# Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

### reviewed by
Joe Gillis

    A Few Thoughts On "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace"
    By Joe Gillis

Not since "Gone With The Wind" in 1939 has Hollywood (or America, or the world for that matter) experienced the type of rabid anticipation surrounding a single film as we've seen for the arrival of "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace." In case you've spent the last couple of years in a cave in Tibet, this is the long-awaited first chapter of the new trilogy that will serve as prologue to the events depicted in the first three "Star Wars" films, the last of which was released in 1983. Although the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, has yet to go into serious overdrive promoting the film, the film's fans as well as the news media (and those holding licenses for toys and other merchandise spawned by the film) have been on a feeding frenzy of late, and every day closer to the official scheduled opening date (May 19) we get, that frenzy will grow, possibly in mathematical proportion to the approach of the premiere.

The problem with any film that is hyped so much in advance is that it the more the hype, the better the film must be in order to satisfy the audience's expectations. In recent weeks we've seen the release of the film's exciting second trailer, the formation of photogenic lines of fans outside theaters in New York and Los Angeles that will play the film, the release of the first of the zillions of toys that will be bought and sold from now until our Democracy falls, and the appearance on TV talk shows and in magazines of none other than George Lucas himself to personally promote the film. All of this and more has been brought into our homes by the news media, who have decided that the arrival of "The Phantom Menace" qualifies as a MAJOR NEWS EVENT (whether or not it finds the same place in the history of our civilization as the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal or the Littleton shootings remains to be seen).

Anyway, there are now some serious questions to be answered:

Is "The Phantom Menace" the best film ever made? Not quite. "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," and "The Godfather" will not be shaken from their well-earned places atop the pillars of American film.

Is "The Phantom Menace" the best science fiction film ever made? No. "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Forbidden Planet," and "Blade Runner" are still comfortably ahead in my book.

Is "The Phantom Menace" the best "Star Wars" film ever made? It is certainly the most ambitious. George Lucas has attempted to do more in this film than in its three predecessors combined, and although he doesn't pull it off perfectly, he does succeed in an entertaining and exciting manner.

The plot (and if you want to see the film "cold," then I suggest that you skip the rest of this paragraph) concerns a blockade of the planet Naboo by the Galactic Trade Federation. As two agents of the Imperial Senate arrive in Naboo orbit to negotiate with the Federation Viceroy, the Federation is receiving orders from the Dark Lord, Darth Sidious, to invade the planet. The Imperial agents are Jedi Master Qui Gon Jinn, played by Liam Neeson, and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan MacGregor. Their negotiations end before they have a chance to start, and the two Jedi sneak on board a Federation ship in order to make it down to the planet;'s surface. Once there, they encounter the Gungan, a race of cartoonish creatures, who help them to find Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), ruler of the planet's human species. The Jedi help her to escape her planet so that she can make her way to the Imperial Senate on the planet Coruscant, where she can plead her case against the Federation. On the way, her ship (which was damaged in an attack and saved by the droid R2D2) stops on the remote world of Tatooine, where Jinn meets the young Anakin Skywalker, a streetwise slave boy who is a crack pilot and a whiz at building machines (among them a protocol droid named C3PO). Immediately, he senses that the Force is strong in Skywalker, and that he may be The Chosen One, who is destined to bring balance to the Force. Jinn wins the boy's freedom in a wager involving a pod race (a dizzying sequence that plays out like a 1990's version of the chariot race from "Ben Hur"), and takes him to Coruscant, but not before the Queen's party is attacked by Darth Maul, apprentice to Darth Sidious. Maul's mission is to stop the Queen at any cost. As the Queen pleads her case before the Imperial Senate (which is undergoing a loss of confidence in its leadership), Jinn brings young Skywalker before the Jedi Council, and asks Yoda and the other members to allow him to train the boy. The action eventually moves back to Naboo where Lucas culminates the film with four simultaneous battle sequences that leave one gasping for breath.

Above all else, this is a very entertaining film. It moves at a very quick pace (although sometimes scenes end when you think that they're just getting interesting), but be warned: some younger viewers may be bored or confused by the political intrigues and infighting that are essential parts of the plot. The kids will love the droids and creatures, and of course, the action. Nothing here lowers itself to the kiddie level the way the Ewoks did in "Return of the Jedi," and adults should have no reason to cringe.

Lucas and company present things we've never seen before (or even imagined, such as a neverending variety of droids and creatures), plus a few surprises (an old Jedi mind trick doesn't work the way we expect it to, and the joke here is why it doesn't work). After giving us tantalizing hints in the first three films of what a Jedi Knight is capable of, we get to see two fully trained Jedi in action here, and they are truly fearless and fearsome warriors.

But the most exciting thing here is the underlying story, a tale of masters and apprentices. Qui Gon and Obi-Wan, Darth Sidious and Darth Maul, Obi-Wan and Anakin…we see the way that the torch is passed from generation to generation in both good and evil. In addition, the people and events of the film are doubly interesting because we see everything on two levels: what happens in front of us and what future events (i.e. those of the first trilogy) they will influence. We know where some of these characters will be fifty years after what we see in this film, and we know how they will have changed. When Senator Palpatine engineers changes in the Imperial Senate, we are grimly aware of where that path will lead him. When he says that he intends to keep an eye on young Skywalker, we laugh nervously, because we know that they will eventually become master and apprentice on the Dark Side. And when Anakin is told "You bring hope to those who have none," by his mother, whose freedom from slavery can't be won in a wager, it breaks our hearts, because we know that hope won't be his to bring. That destiny will lie with his son.

Technically, the film is awesome. The computer generated characters and locations (including the beautiful palaces of Naboo and the "Metropolis"-style cities of the planet Coruscant) are truly state of the art, and the sound (especially in the battle scenes) will shake you in your seat. If possible, catch this film in a THX certified theater.

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