There's no such thing as the perfect movie.

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 1999)

Is there such thing as the perfect movie? After coming out of the theatre, I thought that what I had witnessed had to be. Then I thought back to beautiful movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Philadelphia" and the original "Star Wars". It's my personal opinion now that there could never, ever be the perfect movie, but this one was soooo close!
My comment about the original "Star Wars" was that I looked at the "Star Wars" saga not as a group of movies but as an ongoing myth that consists of six chapters, each with their own central storyline and basic plot but with the continous storyline that streches from the beginning of this "movie" to the end of "Return of the Jedi". This is why "Star Wars" could be described as "so simple, yet so complex". This chapter in particular serves basically as the introduction to the saga. The Trade Federation is the basic enemy but will eventually become the evil empire, and the Galactic Republic, which is seen first off as the most powerful, will become the suffering Rebellion. Perhaps people were disappointed somewhat by the fact that this was Episode 1 and it fulfilled its Episode 1 duties, telling the story about the way the Star Wars actually started, much like "Return of the Jedi" was the concluding movie that wound everything up in a nice little passage. All of the "Star Wars" movies, once all have been made, should then be seen as one long movie broken into six divisions which can be watched from beginning to end.
But speaking specifically about this chapter, most people found that this one was separated somewhat from the other films and didn't have that feeling of Han Solo saving the day or Darth Vader breathing endlessly. I thought it was great to be transported to the same galaxy but with new characters in it. It was something of a relief not to have the same old characters back again in "all-new, exciting adventures". The acting was certainly better this time around, although it was obvious that Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor seemed somewhat separated from their usual movies dealing with human issues. They were good in their roles, though. I definitely felt compassion for them, much like Han Solo or Luke Skywalker. It was interesting seeing more than one Obi-Wan Kenobi-type character onscreen. Qui-Gon Jinn was more the Obi-Wan Kenobi than Obi-Wan Kenobi was. Contrary to popular opinions, I rather liked Jar-Jar Binks! i won't say why, I'll just say that I found his slapstick comedy did work for "The Phantom Menace". I would have loved to see the typical R2-D2/C-3PO chemistry again. No such luck, though. C-3PO was not on-screen for very long. Natalie Portman was OK. She reminded me a lot of Carrie Fisher. Samuel L. Jackson would have been great as a lead character. He stood out in his acting ability, very spiritual and meditative yet strong and firm. The one actor who I though made the movie was the Ian McDiarmid who reprised the role of Emperor Palpatine in the form of Senator Palpatine. He seemed very sneaky and cunning, almost revealing his inner-evil, but conceals it to a point. He definitely stood out from the rest.
Speaking of speaking out from the rest, I suppose you're wondering why I haven't mentioned special effects. Probably because I found them SO spectacular, SO stunning and SO convincing that when I walked out of the cinema, I was staggering. The mistake I made was trying to absorb every single aspect of the movie in one sitting. You just can't do that with a film like this(note I said "film", not "movie"!)! The sound effects, the acting, the screenplay, the effects and everything a film-critic or an actor or a director would try and do to sort the good from the bad...I had to admit defeat! The pod race, well, I haven't seen Ben-Hur, but if the chariot race is better than that it will HAVE to be good! The lightsaber fights were dazzling. I really felt for Qui-Gon Jinn when......Oh, sorry, there are still people who haven't seen it, aren't there?
I think I have expressed myself enough positively. I have to make a final judgement and it is negative I'm afraid. This is why there could NEVER be a perfect movie. JAKE LLOYD!! I loved "Home Alone" it was my favourite movie for ages, but when put into a universe full of war, aliens and spiritual concepts? I'm sorry Jake, but I think you'd better settle for a kid's movie set on EARTH! Darth Maul probably wasn't the most evil character in the galaky, not a Darth Vader by a long shot. I've done enough complaining. Perhaps I can start to truly understand it when I see it a second time. I'm not a "top ten" type of person, but if this movie beats Titanic then it probably would deserve to. Overall, a very dramatic and childish introduction to the legendary world. I couldn't help but be taken by surprise. After reading half of the the book beforehand(a BIG mistake, I might add) I wasn't expecting to be blown away. Literally, though, I was blown so far that you could say I was blown to a galaxy far, far away! A superb achievement by George Lucas. He truly has made something spectacular, and aside from the pessimism I brought to this comment, hey! Nothing's perfect!