May the Force be with you

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2009)

I remember perfectly well when The Phantom Menace came out. I was 6 at the time, and I was introduced to Star Wars through KFC. We went there as a family one Sunday, and I noticed on the bucket that there was a really neat-looking picture of guys fighting with what I now know to be light sabers. I asked my cousin "What is this?" He looked at me and said "Star Wars. The new movie." I was introduced to Episode II through a bag of Doritos years later, and Episode III while wasting time in my grade 7 computer class. And Star Wars was completely forbidden by the parents for the little kids. Like Titanic, if you got to see it, you got bragging rights. (My cousin got supreme bragging rights when he bought the movie on VHS.) What can I say? We were young. The point of my story is simple. I was introduced to Star Wars through The Phantom Menace, and watching it was a huge thing for me, bigger than watching A New Hope.
Well, before I watched it, I heard nearly universally negative reviews. "The Prequel Trilogy is horrible," I heard, "The only O.K. one is Revenge of the Sith." So I was bracing myself for a disappointment that never came.
George Lucas surprised me. His writing and direction, I found, bogged down the original Star Wars for well over a half hour. He wrote and directed The Phantom Menace, but he did this phenomenally. He made beautiful shots, they were skilfully edited together, and his fertile imagination for this film really kept it going.
The acting was surprisingly terrific. I wasn't expecting much from Jake Lloyd and Natalie Portman, but they were convincing and sympathetic! Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor play mysterious Jedis very convincingly they don't ham it up or overplay the mysterious bit. A true bond forms between them on screen.
Perhaps the biggest surprise are the characters. For once, R2-D2 and C-3PO did not annoy me in the least. I've heard a lot of complaints about Jar-Jar Binks being annoying. Well, yeah, in a way, that's true. His way of speaking is just too cheesy (Grammatically incorrect!!! Horrors!!!); his voice is a little too high-pitched for the sanity of my ears. But overall, he provides some pretty decent comic relief, and reminds us that Star Wars was, after all, a space opera, meant to be fun, and not some allegorical masterpiece about war and so on. Those who interpret it that way probably know this. May the Force be with them.
Why was The Phantom Menace received so poorly? I truly have no idea. The sad thing is, had it been little more than a remake of Star Wars, with Luke Skywalker being replaced by Anakin, it probably would've been received much better by fans and critics alike. Give George Lucas credit! He took familiar material we all knew and loved, and made something brand-new, refreshing, and entertaining out of it. He gave us a spectacular pod race and a breathtaking light saber duel, among other things, to enjoy in this film. I enthusiastically applaud his efforts!
I love John Williams' score. I am a big fan of his work, and knowing he was on board made me anticipate this so much more. I love the theme he came up with for Darth Maul. It is nothing like Darth Vader's "Imperial March". Like Lucas' efforts, the score was something new, refreshing, and supremely entertaining.
I saw this movie with high expectations, and ended up being completely pleased. Although this movie has its faults, I'm quite fond of it, flaws and all.