Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

The Phantom Menace was perhaps the most anticipated and most over hype movie in film history. I remember back in 1999 all the attention that the film brought on before it's initial release on May 19, 1999: Theaters that were once THX must be decertified and altered in order for the theater chain to get the movie, there were armed guards delivery the film prints in Canada, all theater employees and personal MUST pay for the film and no matter what happens, there must be two theater staff members at the cinema door at all times or Lucas would remove the print from theaters. I don't know if all theaters followed Lucasfilm's printed guidelines, but at Sherway we did. We installed new speakers for the THX sound system, new hardware in the projection booth, and we even had a staff meeting before the film was released to discuss these very important matters.

From all this attention and anticipation, The Phantom Menace couldn't possibly live up to the expectations of moviegoers but that shouldn't affect the way one views the movie, because after all, The Phantom Menace is still just a movie.

The story follows the conflict over the planet Naboo, a peaceful planet that is governed by Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and is threatened by the Trade Federation which is being controlled the evil sith. Two Jedi Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Lian Neeson) and Obi Won Kenobi (Ewan McGreggor) are dispatched to help save the Queen and the planet Naboo. Along the way, Qui-Gon Jinn discovers a young boy who is believe to the one who can bring balance to the force is brought along for the fight.

From a visual standpoint, The Phantom Menace is an incredible movie, you literally have no idea what is real in the film and The Phantom Menace must of set a record for the amount of visual effects used at that time. From the very first scene involving the space ship to the very last scene in the city I really had no idea if these were models or computer generated images.

Lian Neeson and Ewan McGreggor play their roles well, as Natalie Portman's part is quite limited. Familiar faces C-3P0 and R2D2 are introduced as wise old Yoda. Samuel L. Jackson also cameos with a very small part. A young Anikan Skywalker played by Jake Lloyd is both very good and a little bad. It seemed that any seen that he was in with older actors he blended in well. But when he was on his own near the end of the film he became a little over the top. The best section of the film was from the time they introduced Anikan to the end of the pod racing sequence, I found that it was during this time that the characters became most developed and the story was also the most interesting. The pod sequence seemed directly written for a follow up video game, but I found this sequence to be very exciting and very well made. Even though, the entire scene was clock in at 11 minutes, it was one of the main attractions of the show.

The weakest part of The Phantom Menace was that of Darth Maul. I don't know if it is just me but his costume and face seemed really bad, I really didn't like the horns that were popping out of his head and his makeup was a little to noticeable. Another problem with Darth Maul is that we have no idea who he is, where he came from, why he is an apprentice to a master sith. The very first battle between Maul and Ginn seemed a little out of place and I think it would have been more effective if he was stalking the two Jedi's instead of that pointless battle.

Another character that I was not two fond of was Jar Jar Binks. I have no idea what Lucas was thinking when he created him as he looked dumb and his voice and dialogue were very annoying. And since when do Jedi's carry underwater breathing devices when they go underwater with Jar Jar.

I mentioned earlier that the visual were incredible, however, near the conclusion of the film it becomes clear that they a little over done. Most of the battle on Naboo seemed to computer generated and the story becomes little too childish when all of a sudden Anikan Skywalker inadvertently saves the day.

For the most part The Phantom Menace succeeds in introducing the very first part of the The Star Wars Saga, however, George Lucas did not direct The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and in not doing so he handed over the directing job to someone else who may have had better vision. It could be argued, that some of the flaws in The Phantom Menace could have been avoided if Lucas didn't direct but most of The Phantom Menace lives up to the extraordinary hype even thought it is the weakest entry of the The Star Wars Saga .

Runtime: 133mins
DvD Aspect Ratio:2.35:1 Widescreen
THX Digitally Mastered
Dolby Digital EX
20th Century Fox Home Video
Rated:PG

DvD Picture Quality:5
DvD Sound Quality:5
DvD Extras: 5

The DvD was a two disc edition. There were two glitches midway through chapter 17. What was good about the Did was that it split the film into 50 chapters so finding any part that you might want to go back a view was very easy.

Supplemental features included a audio commentary by George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, editor, sound designer, visual effects supervisors and the animation supervisors involved in the production of the film. Seven deleted scenes complete with visual effects were included, a making of documentary, trailers, TV spots, production stills, posters and much much more.

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