A less than auspicious start to the new trilogy

Rating: 4/10 (28 July 2009)

After a 16 year lull, George Lucas steps back into the director's chair to provide us with the long-awaited Chapter I of the Star Wars saga. Perhaps no film could have met the expectations of delirious fans long-starved for another trip to a galaxy far, far away, but it would have been nice if Lucas had tried. Going back to view the original Star Wars, one must still be impressed that its simple good vs. evil storyline structure holds up and is enhanced by the incredibly personal flourishes – from the sets, the visuals, the rich intergalactic canvas that Lucas weaved showing an amazing array of alien beings, the background that Lucas allows each character/species, the wry sense of humor, the nice balancing of game newcomers with old pros. Unfortunately, in the interim, Lucas appears to have mistaken simplistic for simple. The Phantom Menace comes off as a Spongebob Squarepants rendition of a Star Wars film in both intellect and imagination as it pitches itself to easily impressionable 2-year-olds in the room. The storyline somehow manages to be needlessly cluttered, not well thought out and almost laughably pointless all at the same time. It comes across as something still in the development stage and given that it took Lucas 16 years to cough this up – it seems even more tragic. Opening with some incomprehensible drivel about trade agreements – the viewer is never clear on how important any of this is. The opening dialog would not have made the cut on an old Space 1999 episode and the editing is woefully inept. Watching actors like Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, both far better elsewhere, interact with tacky looking CGI effects and pretend that they are at risk from a gaggle of obscenely incompetent aliens and robots, all of whom speak pidgin English and are about as menacing as the buffoons from a Marx Brothers comedy is a real low point. Much ink has been spilled lambasting the inclusion of an alien – Jar Jar Binks – whose ineptitude and Amos & Andy borderline stereotype delivery seemed to take the brunt of the criticism for the film. Yet say what you will, at least the character has a strongly discernible personality – something all of the other characters grossly lack. After rescuing Queen Amidala – the woman who will become mother of Luke and Leia – Neeson and McGregor are waylaid on the desert planet Tatooine – a place not especially interesting in the first trilogy and even less so this time around. This allows us to be introduced to the young Anakin Skywalker – later to be Darth Vader – and the plot to laboriously hook him up with his future. The film does have its moments – notably a mid-film desert race riff on the Ben-Hur chariot race that would have been infinitely more effective had it ended earlier – but oddly none of the sequences reach any memorable impact akin to any lesser scene from the original trilogy. Lucas seems far more obsessed with CGI visuals that lack both the believability and punch of effects from 20 years ago than he does with such things as depth, pace and suspense. Neeson acquits himself well as the wise Jedi master, but that pretty much ends the quality acting. Someone forgot to write McGregor a part in this film as he basically stands around looking on. Natalie Portman is lovely, but spends huge chunks of the film speaking in a monotone from behind kabuki make-up and bulky costumes that make her appear a cross between a pagoda and a Chinese New Year dragon. Pernilla August is positively catatonic as Anakin's mother – causing her throwaway revelation of a virgin birth to be near laughable. The less said about Jake Lloyd as Anakin, the better. There is no subtlety or shading to his performance – he comes across as some cross between an over-caffeinated Little Rascal and a mannequin, and screeches the film to a halt every time his character is required to conduct himself in a way beyond his years. Samuel L. Jackson stands out like a sore thumb trotting out his tiresome tough guy riff as Jedi Mace Windu. Beloved droids R2-D2 and C-3PO from the original trilogy are reduced to mere cameos here, as is Yoda, who becomes increasingly underwhelming with each appearance. The film also lacks a strong villain – a problem not solved with Ray Park's all-too-brief appearance as Darth Maul, who turns out to be a rather disappointing character despite his intimidating appearance. A less than auspicious start to the new trilogy.