Star Wars: The Phantom Menace takes its place in the Star Wars series as an instant classic with broad appeal. The genuine reason that Star Wars is extraordinarily popular is that it tells a timeless story of good and evil using modern fantasy: Science Fiction.

The movie begins with little explanation as to why the two Jedi are so quickly discovered, but the suddenness makes it both more believable and preserved continuity- it is important to the story, but not important enough to spend time plotting and catching the Jedi in word traps, although if later in the movie it’d have given a little ‘Sting’ to the movie.

After remarkable swashbuckling allows the Jedi to escape from the lair of the Trade Federation, along with giving the Viceroy an indication of the power of the Jedi, the movie drags whilst Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn hook up with walking fish Jar Jar Binx and get aid from the incompetent Grungans. This is where the film truly, if only for a few moments, departs from non-profane fantasy into Disney-like fluff, presenting the Grungan leaders as bush-league chieftains filled with pride, but not intellect. Nevertheless, as soon as we depart from the water world and return to battle droids and lightsabers, the tempo and interest level accelerates. The rescue of the Queen and their escape from Naboo does have the standard cliches’ [bad actor looks at a screen and yells, “We’re losing power!], but this is where R2-D2 makes his entrance.

Forced to land on the remote planet of Tatooine, the movie delivers more dramatics than action, but is rewarding none the less. Perhaps the most enjoyable and interesting character of the movie [not Jabba the Hutt, who is later credited as having played himself in the movie] is the CG character Watto, the scrap dealer, whom bares a resemblance to Phil Silvers, that owns a young slave, Anakin Skywalker. Here we have a director’s delight- a fully programmable and doctorable character that is at the will of the director as to what to do with him. This character was my personal favorite since he is presented as not some one-dimensional oger, but a sly, caniving dwarf that does have a heart underneath blue skin and wings.

Lucas is not one to leave us out there without a cardboard thin character whose death is not mourned by the audience. Unfortunately, George Lucas is so good at one-dimension villains that Darth Maul is a sorry sight to see go [in two pieces]. In this portion of the movie we are introduced to this character, important to this movie’s storyline, but in the grander scheme of things a minor player. “At last we will have...revenge.” he says to his master, Darth Sidious, who has an uncanny resemblance to the Emperor of Return of the Jedi. Later we are enlightened that the Sith, whom Darth Sidious and Darth Maul are members in good standing, have been extinct for a Millenium, and that “Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice.” Perhaps this is Maul’s motivation for “revenge.”

Having given us a total of maybe five minutes of screen time to deliver those lines, Lucas lets you mull those few words over while we are treated to a visually stunning, if ridiculous and Ben-Hurish, racing sequence. Aside from the final showdown between the Jedi Knights and Darth Maul [whose character is enriched with a double-edged lightsaber], the pod race is the highlight of the movie. Familiar special effects sounds are donned [remember the sound of the ambassador transport exploding at the beginning of the movie- that sound is reused several times within the racing sequence], and, for perhaps the first time in Star Wars history, the audience is treated to black humor when Anakin whips around a corner and is shot at by mischievous Sandpeople. Ultimately, Anakin wins, but when the audience sees how the boy defeats Sebulba, his cheating rival, we have to conclude that it wasn’t 100% wholesome. Watto is ruined, and tries to renig upon his bet to Qui-Gon about Anakin’s freedom. Ultimately, the blue scrap dealer concedes and that is the last we see of him. [Note: In a previous scene, Darth Maul lands on Tatooine and sends small flying droids to find the Queen and the Jedi. In the collection scene at the raceway, in one scene you’ll notice a small ball, one of Maul’s droids, passing threw the background, then leaving to inform Maul]

The Jedi, Anakin [who is believed by Qui-Gon to be a potential Jedi prophet], and posse leave Tatooine, but only after encountering the villainous Darth Maul, who chased Qui-Gon off, but fails to kill him. This is where the plot thickens, the Jedi having been introduced to the villain, and thus complicating their mission.

The movie delivers even more dramatics, though more melo-dramatic than attention grabbing character plays like those of Anakin’s mother and Qui-Gon, when all parties involved head off the Coruscant to beg the Senate for help. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon presents Anakin before the Jedi Council, who are asked to take Anakin in as an apprentice, for his strength with the force is unparalleled by any Jedi, including Yoda. But, the council judges the boy too old, so Qui-Gon puts young Obi-Wan up to taking the Jedi trials so Qui-Gon may school Anakin as a Jedi. One can speculate the Yoda had an ulterior motive in denying Anakin the privilege of being trained, perhaps Yoda wished to retain his place as de-facto leader of the Council. Nevertheless, the story thickens with imperfect heroes as the Queen, nudged by a rather seedy Senator Palpatine, stabs her old ally Chancellor Valorum in the back with a no-confidence vote in the Senate. When Palpatine winds up being nominated, the Queen returns to her world to organize an attack to destroy her occupiers, the Trade Federation. This tactic is oddly similar to how the Borg are destroyed in Star Trek: First Contact.

The movie sails pretty smoothly till the end, when we are thrown a movie’s worth of battle in about 25 minutes. The fantastic attains the ridiculous as Anakin, a boy of 10, takes on the Federation with a star-fighter, clumsy bumble butt Jar Jar Binx is given the rank of General in the Grungan army, and the two Jedi force Darth Maul from the hanger to an arcade of bridges and suspensions, proving that in Star Wars, one is never more than two minutes away from a bottomless pit. The ultimate effect the movie has on people is overwhelming satisfaction and joy when the credits roll, but several points of the movie don’t jive, thus making the movie less than perfect.

Better than Return of the Jedi but not as fresh as Star Wars or as good as The Empire Strikes Back, The Phantom Menace does a superb job of introducing characters, setting up the storyline, and whetting the audience’s appetite. Let’s hope we have not seen the best yet, nor have we seen the last of the plot twists. We know Palpatine is Sidious, who is the Emperor. Why not throw a twist into that equation? But the true accomplishment of this movie is it completely redefines the core of the saga. Alone, the original trilogy tells the story of a boy who becomes a man by saving his father’s soul. With this new movie, and potentially two more, the saga is now the story of the savior that literally had to give his soul to save the universe, and for that was given his soul back by his son. Stuff that surpasses even Shakespeare.