(1999)
A space-station-full of battle droids proves no match for Jinn and Kenobi, however, as one of the coolest scenes of the movie sees them going down corridors, twirling, slashing and hacking their way through the droids with their lightsabres, and deflecting their laser blasts back at them with deadly precision, making the whole thing seem effortless.
The droids could be better. They do not look or act very menacing, and talk like early Cybermen, but not as threatening. Possibly this is because they say daft things like "uh-oh" and "D'oh!" I kept expecting one of them to say, "I have a bad feeling about this..." The Federation hierarchy is also poor, and is given some truly awful dialogue.
Unfortunately the Naboos’ problems don't end with the approaching invasion army; they share their planet with a race of annoying CGI lizards: the Gungans. The Jedi run into Jar Jar Binks, a being banished from a race famous for being annoying... for being too annoying. For some reason Qui-Gon chooses to take Binks with them, instead of leaving him to face some well-deserved "pooonishment."
Jar Jar is only really there so that George Lucas can show off about having a completely CGI character in a live-action film; and he apparently wanted Star Wars' first totally comic character. Unfortunately to achieve this he shoehorned in stupid slapstick shenanigans that detract from every scene Binks appears in. It would have been far better to put some effort in and think of humour which arose from the situations, as was done to much better effect with Han Solo's humour in the original trilogy.
Kenobi and Jinn liberate foxy Naboo Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and steal a ship. There's a couple of really cool scenes where they go about this. McGregor, particularly, is great, he acts exactly like a Jedi would, walking towards a load of droids that are holding some pilots prisoners with absolute confidence, and performing some very cool lightsabre moves.
Finally they meet future Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, as a young ten year-old boy. The Boy is strong in the Force, apparently this is because he has a high count of Midi-Chlorians in his blood, a stupid idea that makes having Jedi powers little more than a disorder.
Anakin has built C-3PO, a droid to help his mother around the house, which explains a lot. Both C-3PO and R2-D2 have utterly pointless roles in this movie, like Jar Jar, adding nothing to the plot.
The pod race sequence is excellent, as the huge chariot-like pods thunder around the desert and through canyons, smashing into each other and exploding in beautiful CGI detail. It is only marred slightly by Anakin's over-the-top facial expressions, as he grimaces and gurns his way round the track.
The climax of the movie splits into four separate strands. The two Jedi take on Darth Maul. Darth Sidious' apprentice is the red-and-black-faced Maul (Ray Park), complete with shark-teeth sticking out if his skull to make him look hard. He sports a double-ended red lightsabre, which makes for some amazing fighting. He can easily take on both the Jedi at once, and throw in some martial arts to kick them about a bit. The choreography is amazing. When Kenobi avenges Jinn’s deat, it is the most visceral swordplay we’ve yet seen. It just a shame it keeps getting interrupted to show how the other characters are faring...
Queen Amidala and a retinue of her guards gun-fight their way through lots of droids to reach the throne room, where they capture the Trade Federation Viceroy. It's not bad, but it's not as good as the lightsabre fight.
Anakin accidentally ends up the cockpit of a Naboo fighter, with the rest of the squadron who are earnestly trying to destroy a space-station which controls the battle droids, while the Boy prats about. Yoda said he could sense much fear in young Anakin, but there's not much in evidence here as he flys through the battle saying stupid things like, "Let's do a roll, that's a neat trick!" Unfortunately he succeeds where the trained fighter pilots fail, and destroys the space station, just by arsing about, thereby negating any seriousness to the entire conflict. It was done so well with Luke in Episode IV, where he had to use his fledgling ability with the Force t destroy the Death Star.
On the ground Jar Jar Binks has been made a General in the Gungan army (why are all Star Wars characters made Generals at the drop of a hat?) Presumably they realise that they are completely inferior to the droid army in every way, and hope that Binks' brand of (supposedly) hilariously killing the enemy accidentally while being a dickhead and causing havoc to their lines will see them through.
At the end, as the cast all stand around Qui-Gon's barbequing corpse, you realise the Senator Palpatine is Darth Sidious! The whole conflict, which seemed pretty weak anyway, was all about him playing both sides off each other so that he would be elected as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. The clever bugger got put in charge of the whole Galaxy. The whole movie seems suddenly much better, much darker, than before. The good guys haven't won at all. They just think they have.
