Lucas Grows Up... And Becomes the Empire

Rating: 4/10 (7 February 2002)

Star Wars will always have a phenomenal impact on me. As I child, it was the first film where I became part of the story that was unfolding on the screen in front of me. I recall fondly Christmas morning of 1977 and opening my very first Han Solo figurine. No sooner did I have Han and Darth out that I was enacting my own (overly) dramatic scenes between these two legendary cinematic characters.
Star Wars (and Empire and Jedi to follow) remain legendary films in my mind. They were the creation of an idealistic dreamer, a subversive reacting to an increasingly Imperial society. They were nothing short of revolutionary for me, both in my thinking and in my bearing in years to come.
Then comes along The Phantom Menace and all becomes clear. Lucas has become that which he opposed those many years ago. With Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and the (in)famous ranch where he lives (shades of William Randolph Hearst?), George Lucas *is* the empire. It seems now he has lost the spirit of the trilogy.
Phantom Menace is technically masterful. Effects are seemless, the pod race spectacular, and the sets beautiful. But there is an emptiness to everything, devoid of the spirit and magic of the trilogy. In fact, I think he made conscious choices to distance himself from the mysticism of the first three films. He reduces one of the beautiful mysteries of the trilogy, The Force, to a biological function. Those who have the biology for the force can mold it and shape it. Overlooking the clear racist overtones of this conceit (The Jedi Knight; pure blooded master of the Universe!), there is a simpler problem with reducing the mystical to the mundane: it wasn't necessary! There is no need to explain the Force or reason people are "strong" with the force. The first three movies, it just was. No explanation needed nor given.
The empire reigns. The magic, however, is gone.