And so it begins...

Rating: 6/10 (29 September 2008)

Like many people who watched and loved the original films when I saw them at the cinema as a child and teenager I was excited when I learnt that the prequels were going to be made. Of course no film could live up to the expectation especially as I watched it as an adult not as an awestruck ten year old. This isn't to say the film was as bad as some reviews suggest, I still enjoyed it despite its faults.
The story begins with two Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi going to negotiate in an apparently minor trade dispute involving the blockade of the planet of Naboo. It becomes clear that something far more serious is afoot when instead of negotiating the Trade Federation attempt to kill the two Jedi. They however escape to the planet below by stowing away on the Federation's ships that are landing a droid army there. Here they meet a strange alien by the name of Jar-Jar Binks, as they save his life he is obliged to help them, he does this by first leading them to the underwater Gungan city then through the planet's water filled core to find the ruler of the local human population. The ruler in question is the young Queen Amidala whom they rescue along with her entourage. Unfortunately for them their ship is damaged so they can't fly to the capital but are instead forced to land on the desert planet Tatooine in order to find spare parts.
Here they meet a young boy called Anakin Skywalker who is a slave belonging to an alien that has the required parts, unfortunately they don't have the funds required. They do however learn that Anakin has built a pod-racer and is quite a good pilot so have a wager on an upcoming race to earn the parts and Anakin's freedom. While on Tatoonine Queen Amidala's handmaiden Padmé befriends young Anakin and Qui-Gon begins to suspect that the boy is the person spoken of in their prophesies as the force is so strong in him.
Once the race has been won they return to the capital but not before encountering a strange warrior called Darth Maul who nearly defeats the Jedi. Unfortunately once back in the capital they can't persuade the senate to take action to protect Naboo so return to fight the Federation along with the Gungan army. Here the two Jedi must confront Darth Maul once again and young Anakin ends up in the middle of a battle above the planet.
The story isn't without flaws and quite a bit of the dialogue is a bit poor but it looks pretty good and it isn't the actors best work they are still good actors. The CGI is pretty good although in some scenes it is starting to show its age but if one doesn't look too closely that isn't a problem. It was a shame that we didn't get to see more of Darth Maul, all the advertising prior to the films release suggested he would be a more important character so I was expecting him to have a role similar to that of Darth Vader in the original film. The infamous Jar-Jar Binks, the comedy relief character is somewhat annoying for an adult viewer but I suspect children, who the film is primarily aimed at, will like him. I think it would have been better if George Lucas had got somebody else to write the screen play and direct as these don't seem to be his strong points, this could have been so much better.
I wouldn't recommend this film to everybody but I'm sure it would appeal to young boys, I know my nephew couldn't get enough of it when it came out on video when he was three.