Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace
Rating: ***
Music: Fabulous—What can I say? John Williams + Star Wars
Quality of acting: Not as good as the first 3
Profanity: Thankfully, no

Review:
Well, Star Wars nut as I am, I have to say that The Phantom Menace didn't live up to it's predecessors (or descendants, chronologically speaking). The movie had its pros and cons and was certainly not a bad movie at all. But since the original 3 Star Wars movies are my favorite movies, The Phantom Menace had a lot to live up to, so hang on, I'm going to nitpick and practically write an article! First I will go into why it didn't live up to the other 3. I tried not to be influenced by all the reviews I heard before opening night. Still, I have to agree with some reviewers who said the movie was a little juvenile. The movie got better as it progressed, but as the intro scrolled up into space, I thought it was written for kids. Next, the movie didn't really connect (at least for me) with the other 3; there were very few ships, aliens, or anything else that were the same as in the other 3. But this isn't too big of a deal, as we will have 2 more movies to bring us up to A New Hope. The acting was also something that needed a little work. Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan) looked very much like he was a pre-Alec Guinness, but it took a little while for his acting to get off the ground. I also felt Natalie Portman's acting left a lot to be desired. Battle droids are my next point: for droids specifically made to be fighters, they sure are easily destroyed (one measly blaster shot will do it)! Regarding the villains: I have questions, like: If Yoda says,"Always two there are, the master and the apprentice," who was Darth Sidious's master? If he had one, where did he come from? I also find it strange that although the Jedi Council, full of the most powerful Jedi Masters in the galaxy, was on the same planet (Coruscant) as the Darths, the Jedi did not know of their existance. All we get in explanation is a very weak line from Yoda: "Hard to see is the dark side," or something like that. I thought the Jedi Masters were wiser and more alert than that. And speaking of Yoda, he looked, frankly, not at all like Classic Trilogy Yoda. Next, I have a bit of a problem with the CG (computer generated) characters. I must say that they were integrated with the real people/sets brilliantly, but they themselves still looked kinda fake. One of the appeals, I think, of the first 3 movies, was that there wasn't CG, so everything had to be made of something real. Maybe it was something made to look like something totally different, but it was real, had real-looking movement, and so we related to it; believed it could happen "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Plus, most of the new CG characters/species were, I thought, ugly. And speaking of CG characters, it brings me to my final point of what this movie needed a little improvement on. Jar Jar Binks, the CG Gungan, was the worst example of this, but not the only one: too much slapstick/comedy/jokes, and too many "Yeah right" moments. Lucas tried too hard to put comedy in where it didn't belong, like when dorky Jar Jar accidentally helps out the army with his clumsiness in the midst of what would best have been a serious battle. It took a lot out of the intensity of the ground battle scenes. I found myself saying "yeah, right" to many of the non-comedy situations too. Jar-Jar was so clumsy and troublesome, a wise Jedi like Qui-Gon would never have brought him along to Mos Espa (not to mention that the dry sandy environment should have killed him). The whole end battle was just won by chance (Anakin blowing up the space station by accident) and not by skill, grit, and sacrifice, like the first three movies. And things like Anakin being "immaculately concieved" by the Force, or the Force being caused by tiny organisms inside cells, or many other things, made me think, "What?" Maybe I just need to see it again to clarify some points that I didn't catch the first time around because some of the characters (mostly the Gungans) were next to impossible to even understand. There are lots of reasons why I liked the movie, though. First, not all the acting left room for improvement. A lot of the minor actors did a great job. Most notable, I think, was Ian McDiarmid (the emperor, now his pre-emperor self, Senator Palpatine). Queen Amidala had some pretty awesome costumes, I have to say. And the spaceships were pretty cool. The lightsaber battles were absolutely fantastic!!! They were really awesome, fast, and complicated. Even though Jake Lloyd was not that great of an actor, Anakin was very cute and such a lovable character--that will make his fall even more dramatic. A lot of people criticized the plot because there was a lot politics and it was thus "too slow." I think that just shows how shrewd Palpatine/Darth Sidious is. And anyway, it's very realistic because wars and falls of civilizations don't start with a huge fight--they start with corruption, secret manipulation, and crappy politicians who vote the government more power over people's lives. So I don't criticize the movie for that. But my favorite part of the movie was the settings. Naboo was lush, beautiful, stunning. Queen Amidala's palace was fabulous. The underwater city and underwater jouney were pretty neat. Tatooine was our good old Tatooine, but the terrain in the pod race gave us a better picture of it. The Senate scene was really cool, too. And Coruscant was unbelieveable! A whole world that is a city--and they did a fantastic job on it. The lights, the buildings, the traffic. . .WOW! Well, nitpicking aside, it still gave it 3 stars because it was a clean and enjoyable movie, better than most these days.

Bottom Line: It's got it's good parts, but had Episode 1 come first, I'm not sure the world would have gotten AS hooked on Star Wars.


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