One More Chance

Rating: Null/10 (11 September 2002)

It's not too big a leap to assume that most people reading this review are Star Wars fans like myself, and that the consensus of fans' opinion is that Phantom Menace is not George Lucas' best work.
In that perspective, we love Star Wars and we are prepared to tolerate any number of failures in the hope that there might be another masterpiece, just maybe. But George will have to review the lessons learned from his mistakes.
The weakness of the movie is not due to lack of effort; on the contrary, one of its problems is that it tries too hard - so much expectation had been built. It has a massive reliance on special effects - a really bad idea - and you need a microscope to find the storyline.
It should not be hard to remember that Anakin is Darth Vader but the characterisation and script are so poor that we find we are constantly forgetting who the kid is. And which one of those robed gentlemen is Obe-Wan? And throwing in familiar characters without any build-up, like they had just shown up on the day and had to be squeezed in to the filming schedule?
Go for it, George - Episode II has come and gone and is only a little better - you may only have one more shot at it. Bring in some decent dialogue writers to help. Get yourself a good story and have it checked out before you spend the next gazillion dollars. And don't fret too much over the special effects.