This is Not Your Father's Star Wars

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 1999)

I'll be blunt. This is not your father's Star Wars. Forget the hype for a moment and try to give the movie a chance. This film has something for almost everybody. Phantom Menace has three personalities. It has some fast paced action like Star Wars IV. It also has scenes that were really a Star Wars cartoon. And finally there is a long serious stretch that was more like Star Trek than Star Wars. And you know what? All of these different parts came together for me. Phantom is not great but good enough.
I hear the howling out there that Phantom is not for adults! It is not made only for adults who like action pictures. This is not an action picture. But it is for adults in general. Several people have told me this is the first Star Wars movie they have enjoyed. They LIKED Liam Neeson and the "serious scenes" with Anakin on Tatooine.
I'll be blunt again. George Lucas is no longer 22. He is 55. He is a different film maker from the time he made A New Hope. The first Star Wars with its video game battles every 15 minutes, the constant arguing between its main characters and the frat party enthusiasm when things went right, it's not in Phantom. Lucas has grown up.
Another thing about Lucas. He is a genius at making popular entertainment. My son's friends, 1st through 3rd graders love this picture. And why not. The computer animation is terrific and they "get" the humor. As I said people who do not usually like science fiction have told me they enjoyed the seriousness of the main characters. (And except for the animated character, they are all very low key.)
The group that has complained the most are the action picture fans. But you know what? With all the complaints about how slow and silly the film is, they still thought the "bad guy" was cool, that the light saber action was good and that there were enough things getting blown up to keep them going back to see the movie a second and third time.
Finally, Lucas and his crew are such good artists and perfectionists and so dedicated in creating an imaginary world that no one can absorb all the imagery that Phantom gives you in one sitting. I want to see it again; if anything just to look at the awesome digital sets one more time and experience another place in a galaxy far, far away.