OK this is not the most popular of choice of reviews maybe but I felt I would give it a go and poke fun at the prequels of Star Wars, which despite their flaws still contribute to the Star Wars series. So the subject of this post will be the dreaded Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which started the whole thing off so to speak. So let's dawn the cloaks, get the lightsabres on and have a look at this one.....
So the film begins with two jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) who are sent on a mission to negotiate to end a blockade set up by the trade federation around the planet Naboo. However the negotiations are ended when Nute Gunray, the trade federation Viceroy seeks the advice of a silent adviser, the Dark sith lord, Darth Sidius (Ian McDiarmid) who tells him to have the jedi killed and invader Naboo with army of battle droids. Qui-Gon and Obi-wan flee to Naboo where they meet up with a local, a gungan named Jar Jar Binks, who leads them to his people's underwater city. The Gungans however refuse to help the Jedi to fight the invasion on Naboo but they do allow them a way to access the surface. The ruler of Naboo, Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) is captured by the federation army but she is soon rescued by Qui-Gon and Obi-wan, and they flee Naboo using Amidala's personal spaceship which is damaged during their escape from the blockade. They then stop off on the planet Tatooine for repairs and they seek out a settlement where they go to a repair shop and meet with the owner, Watto who has a young slave named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) working for him. Qui-Gon senses a strong powerful sense of the "Force" within Anakin and he believes that Anakin could well be the chosen one who will bring balance to the force as prophesised by the Jedi.
Qui-gon then decides to wager with Watto, to grant Anakin's freedom if he wins in a podrace, as Anakin is a gifted podracer. Anakin as a result wins the race and is granted his freedom so Qui-Gon can take him to be trained as a jedi knight. However just before they are set to leave, Qui-Gon is attacked by Darth Maul (Ray Park) Darth Sidius's apprentice, but Maul quickly flees. And from this point on Anakin begins his long journey toward becoming a jedi knight and he becomes embroiled between the war going between the trade federation and the galactic republic.
As it was the first Star Wars film in over 15 years at that time, the Phantom Menace was hugely anticipated to be a great prequel that woud explain the origins of the Star Wars trilogy IV-VI. However it has to be said that the film itself does fall somewhat short of those expectations as George Lucas, who directed all three prequels doesn't quite deliver the goods here and has created a very cheesy, poorly written and at times only competently acted film. But despite all that there is still a fair bit to enjoy in the Phantom Menace, its not a perfect film and it was never going to be able to live up the expectation of the hype surrounding it.
Performance wise Phantom Menace is certainly a very mixed bag but alot of it boils down to Lucas's direction (or mis-direction) as he clearly is trying to direct the actors as if they were appering in an old black and white space opera from the 1940s. The actors that come off better are of course Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor as the two jedi knights, Qui-Gon Gin and the young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Neeson simply affects his Irish accent, albeit slightly toned down a little, and plays Qui-Gon in a kind of simplisticly moral way. Neeson does have some good moments in the film, although he also has some appalling lines of dialogue (but then they all do!) and the worst, but funniest being when Qui-Gon talks to Watto, a blue-skinned winged alien, the repair shop owner on Tatooine and he says to Watto at one point "patience, my blue friend!". One of Neeson's slightly better lines is when he saves Jar Jar Binks when they first meet from being flattened by a federation tank, and he says to Jar Jar "What are you brainless??? You almost got us killed!" and Jar Jar says "I spake!" and Qui-gon says "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent!". Neeson's fight scenes in the film are also very good and one of the film's best moments actually comes Qui-Gon's battle with Darth Maul and they fight in between force field barriers which shut off and on, and when they are separated by a barrier, Qui-Gon simply kneels and meditates, whilst Darth Maul menacingly paces around patiently.
Ewan McGregor does not too badly as the younger Obi-wan kenobi, who at this time is Qui-Gon's padawan, who aides him in the battles against the trade federation. McGregor however does appear to be doing some kind of feeble impression of Alec Guinness, but it doesn't really come off that well throughout, but he does do a decent enough job with the character himself. McGregor also has some cheesy dialogue but does have one or two decent lines such as after their negotiations with the trade federation fail, they are forced to fight their way out and Obi-wan says to Qui-gon "Well you were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short!". Also another amusing line is when Qui-Gon tests young Anakin for his midi-chlorian count (which in the film are microscopic body cells which in large numbers can have a strong sense of power with the "force") and he gives the reading quietly to Obi-wan who scans and says "This is incredible! Not even Master Yoda has a midi-chlorian count this high!".
Ian McDiarmid undoubtedly however gives the film its best performance in his dual role as the evil Darth Sidious and Chancellor Palpatine. As Darth Sidious, McDiarmid get's the film most memorable line (or as memorable as you can get for this film!) where he says to his apprentice Darth Maul "Wipe them out! All of them!". Another good moment in his performance is when Sidious speaks with the Viceroy, Nute Gunray who says it is impossible to track Amidala's ship and Sidious says "Not for a sith!" and on the hologram image we see Darth Maul emerge and Sidious says "This is my apprentice, Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship!". Natalie Portman also provides the film one of its better performances in her dual role as Queen Amidala and the queen's handmaiden, Padme, who befriends the young Anakin. Although Portman's potrayal of Padme it has to be said is far better than her one-note potrayal of the Queen, who speaks like a posh robot (if that's possible!). Ray Park is also quite effective in his physical role of Darth Maul, the menacing red-skinned Sith apprentice, who whirls and twirls his way around the screen like some vicious ballet dancer (OK that's even more strange!). Park of course didn't voice the character as the voice of Darth Maul was provided by actor and comedian, Peter Serafanowicz.
Jake Lloyd on the other hand is quite irritating in his role as the young Anakin Skywalker, and he doesn't really lend a great deal of weight to a young child who has so much responsibility weighted on his shoulders. Lloyd also potrays Sykwalker in places as being a bit too chirpy in the role, and again he has some real naff moments such as the scene where Qui-Gon tells him that he is no longer Watto's slave and he is free and the boy simply goes "Yippee!" and runs off! And then there is Ahmed Best was given the worst part in the film to deal with as the hugely annoying Jar Jar Binks, the CGI based clumsy Gungan, who helps out the jedis and young Anakin. And Best's almost squeaky voice doesn't really lend well to help make the character that much more bearable as he says such lines as "Oh moy oh moy! I love you!" to Qui-Gon Jon when they meet after he saves the Gungan's life. And then there are lines such as "Mesa Jar Jar Binks! Mesa your humble servant!" or "Mesa gettin very very scared!". Oh sheeeeadddupppp!!! And lastly on a more positive note Andy Secombe does a better job as the voice of Watto, the grumpy and cynical repair shop owner, who owns Anakin as a slave. Secombe does provide some good moments of amusement in the film such as in the scenes where he meets with Qui-Gon, who tells him he has acquired a racing pod, the "fastest in the galaxy" and Watto laughs saying "I hope you didn't kill anyone I know for it!".
Direction wise George Lucas set himself a mammoth task here in trying to follow up the original trilogy and as a director he succeeds in some areas and fails miserably in others. Where Lucas does succeed is in the visual presentation of the film as the CGI effects are largely excellent and impressive, even if alot of the CGI characters such as Watto, Jar Jar Binks and Boss Nass (voiced by Brian Blessed) aren't that convincing looking as alien creatures. Lucas also handles the film's lightsabre fight scenes pretty well, especially in the big sabre duel between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul. Where Lucas fails is in his writing, which is largely poor, and his inability to actually direct actors and aide them to provide good performances, where a majority of the acting is more hammy than a butcher's shop after its just received a big load on a Monday morning!
So getting onto the film's flaws, the Phantom Menace, let's face it has its fair share. To start with the plot is rather dull and while it sets up the basis of the whole franchise it doesn't really grab you in an interesting way. The droid army aren't that effective as enemies either, as Qui-Gon could demolish the whole army almost by himself if he had to, as the droids are mostly wafer thin (well the troops are!) and they rather annoying American digitised voices. Lucas also as a result of this film had some I guess unfair accusations of racism aimed at him for his depiction of the incompetent Viceroy Nute Gunray and how he has an Asian accent, this was also aimed his visual depiction of Watto, who has a long nose, and his stingy mean nature, was almost depicted as being a take on the Jewish. But it has to be said that use of accents for some of the characters are definitely questionable and pretty poor. Anakin's character also isn't really dealt with in a very convincing way and there is no real weight lended to the responsibility of Anakin either in the film. And I also thought the way in which Anakin was depicted as an accidental hero at the end was really stupid, by jumping into a vacant starfighter onboard the droid army's control ship, and he accidentally fires a laser blast at the ship's reactor, which knocks the droid army dead, as they are no longer operational as a result! Yep, real convincing, George! Its the equivalent of the same silly idea he had in the original Star Wars where there is ONE vulnerable exhaust port in the Death Star which if a shot is fired into it will destroy the whole Death Star!
And another flaw in the film is its most irritating character, Jar Jar Binks, who could be said to be the equivalent in terms of annoyance as the bloody infuriating frog ring tone that came out a few years back! Jar Jar Binks it has to be said is an abortion of a character in the Star Wars series and his constant use of "Mesa mesa!!" is just irritating to say the least. The character was obviously designed to provide comic relief for the film but in the end it just makes the whole film look like a complete joke anyway. The criticism of course of Jar Jar at the time was so harsh that Lucas even decided to largely sideline him from the following sequel, The Attack of the Clones, which shows he did make at least one or two sensible decisions while he directed the prequels. But for that reason alone I haven't really watched this film in quite some time!
So that's it for my look at The Phantom Menace, which has its problems but it is actually still quite an enjoyable and entertaining film despite them although it is a long way off coming close to the quality of the original trilogy.
So next up is Episode II....
Till then bye the now.
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