The saga continues

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2016)

"Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" is an American fantasy/sci-fi movie from 17 years ago. It is the fourth film in George Lucas' Star Wars franchise and the first chronologically. The cast includes quite a couple famous names: Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Terence Stamp, Ewan McGregor and others and they all (more or less) shine in their roles. Unfortunately, one of the major characters is played by a child actor named Jake Lloyd, who was pretty unbearable. It was so obvious how he tried so hard to be on par with all these more experienced actors and he failed miserably. The sad thing is that, despite his age, he was not new to the industry at all, had played with other stars before, so he should really know that sometimes subtlety is the key. Instead, he went full ham for most of his performance and I blame him that this has not become a better film, but also writer-director George Lucas that he did not cast a more talented kid and that he did not tell Lloyd to lay low.
This pretty long film here (135 minutes) was nominated for 3 Academy Awards, but lost all of them to "The Matrix". This pretty much describes the 1999 Star Wars movie perfectly. It is a good watch in terms of visuals and sound, but it is nowhere near as memorable as it could have been in terms of the story. Jar Jar Binks was the major non-human character in here and he was included solely for comedic purpose, but it was all pretty embarrassing. Maybe they should have kept him from being able to speak in the tradition of the old non-human characters. Still, there are a couple good moments in terms of the story too. I personally believe it is always brave when filmmakers are not scared of letting major characters die. It can go wrong for sure, but it also can go very right if it makes sense in the grand scheme of things.
As a whole, "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" certainly does not deliver in every area it attempted to, but it has its good sides too and overall, I personally thought there was more good than bad here and (apart from Lloyd), there was also no very bad luckily. Neeson and Portman brought some nice depth to their characters. McGregor was fairly forgettable unfortunately. I recommend checking this one out. It is not considerably better or worse than the old films or the new one. Then again, I am not the greatest sci-fi buff and certainly not a major Star Wars fan in general, so the best may be if you decide for yourself and check this one out. I recommend it. But not with passion.