Get the movie poster!
Okay. Before I begin here, let me tell you where I'm coming from. I have
been a fan of Star Wars for many years. I collect the original action
figures and Marvel comic books. I own the letterboxed versions of the original
and
the Special Edition versions of the films. And I was excited as
the next guy when I sat down on May 19th to behold The Phantom Menace.
But Star Wars for me was not the life-changing experience it apparently
was for so many people. They're just movies. Movies I enjoy immensely,
but mainly as escapist fantasy. There are many movies I like much more,
and many movies which are much, much more important. But they are
great films, I like them a lot, and I was, as I said, excited on the 19th
to be sitting in that theatre, even though I did not have the ridiculously
high expectations as, say, the guy dressed in the Jedi robes sitting in
the row in front of us.
Now.
The Phantom Menace. I am loathe to do this, but after seeing
it twice and letting it sink in, I have to say I was disappointed. While
the other Star Wars films were always kid-friendly, this one seems
specifically
aimed at children. A lot of the film was painfully
juvenile. But aside from that, the script was weak, there wasn't a whole
lot of emotion from the characters, it was lacking in tension, and the
computer effects were waaaaaay overused.
The juvenile part comes from, of course, the loathsome creature Jar Jar
Binks and his fellow Gungans. What the hell was Lucas thinking?
I had my reservations about Jar Jar before I even saw the film, and the
moment - the very moment - it appeared on-screen I knew my apprehension
was well-founded.
Never have I seen a more annoying, ridiculous,
un-funny, or just plain useless character as Jar Jar. "Yousa people gonna
diieeeeee?"
Gag me. The Gungans themselves were necessary to the plot, but why did
they have to be so silly and obnoxious? And why did they have to
be computer generated? It would not have been a problem to create
make-up effects for the Gungans, make-up effects that would have looked
a hell of a lot more realistic than the rubbery computer-generated Gungans.
But therein lies the heart of the problem with The Phantom Menace.
I think Lucas has spent so much time working with computers that he's forgotten
what it's like to work with real actors, and real human emotion. That is
why, I think, the script is lacking any emotion, depth, or tension; and
that is why, I think, Lucas has directed the actors to mostly stand around
and look grim. It can't be the fault of the actors, not with an
incredible
cast like Neeson, McGregor, and Portman. Newcomer Lloyd, in fact, has the
most to do (maybe because the film is aimed at kids his age), and he does
a great job as Anakin Skywalker. 
But
Neeson never really gets a chance to show us what he can do, and McGregor
(who really is underused in this film) only gets one chance to really
even act. Portman is effective, but the makeup and the bizarre accent
she adopts blunts a lot of her charisma and natural beauty (clearly evident
in films such as The Professional, Beautiful Girls, and the all-mighty
Heat).
McDiarmid, though, is extremely effective as Senator Palpatine, and though
it may not be immediately evident, this film is really his story anyway.
Now. The computer effects. When used for special effects or creating alien
landscapes, they work extremely well, and you can't tell that you're watching
CGIs. But when used for characters (i.e., Jar Jar, the podracer Sebulba,
or the slave owner Wattoo) it's clear they're fake. Actually, to be honest,
Wattoo doesn't look too bad. And computer effects have
improved
over the last few years. Just compare the Jabba the Hutt in the
Special
Edition to the one who makes a cameo here. He still looks rubbery,
but he looks a lot better than he did in the Special Edition. But
he still doesn't look like the "real" Jabba, that is, the giant puppet
that appeared in
Return of the Jedi. But the space battle, the battle
droids (whose voices suck more of the maturity and credibility out of the
film), the pod race, and the landscapes such as Tatooine and Courscant
look great.
The tension in the film, though, is lacking. The pod race is exciting,
but not all that tense (and don't tell me it's not tense because the viewer
can pretty much guess at the outcome - a good director can make a sequence
tense even if you've seen it before. The final battle scene in The Hunt
For Red October is tense every time I watch it, and I've lost count
of how many times I have). And the script fails to build tension in the
climax - there's none of the back and forth dialogue between the Naboo
pilots that worked so well to build tension in the battle scenes in the
previous films. Plus, the space battle is kind of glossed over, and not
developed in detail the way the ones in A New Hope and Return
of the Jedi were.
I'd have to say that the centerpiece of this film is the lightsabre duel.
That sequence, set to John William's brilliant "Duel of the Fates,"
is
extremely tense and effective. Ray Park, the actor who plays Darth Maul
- who's makeup is startlingly effective, but not particularly subtle (and
before you throw Darth Vader's mask at me, that was subtle, because
it wasn't the mask that was frightening, it was the possibility of what
was behind it) - is a skilled martial arts expert and helps to make the
duel between Maul and the combined force of Qui Gon (Neeson) and Obi Wan
(McGregor) fast, exciting, tense, and fast (yes, I know I used "fast"
twice).
As much as I'm bitching, there is much to applaud about The Phantom
Menace. It carries the Star Wars essence in spades, and the
effects
are mind-blowing. And as weak as the script is, it does
have it's strengths. As for all 
the
problems with the film, well, I think a lot of that can be explained by
saying that Lucas has been away from filmmaking for so long (with
the exception of producing and second-unit directing), and that his next
script - and directing effort - will be much stronger. Also, I'm hoping
that the oversaturation of computer effects is merely the symptom of a
kid with a new toy, and that the effects will be toned down somewhat in
Episodes II and III.
There's much hope for Episodes II and III. Episode I was necessary, for
several reasons. It was necessary to (spoiler ahead: highlight only if
you've seen the film or don't care) bring Palpatine
- who, in case you didn't realize, is also Darth Sidious - to power (he
later becomes the Emperor), and it was necessary for Lucas to get
back into the game, and to perhaps get using all the computer effects (which
at times is so overwhelming it's like watching a video game) out of his
system. But Episode II is a romance, and Episode III is Anakin's fall from
grace, so I think there are much more serious themes and issues for Lucas
to develop in those films, and also a chance to return to the seriousness
and maturity which made the first trilogy great.