Nothing missing? How about a script?

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 1999)

Okay, perhaps I'm guilty of breaking the cardinal rule when it comes to blockbusters: expecting a good script. Most blockbusters concentrate on the effects and action, and the directors and producers hope that these will distract you from realizing that the story is mundane and the plot and dialogue were conceived over lunch at Spago. I expected Star Wars to be different. I was mistaken.
Star Wars is a special case, of course, because we know how the entire thing will eventually end. This kind of viewer foreknowledge poses a special challenge for the writers because for the most part the plot is already established. The writer has less room to work. Even so, the script Lucas wrote for Phantom Menace was especially poor. The dialogue was uninspired and uninteresting, the plot development cliched and predictable. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn I was watching a reproduction of "Star Wars" with a new troop of actors.
The script's shortcomings, as usual, meant that the special effects had to carry the film. Unfortunately, they don't. We've reached a point where special effects are common-place elements in film. It's no longer a matter of WHAT is done, whether it's staging a big starship dogfight or big battlefield scene with computer animation. Everyone can do that now. Now it's a matter of HOW you do it, and that places the onus back on the script-writer to be creative and resourceful. I can think of only two times in Phantom Menace where the special effects impressed me, and in both cases it was because I found the effect clever rather than dazzling. Very few of PH's effects are things you haven't already seen in other films.
Lucas deserves credit for one interesting plot development, depending on how he uses it in the coming installments. That development is the story behind Annakin's birth. With this story Lucas has a real opportunity do something interesting and substantial in the next installments. It remains to be seen if he has the courage and creativity to realize the potential that's there.
Is Phantom Menace a bad film? Not exactly. Is it a good film? Not exactly. What we're dealing with is a mediocre film with some engaging moments spread among many tedious ones. Go see it, but leave your expectations at the door.