Great Special Effects...but nothing else

Rating: 1/10 (19 June 1999)

I waited with the most gleeful anticipation to see this movie, see I'm one of the million "star wars fanatics" out there. I saw the movie. I walked out of the theater wondering, "what happened?" It's as if the director/producer Mr. Lucas, never realized that the original trilogy was great not just because of the special effects, but because it was a great movie. Compare Phantom Menace to the any one of the original Star Wars films. In the original trilogy, there was a plot that always kept moving, always a reason to get to the next part of the film, always a level of suspense that kept the movie going. Those movies never took 25 minutes out of the film for scenes with bland dialogue, super-cheesy acting, and no suspense, only to follow this monstrosity with a pod race which, though great in special fx, had NOTHING to do with the final outcome of the movie, the characters, or anything else that was thrown into this film. Another difference between the classic trilogy and the Phantom Menace: the conflict between good & evil. During every major fight scene in the original trilogy, there was a level of personal character conflict between the characters (Luke finding out his relation to Darth Vader, Obi-wan Kenobi meeting his old adversary and former friend, etc). This conflict was ALWAYS more important than the external light-saber fights. In the Phantom Menace, all we have is a big choreographed, special fx-enhanced fight between characters who we know little about. Why are they even fighting? Good vs. Evil I guess, but there's no conflict. ...and since when do they use Kung-Fu in Star Wars???? In the classic trilogy, it was always traditional medevil-style sword fighting, and now it's flip-kick-jump-do-a-twirly-thing-with-your-sword. Sure, it's kinda fun to watch, but it all boils down to a fight with NO REAL REASON FOR CONFLICT. And then there's the humor... Here we have Jar-jar Binks, a clumsily-walking, unintelligibly-talking, alien, who has NO personality, and spends all of his time flopping around acting stupid to make the little kids in the audience laugh. In the original movies, all of the humor came from the characters and their personalities. Example: In Episode IV, we know that Han Solo is a somewhat laid-back, loner who seems to be only interested in money, and doesn't take orders from anyone. Princess Leia has already shown herself to be someone who is used to taking charge of a situation, and who can be sarcastic and serious at the same time. When Han has to rescue her, there's a tremendous amount of personality conflict and witty little comebacks between the two of them. This is funny. A five-year-old might miss the humor in the screenplay here, but it's funny. Absolutely nowhere in the original trilogy did we have someone with no personality do dumb stuff to try to make us laugh. Also, in the original trilogy, the adventure was the key to the films success. It was an epic adventure composed of characters who learn their destinies, and develop their relationships and personalities. In the Phantom Menace, we know nothing about the characters personalities, because all they give us is a mish-mash of bland dialogue that doesn't develop any feelings, emotion, personality, or character whatsoever. Phantom Menace also had little lines here & there about how bad gambling is, and how people should help eachother. It's a good message, but it should have no place in this movie. The first trilogy never dealt with moral issues. It was beyond that. In Phantom Menace, the good guys are 100% moral, and the bad guys are 100% evil. In the classic trilogy, even most of the good guys had a darker-side; Lando sold out his friends to Vader, only to make it up by rescuing them later. Han and Chewie were both gamblers, and lived somewhat "outside the law". These are heroes we can relate to, because they aren't these idealist, bland, boy-scout types we see in Phantom Menace. Also lacking in Phantom menace are a few other key elements that made the original trilogy truly classic: romance, a scene with suspense every 15 minutes, the characters' reaction to what happens, etc. All we have in Phantom Menace are incredible special effects. It's not a classic. It's just a light-show. If you want plot, intrigue, character, personal conflict, and suspense, see the original trilogy on video, or buy a ticket for The Matrix. If you've got little kids, take them to see Phantom Menace. They'll probably like it. but as for those of us who really appreciate good movies, this is a disappointment. The force was weak with this movie. Try again, Mr. Lucas.