It begins...

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2006)

The Phantom Menace is one of those movies that I have been meaning to review since I first saw it on opening day years and years ago. I have a little book where I make notes of movies I would like to review, and when I flipped back to the page for Episode I, I noticed that the last time I jotted down a couple of points about this movie was December 26, 2002. Odd coincidence that I should be four years later to the day that I finally sit down to review it.
The first thing that really struck me after seeing it for the first time was a huge sense of surprise at how much it did not live up to my expectations. I'm hardly a Star Wars fanatic, I don't even know many character names beyond the primary three or four, but I know the three original films and I understand how brilliant they are. I think that what went wrong was a combination of almost unprecedented expectation, too much CGI capability, and too much money.
Lucas, who loathed studios in his earlier days as a filmmaker, now laments the fact that he has nearly become a studio himself. He funded Episode I out of his own pocket, and I think that now that he has the ability to really do anything he wants (since he has unlimited funding and it's all his own anyway, so he makes all of the rules with virtually no limitations), we get for the first time a really look at his strengths and weaknesses.
I'm not going to go into the weaknesses too much because there are far more strengths than weaknesses, and I suppose I should point out at this point that The Phantom Menace is a very strong Star Wars movie, it's just not what it could have and should have been. It will take audiences time to accept additions like a digital Yoda, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jar Jar Binks to such a well known saga as the Star Wars films, and I think that things like that can account for some of the bad reactions that the movie received.
On the other hand, the film really emphasizes how powerful Lucas' visual imagination is, which could also be seen in the first three films. His ability to dream up imaginary worlds and creatures and societies is as astonishing as it ever has been, and the general, overall badassedness (and the names!) of characters like Qui Gon Jin and Darth Maul is astonishing. The battle between Obi Wan, Qui Gon Jin, and Darth Maul I think is one of the best fight scenes in the entire series up to this point. Consider the way that Qui Gon, when they are fighting through that hallway where they're separated periodically by force fields, kneels and meditates when they're separated, while Darth Maul paces back and forth like a caged tiger. And of course the pod-racing scene was phenomenal!
And the look of the film is beautiful from beginning to end. Indeed, during the slow parts, if you find yourself drifting away from the complexities of the plot being unfolded through diplomatic dialogue a little too thick to handle, you can entertain yourself just by gazing at the stunning surroundings. Jake Lloyd handles his role well for someone so young, as does the initially questionably cast Natalie Portman, who seems far too cute for the role but pulls it off brilliantly. Liam Neeson steals every scene he is in (and seems to belong in the film more than anyone else), but the casting seems to be all pretty much right on the mark. It's really unfortunate about Jar Jar though, he's just not a clever character.
This is the first film that George Lucas has directed in more than 20 years (since the original Star Wars film), and it's clear that he is getting the feel of it all back in this movie. As brilliant as he is, directing is not his strong point, but as we saw from Episodes II and III, in The Phantom Menace he was just getting warmed up.