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Rating:  -
This movie lacks all the elements that made the series popular in the first place. i was just flipping through HBO channels and this came on. I figured i would watch it since Star Wars is sick, but it was hardly what i expected. So many chiches, and i didnt feel an attachment for any of the characters.
Rating: -
The immortal main theme begins. The orange words appear: "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying systems is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo..... this alarming chain of events..."
We sit in wonder, our popcorn halfway to our mouths, as a chill runs down our spines. Good lord! A trade dispute. A blockade of a small planet. A chain of events (albeit quite a small chain, only a couple of links).
This is the stuff of which epics are made?
What is the purpose of the blockade? Shouldn't the Trade Federation want to trade with Naboo? Perhaps the T.F. wants to charge higher prices? If so, why are we never told that? We are never, in fact, told anything about the dispute, other than it is trivial and legal. (Qui-Gon says "... something as trivial as this trade dispute..." Viscount Gunray says "Our blockade is perfectly legal") So, having been officially told that the plot opening is a legal, trivial trade dispute, we might think that the first exciting scene would be a committee hearing by economic experts.
How could Mr. Lucas give us so lackluster a start to so eagerly anticipated a movie?
Ah yes...Queen Amidala. Now, the films do demonstrate, that Mr. Lucas's general knowledge of politics, government, and diplomacy is so minuscule that it could all be engraved on the head of a pin with lots of room left, but in the polity of Naboo he has confected something particularly fascinating: a democratic monarchy--a "queen" who is elected and subject to term limits. (We never hear of any kings; perhaps a matriarchal democracy? Unique.) This "queen" is required to wear preposterous costumes that change hourly and coiffures not seen since the court of Louis XVI. Surely she would have little time to do much governing, being too busy with her clothes and hair. (But that might be a good idea, since the office of monarch apparently has no age qualification and in this crisis Naboo is governed by a girl of perhaps eighteen. That's the best they could come up with? And she, we are told in Part II, is 'not the youngest' ever chosen. One would have liked to see the youngest, who perhaps ruled from a cradle rather than a throne.)
The Gungan "government" is also interesting. The oddly-titled "Boss" Nass is evidently not a Gungan at all--or from a superior race of Gungans, who look entirely different than those they govern? It doesn't seem quite right.
So we arrive on Tatooine, where a serious difficulty arises: the ship's hyperdrive is kaput. It is vital that the ship get going ASAP--a matter of galactic importance, in fact. Only one dealer has the needed part. The dealer will not accept Republic currency.
Now, what is a resourceful, masterful, intelligent Jedi to do? Here are some choices; which would you choose?
A: Go to a bank and convert your currency into the local stuff.
B: Inform Wattoo, the overgrown house fly, that the Jedi Order is commandeering his hyperdrive and will wire him the money. If he objects, take it by force.
C: Wait around doing nothing until you accidentally discover that a small child might get you the money by winning a race (although this child has never won a race).
What Qui-Gon does is so absurd, only Lucas could have come up with it.
A side note: Qui-Gon asks Obi-Wan if they have anything to trade with. He replies that they have little but "the queen's wardrobe". Folks, if that queen brought her whole wardrobe, it could be traded for most of the starships on the planet with Jabba the Hutt thrown in.
Anakin's poor mother: now here is perhaps the biggest, most glaring plot hole in the whole series. Why in heaven is she left as a slave? The Jedi are willing to take a 9-year-old boy away from his only parent and forget about the woman. No effort to free her, now or later, even after Anakin shows her a pile of cash and says "look how much we won". I guess he keeps it and leaves mom to the mercy of the giant fly.
"Gungans go to sacred place." The Trade Federation has occupied the whole planet. They know about the underwater city. Yet thousands of these not terribly inconspicuous Gungans manage to move to a spot on the surface that the T.F. never even notices. One wonders how they did that. But of course we must reckon with "Lucas logic" as well as "Star Wars physics" in these movies. This also applies to the production of dei ex machinae as needed. You must get into the city? VoilĂ , "the secret passage on the waterfall side." Thank heaven for secret passages. And how we rejoice at the pistols concealed in the arm of a chair, a chair in which Newt Gunray has been sitting for weeks without discovering them.
When the big door goes up and Darth Maul appears, the Jedi say "we'll handle this" and all the others--about a dozen armed men--just leave (to "take the long way"). Why? Why doesn't everyone open fire and kill the Sith right there?
One could go on listing absurdities and inconsistencies in this silly movie, but enough of examples. The more important question is, why? Why is the film so bad? Why is any thoughtful viewer left feeling he has been cheated?
I think the answer can be found on the commentary track, where Mr. Lucas and several mechanics talk to us.
My chief impression of these comments is one of men so mesmerized by technology that they have lost sight of other things. The animators and CGI functionaries--these hod-carriers of the computer world-- are insufferable. On and on they go with details of how this or that shot was done, incessantly telling us of their cleverness, their expertise, their great accomplishments. One feels a bit "wude" in saying this, but, folks, we don't care how you did it. What you do is of no more interest to most viewers than the building of sets or the stitching of costumes. You are hewers of imaginary wood and drawers of digitized water. Do your jobs, cash your paychecks, and be quiet. We, the audience, care merely about the finished products. Save your war stories for others in your profession. No doubt you deserve well of your master, undoubtedly other CGI people will care to know the details of your skilled work, but don't monopolize the commentary track with yet another description of how you made dust appear realistic or inserted a suitably jerky movement into a puppet. Sheesh!
Mr. Lucas's comments suggest he is an overgrown adolescent, like Peter Jackson. One hopes in vain for some commentary on things like the government system of Naboo or on what reaction he expected from the startling announcement of Anakin's virgin birth (made before we learn of the midi-chlorians). But it is interesting that he frequently compares his work to that of a composer of music, referring again and again to "tone poems" and such things. I can only suggest that, if he views his movies as a symphony, he should have let John Williams do the directing as well as the composing. The result would probably have been superior.
Finally, a tribute to Jar-Jar Binks. I am not being perverse. I like him. He brings to the film a much-needed element of humor. He does not take himself too seriously. He is genuine. He is humble. He is grateful. He helps his friends. I bet he wouldn't leave a child's mother in slavery. As for his language, I find his dialect to be more refreshing, alive, and natural than that of a character who for no apparent reason always backwards speaks, whose verbs at the end of his sentences puts, and who so insufferably smug is that I almost wish Count Dooku his little green head had off cut.
Rating:  -
There were many good points to this movie. First, you get to see young Anakin. You get to see his humble beginnings and hear the mother tell how she immaculantly conceived her son. To me, this suggests someone such as Darth Sidious (The eventual EMPEROR) perhaps influenced "the force" to somehow impregnate Anakin's mom. (Thus making Ultimate Evil the grandfather of Luke Skywalker)
If you think about it, that makes sense, But the good in the mother "white washed" some of the bad of each father out of the offspring. Anakin's mom's goodness allows Anakin to struggle with good vs bad. He eventually turns bad, but it's not easy and he's not really happy about it. His evil is cut in half from the emperor's because Anakin/Darth Vader has a heart. Has the capacity for love. And this comes to light when he finally learns to love Luke in Episode Six. (His love for Padme is almost part of his undoing).
Padme's goodness is what tempers Luke and Leia's hearts and keeps them from turning. (Likewise I imagine this happens further on down the line, but you never know unless you read the books, because there aren't anymore movies to go on.)
ANYWAY, let's rein in the tangent truck here. The point is this movie, Episode 1. It's a great flick. There just should have been Less JAR-JAR and more Darth Maul!
It sets up another problem. I realize Anakin is apparently a few years younger than Padme, but this is just skirted over as the series wanes on. He's a boy when they first meet. How are we to believe they fall in love when she's like 25 when they meet and he's like 10?
All in all, my least favorite of the six. But from such a Star Wars Fanatic, even my least favorite is still very much enjoyed!
Rating:  -
STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE would have had to have been beyond perfect to survive the almost twenty years of fan anticipation and the avalanche of hype it was met with. When released in 1999, reactions to THE PHANTOM MENACE were very mixed. Disappointed (even embittered) fans claimed that George Lucas had created THE PHANTOM MENACE merely to cash in on the STAR WARS franchise---as if he needed to "cash in" on what had already become a multibillion dollar enterprise. As a result, the whole "prequel" trilogy got a bad reputation, none worse than this film.
Revisiting it years later, after all the shouting has died down, THE PHANTOM MENACE seems far better than it did upon its release. It doesn't measure up to any of the films of the original trilogy. It may in fact be the weakest film of the sextet. THE PHANTOM MENACE suffers from the same mistaken approach that George Lucas has adopted toward his "improved" versions of the original films. THE PHANTOM MENACE has most of the same shortcomings, particularly the (very common) sci-fi bugaboo of using a film to showcase special effects. Lucas gave us a truly Shakespearean tale in the first trilogy, and incidentally set it "a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." The spaceships, the ray guns, and the alien life forms propelled the story, but they were NOT the story.
Lucas wants to show us all kinds of new, colorful, and beautiful visions in THE PHANTOM MENACE, and he does, but at great expense to the storyline, which meanders all the way from Point A to Point A Prime in this installment.
There's even greater expense to the characterizations. We could relate to Luke, Leia, Han, See Threepio and Artoo Detoo in the first trilogy because they were like us in so many ways. Han Solo especially served to ground the STAR WARS universe in familiarity. Han's "scoundrel" energy was very central to the success of the original movies.
There isn't a lovable scoundrel in THE PHANTOM MENACE. Lucas does give us some truly interesting new characters, but they're alien (both literally and figuratively) and we hardly get to know them.
The young Queen of Naboo, Padme Amidala (played by Natalie Portman, one of the beautiful new visions in this film) is oft-times regally remote, and somewhat mysterious. Her lookalike decoy is played by Keira Knightley (another beautiful new vision), and it is truly difficult to tell them apart at times.
Although Portman's Amidala shows herself to be clearly a warm, open, and sympathetic character, by the end of THE PHANTOM MENACE we know much less about her than we do about her cinematic daughter, Princess Leia, in A NEW HOPE.
Young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) is a slave-child on Tatooine. An inventor and a gifted pilot even at the age of eight, he is so bright-eyed and kindhearted ("Someday, I'll come back here and free all the slaves") that it is difficult to reconcile this gentle little boy who cries for his mother with the horrific Darth Vader he eventually becomes.
The Jedi Council initially refuses to allow Anakin to be trained as a Jedi ("There is much fear in you, young one," says Yoda). We never really see his fear or feel it. Nor do we get much more than a glimmer of the rage and anger he must feel as a slave. Watto, his owner, is a straw boater wearing, comical-looking flying bumblebee/vulture who speaks with a vaudeville Italian accent. Simon Legree should not be doing stand-up. By making Watto a figure of fun, Lucas fails to either underscore the weaknesses of the Galactic Republic, or presage its descent into darkness.
Essentially, we have only the criticisms of the Jedi Masters to go on in consigning young Anakin to the Minus Column. It just isn't enough, especially when he wins the high stakes podrace that is the main act of the story (the stakes being his own freedom), and is eventually responsible for firing the well-placed shot that defeats the enemy in battle (like his cinematic son, Luke).
The oddly mismatched love between the prepubescent Anakin and the much older teenaged Padme comes out of nowhere, with hardly a forethought (Anakin's shy question to the girl at their first meeting---"Are you an angel?"---is the only indicator of what later blossoms).
Likewise, Lucas utterly wastes two of his most intriguing characters, the iconoclastic Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and the truly satanic Darth Maul. Qui-Gon is wise. Qui-Gon is skilled. Qui-Gon should have been Obi-Wan's Obi-Wan and Anakin's ally. But although Qui-Gon is instrumental in freeing Anakin from bondage, he never develops a truly affectionate (Obi-Wan and Luke-type) relationship with the boy, seeming more interested in him as raw material for Jedi training.
The silent Darth Maul, (the evil lord of shopping centers) with his horned black-and-red face, twin-ended lightsaber, glowing sulfur-yellow eyes, kendo-style fighting technique, and flowing black robes is potentially a figure as memorable and frightening as Darth Vader, but both he and Qui-Gon die in battling one another; and so a fascinating second trilogy dynamic between good and evil dies with them.
Added to these missed opportunities are odd inconsistencies between THE PHANTOM MENACE and the original trilogy. See Threepio turns out to have been built by Anakin on Tatooine, but then why didn't the droid recognize Tatooine or the name "Skywalker" in A NEW HOPE? Although Ben Kenobi claims to have been trained by Yoda in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, he is clearly Qui-Gon's student in THE PHANTOM MENACE. Tatooine is ruled by the Hutts in this film, but not in the original trilogy. Although Anakin's mother references Tatooine's twin suns, they're never seen together in the sky.
Clearly, Lucas couldn't have reworked the original films after 20 years to fit all these elements in THE PHANTOM MENACE. Their inclusion here is a sign of his hubris. Why not just be true to the original? Clearly, his desire to make these changes overrode any considerations of film continuity and audience expectations. George Lucas isn't really trying to give us a better cinematic experience here, he's just totally into playing with his favorite toys. It's a form of selfishness.
Possibly the worst of Lucas's new ideas is the Social Darwinist/Nazi race theory concept of a high "midichlorian" count giving rise to greater Force sensitivity. Anakin has a mythic virgin birth due to the midichlorians, a bad twist to the tale when one considers that Lucas could have underscored the horrors of slavery by having Anakin fathered by a freeborn man who exploited Shmi Skywalker's position as a slave. Here, once again, the film fails to foreshadow the lawlessness and unethical evils of the rising Galactic Empire.
STAR WARS isn't sociology, but it's insistence on touching universal themes is what made it so wildly successful. The first trilogy was constructed entirely upon the foundation of our shared collective subconscious. Lucas loses that thread in this film.
The inclusion of the midichlorian factor means that the Jedi are no longer a highly-trained spiritual fraternity. They've become racially superior to the rest of us. If ever he re-edits THE PHANTOM MENACE, the midichlorians must end up on the cutting room floor. Sorry, but as ideas go, this one just stinks.
And speaking of stinks, Lucas also brought us the ridiculous Jar-Jar Binks and his race of Rastafari amphibians, the Gungans (Ganja, anyone?). Jar-Jar Binks is a technically interesting additional character, being primarily a CGI character; but he adds nothing (and detracts much) from the film with his distracting brainless chatter, clumsiness, and utter stupidity. If Lucas thought that this duckbilled dunce would provide comic relief, he was wrong. See Threepio and Artoo Detoo serve that purpose in the first trilogy and should have continued to do so in THE PHANTOM MENACE. Jar-Jar merely irritates the viewer, particularly given that he appears throughout the film, not just in a few scenes. He's merely filler. As filler, he's a sign that Lucas wasn't imaginative enough to use THE PHANTOM MENACE's screen time to its best advantage by progressing the storyline.
Binks may be the only character ever that inspired a website advocating his destruction, the aptly-named www.Jarjarbinksmustdie.com. What was George Lucas thinking when he gave us the jarring Jar-Jar?
THE PHANTOM MENANCE is uneven and inconsistent and suffers from some poor scriptwriting and too many missed opportunities. These reduce the film, but do not ruin it. Despite its weaknesses and flaws, THE PHANTOM MENACE is a solid THREE STAR effort. It is essential to the telling of the tale, and leaves us considering what's next?
In that regard, THE PHANTOM MENACE is as successful as any film can be. It finally gives us the entertaining and engaging introduction to that long time ago and far away galaxy we've come to know and love.
Rating: -
yeah its was ok but definetly for the younger kids. i guess it goes along with the theme of Aniken Skywalker is also a kid. the next 2 are much better. there's just too much comic relief in this one for an adult.
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starring: Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August
directed by: George Lucas
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: NEESON,LIAM
EAN: 0024543023937
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Discs: 2
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 22, 2005
Running Time: 133 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
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