticism. In probably the most venomous review I've read, Anthony Lane of the New Yorker admits that he can't call Episode 1 the disappointment of the decade because he "had a sneaking suspicion it would turn out this way" - implying that he wanted to enjoy it but it just wasn't good enough. This, though, only after saying that Star Wars never was very good anyway, that its fans were "nerds" in the '70s and are now "dweebs," and after blaming the movie for the de-humanization of cinema, the military over-spending of the Reagan years, and (I swear to God) the concept of "deathless wars" in Iraq, Kosovo, etc. But many who are less extreme than Lane also went in wanting to hate the movie just because they're "sick of the hype." Unlike blockbuster films of recent summers, The Phantom Menace did not require manufactured enthusiasm. The demand for the film was so great that some grew tired of hearing about it before most of the actual PR hype kicked in. Technically, it's an independent film, an uncompromising vision without studio tampering or the soulless anti-art gauntlet of test screenings and focus groups. Still, it's a moneymaking machine, and every business in the world wants a piece. I honestly believe that the excitement would have been nearly the same with no advertisements, so when the Taco Bell-KFC-Pizza Hut-Pepsi onslaught began, it was more than overkill. Meanwhile, every step of the way became a news event. Both trailers were run uncut not only on Entertainment Tonight and MTV, but on local news shows. Reporters covered the reactions to the trailer, the web sites, the release of the toys, the predictions of economic loss due to employees skipping work on May 19th. On one Seattle station I saw a feature on what the Seattle Mariners think about Star Wars. But then, when critics saw the movie and tore it apart, the story changed. "Will it live up to the hype?" the news anchors asked innocently, apparently not remembering who had interviewed a woman who painted her car like an X-wing, or set up live cameras at the ticket lines, or started out half of their reports saying things like, "Well, a lot of people are waiting for the new Star Wars movie, but we're also waiting for a bit of sunshine this weekend. Harry?" So with so many significant pop cultural complications, it's hard to predict how most people will feel about The Phantom Menace. But I don't think it really matters -- I think it's a great film. It is probably more flawed than the original trilogy due mainly to some inept comic relief. But what is good about it is skin-crawlingly, adrenaline-pumpingly good. The story adds new levels to the Star Wars mythology, the action scenes are thrilling, the costumes are some of the best ever put on film, and the visual attention to detail is unprecedented. I loved it on the first viewing and adored it the second. And it's great after all these years to be awaiting the second installment, not knowing what will happen. The film starts out brilliantly by illustrating exactly why Jedi Knights are so revered. For all the talk about Jedi Knights in the original trilogy, Luke's feats are a tiny plop in a puddle compared to those of young Obi-Wan Kenobi and his mentor Qui-Gon Jinn (played by Liam Neeson, who I have finally stopped thinking of as Darkman). The two are sent as ambassadors to the Chancellor, to conduct negotiations and settle a tax dispute. They hear the sound of their transport ship being destroyed, and without hesitation whip out their light sabers. These Jedi oughta be called ambadassadors. They run through the ship, slaughtering battle droids effortlessly and make a clean escape. At one point Lucas plays with the icon-status of the light sabers, having the villains terrified by the sight of Jedi through a cloud of smoke, just a pair of glowing light sabers. The two travel to the planet under siege, Naboo, to contact their Queen Amidala. The queen (and her clutch of clone handmaidens) is played by Natalie Portman, who has already achieved near-legend status as one of those rare child stars who is respected by adults. I don't think it's too early to say that Amidala is one of my favorite Star Wars characters. She is quiet and dignified, but speaks boldly (and in a strange accent) when needed. Unlike the politicians in our galaxy she tries to avoid putting her people at war, and when it seems necessary she goes out and leads it herself, planning a three point attack and storming her occupied palace with a pair of blasters. Her exquisitely designed royal gowns (of which there are many) rival even the otherworldly beauty of the blue skinned diva in The Fifth Element. She has an intimidating, regal presence, comparable to Judi Dench's Oscar winning queen in Shakespeare in Love. You truly feel like you are in the presence of royalty. Amidala is a more serious and, I think, complicated character than Princess Leia. My description makes her sound like Wonder Woman, but we also watch her essentially doom the galaxy for years to come by putting her faith in Palpatine. And it's interesting to see her surprise as she discovers that despite all of her politics, some planets still practice slavery because "The Republic doesn't exist out here." But I am confident that like Leia (her future daughter), she will be adored and emulated by young girls who like to see pretty heroines (and their clones) kick ass. Soon, of course, the heroes meet up with 9 year old Anakin Skywalker, the boy who will become Darth Vader. Many have criticized the film for not showing a seed of evil in the boy, foreshadowing his dark future. I disagree - I think it's infinitely better to get the audience rooting for the kid, not only so they can temporarily set aside the tragedy that awaits him, but also because Darth Vader isn't a purely evil character anyway. After all, he is ultimately redeemed in Return of the Jedi. So it is more appropriate, I think, to treat him as a kid who says "Yippee!" a lot than as The Bad Seed. Other aspects of Anakin do tie in to his future. He is a master pod racer and is able to fly a Naboo fighter - this matches up with the original Star Wars, where Luke is told that his father was a great pilot before he became a Jedi. He is also a machine-building prodigy, having built his own pod racer and even the protocol droid C-3PO. This, I think, is a fitting childhood preoccupation for the villain who not only lords over enormous "technological nightmares" like the Death Star, but virtually becomes a machine himself. There is even a hint in John Williams' Anakin theme, which mourningly intones a few notes of the unforgettable Imperial Death March. Anakin's best scene is probably the one where he barely speaks - the pod race. A pod race is a dangerous flying drag race through the deserts of Tatooine, and Anakin is the only human who has ever done it. The scene is as riveting and full throttle as the speeder bike chase in Return of the Jedi. It's kind of disturbing to see this little boy zipping through deadly terrain in a vehicle that's sputtering and losing control and rapidly falling to pieces - all so the Tatooine slavemasters can gamble with the Hutts. Lucas adds extra seediness to the proceedings by revealing that Anakin's owner Watto forced him to enter in previous races even though he doesn't think he's very good. I don't think there's even a single child spotted in the previous Star Wars chapters (unless you count baby Ewoks) so it's surprising how well Anakin fits the tone. There's an awkward scene where some of the neighborhood kids (including a kid from Greedo's race) express skepticism about the boy's pod racer, but for the most part the kids work. There have been criticisms of Jake Lloyd's acting as Anakin. His performance, admittedly, is not perfect, and Lucas doesn't help with the awkward editing into the should-be heartbreaking scene where Anakin bids farewell to his enslaved mother. Lloyd may not be Anna Paquin, but he hits the mark more often than not, and his boyish enthusiasm is used humorously. I especially like the scene where Amidala, knowing that her planet's fate may depend on Anakin winning a pod race, finds out from Anakin's friend that the boy has never even *finished* a race, let alone won one. To Amidala's horror, naïve little Anakin smiles, puts his arm around his friend and boasts, "Kitster's right. I will this time." I think these types of moments are charming. I also like when he tells C-3PO, who he's leaving behind in the slave quarters, that he'll "try" to get his mom not to sell him. These things remind me of the priceless moment in E.T. when Drew Barrymore says of the extra-terrestrial, "I don't like his feet." The acting may not be as note perfect but these moments show a similar understanding of the way children think. I'm glad that at this age Anakin isn't talking about being a brave warrior or fighting for justice. Instead, he brags that he gets to go on a star ship. This playfulness makes it more dramatic later on when he realizes his purpose in life: to return to Tatooine and free the slaves (a perfectly mythic subplot that I look forward to in Episode 2). While the heroes attempt to deal with the crisis on Naboo, we see the shady dealings of a Sith lord named Darth Sidious, who is probably Senator Palpatine in disguise, as he greatly resembles the hooded Emperor Palpatine of later installments. Sidious dispatches his apprentice Darth Maul to assassinate the Jedi. Maul has already become a pop culture icon just by appearing briefly in the first Phantom Menace trailer. His simple look of primal evil - black cloak, red and black face, crown of horns, demonic yellow eyes - has so captured the fascination of fans that virtually every 12:01 showing on May 19th must have had a guy dressed as him, toting a double bladed light saber. After such a build up, some were disappointed that Maul turns out to be a mysterious and briefly sighted presence in the movie. (But come on, man, it's your own damn fault for building a cult around a character from a movie you hadn't seen.) Maul's fanboy appeal is comparable to that of Boba Fett, who is actually much less significant in the Star Wars saga, and has less screen time. I think he's perfect. At some point, I will be expected to choose one of three or four famous Star Wars catch phrases and use it to attack the new movie. I'll go ahead and go with, "There is a disturbance in the Force, and its name is Jar Jar Binks." Jar Jar is a computer generated creature called a Gungan, an outcast from the underwater kingdom on Naboo. He's also the comic relief character, and the first character in the entire Star Wars saga that I can't stand. I want to make one thing clear, before I attack Jar Jar: I am pro-Ewok. I never knew until a few years ago that Return of the Jedi, and specifically the Ewoks, were looked upon with disdain by many Star Wars fans. The Ewoks, goes the argument, are cuddly little bears just thrown in to be cute and to attract kids. Having watched the movie several times since learning of this school of thought, I still can't find any way that it makes sense. The Ewoks are savage little bastards who try to cook our heroes for dinner, and who stone, log and rope stormtroopers to death in the climactic battle that culminates the humanity-over-technology theme of the trilogy. The first time you see Ewoks, they are creepy and irritable. They look more like rabid rats than teddy bears. They're not half as cute as the Jawas, who as far as I know have never suffered the "cute" criticism. And even if the Ewoks are adorably cute to some people, isn't that sort of cool? Cute little teddy bears who eat human flesh? It's like saying the killer dolls in Barbarella were just thrown in to appeal to kids who like dollies. It's just plain wrong. Up with Ewoks, I say. But there is an Ewok moment that I don't think is so hot: the one in the middle of the battle where Wicket swings a rock around and hits himself in the face with it. It's not a terrible joke, I can live with it, but it's cartoonishly out of place. It kind of seems like it should be accompanied by Three Stooges sound effects. Imagine a character that has none of the rabid-rat-menace of the Ewoks, but swings rocks into his face repeatedly. That's Jar Jar. Some people have called Jar Jar a racist stereotype - a rather ludicrous description for a character that is more reminiscent of Slimer from the Ghostbusters cartoon and Roger Rabbit than of any specific race, ethnicity or nationality. I don't have a problem with his Gungan pidgin ("yousa thinks you people gonna die?") which continues the Star Wars tradition of cultural detail amongst aliens. I do have a problem with his voice, though, which is that same annoying squeaky voice they used for Slimer, or for Punky Brewster's cartoon sidekick Glomer. You know - the "funny" voice that Dave Coulier used on Full House after he tired of his Popeye and Bullwinkle impressions. I want Jar Jar to be a character I can take seriously on occasion, but he's not, because he speaks in a voice that says, "I'm sure as hell not funny, but you know I'm trying to be!" If he were to speak in a lower voice he wouldn't be nearly as hard to take. But even still, his purpose in the story so far seems to be to knock things over, stick out his tongue and step in creature manure. His character doesn't grow or evolve. He only helps people on accident. He doesn't show another side, and worst of all he doesn't build a strong relationship with any of the other characters - he just follows them around, but it seems like you're supposed to assume they like him. If he returns in future installments it's going to be hard to redeem him. Unless little Anakin first practices his long distance strangling technique on the zany Gungan. But The Phantom Menace survives Jar Jar, because it's working on other levels than just the wacky guy falling down. The plot is more complicated than previous chapters, and although many have attacked it as a "kiddie movie" due to the Jar Jar problem, it's hard for me imagine kids knowing what the hell is going on. Even for reasonably intelligent adults like - I'd like to think - me, it may take multiple viewings to keep up with all of the politics. How many kiddie movies revolve around tax disputes, trade embargoes, votes of no confidence? If this movie is for kids I wonder if tense senate hearings will become the next big thing in PG rated movies, replacing the John Hughes trademark of inept burglars who get pelted in the balls by Rube Goldberg-esque booby traps. It wasn't until the Special Editions that I thought about the multiple meanings of the title "Return of the Jedi." Growing up, I assumed it referred to Luke's return to Tatooine. But now I think it refers both to the resurrection of the concept of the Jedi and to the return of the Jedi Anakin Skywalker, who has been buried inside the Sith lord Darth Vader until he re-emerges in the climax. "The Phantom Menace" has multiple meanings as well. Most obviously, it refers to the hooded Darth Sidious, who controls the invasion of Naboo and the attacks on the Jedi without our heroes ever knowing of his existence. Secondly, it refers to the invasion of Naboo itself, which on the surface appears to be about taxes but is actually a front for removing the Chancellor and replacing him with Palpatine. With Anakin's boyish optimism and Jar Jar's wacky antics, the surface of the movie is fairly light-hearted. But the menace lies underneath, because of our knowledge of what is to come. This is a movie where the heroes put their faith in something we know won't pan out the way they want it to. Roger Ebert has said that Luke Skywalker is actually the chosen one who the Jedi are looking for in Anakin. I prefer the more ominous theory that Anakin is indeed "the chosen one, who will bring balance to the force," but that he will bring balance by being the evil Darth Vader. The Jedi's evil counterparts the Sith have been extinct for a millennium, so clearly the balance is leaning toward the good side of the scale. I think Yoda and Mace Windu can sense that Anakin is indeed the chosen one of their faith, but they don't want to face what that means. The film asks you to care about little Anakin, and it works. It wasn't until the day after my first viewing that some of the irony hit me. At one point, Darth Maul speeds toward Qui-Gon and Anakin on a sort of speeder bike. Qui-Gon yells, "Anakin, drop!", saving the life of Darth Vader, the man who will help conquer the galaxy and who will slay Qui-Gon's apprentice, Obi-Wan. While the movie pretends to be a happy adventure about a boy and his Jedi buddies it inches toward heartbreaking tragedy. And still, it's a hell of an adventure. The genuinely thrilling climax jumps smoothly between the Queen's siege of her own palace, a huge battle between Gungans and battle droids, Darth Maul taking on Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in a light saber duel, and Anakin's "accidental" attack on a space station. (I put "accidental" in quotes because although Anakin doesn't destroy the control ship intentionally, I suspect the Force is working through him to achieve its own goals.) The light saber fight is the best in the Star Wars saga so far, containing more nimble choreography than previous entries. Maul, played by the stuntman Ray Park, works in a number of flips and martial arts kicks (things that were stiffly hinted at as Jedi skills in The Empire Strikes Back) and takes on two Jedi at once. One of my favorite moments in the film is when a series of energy-walls separates the three combatants, so they immediately turn off their light sabers and wait. Qui-Gon patiently meditates while Maul paces back and forth, his eyes satanically glued to his enemy. In all of the depictions of raw evil in Lucas' films, none has ever approached the pure hatred in this man's eyes. For fans of the series, The Phantom Menace is loaded with precious touches. We get to see the time when Jedi were plentiful, so much so that they had a council led by Yoda and Samuel L. Jackson. We see cameos by rowdy sand people, Wookie senators, even Jabba's girlfriend. But most of all, we get to explore new planets and learn new details of the old ones, like the workings of the Tatooine slave trade. I didn't like Jar Jar, as I mentioned, but another computer-generated character, Watto, is more successful. He's a little, snouted guy with humming bird wings (the first flying character in the Star Wars universe?) who trades junk and makes Anakin work in his shop. He's a slimy character who is never redeemed, but when he loses Anakin in a bet he looks kind of sad, and you almost feel sorry for him. I often think it's this extra dimension - like the mourning Rancor owner in Return of the Jedi - that makes me love the Star Wars universe, and make it seem like a real place. There are other touches that weaken that real place feeling, though. Some of the character designs seem a little out of place. There's a two headed commentator at the pod races who talks just like a human sports announcer and whose faces look kind of like characters from Antz. It damages the slice-of-alien-life illusion that I loved so much in the cantina scene and in Jabba's palace. But for the most part the illusion is there, and in far more visual detail than ever before. Lucas has truly taken computer-generated imagery to the logical next level, painting entire worlds with it, not just inserting a monster here or there. Though I believe The Phantom Menace will be remembered fondly for the same reasons as the other Star Wars movies, it will be most notable historically as the movie that raised the stakes for digital visual effects by about fifteen or twenty notches. Acclaiming the special effects in a movie usually sounds like faint praise, and with a Star Wars movie it pretty much goes without saying. But I don't think people are acknowledging the kind of unprecedented visual spectacle we're dealing with here, where the vast majority of shots combine live action elements with computer animation, matte paintings and miniature models. It's so elaborate and non-stop that it becomes its own seamless reality. In the original trilogy you might think okay, these are real actors on a real set, but this next shot coming up - that's stop motion. The Phantom Menace visuals are so elaborate that there's no room for that. There are stretches where, as far as I know, nothing you're seeing on screen is real, but you don't think of it as Toy Story, you think of it as a real desert with real podracers flying through it. I'll be damned if I can figure out what's a computer image, what's a model and what's just a pile of dirt. The phenomenal detail of The Fifth Element seems lazy compared to what goes on in The Phantom Menace. I believe this will have a major effect on summer event movies where the main gimmick is the visual effects. How can you make a movie like Godzilla after everyone has seen this? "Hey, look at this - a computer animated monster. Can you believe this? Pay me money." The Phantom Menace has a sequence early on, one of the weaker ones in fact, that has three computer-generated giant fish with headlights shining on them in the darkness of water. All of them are far more impressive than the giant iguanaman in Godzilla, which had nothing else to offer. In The Phantom Menace, they're a forgettable throwaway, not the main event. Will this force the purveyors of big genre movies to put some more elbow grease into their special effects? Or will it make them say, "Fuck it, I can't deal with it, I'm doing something smaller"? I don't know. But I don't think it can be ignored. Lots of people mourn the dominance of big budget effects movies and prefer smaller, earthbound, character driven movies. Movies that take place in the real world, or that leave things to the imagination. And obviously there will always be a place for those. But Lucas is dealing in fantasy films, in documenting worlds that don't exist and making them seem like they do. Since at least the summer of 1990, when the T-1000 morphed into liquid metal, filmmakers have been talking about how computer technology will narrow the gap between what you can imagine and what you can put on screen. The Phantom Menace has proven that theory. For some filmmakers this will be liberating, for others it might be frightening. Because what if we can see into their imagination and there's nothing there? What if all they can think of is a big iguanaman? Lucas gives us more than an iguanaman. Lots, lots, lots, lots, lots more. He has given me a chance to see my 2 year-old nephew holding a plastic light saber, not really knowing what it is, saying, "I'm going to rescue Grandma." He's made me remember what it is that I felt in that drive-in so many years ago, seeing Star Wars as a child. And at the same time he's made me realize what the adults of the time - the ones who were turned on by Star Wars, anyway - might have felt, and how they might have questioned the future of popular entertainment in light of what they've just witnessed. I suspect The Phantom Menace is the beginning of more than just the Star Wars saga. But I guess I'll have to wait until the next episode to find out for sure. --Bryan Frankenseuss Theiss "I write rhymes so fresh I try to bite my own verses." --Tash From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 24 16:20:15 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: pm@postviews.freeuk.com (pm agapow) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc,aus.sf Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc,aus.sf Date: 12 Aug 1999 04:56:39 GMT Organization: Infocalypse Lines: 172 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7otk67$uv4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 934433799 31716 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19917 Keywords: author=agapow X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu User-Agent: MacSOUP/2.4 (unregistered for 74 days) Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:19117 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2424 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:337157 aus.sf:1934 [film] "The Phantom Menace" A Postview, copyright p-m agapow 1999 An even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... Imagine a world different to ours. Imagine a world where in the mid 90s George Lucas falls on hard times. Desperate for money, he is approached by a shadowy corporation. The rights to "Star Wars" change hands. From their sweaty, crowded offices (based in a remote tropical country for tax and legal conveniences), the new owners hatch their plans for a quick buck. Using evidence carefully accumulated over the years (photos of adolesents, movies on no-one's resume), several A-list actors are blackmailed into cooperating. The cast is completed by extras who are willing to pay to get into the film. Large quantities of special effects are ordered and shoehorned into the film, primarily to cover up for the sullen acting. Those who refuse to cooperate are tranquilized and lead through their scenes. The production takes a single month. Direction is done by members of the local cinema club, editing by the corporate accountant. Journalists are leant on, critics bribed, fan groups lead along. Anyone who asks for a merchandising license is given one. The whole world eagerly awaits "The Fandom Menace". A question: could this film be distinguished from the one that was released in our world? I doubt it. The original "Star Wars" trilogy is a flimsy hero for all the monuments that have been built to it. The storyline is thin, the acting only passable, the direction competent, the universe simplistic (and, "Chasing Amy" jokes aside, astoundingly white Anglo-saxon). It contains nothing that has not been done before in SF/F. But that's largely the point: if you're going to make a dumb swashbuckling space opera, it had better swash and buckle. For better or worse, that is what the original trilogy did. The passion of the most fanatic "Star Wars" fans is inexplicable, but it is a durable piece of escapist entertainment. And then we come to "The Phantom Menace", which is not a terrible film, but is terribly disappointing, banal and disjointed even by the subterranean standards of fandom. A movie only a marketer could love, its central problem is simple: it is badly made. The acting tanks, the dialogue is terrible, the script (there is no other word for it) sucks. It is disorganised and careless, a dumb film trying to be meaningful, an adult film unable to explain itself, a child's film that is pretentious. The plot is best left untold, lest the malevolent demons that had apparently possessed the script-writers during production are invoked. At best it's pedestrian (about a tax dispute!) and sprints from scene to scene with hurried explanations. At worst it becomes deliriously stupid, a few gems being: * Anakin building, in his spare time from bits and pieces, the fastest podracer on Tatooine which he races and wins in, untested. * A sub-Duchovnian explaination for the Force, which sounds like an amalgam of the ideas that L Ron Hubbard and Wilhelm Reich rejected. * The virgin birth of Anakin, which is either a gobsmackingly wide Christ metaphor (which makes no sense) or a desperately lateral attempt to avoid mentioning sex and so get that family rating certificate. (Actually I don't think anyone in the Star Wars universe has sex - the only person we meet who ever has is Darth and he's batting for the other side. Which is to say, he's a figure of ultimate evil. Go figure.) * Jar Jar Binks, a cringing Uncle Tom figure with an impenetrable accent who walks like he has a specific gravity less than cotton candy. Even during the somber scenes, he's dancing about in the background doing pratfalls. This demonstrates how advanced the "Star Wars' universe is: Instead of prejudice towards non-white, non-male humans (not that there are very many in "The Phantom Menace"), there is prejudice towards aliens. Even those in the cast who usually turn in strong performances (Neeson, McGregor, Portman) are terrible. The suppporting cast is hideous, especially the utterly resistable Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. (Or "Ani", as it's pronounced in Tatooine mallspeak.) With lines like "Yippee!" and "But Mom, didn't you tell me the problem with the universe is that noone wants to get involved?", I don't wonder the Jedi don't want to train him. He'd spend every morning at Jedi High getting his head flushed in the toilet by other students. However, the worse thing about "The Phantom Menace" is its lack of imagination, Lucas literally self-cannibalising from the original trilogy: Anakin (Luke) flying in and destroying the robot control station (death star) with the help of R2D2, the Gungan natives (Ewoks) fighting a delaying battle as the Jedi try to shut down a vital installation; the death of the old Jedi and passing of the flame to the new Jedi. Pop has not only eaten itself, it is smacking its lips and clammering for dessert. So eager is the director to connect to the original story that it becomes almost autoerotic as old characters are rushed by the camera: R2D2, C3P0, Jabba, Greedo, Yoda. Even Obiwan doesn't have any real reason to be in this film. He spends most of the film looking worried and doing the Jedi equivalent of pumping his fist and shouting "Yeah - what he said!" Is there anything good about "The Phantom Menace"? Some of the sets are impressive, for the scant seconds we see them. Some action scenes like the podrace and lightsaber fights come to colorful life, unspoiled by brain-damaged dialogue. It is interesting to note that these scenes would have been under the control of the SFX director and action choreographer. How come "The Phantom Menace" is bad? How did the most anticipated and tightly controlled movie of all times get to be so bad? For many, the villian of choice is creator Lucas, guilty of fathering the "blockbuster movie", the dumb, hyper-merchandised and rigidly formulaic films that pollute our screens each year. This accusation seems hollow to me. The marketing of any of the original "Star Wars" trilogy comes nowhere near that as is now routinely practiced. Even if there is a direct causal chain from the "Star Wars" to "Independence Day" and "Wild Wild West", it couldn't have been foreseen. The vast bounty that Lucas has made from Star Wars is as much a historical accident as anything. Conversely, it's difficult to blame the makers of the over-hyped films that followed, the Emmerichs, the Spielbergs, the Sonnefelds. When the success of a movie is so ruthlessly bent to marketing, can they be blamed for saying "I want some of that?" Similarly, it's very easy to accuse Lucas of just milking the public for squillions of dollars. No doubt he will do well out of TPM, and certainly the hype and control exercised by him were extraordinary. But this falls far short of evidence for avarice on his part. (And realistically, just how much more money could he use?) No, I think Lucas is sincere and the juggernaut way he controls his creation is just a mark of how much he cares about his product, how much he wants to enthral people, to create a phenomena. And he doesn't have the skill. The lumbering script is evidence of that. The cannibalisation of everything he has seen, including his own movies, is evidence of that. The incoherent, leaden direction is evidence of that. Lucas is the reason "The Phantom Menace" is bad, but this can't explain how it was allowed to become bad. The culprits, I fear, are us, the audience. We've allowed ourselves to be fired-up by publicity, to be dragged along to see a "Star Wars" film, no matter what it is. We'll go and see a lousy movie, just so we're not left out of loop of conversation. This is why marketing is everything and quality is nothing. Ask yourself just how bad "the Pahntom Menace" would have to be before you wouldn't see. People could be dropping dead in the aisles or driven blind by the sheer badness, and most of us would still say: "Well, the death rate is down in recent sessions, so maybe we'll wait until the weekend ..." "The Phantom Meance" is crap, but then that's what movies are now, and always will be. At least while we keep going to them. It may be a futile gesture, it's unlikely to make you any happier, but skip the next blockbuster, skirt the next load of hype. It's the only solution. [*/misfire] and "like a thousands voices had cried out" on the Sid and Nancy scale. "The Phantom Menace" Released 1999. Produced, directed and written by George Lucas. Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan Mcgregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd. Based on an idea. -- Paul-Michael Agapow (p.agapow@ic.ac.uk), Biology, Imperial College "We were too young, we lived too fast and had too much technology ..." From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Sep 20 11:43:20 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Alex Ioshpe" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 20 Sep 1999 04:25:02 GMT Organization: Telenor Online Public Access Lines: 87 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7s4cuu$tfi$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 937801502 30194 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #20628 Keywords: author=ioshpe X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:19840 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2461 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:344743 RATING: 8/10 After 20 years of hope and pleading, George Lucas finely directs a prequel in the Star Wars-saga. Visually mesmerizing it is also extremely flawed as it displays the magnificence of modern special effects and the simplicity of modern storytelling. As imminent conflict brews between the powerful Trade Federation and the peaceful planet of Naboo, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) travel to Naboo to warn the Queen (Natalie Portman) of the galactic fallout which is to follow. Eventually, Naboo is invaded forcing the Jedis to evacuate the planet with the Queen and her court. They travel to the desert planet of Tatooine where they meet a slave boy called Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd (I) ) who is evidently one with the Force. They enlist his help in fighting the war, while the Jedis confront one of the Dark Jedis behind the invasion, Darth Maul, while his master Darth Sidious (who by the way is the corrupted, but respectable senator of Naboo) continues to lead the invasion as a mysterious "phantom" behind the scenes. Because of the high expectations the film may be a disappointment to the die-hard-Star-Wars-fans. The major difference between "Episode 1" and "Episode IV" is that the first film had a fresh plot and was as original as entertaining. This plot was supported by special effects. In "Episode 1" it is vice versa. Here the special effects are supported by a story. At times the film looks more like a demonstration of visual effects (as the unnecessary pod-race). Besides the thin story there were other things that troubled me. One of those things is acting. Lucas has assembled a solid cast, including Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jin) , Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala. It is only Neeson and Portman that give above average performances. At the same time, acting is something you can't demand of "Episode 1", because of the computer graphics. Actors are mostly talking to themselves at the set, and the script is likewise nothing to boast of. Another thing is that there are almost none comic relieves in "Episode 1". In the previous Star Wars-episodes you had the energetic Harrison Ford , whose witty and humorous commentaries are very missed. You also had Yoda, R2-D2, C3PO in many episodic scenes. In "Episode 1" you have only Jar Jar; a charecter that is meant to be funny, but isn't. The rest of the characters mentioned above, are present, but absolutely not developed as the time is instead granted on beautiful visual effects. But there are not only negative things that I have to say about "Episode 1". Lucas' extraordinary taste and visual imagination transports us from the Royal Palace of Naboo to the glittering underwater city and then to Coruscant, the political heart of the Republic and the headquarters of both the Galactic Senate and the Jedi Council. Visually the film is above stunning. It's a feast. The revolutionary visual- and sound effects are certainly the greatest ever. Equally magnificent are Trisha Biggar's costume design, Gavin Bocquet's production design and makeup by Paul Engelen and Mark Coulier . As far as common adventure and science fiction films go, "Episode 1" is one of the best. But as the controversial prequel to the classic cult-film, it is a bit disappointing, because of its simplicity. Lucas has probably figured out that everyone saw his previous Star Wars episodes. He has certainly flattered himself. The evolution of Anakin Skywalker from an innocent boy to the servant of darkness is completely unknown to the new audience. Yoda, R2-D2 and C3PO are total strangers. If he has chosen to direct a film mostly to please the old fans of Star Wars, he has taken the subject very lightly. After creating a revolutionary film that received a cult status all around the world, George Lucas has a lot to live up to. And if he has chosen to continue, he can't just serve emptiness on a beautiful plate and expect the audiences to throw themselves over it. Offcourse everything depends on the point of view of every individual. If you have never seen the previous Star Wars-films, you will probably think that "Episode 1" is marvelous. If you have, you will probably share my opinion. The best thing you can do is not expect too much. See this film simply to experience the unbelievable special effects and try to relive the magic of the first film as it came out more than 20 years ago. Review by Alex Ioshpe < ioshpe@online.no> Story summary by Matthew McQuillan {mjment@hotmail.com} From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Oct 20 12:41:06 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!nuq-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sea-feed.news.verio.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: flyers130@aol.com (John Carroll) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 14 Oct 1999 05:02:29 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 60 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7u3o55$le6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 939877349 21958 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #21109 Keywords: author=carroll X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:20321 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2478 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:347170 It could never live up to the hype. For over a decade, fans have been clamoring for the latest installment in the Star Wars saga, and they got it. Unfortunately, it never had a chance. The Phantom Menace never stood a chance. There was too much hype. However, Star Wars fans should be pleased with the outlook of the other two prequels. If this were just an ordinary film, I would be giving it a lower grade. However, this is Star Wars and when you look at it from that context, it all makes sense. To state the obvious, this film has the most up-to-date visuals in the special effects industry and it shows. Naboo is beautiful. The Senate Chamber on Coruscant is mind boggling. The Gungan City is ahead of its time. The visuals have set a new watermark for the industry and the only film in the future that looks like it can topple it is Episode 2. After the visuals, some aspects of the film falter. But, there still are some bright spots. Natalie Portman gives a stubborn performance, but its fitting for what Lucas wanted to show for Queen Amidala. All things considered, Portman probably gave the best performance in the film. Many doubts were cast on Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. He has a solid performance, but nothing extraordinary. The acting problem arises with Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. Both of these men have extraordinary talents, but it seems Lucas never decided on whom should take the lead role in the film. It seems both characters never shine bright, they only cast light rays of hope. In the end, Qui-Gon dies and leaves McGregor with the task of leading the way in Episodes 2 and 3. The dialogue is a bit dry at times, but is not all that bad. My real concern comes with Jar-Jar Binks and the Gungans. Jar-Jar, to put it simply, is the most annoying motion picture character I have encountered. The choice to give him a strange language is good, but if you lose your attention for one minute when he is speaking, you will be totally lost. The Gungans were not that bad. They play a huge role in the end of the film during the battle with the Droid Army, but the kiddy factor comes into play. If you watch closely, you will see the battlefield strewn with dead warriors. However, if you look at these bodies, ninety-five percent of them belong to the droids. Then, the Gungans retreat. It seems Lucas did not want to "upset" the children by killing off many Gungans. Of course, no kids will realize this aspect which tailors to children, but makes the scene totally unbelievable to the mature viewer, which most Star Wars fans are. The last factor to consider is that this is Star Wars. This alone makes the film entertaining. John Williams’ score for the film is once again amazing and adds a whole new dimension to The Phantom Menace. It is a great feeling to see Darth Maul appear on the screen and then hear "Duel of the Fates" start blasting across the theatre. The lightsaber battles are tremendous. This is nothing like the first battle in A New Hope with Obi-Wan and Vader practically just standing around and hitting sabers. The lightsaber fights are well choreographed and Ray Park and McGregor show off their agility with perfection. All in all, The Phantom Menace turns out to be an entertaining film. Star Wars has never been known for terrific acting or spicy dialogue. At best, it’s a little bit above average. But, it is still Star Wars and it is the first episode of a new trilogy. With work, the trilogy will progressively get better and we, the fans, will benefit the most. Three Stars Out of Four Stars The Movie Page- http://jump.to/moviepage Reviews, Previews, News and So Much More! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Oct 20 12:42:12 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Ross Anthony" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 5 Oct 1999 06:03:09 GMT Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Lines: 65 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7tc4at$gq0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer20.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 939103389 17216 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #20951 Keywords: author=anthony X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer20.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:20163 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:346172 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2469 The Light Side of The Force Star Wars: The Phantom Menace By Ross Anthony The "Star Wars" logo bursting on the screen opened a time capsule of memories that exploded in a spontaneous applause from all of us. We were charged and ready to be flown out of our seats in the same way the original "greatest story ever told" had done it nearly a quarter century ago. And to be sure, "The Menace" has some thunder under the hood; though I hate to say it, not enough to match the infinite expectations orbiting in our heads. "The Phantom Menace" is Episode 1 of 9 (episodes 4 through 6 were produced prior). So your favorite characters are either young or not born yet, hence played by different actors. The set up for things to come is all here, cleverly planned, but rather plainly executed. The dialogue spills out of passionless characters with little more purpose than to explain their plight. Where was the drama? Where was the guts? Part of the answer lies in robotic enemies. Scores of daffy duck soldiers hardly fill the storm trooper boots. They shoot a lot, but never seem to hit any human targets and are as easily knocked down as green plastic army guys -- I didn't fear them. So how could I respect a "hero" who took them out? The only formidable enemy is Darth Maul. With a double-edged light saber, he steals the show -- taking on both the young Obi (Ewan McGregor) and his Jedi Master (Liam Neeson). That's the drama I want! Unfortunately, it's not enough to carry the movie. The only other characters that display any spirit are 1) an annoying alien camel-like creature replacement for the nagging C3PO droid and 2) the cocky young Skywalker. The latter is charming and provides the closest being to a character with which to sympathize. That said, in addition to the saber duel (or should I say trio), there's an absolutely all-out-wonderful pod (hover craft) race that makes this episode worth catching in the theaters. Spectacular in their imaginative designs, the pod-chariots whirl around a coliseum type race course, seemingly weaving in and out of the theater's audience. Sparks fly, as the screaming engines blare from left to right, back to front -- this race will engulf you. The choice to keep the main characters reserved and poker-faced, drains the picture of many juicy possibilities. Why can't the young Obi be drawn romantically to the Noboo Princess, causing an internal conflict? He is the apprentice this time, but already seems rather flawless. Quite uninteresting in its stale moments, the "Menace" soars from time to time. And after all, it is "Star Wars." You can't stop respecting a Jedi Master just because he's getting slower in his older years. Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake LLoyd and Ian McDiarmid. Written and directed by George Lucas. Produced by Rick McCallum at Lucasfilm LTD/20th Century Fox. Grade..........................B+ -- Copyright © 1999 Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: http://RossAnthony.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Apr 27 15:01:28 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.alt.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: c3lornehop@aol.com (J. Marty) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 25 Apr 2000 17:26:05 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 107 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8e4kfd$bl4e$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 956683565 382094 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #24247 Keywords: author=marty X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:23333 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2691 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:366465 To paraphrase the Book of Psalms: "Lucas, Lucas, why have you forsaken us?" That could well be said of George Lucas' latest attempt at cinema, THE PHANTOM MENACE. After a 22-year break, ol' Georgie Porgie returns once again to direct a STAR WARS film. Unfortunately, the Force seems to be no longer with him. The 1977 debut film A NEW HOPE was easily a celluloid masterpiece and has earned its rightful place in Hollywood immortality. But in 1999, like a pale shadow of the original, came THE PHANTOM MENACE. If A NEW HOPE was filet mignon, then THE PHANTOM MENACE is just a little above Hamburger Helper. And now, breakdown: PLOT: One of the greatest things about A NEW HOPE was its devilishly basic story: an evil Empire, led by the merciless warlord Darth Vader, kidnaps Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, and it's up to a farm boy, a smuggler, a Wookiee, a Jedi Knight, and two droids to rescue her and also defeat a massive planet-destroying superweapon, the Death Star! THE PHANTOM MENACE, on the other hand, has a plot that goes something like this: Two Jedi Knights arrive as Old Republic ambassadors to a blockade by the greedy Trade Federation of the planet Naboo, ruled by the 14-year-old Queen Amidala who is trying to appeal to the Republican Senate on Coruscant which is filled with corruption, etc. What?! This is the movie's single greatest flaw - the fact that Lucas, disregarding the time-honored aphorism that less is more, has crammed every last inkling of plot he can into what is supposed to be a simple space opera for kids from 4 to 94. Whatever happened to the gee-whiz, tried-and-true sci-fi formula that was employed - and worked to maximum effect - in 1977? If it ain't broke, George, then don't fix it. Unfortunately, he did. CHARACTERS: Many of the characters in this movie are so bland that you actually don't care when bad things happen to them. The most likable character by far is Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), a courageous yet earnest Jedi Knight who leads his companions into battle and is also responsible for the discovery of young Jedi-to-be Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd). A classic hero, Qui-Gon radiates charisma, personality, and good humor - much more than could be said for any of the other characters. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the wise old Jedi in the original films, is here portrayed by Ewan McGregor as a whiny Gen-Xer who questions everything. Though he is more level-headed in some ways than his master Qui-Gon, I couldn't help thinking that Ewan really needed to loosen up in his performance as the young Jedi. His brooding demeanor really brought the role down. Could somebody please tell me why Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) the mother of the dynamic duo of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, seems more like a department store mannequin than a monarch? She's actually kind of creepy, with a makeup job like Marcel Marceau and an accent like Nikita Krushchev. That flat, emotionless voice got so boring after a while that I kept hoping she'd burp or get the hiccups or something - anything to break up the monotony. Her costumes were ridiculous and she could have gotten rich donating the whole lot to museums. And to top it all off, she is even more grim than the somber Obi-Wan and waits until the film is 75 percent over before finally cracking a real smile. And then there's the boy. Granted, Anakin Skywalker is a tough role to do and you can't usually expect an Oscar-caliber performance out of a 10-year-old. But Jake Lloyd's take on the child hero was a little too cute. At some points, it was so syrupy that you could have drowned a thousand flapjacks in it. Are we to believe that a child shrewd enough to speak alien languages and build machines all by his lonesome would respond to a joyful situation with an insipid "Yippee!"? And I know this movie was pure fantasy, but Lucas threatened to stretch our credulity to the breaking point by having Anakin win (let alone survive) a treacherous pod race and by also having him blow up a gigantic space station without ever having been in such a battle before (if I could have done that at his age, my fame would have been celebrated by the carving of my face on Mount Rushmore). Overall, I find the idea of the little rugrat one day becoming the notorious supervillain Darth Vader a little hard to swallow. Maybe he just has a little more growing up to do. Mesa no liked Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best). A member of the amphibious Gungan species native to Naboo's swamps and lakes, Jar Jar spends the entire movie clowning around and speaking even worse English than Yoda (Frank Oz). His antics, while gut-bustingly hilarious, become so prevalent that they distract the audience from everything else that is going on in the movie (and there's a lot going on, believe me). I realize that Jar Jar was supposed to be a substitute for Chewbacca the Wookiee in the earlier films, but the correlation isn't quite as accurate as Lucas intended. Chewie may have been comical at times, but at least he had authentic human qualities (such as loyalty to Han Solo or anger at Lando Calrissian's apparent betrayal of Han). Jar Jar, on the other hand, is just a clueless buffoon. Other than bringing the Gungans and the humans of Naboo together in a grand alliance against the Trade Federation (a feat which must really be attributed to Queen Amidala), Jar Jar does nothing except do his best Bob Marley imitation, hoping that that alone will suffice as comic relief. OTHER STUFF: The inconsistencies between THE PHANTOM MENACE and the original films are legion. Why is it that practically every alien species in TPM speaks English while Yoda and Admiral Ackbar were the only Anglophone characters in the originals? How come the Jedi Knighs in TPM all know tae kwon do when martial arts were never used by Luke and the gang? And what on God's green earth was Lucas thinking when he decided that the Force should be the by-product of Jedi cooties rather than a mysterious energy field? The special effects also bugged me. Sure, they were spectacular. But that was precisely the problem. The STAR WARS movies have always been remembered for their uncompromising realism in creating the look and feel of science fiction, so making the effects too fanciful somehow takes the edge off Lucas' distinctive atmosphere. Besides, too much striving to keep up with technology only tends to date the films. Young people who saw THE PHANTOM MENACE and who grew up after the 1970s and '80s will eventually see the original films and dismiss them as outdated, pre-CGI schlock. Not only that, but later generations will likewise look at this film and find the effects to be a product of their time. FINAL THOUGHTS: As a self-confessed STAR WARS geek, I am overjoyed to see the greatest fantasy phenomenon in movie history return to the big screen. But as a film historian and movie purist, I can only evaluate THE PHANTOM MENACE according to its superior predecessors. No matter how good a STAR WARS film is nowadays, it's invariably going to be compared to the 1977-1983 trilogy, which will always be the first and foremost in moviegoers' hearts. Alas, THE PHANTOM MENACE, which is supposed to be a prequel and a mere prelude to the grandeur to come, has the crippling aura of "remake" about it. When something has been done right the first time, sometimes it is best to just leave it alone. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 2 12:34:42 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: skad13@my-deja.com (Steven Bailey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Subject: Review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc Date: 30 Apr 2000 18:37:55 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 68 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8ehui3$bl1a$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 957119875 381994 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #24334 Keywords: author=bailey X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:23416 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2693 rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc:367128 Speaking as an outsider in whom The Force is not very strong, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is quite agreeable. It's not as lush or cinematic as The Empire Strikes Back (1980), but in terms of imagery (and even plot twists), it's leagues ahead of the original Star Wars (1977) and the dreary second sequel, Return of the Jedi (1983). (For those who have no idea what those titles mean, your homework is to spend six hours watching "The Star Wars Trilogy" on video before reading any further.) The latest movie is not without its quibbles. Star Wars creator George Lucas's plot--mostly about a bedraggled queen (Natalie Portman) and her budding relationship with Anakin Skywalker (9-year-old Jake Lloyd), who will grow up to be villainous Darth Vader--has more crosscurrents than director Lucas can handle. As he made clear in Star Wars, Lucas's directorial style is to throw TV-style lighting on the actors and let them mangle the dialogue for a while. The Star Wars series' "Give me a break" quotient rises perilously high here. (In particular, the origin of Anakin Skywalker's conception is a true whopper.) And the movie's attempt at ultimate villainy--a horned creature named Darth Maul--seems created solely to goose up the movie's final big battle. On the plus side, we get the origins of R2D2, C3P0, Yoda (voiced again by Frank Oz), Obi-Wan Kenobi (nicely done by Ewan McGregor) and, of course, Darth Vader. Among the new creations, the most delightful--in only my opinion, perhaps--is Jar Jar Binks (well-voiced by Ahmed Best), and Watto, the oversized-fly creature who barters with Obi-Wan's mentor Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) for slave Anakin's freedom. The plot twists involving Binks and the queen, which at first seem tiresome, turn quite fresh at the end--especially in Binks's battle scene, which goes so far as to rip off Buster Keaton's chase scene in SEVEN CHANCES (1925) and makes it work. My biggest reservation with The Phantom Menace is the same one that I--and countless other reviewers--have had since Star Wars first reared its head: This series sometimes is a bit too comfortable with the non-human touch. In an awful lot of scenes, the payoff depends upon characters created entirely in someone's computer. And the ones that should depend upon human impact--especially a couple of separation scenes--show how much more comfortable Lucas is with digital creations than with human beings. One hopes the upcoming sequels will allow for a little more humanism. On the other hand--who's counting?--most of the actors here fare better than did Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, perhaps because some proven actors are on board this time. Neeson, McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, and especially Portman come across commendably. And if you can hang on until the inevitable cross-cutting finale, the payoffs are quite satisfying. As with the last two Star Wars movies, The Phantom Menace does assume you've seen the previous movies in order to get some of the payoffs, so it might convert few newcomers. But one wonders how many Star Wars newcomers are left in the universe. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is rated PG for mild innuendo and comic-book-style violence. Submitted by: Steven Bailey http://pages.hotbot.com/movies/skad13 Steven Bailey, a movie reviewer for The Beaches Leader newspaper in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, has his reviews posted on The Internet Movie Database at: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Steven+Bailey Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.