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DVD : Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition)

Rating: - Just a mess
This film is regarded by just about anyone who has seen it as a disappointment. However there are some who say it's only disappointing merely because the hype was so huge that nothing could possibly live up to the expectation. Apart from that, some say, it was a great movie.

This is not a good movie.

I am not really a Star Wars fan, although I don't dislike it either. I saw the original 3 in the years when they came out, and enjoyed them from a childs perspective. (BTW if you wonder of the original Star Wars really did make a cultural impact, you bet, it was huge at the time.) So this is not the view of a disappointed fanboy, just the view of someone who found the film lacking.

Firstly I'll get one thing right out of the way, right here. You know what I'm talking about. Him. Jar Jar Binks. Hype can cut both ways I think, positive hype can lead to disappointment, yet negative hype can have the same result. When people refer to Mr Binks as "a mistake of Apocalyptic proportions" and there are websites devoted to finding inventive ways of killing him, I was expecting something so insanely annoying that I feared I might destroy my TV. He walks stupidly, talks stupidly, gets too much screen time, but I never found him as aggravating as I expected. I would still much preferred if he wasn't in the movie though!

No, the real problem is not with Jar Jar Binks. The real problem I found is that even after having seen this film 3 times, I'm still not sure what it was all about. The plot is so weak and meandering that boredom inevitably sets in. I know there's something about a blockade and a trade war, but the political shenanigans of Senator Palpatine and Queen Amidala are just so vague that it's hard to know what's going on. Only the presence of sudden ominous music will wake you from torpor and make you think "Whu? Oh he must be the bad guy then? Hmmm, yeah whatver" There is no real defined point to what's happening to the characters. With,say,Jaws, we know that the shark is going to have to be killed. In Lord Of The Rings we know The Ring must be destroyed. In The Phantom Menace we know.....we know...um....Well I don't know really.

Apart from that all the flaws that have been mentioned about this film are unfortunately true;

Wooden acting. There's no real interaction between characters, they just seem like reading grocery lists to each other. When Liam Neesons character says "Be careful, I feel a disturbance in The Force" it wouldn't sound out of place if he added "If they have any decaffeinated coffee left, get some, thanks" We never really feel anything for the characters, they're so lifeless that they're essentially talking scenery. It's not the actors fault, I know they're better than this. In contrast with the antagonism displayed between most of the "good" characters in the original films (sarcastic wisecracks aplenty) everyone here seems largely bored in each others company. Obi Wan is relegated to largely a mild mannered yes man to...uh....forgot his name, the one with the fake beard. I can't offhand remember any lines from this movie apart from the derided "I've got a bad feeling about this" Oh and "Yippee!" too. Jake Lloyd just seems too out of place with his bland "Mom are we out of Cheerios?" approach to acting. There are some terrible cast choices too, mostly with Samuel L Jackson. I like the guy, and he's a great actor, but he just isn't a Jedi Knight. He was just too well known at the time to play such an out of character role. Only Jason Robards dressed in a toga playing Brutus springs to mind as a better
example of bad casting.

The aliens are all either silly like Jar Jar Binks and Pod race announcer, or grating racial stereotypes. I don't believe that Lucas consciously decided to make them so, but how can anyone not see that the evil Trade guys are Oriental caricatures? And just look at that goofy, happy looking egg headed alien at the pod race. *That* was the exact moment when I thought "This movie is bombing"

No real tension. Yes it's a common fault with prequels, we know Obi Wan survives, we know Anakin survives, we know wholesome George won't kill off the "comic relief" character in case the kiddies get upset. The battle droids are there to shoot holes in walls and get cut down by the Jedis.

The midi chlorians. I understand many Star Wars fans *hate* this idea, that it demystifies The Force. Well, I'm not such a fan as to really hate it, but it does seem pretty nonsensical. How do organisms in the blood make you able to move things around, or do mind tricks?

The immaculate conception of Anakin. I'm not religious so I take no offence, except for what a monumentally pretentious bit of twaddle this is.

Anakin destroying the ship by pure fluke was a really lazy and disappointing finale.

And there are just too many inconsistencies in character and believability. Best example of course that Anakin built C3-PO. Pretty impressive for a 9 year old kid who's a slave. Where did he get the money? I guess George loves his soap operas and what's to throw all these unexpected plot twists to the audience. I was half expecting Han Solo to be revealed as Luke's uncle.

In general just about every ham fisted directorial mistake that can be made, is made by Lucas here. This film should become a textbook case of the danger of letting just one person have too much control over the final outcome of a(highly anticipated) film.

It's not all bad. Visually, it's quite pleasing actually. Many say that this is where Lucas abandoned storyline for CGI toys. Well, the CGI ain't bad, but it's not really much beyond Jurassic Park. But CGI looks unnaturtal most of the time too no matter how well done. When you see a silvery CGI spaceship you don't see a futuristic space vehicle, you wonder "I wonder how long it took the computer graphics team to add the reflection mapping on?" For me the meagre enjoyment I got from this film was the sets and backdrops. Yeah, George probably only nudged the graphics designers in the right direction and they took over, but a lot of it is aesthetically pleasing. The pod race of course is the standard Star Wars obstacle course race. It's engaging for a while, but actually the PC racing game was more entertaining. And the battle with Darth Maul complete with John Williams score is, if you're forgiving, guite good.

Despite my disappointment with the actual movie the bonus material is actually quite interesting to watch. Things like behind the scenes footage, on location scenes and cast auditions are included. It's obvious that a lot of work into the movie, but it says something when a viewer gets more enjoyment from the bonus material than the actual movie.

Overall I can't recommend this movie much. Most Star Wars fans will be disappointed to various degrees (some have such a strong aversion to this, that they disown it) The feeling of Star Wars is largely absent here, it unfortunately comes across a Disney movie in space. (Hey, I'm sure even Disney's The Black Hole was a lot more serious than this.) The average viewer like me will be largely bored at the aimlessness of it.

Rating: - Crazy Pod Race Scene
The movie The Phantom Menace was fantastic especially the pod race. Annakin Skywalker's pod racer had a critical stall at the beginning of the race, and after what seemed to be a long time, he found the thrusters and pushed, causing the engines to come to life. Then, when one of the other pod racers tried to hit Annakin, Annakin did a flip over the other pod racer. Later one of his lines that powers the engine separated from the pod; he started to spin out of control, but he reconnected his engine by using a magnet to pull the cord to him. He attached it to his pod again which stabilized his pod. During the second lap he flew off course, when Sebulba pushed him onto the service ramp. It was amazing to see him get ahead of Sebulba, and get back on course at the same time. During the final lap he has a power problem, one of his engine's had caught fire so he was forced to turn off the engine which was slowing him down. He pressed on the yellow button, and it jump started the engine. Next, he caught up to Selbulba and they started ramming each other with their pods. When Ani moved away from Selbulba because a rock was in their path, Selbulba lost control of his pod and crashed his engine causing a explosive blast. Then with no one in front of Ani, Ani put on full speed and won the race.

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Rating: - Doesn't hold up as well as the Original Trilogy
I saw this movies in theatres, and at the time I remmeber really enjoying the movie. The special effects were amazing, the lightsaber battles were awesome and Darth Maul was the badest Sith I had ever seen, so very different in his approach than Vader.

I recently bought this DVD, because I only had this movie on VHS and I no longer own a VHS Cassette player. I had all the other movies on DVD so I figured I would complete my set. I put it in and watched it again, and I found myself getting a bit bored. The storyline was only "OK" and in many cases the acting was seriously bad. Having a very young Anakin Skywalker was a poor choice I feel. The viewing audience would have happily accepted a 12-14 year old Anakin, and maybe, just maybe, they could have found an actor who didn't so precociously force his lines.

When watching the Original Trilogy, you know that the heroes of that series would most likely die if put into the situations they endure, but each character has a "hero factor" a kinf of charisma that lets you suspend disbelief enough to convice yourself that they could pull off the impossible saves that they do in the film.

You don't get that same feeling from the characters in this movie. Anakin should have died at least 8 times in situations that is rediculous to expect an 8 year old to handle. Also all the characters seem "invincible" until its time for them to die to promote a plot point. When Vader died it was like "wow, you can feel the pain he has been through and he relief at redemtion" when the Emperor died is was climactic. Qui Gon had an air of calm command about him, but when he died it didn't seem like a tragedy, it seemed more like "Oh well, I guess its time I died." You can only take the Jedi stoicism so far before it seems cheesy. Obi Wan was does not yet have the commanding presence he later will, but we can accept that because of his relative "youth" in the movie. The only character that gave the same kind of awe Yoda originally did, was Mace Windu, and he was only breifly in this movie.

And then we get to Jar Jar and Padme. Jar Jar was just incredibly annoying, and he served no purpose in the movie. In fact the movie would have been improved and would have flowed much better had the whole Gungan species not been present in it. "Oh lets escape from these droids by going to an underwater cuty for 5 minutes." and then "Oh lets rescue the princess by traveling through the planet's water filled core (which doesn't makes sense according to 'Physics')." I know the Gungans were only in the movie for Comic Relief, but unfortunately (and this is true for all incidental Aliens in the new trilogy) they just made the movie seem cartoonish. Whereas the aliens in the original trilogy seemed a bit sinister and unknown, I strongly feel that I have seen the aliens from the new trilogy before.. on Cartoon Network.

While I can watch the Original Trilogy and it still seems as fresh today as it did when I was a little kid, watching the new trilogy after a few years just reminds me of how dated they feel, and how poor the new trilogy it compared to the Original. Yes the special effects are better, Yes the lightsaber battles are amazing, but they lack the moral core that the original trilogy had and the motivations for the way the characters act all seem contrived.

While I would suggest anyone who is a StarWars fan keep a copy of this movie, and it is certainly cheap enough, it really doesn't live up to its own legacy.

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Rating: - Wow. That's all I can say...wow.
Just watched this again on TV the other day. The acting is simply astounding. I can feel for the actors, as the dialogue is so atrocious that it's almost beyond belief, but still. Were they physically prevented from doing the thing that we normally think of when the word "acting" is mentioned? I mean, blurting out some dialogue, or reciting it as if you're making an emotionless statement, that's not acting. Seriously, this is what I expect from fifth graders appearing in their very first school play. It's just astonishes me every time one of the characters says something. It's like a big, dumb, obvious summary of what's going on at the moment. "Mom, I'm not a slave any more!" Mom: "All your dreams have come true." Said with all the emotion of "Oh, you remembered to pick up the potato chips from the store." Probably 80% of the dialogue in this movie is like this. Most first-time script readthroughs on a soap opera must be far superior to this. Seriously, Scooby Doo has better acting - much, much better. I honestly can't remember ever seeing anything like this, except maybe in the worst of the worst of Sci-Fi Originals. And even then, it's not every member of the entire cast like it is here.

Then of course there's Jar Jar, the baby talking donkey. I guess Lucas was really reaching out for the 2 and under audience. And the big battle at the end, with a villain we hardly know, so there's really no drama there (except what can be created with CGI), and he looks downright silly in that Halloween face paint. Oh, let's not forget the story, as Annakin's fighter gets hit, causing him to go out of control. He ACCIDENTALLY flies into the space station, then while shooting at some droids, ACCIDENTALLY hits the main reactor, which nicely waits for him to get to a safe distance before exploding. Good grief, it's too stupid and pathetic to even bother criticizing.

Overall, this is an astonishingly bad movie, with dialogue that keeps one in a constant state of "What the **** did I just see?". I mean, constantly,. throughout the whole film. The action is much the same, dumb, silly, dopey. the tone of the movie goes from "epic drama" to dopey silliness, back and forth, pretty much every thirty seconds. Dopey droids are vwooshed in half by the increasingly boring sounds of light sabers, which now look more like a fluorescent tube than any sort of weapon. And then they chop another two dozen in half, then another three dozen, then another dozen. Then another two dozen.

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Rating: - What was Lucas thinking???
This was a terrible movie! After giving us one of the best trilogies in movie history, Lucas does this??? Confused plot, repulsive characters (especially Jar Jar), and ...did anyone REALLY want to see a baby-faced Darth Vader shouting "Yippee!" Barf! It sort of ruined the whole second trilogy for me. (Although the second trilogy does get better from here!) I know Lucas was trying to draw in pre-schoolers who had never seen the first trilogy, but did he need to thumb his nose at his older fan base?
If Lucas really cared for his fans he would come out with his own re-edit of this one (sort of like the newer version of the original series) giving us a movie that is watchable for "over pre-school" fans. Or at least, instead of trying the sue the phantom editor, he could have included the phantom edit as a special feature on the DVD as a tribute to his fans who loved his work enough to try to cover his mistakes!

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