THE AISLE SEAT - "STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE"
by Mike McGranaghan
What an exhausting experience. I've spent the last six months trying to avoid seeing or hearing anything about Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Like most other Star Wars fans, I awaited this prequel with great anticipation. So much so that I was determined to walk in cold, knowing as little about it as possible so that the movie's surprises could register completely. Believe me, it's not easy to do with a film this big. When a report about Star Wars came on TV, I turned the channel. When I stumbled across a magazine article about the film, I avoided reading it. Literally, all I knew about Episode 1 was what I had seen in the 3-minute theatrical trailer.
I'm glad I put myself on a blackout. What a rush it was to finally walk into a theater, sit down, and see this movie. I was nine when the original came out, and I was immediately enthralled upon seeing it. Twenty-one years later, the thrill is still there. Episode 1 is almost exactly what I hoped it would be - a thrilling continuation on the themes and ideas that captured my imagination as a boy.
Because I kept myself in the dark as to the plot, I'll summarize it only in the most vague of terms. Two Jedi Knights (Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi) are sent to settle a trade dispute. Along the way, they encounter a little boy who has special powers of the Force. His name is Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars buffs will immediately recognize this as Darth Vader's real name). There is a young queen (Natalie Portman) who is crucial to the story, and a villain named Darth Maul who looks like a demon and carries a dual-edged light saber. Some old friends turn up as well, including Yoda, C-3PO and R2-D2. Samuel L. Jackson also has a small role, and I was disappointed to discover that he doesn't have more screen time.
One of the problems with a movie like Phantom Menace is that the level of expectation is so high that there's no way any movie could match it. And, in fact, I think parts of the film could have been heavily improved. There's no real obvious hero to get behind, as we did with Luke Skywalker in the original. The young Obi-Wan gets relatively little to do, and Anakin eventually grows up to become a bad guy, so we don't exactly root for him either. It doesn't help that half the running time is devoted to the trade war, while the other half focuses on the boy. Perhaps because there are two more chapters to the story, writer/director George Lucas has chosen to develop things more slowly. Some of these characters and subplots will doubtless pay off in Episodes 2 and 3.
That said, I found Phantom Menace to be a total joy. It's exactly what I wanted it to be - a new installment of the series that was a landmark in cinema. In other words, it wasn't broken so Lucas didn't fix it (the director has also added some amusing in-jokes to delight fans). Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi are such recognizable figures in pop culture that getting a glimpse into their origins is fascinating. Star Wars fans - myself included - love these characters so much that we are more than happy to revisit their universe. The movie expands on these people, as well as the ideas of the Force and the Dark Side. Some will view the film as a disappointment, but for me it was a deepening of some well-known and beloved themes.
Most impressive of all are the visual effects, which create one astonishing fictional world after another. Lucas has always said that he had to wait for technology to catch up with his vision before making more Star Wars films. Watching this one, you can see why. There is a character named Jar Jar Binks who is completely computer-animated, yet who blends seamlessly with the human actors. The battles in space seem more fluid and realistic than before. The creatures are more strangely imaginative. For me, however, the highlight was a "pod race" in which vehicles race furiously along the surface of Tatooine. This scene in particular is a breakthrough for the way it creates a sense of speed; you feel like you are in the pod race instead of watching it.
I have to say that I was probably predisposed to like Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Perhaps it's impossible to view it from a detached position. After all, like most males of my generation, the Star Wars series changed the way I view movies. The appeal of the original trilogy is so strong that I could only experience this movie as a certified Star Wars buff. Then again, maybe that's the way it should be. This is a film made for the fans. On that level, it doesn't disappoint.
(
1/2 out of four)
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