Every saga must have a beginning...

Rating: 3/10 (19 May 1999)

The question is: Does Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace satisfy the craving that has been growing within us true fans since 1983? In all honesty, no-but it does offer major promise for the next two films, and if possible, makes the wait for what is to come all the more exciting. Think of TPM as a prologue-and we true believers must have faith that what is to come will be beyond anything our paltry human movie-going minds have ever encountered. What TPM does is set a stage, introduce us to the characters who will become the focus of the story line that is to come.
The film's most serious deficit is that there is so much going on in the film that our excitement is diffused-for example, there are four different elements (or points-of-tension) to the climax. While that sounds suitably spectacular (and it is), the viewer is left with only tastes of the action set pieces we have come to adore as Star Wars fans (space battles and light saber duels). One of the things that made the first movie so successful was its simplicity; the original attack on the Death Star had our full attention, and it was this intensity that allowed us to be transported away from our lives to Star Wars Land. Here we marvel at the complexity of the story line, but miss that rush of kinetic energy created by the gravity of a simple plot pulling us along to its final confrontation. The film is certainly epic- huge battalions take their places on a field, myriads of star ships launch an "only hope" attack, the galactic politicos and bureaucrats in their football stadium-sized senate chamber debate the fate of the free world-but in all the scope we lose sight of the characters we came to see in the first place, and so it all goes by without really registering on the viewer's emotional meter. So, to a certain extent I agree with critics in their claims that Lucas has populated his movie with fantastic sights that the audience never get a chance to care about.
There are other issues as well: Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker, is a bit too much of a moppet for my tastes, but I think the major problem is the way his character is written. I do wish Lucas had called upon Larry Kasdan to work with him on the dialogue, as Lucas himself admits that writing is not his forte. There is a plot point involving Anakin's father that would have been better left alone, and Lucas has a sizeable hole to dig himself out of as a result.
Then there is Jar-Jar Binks: if you hated the Ewoks, you might as well write off this character straight away. For all of Lucas' good intentions, his sense of humor seems right for children (ie. recurrent burp jokes in Return of the Jedi), but leaves anyone older than ten feeling a bit left out. Jar Jar is this films humorous centerpoint, except he ain't funny. Whereas Chewbacca endeared himself to the audience over the span of three movies, and not really coming into his own as a character until the second film, Jar Jar is introduced right away and has a sort of "Love me!" freneticism that is irksome from the beginning. We can only hope that he will be left behind for the next films.
If you have read this far, you may be of the mind that the most anticipated movie of all time is a complete bust. But this is very far from the truth-the wonder of the movie is that despite all these deficits, there is still more than enough to make it succeed as a truly exciting and enjoyable movie-going experience. The special effects, production design, and sound are all mesmerizing-the movie has a verisimilitude to it that makes the film both fantastic and believable, just like the previous three films. Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, and Ewan MacGregor, the three "star" leads, all turn in decent performances (let us remember that strong acting has never really been the Star Wars movies' drawing factor). And yes, Darth Maul is a badass.
But what TPM succeeds at the most is getting us ready for what are certain to be intense Episodes 3 and 4. Like the tagline says, "Every saga has a beginning," and where the original Star Wars had to succeed as a self-contained story (no one knew for certain if there would be sequels), the later installments were constructed as chapters in a continuing, truly-epic story arc. In TPM, we meet the Jedi Council, we see the Galactic Senate in session, and we witness the first stage of the events that will define the context of the worlds we came to know in the first three films. This is no small task, as Lucas has not shied away from creating a complex story scenario involving rival spiritual factions, corrupt politics and eroding governments, and how one small boy fits into it all.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is a prologue, and for all its deficiencies, its spectacle is enough to satisfy most audiences who want just a great cinematic ride. But to the fans, the movie succeeds because it lays the groundwork for what remains to be told. Lucas has made us all a promise in delivering this movie, a promise which is so tantalizing that the wait for Episode 2 will be even more excruciating than those three years I spent as a child wondering if I would ever see my galactic totem Han Solo out of his carbon freeze.