Better than people give it credit for

Rating: 5/10 (12 August 2005)

This film is actually better than people say. OK, its primarily directed at children but it still sets the board for the coming films and accomplishes the necessary in terms of story. It also brings some new characters to the universe some of which are more successful than others.
The acting in all Star Wars films are marked by the fact that George Lucas cannot write convincing dialog. They had the problem in the original trilogy and they have it in the two following sequels but it isn't any worse in this film than it were in the old films and it is certainly better than the dialog in Attack of the Clones. Liam Neeson has the biggest role in this film as Obi Wan's Jedi tutor Qui Gon Jin. He deals pretty well with the woolly dialog and his overall presence is considerable as it is in all of his previous films. Ewan McGregor has the thankless task of portraying a young Obi Wan Kenobi a role which Sir Alec Guinness played so brilliantly and was even nominated for an Oscar for. Ewan McGregor, however, doesn't seem to let this affect him too much and provides the first step he will take towards becoming the perfect Obi Wan Kenobi. He doesn't have too many lines but he makes himself noticed and that is enough. His part will grow in the films to come. Natalie Portman is decent but seems to be more affected by the fact that the dialog is so bad because her performance is mediocre at best. Ian McDiarmid plays a timid yet subtly powerful Palpatine and he, like McGregor, is only building up to become a main player. Jake Lloyd plays a very young Anakin Skywalker and he has been treated very unfairly by critics and general audience because being a child actor with Lucas' horrendous dialog is an impossible task and I therefore do not think it is completely fair to criticize him. All in all I think the characters are pretty well if simplistically described. All except the infamous Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best). Jake Lloyd was unfairly treated but not Jar Jar because he really is one of the most annoying characters in movie history. His pathetic attempts at comic relief left me baffled time after time. What was Lucas thinking?!
The effects are good. They have a more cartoon-like feel to them than the effects in the original trilogy but I for one think that these effects suit the universe very well. The space battles have never been better in my opinion (even though the entire Anakin-in-a-space-fighter-sequence was a mistake). What the battles lack in terms of tension, I think, they make up in style. The light-sabers look very cool and I like the fact that they have amplified the sound of them ever so slightly from the original films. It makes the light-saber battles seem more menacing. Speaking of light-saber battles this film has the second best light-saber battle out of the entire series (second only to Obi Wan's and Anakin's showdown in Revenge of the Sith). The epic battle between Obi Wan, Qui Gon and Darth Maul will, I think, go down in history as one of the best sword battles in history. Ray Park may not have the voice of the character but he certainly has the skill and the screen presence. In fact he is almost as menacing as Darth Vader and his double bladed light-saber is a very nice touch. Episode I was nominated for an Oscar in the effects department but lost out to The Matrix which I think was fair. The effects in Episode I were stellar but they weren't innovative in the same way the effects in The Matrix were.
The story is fairly straight forward but an addition to the new series is the politics. The lines are more blurred. Darth Sidius hasn't shown his real face yet. The whole politics thing is a nice touch. While the old films were very good they had a tendency towards being a little too simplistic for my taste. With that I'm not saying that they are bad because of their simplicity but I would have preferred a little more substance which I think The Phantom Menace adds to the universe.
All in all I believe that Episode I is a pretty good film. It is not as good as the original films but it is certainly a worthy addition to the franchise. I do hope that people will come around and start liking the film for what it is: A piece of entertainment. I also believe that the Episode I was hurt by the fact that people had their hopes for the film in the sky and pretty much no film can live up to those kinds of expectations.
7/10