What's Wrong with Phantom Menace

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 1999)

First let me qualify: I enjoyed the Phantom Menace. I'm not here to be a Menace-basher. Special effects are as good as advertised, maybe better. Fantastic, as a matter of fact. The worlds Lucas imagined and created were fantasy first rate. Anyone who followed the pre-hype already knew the plot before walking into the theatre, but what the heck?
So what is wrong with the Phantom Menace. Three things:
1) dialogue 2) acting 3) Jar Jar Binks
OK, maybe bad dialogue was a product of bad acting. Maybe bad acting was because of bad directing. Hard to tell. The fact is, it was horrible. Except for Liam Neeson and Jake Lloyd, the characters were incredibly wooden. I thought I was watching statues; maybe not-so-animated f/x. Ewan McGregor looked and sounded as if he were starring in an old Steve Reeves gladiator movie. If Natalie Portman ever changed her expression from deadpan, I think her face would have cracked. Almost ditto Pernilla August. Which is what makes me think maybe the problem lies with the directing. How could so many actors of this caliber turn in the same kind of sterile, stoic, performance? These people had no feel, no warmth. Compare them with Luke, Leia, and Han. You can't. There IS no comparison. The first Star Wars was such a success not just because of the special effects, but because the audience, for whatever reasons, developed an affinity with these very human people. We really liked them. Lucas seems to not realize the importance of this.
And then there is Jar Jar. He's really, really, annoying. An audience can tolerate a character they hate. In fact, they love to hate a villain. They love a character they love. Goes without saying. But people don't like being annoyed, and on this count Jar Jar, unfortunately, delivers. His voice, his overbearing attitude, his voice, his dialect, his voice. Everything about him is annoying. And for an aquatic being, what's with the stumpy feet? How is he supposed to swim with those things? Any aquatic creature worth his saltwater would have evolved web feet. Name one aquatic animal that has feet which doesn't have webbed feet? You can't.
And with all that's wrong, the special effects still made for an un-paralleled movie experience. Totally blew me away. Lucas accomplished what he set out to do. Too bad he forgot about the rest of the elements that make up a good movie.