

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/

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