

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.