Summary:
Two Jedi caught up in a trade dispute between the Federation and Naboo discover a boy that may bring balance to the force.
My Thoughts:
I can’t believe it’s been twenty years since this film hit theaters. Life sure flies by, doesn’t it? When this film hit theaters I was nine years old, and, like everyone else in the world, I thought this film was amazing. I saw it multiple times in theaters; I remember watching it dozens of times on VHS at my own home; I remember my best friend and his brother had a goal of watching the film 100 times, and I was there for a fair amount of those rewatches. I hate to admit it, but, due to the time when I was born and my obsession with Star Wars when “Phantom Menace” hit theaters, I’d venture to guess that I’ve seen this entry or “Attack of the Clones” more than any other entry in the saga.
Of course, after that initial glow of the shiny new thing faded, as I grew older, watched more movies, and discovered what real cinema was, I came to realize that “The Phantom Menace” wasn’t all that great in certain aspects. Nowadays, “Phantom Menace” has a (somewhat deserved) reputation surrounding it; people openly make fun of some of the more schmaltzy elements, like the character Jar Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd’s acting, midi-chlorians, plot holes and uneven plotting, and especially the horrendous dialogue (from “Are you an angel?” to “I’m a person and my name is Anakin!”), but people tend to forget that, in terms of world building, production design, and some action, this movie is pretty decent. When you have a movie that pulls both strongly in both bad and good directions, its inevitable that the overall film will land somewhere between good and bad. This film is middling, yes, but it’s also still very watchable.
“His cells have the highest concentration of midi-chlorians I have seen in a life-form. It is possible that he was conceived by the midi-chlorians.”
Jedi Qui-Gon Jin (Liam Neeson, “Darkman”) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, “The Ghost Writer”) arrive on a Trade Federation ship as ambassadors for Naboo, but the negotiations are cut short after they are attacked. The Jedi take the Queen of Naboo and her decoys on a ship (played by Keira Knightley, “King Arthur (2004)” and Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”), planning to take them to meet with the council, but their ship is damaged and they are stranded on a desert planet called Tatooine where they meet a young boy with a mysterious aura around him named Anakin (Jake Lloyd, “Jingle All the Way”) who may be the key to bringing balance to the force. After the Federation invades Naboo, war becomes imminent.
So, lets get the bad stuff out of the way first, shall we? There are so many plot holes in this film that if movies were pots and pans, this one would be a colander. There are small plot holes from the very beginning, like in the first scene where the Trade Federation tries to hide their actions by attempting to kill two Jedi sent by the council to negotiate. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to negotiate peacefully and send the Jedi back to the council? Wouldn’t that have given the Trade Federation more time to invade Naboo? To the really big plot holes, like how a queen, two Jedi, and a ship full of warriors gambled their fate on the word of a cocky ten year old kid promising to win space NASCAR. Or how Queen Amidala (Portman) allows her decoy (Knightley) to remain on the ship on Tatooine, while the Queen herself traipses all over the dangerous planet without any real bodyguards (other than the Jedi, who are unaware of whom she is). All that stuff happens in the first forty minutes, but this movie has dozens of moments that are groan-worthy.
Another thing that has irked me more as the years have gone by is the way this film is aimed primarily at children. Sure, the original Star Wars films are fantastical, they’re full of adventure, and they feature all sorts of quirky and sometimes funny characters (like C3P0 and R2D2), but those films all felt like they were aimed at a more mature audience. The original films had humor interspersed throughout; they didn’t put the movie on hold for an out of place fart joke, like this one did. This film heavily featured a little kid, which is really the only time that’s happened in the Star Wars universe, and for good reason. Set aside the facts that Qui-Gon wanted to train Anakin and his request was denied by master Yoda (in a sense, Qui-Gon is just bringing Anakin along for a ride at that point), why is a ten year old being dragged around a battlefield where people are dying left and right? It doesn’t make a lick of sense. Jar Jar Binks has frequently been touted as the most hated character in the Star Wars universe. His brand of humor is aimed at people who have below average intelligence, and his presence on screen becomes increasingly annoying as the film goes on.
Dialogue. George has always had troubles with dialogue. There’s a famous story about Harrison Ford being on the set of one of the original films, and during a reading, he said, “George, you can type this sh*t, but you sure can’t say it! Move your mouth when you’re typing.” The dialogue is stilted and bad and sometimes even uncomfortable to get through, but it also has resulted in some lines that I quote far too often in my daily life (“That’s so wizard, Annie!” and “It’s working! It’s working!”).
Lets talk the good stuff. This movie looks fantastic. I love the look of many of the droids and locations, and in my opinion, this film really blended CGI and practical effects together in a great way. There are moments in this film that look a bit better than “Attack of the Clones”, where the vast majority of the frame was taken up by CGI for a vast majority of the movie. There are still some issues, like how Qui-Gon constantly looks just above Jar Jar’s eyes whenever he’s addressing him, but for the most part this film looks darn good. I really enjoy the world building that goes into the universe of Star Wars, and though I’m sort of sick of seeing Tatooine (or similar desert planets), I loved the look of Naboo and Corusant, and some of the other locations were pretty neat too. Show me more great-looking fantastical worlds that I haven’t seen before, we don’t need more Death Stars or desert planets.
I think most of the action in this film still holds up, and while there are scenes that drag on a bit too long (cough, podracing), some of the sequences are still freaking awesome (Darth Maul’s lightsaber battle). Even the droid battle vs the gungans is pretty fun, and there’s plenty for people to latch onto if they’re just looking for a few good space battles. Again, you sort of have to suspend your disbelief when autopilot in a Naboo fighter takes ten-year-old Anakin up to space where he then pilots the ship to take out the “Episode I” equivalent of a Death Star. I feel like I could summarize the action in this film by saying that the action is pretty good, but only if you don’t think too hard about the implications for what’s happening in front of you.
Verdict:
Revisiting “Episode I” made me realize certain things weren’t as bad as I remembered, but other things were far worse. This film has sort of earned it’s reputation as being schmaltzy and ridiculous, and while it had been quite a few years since I’d seen this (I last saw it in 2012 when they did the 3D rerelease), I know I personally won’t ever get to the point where I say: “ Whelp, I’m never watching that again.” This movie isn’t that great, and maybe it’s just the nostalgia factor paired with the fact that I have the ability to enjoy even the crappiest of movies (see 31 Nights of Thrills and 31 Nights of Thrills Part 2), but I can’t fully dislike this movie.
To me, “Episode I” feels very much like “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”; there’s a lot of stuff I love- the world, a few characters, the overall direction of the story, but from a cinematic standpoint, there’s still a lot to be desired.
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