star
wars
episode I:
the phantom menace |
director/screenwriter
George Lucas
producer
Rick McCallum
cinematographer
David Tattersall
music
John Williams
editors
Ben Burtt
George Lucas
Paul Martin Smith
cast
Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn)
Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala)
Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker)
Ray Park (Darth Maul)
Ahmad Best (voice of Jar Jar Binks)
Frank Oz (Yoda)
Anthony Daniels (C-3P0)
Kenny Baker (R2-D2)
Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu)
Terence Stamp (Chancellor Valorum)
Pernilla August (Shmi)
mpaa rating: PG
running
time: 133m
u.s.
release: 5/19/99
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
see also:
- star
wars episode II:
attack of the clones
- star
wars episode III:
revenge of the sith
- star
wars episode IV:
a new hope
- star
wars episode V:
the empire strikes back
- star
wars episode VI:
return of the jedi
|
In
case you hadn't noticed, it's here. After 16 years of
anticipation, and at least six months of airhorn hype, Star
Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace has actually descended
to Earth in physical form, lightly touching the faithful fans
on their fevered foreheads .... Oh, and how is it as a movie?
Bad. Very bad. Terrible, juvenile, tedious, empty. In
that order. Does that matter? No. It's a new Star Wars
movie, and it's there, and people will have to see it
if only to be able to say they've seen it. Whether they'll be
able to say they enjoyed it is another story.
After 22 years away from the director's chair, George Lucas has
returned to it, in his first full-time gig behind the camera
since the original Star
Wars. He has also penned his first all-by-himself screenplay
in 22 years. Taken together, the script and the direction are
proof positive that Lucas should never again be allowed behind
a camera or a keyboard. The dialogue is a medley of flat, cringe-inducing
platitudes or lame stabs at humor. The action scenes go by in
a hectic blur; the people scenes drag on into infinity. The most
memorable performances are by computer-animated aliens -- one
of whom, the clumsy Jar Jar Binks, may entertain very small children
but will send anyone over 12 into exasperated fits of eye-rolling.
The "story," such as it is, involves Queen Amidala
(Natalie Portman), Luke Skywalker's future mother, who wears
Noh-flavored gowns and kabuki make-up; her chalky face is brightened
with a crimson dot on each cheek and a dainty blood-red smear
bisecting her bottom lip, as if the actress bit it to stay awake
and bore down too hard. Queen Amidala refuses to sign a corrupt
trade treaty, so the Trade Federation wants to persuade her.
Enter Darth Maul (Ray Park), Mr. Persuasion. A horned, red-faced
Sith assassin, Darth Maul has very little to do in the movie
except look fierce and sell action figures and T-shirts.
The Queen's only hope is two Jedi Knights -- the veteran Qui-Gon
Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor).
They take her to Tatooine, where they encounter the nine-year-old
prodigy Anakin Skywalker (amateurish Jake Lloyd), the future
Darth Vader. There is a pod race, there are lightsaber duels,
there is a computer-generated battle between computer-generated
aliens and computer-generated battle droids. If you are easily
impressed by special-effects whiz-bang, Phantom Menace
may be your cup of adrenaline. But the consequence of the restless
editing and the ceaseless CGI is an overall thinness. The movie
has no heft, no weight -- it's a giant PS2 version of
itself.
The actors get lost in the design. Lucas makes a fatal error
in placing the bland Jake Lloyd and the annoying Jar Jar Binks
so centrally, while keeping fine actors Neeson, MacGregor, and
Portman under his thumb. These actors look demoralized and bored,
as if they knew that the thin air they're emoting with will be
filled by the CGI critters Lucas really cares about. Meanwhile,
Lucas gives the crowd-pleasing Darth Maul a bare minimum of screen
time and resorts to a lot of cheap jokes. What was he thinking?
If Phantom Menace is meant to be the start of a fresh
trilogy, and the genesis of the entire six-part Star Wars
saga, it's an awfully shaky start.
George Lucas had the money and power to do exactly what he wanted
to do in Phantom Menace, and that's the most depressing
part: you stare at it and say, "This is what he wanted
to do?" You'd hate to see a movie he didn't want
to do. Or perhaps this is actually a movie he didn't want
to do. Perhaps Lucas feels trapped in the universe he created
-- perhaps he resents having to go back to this well three more
times. If so, he has no one to blame but himself. |
