2 Hours and 11 Minutes of Exposition?

Rating: 6/10 (8 June 1999)

I have mused over the impression of dullness and enervation that Lucas' new installment has left upon me. It wasn't that the film lacked spectacle and action. It had both in abundance. But the characterizations and situations--the fundamental emplotment--seemed inexplicably dull and plodding. It was a problem that begged an explanation. At first, I attributed it to simple fact of a middle-aged Lucas returning to the jejune vision of 20 years ago, unable to breathe life into these tired forms. I still think that was an important factor.
However, I now believe "Menace" is the classic case of a story concept getting in the way of actual storytelling. Think of Lucas' project. He created fresh characters 22 years ago, characters without histories, marketing schemes, novelized adaptations, radio plays, etc. The mythology of "Star Wars" was hinted at, not formalized. But now this world has aggregated and concretized. It is a thing with a life and logic of its own.
And sadly, the Prequel is in the position of providing the explanation of all this. The result is 131 minutes spent in exposition of three all-too familiar movies and two more movies not yet made. This is a formula for dullness.
Once the movie is viewed in this light, the aimlessness, the discontinuity, and the static quality of character and action become understandable. The characters and events do not have immediate purposes of their own. They are there to explain the origin, purpose, and meaning of characters and situations we already know from are now to be known as the "later" films-- well-worn facts of the "Star Wars" galaxy such as Obi Wan, Darth Vader, the Empire, the Rebellion, and so forth.
It should come as no surprise that Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn comes across so "dead" on the screeen. He IS dead, and has been dead since the first movie came out in 1977.
The business of exposition is tedium itself. The effect of this movie is exacly the same as having the rationale of a joke explained to us after we have already heard and enjoyed the joke proper. If the joke works, we don't really need the explanation. And if the explanation is given despite its fruitlessness, it can only detract from our original naive enjoyment of the joke. The explanation only kills the fun.
It's too bad, but the above is precisely the effect of this dull movie on the original fun of "Star Wars," which was nothing more than the youthful freedom of "American Grafitti" transferred to the less limited realm of science fiction and fantasy.
"If a man were to become wise, he must become as a child again, to see and feel as a child does." This is the advice I would offer Mr. Lucas. He needs to recover the freshness of the Star Wars experience, unencumbered by all of the clap-trap of the pseudo-religion and social/political commentary that now weighs down this simple and naive subject matter. If he has to hire younger writers to do this, then he had better do so.