Wait for the rental: great FX, bad script, wooden acting

Rating: 3/10 (28 May 1999)

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Nothing less than we have come to expect from Industrial Light & Magic. The close-up work, the computer-generated scenes of massing armies, the battle scenes, all stand up to pretty close scrutiny. The only true giveaway is that they are a little too perfect, lacking the sense of chaos from floating smoke, tiny variations in mechanical response, etc. This aspect is well worthy of an Oscar nomination, and probably another statue for Lucas & Co.
SCRIPT: The starting point for creation of a movie, and the weak link in most of the Star Wars series. The script is *supposed* to be minorly complex swashbuckling, but Phantom Menace is more like "Fan-Tome Minus". We have several prominent characters and at least 5 clashing cultures to build and resolve, but the script gives most of them criminally short shrift. The dialogue is unforgivably choppy. It was pretty schmucky in the original Star Wars, but consistent and smooth enough that competent, campy acting carried the show and made a legend. This script is a poor excuse for a plot outline.
CHARACTERIZATION: Weak, weak, weak. The Gunga and Naboo cultures are poorly developed cartoons of something indefinite. Two early scenes, perhaps 90 seconds of movie, could have filled out the two mass protagonists and allowed full use of Jar Jar Binks, Queen Amidala, and Padme. Note the hints dropped early in the movie to establish the reputation of the Jedi; then, note how similar comments are missing for the Naboo and Gunga. These are *major* lacks in the movie, especially when a couple of the battle scenes could have been cut by a few seconds to help the pacing. Darth Maul is a (expletive) waste, a plastic bad-guy ninja with no character and no discernible internal motivations, not even those inherited from his Sith master. Wasting a pivotal character on this two-shot plot element was a horrible writing mistake. If he is *supposed* to be a non-entity, support it in the surrounding characters -- the Sith master should make a comment like "There are more where he came from" right after the Jedi council question which Sith was destroyed. Similarly, Queen Amidala is poorly written. I was immediately looking around for the true Naboo leader. Padme was about as subtle as a bonfire under crepe paper. Finally, the Jedi council are not believable. I get no sense of The Force acting in that room, whereas the old Obi-Wan wore it like a second skin. Also, Yoda is the only council member who uses English in a distinctly different manner -- the others are Anglic characters in various shapes and colors. I get no sense of senior wisdom, no sense of arcane capabilities at work. Personally, I thought that the stupidest moment of the movie was near the end, when Yoda and Obi-Wan are alone in chamber. Yoda delivers the council decision ... but he's PACING THE FLOOR! Gimme a break -- I've worked in a "disagree and commit" culture. The senior Jedi master would not lose that much control and pace the floor.
ACTING: Wooden. There are a few individual moments of hope with Shmi Skywalker and Padme. Jake Lloyd gives overall reasonable life to his character. Ian McDiarmid sets a decent pillar for others to act around, but nobody picks up on it -- and he can't carry it alone in this setting without maturing his role too early for the long-term effect he has to have on the Star Wars series.
MUSIC: John Williams did a wonderful, classical job of matching themes and modes to the characters and action in the first Star Wars movies (although he pilfered the theme from a 1930s sound track, this, too, is somewhat in keeping with classical tradition). In FanTome Minus, he lived down to the quality of the script. Anakin is represented by simple juxtaposition of Luke & Leia's themes; this lack of imagination is repeated all through the movie. There is little variation on the early themes, and not much consistency in application. Why aren't those themes played for Amidala? The critical point of foreshadowing would have been when Padme and Anakin declare how much they care for one another, that physical souvenirs are unnecessary. *That* would have been the time to trot out a Luke/Leia contrapuntal sequence from legato strings.