Star Wars and the Phantom Storyline

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 1999)

"Star Wars" gave us powerful icons; "The Empire Strikes Back" turned them into meaningful characters; "Return of the Jedi" turned them into action figures. "The Phantom Menace" flattens them even further, giving us a 2-D world where even the human actors are treated like CGI effects. Those who glibly state that "Menace" is wonderful because the visuals are impressive and story doesn't matter seem to have forgotten why we all anxiously awaited this movie for so long, namely, to see how the STORY began. Lucas was aware enough of this to include it in the film's marketing - "Every saga has a beginning", etc. - but neglected to include it in the film itself. Who is Qui-Gon? Where's he from? We leave the theatre knowing nothing of consequence about him, or Obi-Wan, or any other character (with the possible exceptions of Shmi Skywalker and R2-D2). Plot points from the other movies are simply referred to, without being elaborated or enriched in any way. We watch impressive things happen without any real understanding of the people that are doing them. You rooted for Luke and Han because of who they were, not because they were buried in a sea of CGI images. Lucas forgot that what has sustained "Star Wars" for so long is the strength of the story, and has expanded his "epic" about as well as "Tomorrow Never Dies" continues the story of "Dr. No".