A New Breed of Star Wars

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 1999)

This is a solid new addition to the Star Wars Saga and will create even more new fans (especially young recruits) of the Star Wars Universe. The Special effects are truly a sight to behold more than once as there are many hidden sights to view. Watch closely during the Scene in the Senate chamber and you'll finally know where E.T. was phoning home to or was he calling a Wookie. The special effects and hidden sights are worth the price of admission alone. The story is familiar and yet new. It also has some political intrigue to it. Indeed this story is more about setting up the events of the next two movies than it is about telling a story for the moment. There is a level of political intrigue as Senator Palpatine begins his path to becoming Emporer, and we are introduced to Darth Sidious, who has suspicious similarities to the senator. We are introduced to the characters of Amidala, Obi Wan, Anakin, Yoda and legions of others who will likely play a role in unfolding of the saga that will lead us back to A New Hope where it all began. I was quite pleased to be able to see R2, C3PO, Jabba, and others from the orginal trilogy on the big screen again and I must say that I found the new aliens to be less distracting than some of the early reviews would have led one to believe. However, There are a few disturbing elements of the dark side in this 1st installment of the Star Wars Saga that I hope George Lucas will allow the force to correct in Episode II. Many of the key aliens have voices that are inaudible or just simply distracting from the action that was occurring on screen. I wish there had been less of dialogue like "Mesa Hata Thisa Waya yousa Talkin." There were times when I was begging for captioning so I could understand what they were saying. Speaking of Dialogue, if only Darth Maul had been given some. Instead he gets the Boba Fett Treatmen. The human actors were slightly cardboard at times but acceptable and I love the hints of Alec Guinness' Obi-Wan in the Obi Wan of Ewan McGregor. The movie is more like Jedi in its pace as opposed to ANH or ESB. At times it could have used a Han Solo adrenalin rush. Still it is star wars at its heart and if you are patient and do not fear change the dark side will lose out and you'll find yourself loving this movie as I do. Of the four movies so far I rate them out of five stars: Star Wars: ANH ****1/2 Empire Strikes Back ***** Phantom Menace ***1/2 (slightly beats Jedi- Yoda's alive and there are no Ewoks) Return of the Jedi ***1/2