A long time ago, in a theater far, far away, I sat not comprehending that what was going on was going to make history. I was a year old when I saw Star Wars, it was the first film I ever saw and though I don't remember a damn thing about that first time, I have long since credited it with my intense love of movies. After seeing the movie and its subsequent follow ups more times than I can count I think it is fair to say that Star Wars is an institution in my life. That may sound corny or brand me a geek but I could give a shit. After 16 years of waiting, George Lucas has finally delievered the first of the new Star Wars trilogy, The Phantom Menace. There was a great deal of hype surrounding it and many a wonder as to whether this film would live up to its proud legacy. The simple answer? Hell yes.
When I sat down to view this film, in the only THX equipped theater in town, after having waited four hours in the sun on opening day, enduring feckless conversations behind me about whether or not a lightsaber could be modified to shoot beams of laser, making it not only a sword but also a blaster( after all this man claimed, it works off the same principle. Oh. I feel much better now that I know that this guy's figured out how lightsabers work...now if he could figure out how to use a comb and a bar of soap I will be really impressed), a tiny knot of excitement began to build. The crappy radio personalities who were jabbering incessently in front of the screen couldn't stop it from building and once the opening scroll made its way up the screen, nothing would deter the unbridled ecstacy which flowed forth from screen. Not even when the bulb on the projector burnt out and we all had to sit there for twenty minutes while they fixed it...is it just me or is that sort of thing you check out Before screening the biggest movie of the decade on a screen people chose specifically for its ascetic value?
All of that aside, the film was phenomenal. I don't wish to belabor the plot in this review given that unless you've been in a cave or a coma, you have probably been inundated with those details already. Instead I am just going to gush about the film as much as possible.
Early reviews calimed that this movie was a dissapointment, caliming that it was uneven and left the characters undeveloped. I am not sure what these people think that the first part of a trilogy, nay a group of trilogies, is supposed to do. Clearly, if Lucas blew his whole load on this film, then there would be no point for the next two. Next, critics attack its substance...they wanted more story and less glitz evidently. My angle on this one is that Star Wars has never claimed to be anything but a space opera, modern mythology for the growing technological age and that is all it is. It isn't an in depth psychological study about human nature. It never claimed to make sweeping profound statements about life and love. It never claimed to be any of those things. Go out and read the Illiad or the Odyssey or the Anied. These are epic poems, epic in scope and very well written. They are also comprised of a shit load of action and verbal special effects. Sure they deal with the struggles between good and evil at least from the hero's perspective and they dealt with human nature but only so far as they had to to lead to more magic, sex and action. They were adventure stories and were told to excite the imagination, to take the reader( or listener as they took their original form as a verbal tradition)to a different place where the magic and the fantastic where anything can happen. Star Wars is the exact same thing.
It had its weak points. Certain plot points were bothersome and some of the consistancy with the other films comes into question, but these are minor gripes in the larger scheme of what the film is about. It is about escapism. Critics say it is geared towards children? Perhaps that is because the film harkens back to a time when they still enjoyed fun and wonderment, presumably before the cynic rod was jammed up their ass. The bottom line is that people need to ignore the hype surrounding the film and just sit back and enjoy themselves. There are exciting parts, sad parts, funny parts and I don't believe that looks so real parts, and all of those go together to make a very fun movie. You just have to stop being up tight to enjoy it.
If you have any comments or questions about this review, feel free to email at the below address.
© 1997 bodhili@hotmail.com
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