Star Wars (Prequel)
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack Of The Clones
Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace -
Overview
Positives
Negatives
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Brief Review
George Lucas returns to the Star Wars universe to deliver a mixed bag film. The young Anakin is a real disappointment and doesn't live up to expectations and Jar Jar Binks is an irritation designed for 5 year olds to enjoy. Out the average depths of the film comes some good acting from Queen Amidala and Obi Wan Kenobi and the lightsaber duel at the end of the film is fantastic. An average film overall then, introducing a new era of Star Wars, unfortunately not to everyone's tastes.
Full Review
22 years after the original film was released in cinemas, George Lucas returns with his new 'Prequel' trilogy. With great hype comes great pressure. After so long away from the Star Wars universe, creating a decent Prequel trilogy was always going to be a struggle and this struggle is evident all the way through the film.
The story revolves around finding Anakin Skywalker and his troubled childhood as a slave with his mother on Tatooine. The scenes should be heartfelt and make us feel sympathy for the young child but between the whoops and unending joy and happiness eminating from the child its hard to take his turmoil seriously. Its a shame really as I would have liked a darker and more edgy Anakin, a tiny streak of happiness but deep rooted troubles would have worked so much better here and the audience would be able to relate to him more.
The two Jedi that wind up finding him are none other than Obi Wan Kenobi and his mentor Qui-gon Jinn. Qui-gon is good here and plays the mentor perfectly but his lines feel flat and lifeless at times and the lack of emotion from the Jedi just makes his scenes feel very monotonous. Obi Wan on the other hand is superb and playing the cautious but obedient student to Qui-Gon opens up conflicts in himself which is evident in his mannerisms, making his character a lot more interesting to watch than Qui-Gon's.
Most of the conflict in Episode I comes from Imperial droid forces invading Naboo and its here where we start our story and run into the worst character in the Star Wars mythology, Jar Jar Binks. His moronic actions and bad speech patterns ending in 'Mesa' or baby jibber jabber are cringing to watch and will leave a lot of fans annoyed and hoping he gets killed at some point in the film. I can understand that Lucas wanted a bit of light humour here but there's humour and then forced humour. It makes it worse that throughout the film Jar Jar crops up, given more screen time than most of the other characters which is wrong and ruins the experience somewhat.
As I mentioned before, the conflict on Naboo is what this story is all about and the start of the Imperial forces taking over the galaxy. Queen Amidala is good here and between her acting and some gorgeous costume work, her character really pops in the scenes she's given and breathes some life into otherwise dull scenes. I won't give away too much but watching an hour or so of average material is worth it to get to the finale of this film. The three-way conflict is interesting and engaging to watch, bringing back memories from Return of the Jedi. A space battle, a ground war and the lightsaber battle all combine to provide an enjoyable finale soaked in high-action adrenaline.
Speaking of the ending, John William's returns to the music to deliver his only note-worthy track here 'Duel Of The Fates'. The music acts as petrol on a fire as it brings the entire finale into one adrenaline-soaked ending. On the whole, his music just fades into the background and there's no real standout tracks here other than 'Duel Of The Fates' and the 'Droid Invasion' theme. Both of these match the scenes perfectly but other than that its quite an average soundtrack overall.
The pace of the film is quite slow overall and even the pod-race halfway through the film can't raise adrenaline levels with the length it goes on for. The lack of dialogue also hurts these sections and make them monotonous when they could have been brilliant. Had the pod-race been a little shorter then maybe it might have been a good scene but its average at best.
To be honest the only real talking point is the ending and between some good acting performances, the rest of the film acts as filler and slows the overall pace down. It doesn't feel like a Star Wars film and Anakin Skywalker is a disappointing character here and considering he is what this story is all about, I feel Lucas could have done a much better job with his character. Comparing this chirpy, over-joyed annoyance of a child to one of the most famous super-villains in history, Darth Vader, is just unheard of. It's like comparing Adolf Hitler to Mahatma Gandhi. It just doesn't work.
So Phantom Menace doesn't live up to expectations but with 22 years away from the Star Wars universe, this was always going to be a tough one to live up to the hype. Even more tough for George Lucas who hasn't been with his Star Wars series for that length of time. Unfortunately, few people thought it would be this bad. Queen Amidala and Obi Wan are the only notably good actors here and do the best they can with the mediocre lines they're given but I, along with millions of others, was left disappointed with this film. The only reason its been given 3 stars and not 2 is the inclusion of a fantastic finale that feels like a nod to Return Of The Jedi. The adrenaline-fuelled finale really livens up the film and one of the best lightsaber duels in the series help to influence the rating as well.
So 3 Stars it is for Phantom Menace and critics and fans alike will hope that Episode II is a better ride than this one. Worth watching but only for the finale, the rest of the film acts as filler.