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

### reviewed by
Stacey Oziel

    STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE (The Phantom Menace)
    by Stacey Oziel

You've heard all the hype. You've seen all their faces - Natalie Portman (The Professional) as Queen Amidala, Liam Neeson (Schindler's List) as Qui-Gon Jinn, Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jake Lloyd (Jingle all the Way) as young Anakin Skywalker.

If you've read any reviews, you've also probably heard that this movie fails to live up to the magic and humanity of the first trilogy. You also may have heard that this one's too kiddie-friendly, and doesn't have enough content for adults.

    Believe the hype.

The effects are stunning, the digitalized creatures are amazingly realistic, the lightsaber duels are amazing, and Queen Amidala's sumptuous robes are fit to be worn by Queen Elizabeth.

But there's something missing here, and it isn't budget or effects - it's everything money *can't* buy.

The actors struggle as best they can to flesh out broad-stroked and flat characters. The most successful at this is Liam Neeson who, as Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi master to young Obi-Wan Kenobi, has quiet dignity and a wise, commanding presence. He is the anchor to this movie, as he is the one character who George Lucas apparently spent some time fleshing out.

Portman's Queen Amidala and McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi don't fare nearly so well. Amidala, the future mother of Luke and Leia and the queen of a peaceful planet being invaded by the Trade Federation (?!?), comes off as stoic, stilted and caricatured (it appears as though she was a Vulcan Geisha in a former life). And Obi-Wan, although McGregor makes him very endearing, has so little screen time that he's nothing but a Robin to Qui-Gon Jinn's Batman.

However, McGregor does struggle manfully to infuse this surprisingly small supporting role with a spark of genuine insight and humanity, and he does a good job. He also absolutely NAILS Alec Guiness' (Obi-Wan in Episode 4 - 6) Scottish accent, and that really makes his presence in the film more profound than it might have been otherwise.

In fact, Lucas seems to bank on that preexisting knowledge quite a bit, and that's one of the problems with this film. I would never call myself a "Star Wars" fan - especially not considering what it means to be a fanatic these days - but I've always enjoyed the films along with everyone else in America. However, if you are the one person in America who *hasn't* seen the films at all or even recently, or who doesn't bother to brush-up on the names of obscure characters, you may be hopelessly lost.

For example, one of the film's main (nefarious) characters is Senator Palpatine. For those of you not recently steeped in "Star Wars" trivia, Emperor Palpatine is that scary hooded apparition who was Darth Vader's master in "Return of the Jedi" and "Empire Strikes Back." So, obviously, his appearance in "Phantom Menace" is meant to stir some echoes of his later role in the series, thus making his role here more meaningful.

A lot of the movie is like that. R2-D2 and C-3PO make token appearances, and it's obvious that Lucas is banking on the audience's pre-existing fondness for them... because he doesn't do much to add to it in any way. Same goes for Jabba the Hutt, who doesn't look as much mean here as he does corpulent and lazy. Even *planets* make foreshadowing guest appearances in this film - Tatooine (the desert world where Luke grew up), Coruscant (the cloud city from "Empire Strikes Back"), and Alderaan (Leia's home planet - which we never actually see - that gets blown up in "Star Wars") show up or are mentioned briefly in passing.

What's the result of tying so many plot points and characters to future films? The answer is that this one seems surprisingly empty. There's no meat - no substance - that makes you want to love the characters as they are, not as they will be.

Another problem is that there are actually *too many* alien characters in the film. I was distracted by the fact that two of the main evil characters - strange looking aliens who looked like Gila monsters - had mouths that barely moved, making them look more like Muppets than actual characters. And Jar Jar Binks, a silly Roger Rabbitish amphibious character, is intended as comic relief, but what he really becomes is annoying - and fast. Unlike Chewbacca and C-3PO, who got their humanity (if you'll pardon the expression) from their interactions with the human characters, Jar Jar is often left to interact mostly with others of his kind, at times making the movie seem like nothing more than a very expensive "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Furthermore, the dialogue is often stilted and corny, and sometimes downright infantile, thereby rendering some characters into nothing more than bystanders to the plot. Oddly, this isn't just *my* judgment - Lucas has said that he designed this film for kids. Well, he's done a good job.

The hero of this film, of course, is young Anakin, but it was very hard for me to feel any kinship or identify with an eight-year-old boy. That's not Jake Lloyd's fault, though - he does a good job of being a cute kid, which is apparently all Lucas asked of him. That's another mistake, of course, because the cute tyke becomes Darth Vader.

    WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!!!!

In my opinion, there was not nearly enough foreshadowing of Anakin's future evil in the film. The boy is all blond flowing hair and rosy cheeks, and there's nothing more than a spark of aggression in him throughout the entire movie. He has a doting mother (Pernilla August, making her first English- language film) and is a slave to a gross flying gnome on Tatooine. But the only indication the audience gets that this kid isn't all hearts and roses is Yoda's hesitation in allowing him to train as a Jedi under Qui-Gon Jinn. His explanation? "His future is clouded."

(Warning: MAJOR spoiler ahead. Enter at your own risk.)

Of course, the noble Qui-Gon dies at the hand of Darth Maul, a scary-looking Sith lord who excels at the Jedi arts, but has turned to the Dark Side. This dude has maybe two lines in the entire movie, but he establishes his presence through his amazing moves with his double-sided lightsaber, and his scary facial makeup.

Because Qui-Gon never gets a chance to train the young Anakin in the ways of the Force, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon's young Padawan apprentice (one level below Knightdom), must take over the training himself.

So, at the end of the movie, we end where the saga actually begins - with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his young apprentice, Anakin "Darth Vader" Skywalker.

Did this story need to be told? I would say no. But is it a worthwhile movie to see? Absolutely. If you don't enter the theater with Jedi-size expectations, and you simply want to be treated to an enjoyable visual spectacle, then this is your movie.

The Tatooine pod races are a triumph of effects and computer animation. The digitalized backgrounds on some of the planets are an astonishing sight. And Yoda and young Obi-Wan are worth seeing for their origins in a simpler, happier time.

Above all, this is a fun movie. Not deep, not meaningful, and not profound. But fun.

Maybe next time, Lucas will hire Lawrence Kasdan to co-write the script, and the guy who directed "Empire" will direct. Because if Lucas does the next one himself, it will be lacking the one thing it needs the most - potential. :)

    My Grade: B.

    Stacey Oziel

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