Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

by Cheeto


Posted on 30 April 2021

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

Rating -

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space-opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm, distributed by 20th Century Fox and stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Pernilla August, and Frank Oz. It is the first installment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and begins the “Skywalker saga,” though it was the fourth film to be produced. Set 32 years before the original trilogy, during the era of the Galactic Republic, the plot follows Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi as they try to protect Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo in hopes of securing a peaceful end to an interplanetary trade dispute. Joined by Anakin Skywalker—a young slave with unusually strong natural powers of the Force—they simultaneously contend with the mysterious return of the Sith.

I am a HUGE Star Wars superfan, I love everything Star Wars related. They are and will always be my favourite films of all time. What they did for films and filmmaking in general, can not be put into words. The Original Trilogy (1977-1983) is the most classic of classic films. They are untouchable. The question after these were made; is there going to be prequels?

I mean how do you follow up the greatest trilogy film had ever seen? George Lucas tried to get Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard to direct the new prequel trilogy. They turned it down citing it was his baby, he should do it. So, in 1994 George Lucas put pen to paper and started to write the first film in the new Star Wars prequel trilogy.

I may get hate for this, George Lucas isn’t a very good writer, he even admitted this himself. His story writing is phenomenal and unmatched, but when it comes to actual dialog, I can’t think of anyone worse than him.

The cast is a very good cast for a film as big as Star Wars, he returned to previous filming locations in Tunisia and various film studios in London (mainly Elstree). He used his own company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to do the special effects, just like the original.

He was going to use state of the art computer technology never seen before at the time. He was going to have the first ever fully computer generated character. He even got John Williams back on board to score the film. Everything was falling into place.

So in 1999, the whole world was waiting eagerly for the realease of the film. This isn’t just a film, but an event, like the Olympics or The World Cup. As people lined up outside, imagining how great the film would be, that it surely had to be better than the originals (what were they thinking?). Let me tell you, they definitely left the cinema feeling disappointed.

My verdict, it’s ok. Yep, just ok. It has good story telling, good set design, ok writing, terrible pacing and decent action through parts. I do however have a few really key points which make this film just ok and nothing else.

Firstly, do you remember the never seen before computer generated character mentioned earlier? Yes? Believe it or not, this is one of the worst parts of the film. This is because this computer generated character happened to be none other than Jar-Jar Binks… While I don’t condone all of the hate directed at Ahmed Best (Jar-Jar Binks) he is a terrible character.

I understand why George wanted some comedic relief in his film. The originals had the beloved R2-D2 and C3-PO. Also some smart writing between our main protagonists Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa. It was natural and genuinely funny.

George tried putting it all on one character; for instance, we’d have a serious scene and then a scene with Jar-Jar Binks doing something supposedly funny. This makes the film flow really bad and contributes to its bad pacing. You can’t just expect to throw all of the comedic aspects onto Jar-Jar and expect it to work. Most of the ‘comedy’ is cheap slapstick and wouldn’t even look right in a Charlie Chaplin film. There’s also a fart joke, I mean come on really? How did we get from the thrilling, emotional, all out action of the original trilogy, to this.

I don’t know why George started with Anakin as a small child. I mean, once again I don’t condone the hate directed at Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker), but he was a spoilt annoying little brat. This is meant to be about Anakin’s story. How he turns into Darth Vader. I just don’t believe this is how Darth Vader was at that age. It would’ve made so much more sense to have Anakin as a bit older and less whiny.

Another problem is that there’s long scenes of just our characters walking, or sat around having an un-important chat. What I’m trying to say is that this film is largely boring. It is a sin to make a Star Wars film boring.

The only upsides the film really has is the pod race which is pretty cool. The film introduces the menacing Darth Maul. The final fight scene between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul is amazing and easily one of the best in the whole saga. Accompanied by the kick ass main theme for this film ‘Duel of The Fates’.

Overall I think It’s an ok film. If you’re a Star Wars fan then you should watch this as it’s important to the story. But other then that, you probably won’t be missing out on much.

 


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