* CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS
*Directed by George Lucas
*Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Ian McDiarmid, Ray Park, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Samuel L Jackson, Frank Oz, Pernilla August, Hugh Quarshie, Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Peter Serafinowicz, Keira Knightley
The Plot: Two Jedi Knights, Qui-Gonn Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, are sent on a mission to prevent an invasion that's underway by the evil Trade Federation who's targeting the planet of Naboo. Along the way they face obstacles to complete such a task and they find themselves on the remote planet of Tatooine where they meet a young boy named Anakin Skywalker who's very strong with The Force and is maybe the prophesied Jedi to bring balance between the Light and the Dark Side. Little do they know is that an ancient enemy of the Jedi known as the Sith is scheming this entire plan that may soon escalate if action is not in full effect by Qui Gonn, Obi-Wan, the Naboo ruler Queen Amidala and her allies.
Now, it could be easy for someone like me right now as I'm writing this to just write an insanely long rant about why this film isn't good and whatnot. If you go on the Internet right now you'll see so many reviews about this movie and maybe a lot of negativity in said reviews. Ever since I started this blog I knew at some point that I did want to talk about my favorite franchise in all of cinema and with new Star Wars movies coming out, Episode VIII The Last Jedi in a couple months, what a better time to dive right in. Right here I'll give you an intelligent film discussion about this movie that I promise will not just be another rant. Maybe, there will be things to talk about that I wasn't a fan of, but there won't be any anger. The Dark Side will not be present. So to shake things up I figured I start with what I liked about the film first. Here we go.
First of all John Williams's score is by far one of the best aspects about this film. His music really makes scenes feel so grand, epic and majestic. You can still feel somewhat moved by some scenes just because of how powerful Williams's music is and the way it's incorporated. I also really enjoyed some of the action sequences as well. The space battle at the Federation's control ship during the film's climax was a lot of fun as well as some of the lightsaber action with the Jedi fighting the droids. The Pod Race sequence was also really good with some really cool looking CG and brilliant sound design.
And of course, the cream of the crop is the final lightsaber battle between Qui-Gonn and Obi Wan versus Darth Maul. Speaking of Darth Maul, I was also a fan of Ray Park's physical performance and thought he delivered in the scenes he was in. Also, a lot of people don't know this, but Peter Serafinowiscz the actor from Shaun of the Dead and now the lead in the new series The Tick voiced Darth Maul and audio dubbed his dialogue from Ray Park's performance. He does incredible voice acting work as well.
It was also fun to see Anthony Daniels perform as C3PO and seeing the interactions with R2 on screen. There was some good practical production design work and solid costume design. I feel once we get to Tatooine it gives us that lived-in Star Wars feel that we know and love and because of most of that practically, and real locations at times, it definitely feels closer to the Original Trilogy and I think that's why others have told me it's their favorite of the Prequel Trilogy. I respect that opinion for sure, but for me, personally, as an overall film I wouldn't go as far as to say that.
The aesthetics of The Phantom Menace felt a little more tangible, but unfortunately the elements surrounding the film itself to tell its story is where it falls apart for me. For the record, I do not think this is one of the worst films ever made and I don't think it's garbage, but I have to be honest and say that it really could've been a lot better than it was. For starters I just don't think the script was all there and the story that was in place didn't call for compelling material.
I'm not even going to compare it to the Original Trilogy, but focusing it on just being a space fantasy film, it really needed to have a little more adventure to it. There could've been so much more to tell its story, but here with a conflict about the taxation of trade disputes with political debates and negotiations, that just didn't call for an exciting story.
Although, what's worse is that even the execution doesn't even make something that's so bland and uninteresting in theory an exciting adventure with fun, charismatic, and memorable characters. If the direction was there maybe this could've been a nice, gripping fantasy adventure that could be remembered as one of the more solid blockbusters. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with very bland execution and deadpan performances, which just makes it hard to connect with the story and the characters. I don't care about these characters and this awful conflict at hand because the film just doesn't have enough effort to make me care.
So, for the record, I also want to make it known that I'm not a George Lucas hater and will not put him down as a person as so many so called fans have done in the past. I loved what he did in the past contributing to the Original Trilogy and of course his work when directing Star Wars and American Graffiti. I still haven't seen THX 1138 but will very soon. I don't necessarily think the directing in this film was very good, but I respect that he was probably trying to at least succeed on working on one of the biggest films to ever come out in the history of cinema.
I feel that after directing Star Wars and focusing more on producing and writing story treatments that's probably where he was best at. He must've unfortunately lost his touch along the way and it really pains me to say it. It wasn't a good move on his part to write and direct. He worked on story treatments for Empire and Jedi, so maybe he could've come up with the stories this time around and allowed another filmmaker and screenwriter to put their creative juices to the test. That would've been my suggestion because I did watch this film recently and feel that there were good ideas here and there, but the way it turned out could've been handled with more creativity and emotional resonance.
This is a universe I fell in love with in the Original Trilogy and with The Phantom Menace I wanted to fall in love with the characters and get wrapped up in a story. I wanted that same feeling. There just wasn't that emotional pull to get me locked into the story and really feel for the consequences at hand. I didn't care for the heroes to succeed since there wasn't much personality and intriguing backstory to them. I didn't even hate the film's villains in the sense that there wasn't enough to them to make me feel frightened or angry about the film's central conflict.
By the way the villains for this film and I'm not even talking about Darth Sidious and Darth Maul, but the ViceRoy, Nute Gunroy, and all his fellow Nemodians were the least threatening villains I've ever seen. They might be the worst villains I've ever seen in a Star Wars film and they get a lot of screen time. They just exchange exposition and just do horrible things because...you know because they can.
I also just mentioned exposition right? Yeah besides those scenes there's a ton of that in this movie and it does get tiresome to the point where I was just checking out of some scenes and had to rewind since something important might've been said. Not to mention I've seen this movie so many times. I enjoyed it in my youth, but as an adult it is one of those things that just doesn't hold up anymore.
Anyway, there's so much of that throughout the movie that it can make some scenes drag specifically as soon as the film starts and later on once the crew hits Coruscant. It just wasn't the adventure that it could've been and the dialogue for that matter was very awkwardly written and very wordy to the point where it could've been very simplified and to the point.
Last, but certainly not least, a major problem I have with this film are the major tonal shifts where it feels like a hard core space fantasy adventure about good vs evil, a political thriller set in space and a light-hearted children's film all in one. It seemed like Lucas wanted to appease all audiences, but the final product just didn't balance all those elements out well. Characters like young Anakin and Jar Jar felt like they could've been in their own kids movie and not in this type of film.
Speaking of Jar Jar, don't worry it's not stuff about his character you heard a billion times, but him along with the other CG characters felt like they had more personality in their performances than the actual live action actors themselves. The actual animated characters were more animated than the live action actors...Isn't that mind blowing?! Also, even though I did complement some of the CG in the Pod Race scene earlier, most of the CG in this film does not hold up well and the CGI characters looked completely out of place with very artificial looking textures, especially while watching this film on Blu-Ray.
The choices that were made in the production of this specific movie I think would call for an interesting documentary. It truly fascinates me and I know there is The People Vs George Lucas around which I've seen and I highly recommend it, especially if you love Star Wars, but there's so much material that could be explored with how this specific film was made. I know there's a documentary on the special features DVD of this film, but I mean like a documentary made outside of Lucasfilm where actual crew and actors from the movie really talk about how they felt while making the film. Just a thought.
All that said, The Phantom Menace is a disappointing film in the end and could've called for a fun and exciting adventure set in space regardless of the Star Wars title. Elements of the storytelling drag it down even though the look, feel, and sound of it had a little more effort behind it. There could've been excitement in store and the creative choices made in terms of writing and directing make it lesser than it could've been.
Verdict: C-
*Directed by George Lucas
*Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Ian McDiarmid, Ray Park, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Samuel L Jackson, Frank Oz, Pernilla August, Hugh Quarshie, Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Peter Serafinowicz, Keira Knightley
The Plot: Two Jedi Knights, Qui-Gonn Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, are sent on a mission to prevent an invasion that's underway by the evil Trade Federation who's targeting the planet of Naboo. Along the way they face obstacles to complete such a task and they find themselves on the remote planet of Tatooine where they meet a young boy named Anakin Skywalker who's very strong with The Force and is maybe the prophesied Jedi to bring balance between the Light and the Dark Side. Little do they know is that an ancient enemy of the Jedi known as the Sith is scheming this entire plan that may soon escalate if action is not in full effect by Qui Gonn, Obi-Wan, the Naboo ruler Queen Amidala and her allies.
Now, it could be easy for someone like me right now as I'm writing this to just write an insanely long rant about why this film isn't good and whatnot. If you go on the Internet right now you'll see so many reviews about this movie and maybe a lot of negativity in said reviews. Ever since I started this blog I knew at some point that I did want to talk about my favorite franchise in all of cinema and with new Star Wars movies coming out, Episode VIII The Last Jedi in a couple months, what a better time to dive right in. Right here I'll give you an intelligent film discussion about this movie that I promise will not just be another rant. Maybe, there will be things to talk about that I wasn't a fan of, but there won't be any anger. The Dark Side will not be present. So to shake things up I figured I start with what I liked about the film first. Here we go.
First of all John Williams's score is by far one of the best aspects about this film. His music really makes scenes feel so grand, epic and majestic. You can still feel somewhat moved by some scenes just because of how powerful Williams's music is and the way it's incorporated. I also really enjoyed some of the action sequences as well. The space battle at the Federation's control ship during the film's climax was a lot of fun as well as some of the lightsaber action with the Jedi fighting the droids. The Pod Race sequence was also really good with some really cool looking CG and brilliant sound design.
And of course, the cream of the crop is the final lightsaber battle between Qui-Gonn and Obi Wan versus Darth Maul. Speaking of Darth Maul, I was also a fan of Ray Park's physical performance and thought he delivered in the scenes he was in. Also, a lot of people don't know this, but Peter Serafinowiscz the actor from Shaun of the Dead and now the lead in the new series The Tick voiced Darth Maul and audio dubbed his dialogue from Ray Park's performance. He does incredible voice acting work as well.
It was also fun to see Anthony Daniels perform as C3PO and seeing the interactions with R2 on screen. There was some good practical production design work and solid costume design. I feel once we get to Tatooine it gives us that lived-in Star Wars feel that we know and love and because of most of that practically, and real locations at times, it definitely feels closer to the Original Trilogy and I think that's why others have told me it's their favorite of the Prequel Trilogy. I respect that opinion for sure, but for me, personally, as an overall film I wouldn't go as far as to say that.
The aesthetics of The Phantom Menace felt a little more tangible, but unfortunately the elements surrounding the film itself to tell its story is where it falls apart for me. For the record, I do not think this is one of the worst films ever made and I don't think it's garbage, but I have to be honest and say that it really could've been a lot better than it was. For starters I just don't think the script was all there and the story that was in place didn't call for compelling material.
I'm not even going to compare it to the Original Trilogy, but focusing it on just being a space fantasy film, it really needed to have a little more adventure to it. There could've been so much more to tell its story, but here with a conflict about the taxation of trade disputes with political debates and negotiations, that just didn't call for an exciting story.
Although, what's worse is that even the execution doesn't even make something that's so bland and uninteresting in theory an exciting adventure with fun, charismatic, and memorable characters. If the direction was there maybe this could've been a nice, gripping fantasy adventure that could be remembered as one of the more solid blockbusters. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with very bland execution and deadpan performances, which just makes it hard to connect with the story and the characters. I don't care about these characters and this awful conflict at hand because the film just doesn't have enough effort to make me care.
So, for the record, I also want to make it known that I'm not a George Lucas hater and will not put him down as a person as so many so called fans have done in the past. I loved what he did in the past contributing to the Original Trilogy and of course his work when directing Star Wars and American Graffiti. I still haven't seen THX 1138 but will very soon. I don't necessarily think the directing in this film was very good, but I respect that he was probably trying to at least succeed on working on one of the biggest films to ever come out in the history of cinema.
I feel that after directing Star Wars and focusing more on producing and writing story treatments that's probably where he was best at. He must've unfortunately lost his touch along the way and it really pains me to say it. It wasn't a good move on his part to write and direct. He worked on story treatments for Empire and Jedi, so maybe he could've come up with the stories this time around and allowed another filmmaker and screenwriter to put their creative juices to the test. That would've been my suggestion because I did watch this film recently and feel that there were good ideas here and there, but the way it turned out could've been handled with more creativity and emotional resonance.
This is a universe I fell in love with in the Original Trilogy and with The Phantom Menace I wanted to fall in love with the characters and get wrapped up in a story. I wanted that same feeling. There just wasn't that emotional pull to get me locked into the story and really feel for the consequences at hand. I didn't care for the heroes to succeed since there wasn't much personality and intriguing backstory to them. I didn't even hate the film's villains in the sense that there wasn't enough to them to make me feel frightened or angry about the film's central conflict.
By the way the villains for this film and I'm not even talking about Darth Sidious and Darth Maul, but the ViceRoy, Nute Gunroy, and all his fellow Nemodians were the least threatening villains I've ever seen. They might be the worst villains I've ever seen in a Star Wars film and they get a lot of screen time. They just exchange exposition and just do horrible things because...you know because they can.
I also just mentioned exposition right? Yeah besides those scenes there's a ton of that in this movie and it does get tiresome to the point where I was just checking out of some scenes and had to rewind since something important might've been said. Not to mention I've seen this movie so many times. I enjoyed it in my youth, but as an adult it is one of those things that just doesn't hold up anymore.
Anyway, there's so much of that throughout the movie that it can make some scenes drag specifically as soon as the film starts and later on once the crew hits Coruscant. It just wasn't the adventure that it could've been and the dialogue for that matter was very awkwardly written and very wordy to the point where it could've been very simplified and to the point.
Last, but certainly not least, a major problem I have with this film are the major tonal shifts where it feels like a hard core space fantasy adventure about good vs evil, a political thriller set in space and a light-hearted children's film all in one. It seemed like Lucas wanted to appease all audiences, but the final product just didn't balance all those elements out well. Characters like young Anakin and Jar Jar felt like they could've been in their own kids movie and not in this type of film.
Speaking of Jar Jar, don't worry it's not stuff about his character you heard a billion times, but him along with the other CG characters felt like they had more personality in their performances than the actual live action actors themselves. The actual animated characters were more animated than the live action actors...Isn't that mind blowing?! Also, even though I did complement some of the CG in the Pod Race scene earlier, most of the CG in this film does not hold up well and the CGI characters looked completely out of place with very artificial looking textures, especially while watching this film on Blu-Ray.
The choices that were made in the production of this specific movie I think would call for an interesting documentary. It truly fascinates me and I know there is The People Vs George Lucas around which I've seen and I highly recommend it, especially if you love Star Wars, but there's so much material that could be explored with how this specific film was made. I know there's a documentary on the special features DVD of this film, but I mean like a documentary made outside of Lucasfilm where actual crew and actors from the movie really talk about how they felt while making the film. Just a thought.
All that said, The Phantom Menace is a disappointing film in the end and could've called for a fun and exciting adventure set in space regardless of the Star Wars title. Elements of the storytelling drag it down even though the look, feel, and sound of it had a little more effort behind it. There could've been excitement in store and the creative choices made in terms of writing and directing make it lesser than it could've been.
Verdict: C-
I honestly don't hate this movie as much as most people, but I'll admit that I don't like it very much and don't really see myself watching it again unless with commentary. There are boring scenes to sit through, but there were still some entertaining scenes that make it feel somewhat competent. If I were forced to sit through it again I wouldn't hate myself, but beforehand maybe I'd try to argue to watch something better.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on The Phantom Menace and stay tuned next week for the continuation of my Star Wars review series where I'll review Episode II Attack of the Clones.
Also, stay tuned this weekend for my review of Blade Runner 2049, which I cannot wait to talk about.
For more updates be sure to follow me in the social media links below:
As always, see some movies and all that good stuff. Take care and May the Force be with you. Always. :-)
For more updates be sure to follow me in the social media links below:
Twitter and Instagram: @alexjcorey
As always, see some movies and all that good stuff. Take care and May the Force be with you. Always. :-)
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