Misfiring attempt to kick-start a long-dormant franchise

Rating: 2/10 (29 December 2016)

The biggest cinematic event of 1999, George Lucas' film was eagerly awaited by literally millions of fans, young and old, for over a year before it finally arrived in the cinemas and, as expected, broke box office records. Everyone looked forward to the film, and you can't blame them, as the first three Star Wars films were all box office hits, milestones in special effects, and all rightly deserve their classic status. As the writing appeared on screen and the music began, I was fidgeting in my cinema seat with excitement. Unfortunately, Lucas appears to have somewhat lost his touch in the twenty years which have separated the films, and this prequel is nowhere near as good as it could have been.
The faults are obvious, and, to a degree, predictable. Predictably enough, there is a visual overload of special effects overwhelming the screen at every opportunity, so many in fact that you soon become immune to the initial amazement of seeing how good they are. They can't be faulted. Every year, CGI just keeps getting better and better and more and more realistic, and the special effects are great. They're not realistic at all, but they look good. I mean, this is the first film to have a computer image as a central character (which freely mingles with the human actors) and in which you really come to forget that it's not real, and you treat it with exactly the same feelings as the actors on screen. Ja Ja Biggs is annoying, yes, but in that respect he is human too. Sadly with so many visual effects bombarding us they quickly become boring, and you realise that the film is desperately in need of some characterisation - a major failing which totally ruins Lucas' intended effect.
In the first three films we cared about and felt for Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and all the others, but you don't give a damn in this epic where all the actors do is interact with their computer surroundings and accomplices. And in this way the film is typical of late '90s cinema, where special effects bonanzas like VOLCANO and MEN IN BLACK are full of great FX but little else. In the extended chase sequence in the middle of the film, you get the feel you're watching a video game rather than an actual film, with it looking so unrealistic. Another major fault of the film is that the plot is rather boring. For three quarters of the film not a lot happens, with people talking about tax interspersed with some lame fight scenes, and it's not until the last half an hour that things really hot up and get exciting. I don't know about you, but I never expected Star Wars to be boring. Most scenes appear to be rehashes of moments from the original trilogy, but they're never as interesting, partly because as I mentioned before you don't actually give two hoots about any of the characters.
Speaking of the characters leads me on to the actors, obviously an ensemble cast picked from the crème of top Hollywood stars, leading me to wonder if they were in fact picked for their looks rather than their acting ability. For instance, Natalie Portman looks very fragile as the Queen of Naboo, but her acting is barely existent and she is given little to do. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor are top billed as the main stars, but they are given woefully little to do other than walk around, and occasionally jump about a bit. Of the two, Neeson is by far the best, and also my favourite actor in this film. Jake Lloyd appears as a young Darth Vader, but it's difficult to imagine him being remotely threatening, more like a typical American child actor, marginally less whiny than most. Samuel Jackson is given only a couple of scenes, but hopefully he will appear more in the next two films, while Brian Blessed lends only his voice to a comic relief alien character. However it's the returning actors from the original who are the most interesting, and it's great to see Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels reprise their famous roles as the Laurel and Hardy of the robot world, R2D2 and C3PO. They appear only briefly. Ian McDiarmid reprises his role as the evil Emperor from Return of the Jedi, and is brilliant as Senator Palpatine, the stern but good leader. McDiarmid is very authoritative and successfully mixes his allegiance to good in the role with hints of the powerful, evil figure that he will eventually become.
The action sequences in this film range from the mediocre to the poor. The space battles offer nothing new and, to be honest, they were done much better and with more finesse twenty years ago. The light sabre fights with the robots also become boring very quickly, and there are only so many different ways McGregor and Neeson can kill their CGI nemesis. The action happens all very quickly and efficiently, but lacks any sparkle or excitement, or indeed adrenaline. The special effects, probably some of the best CGI I have ever seen in an underwater sequence with gigantic fish attacking a small craft are quite realistic, but I don't think the filmmakers have realised that you need something more than that yet. The music is also very average and the classic themes we all recognise from the first trilogy are sorely underused. The Phantom Menace is disappointing, and nowhere near as good as the originals, but I suppose the mere status of it makes it required viewing, even if it really is this bad. All I can say is that it makes me feel dubious about the next film. Let's hope it's more impressive than this misfiring, below average attempt to rekindle the - much-missed - epic flame.