may the video game tie-ins be with you

Rating: 5/10 (19 March 2000)

I'm afraid this latest episode (even if it is the first) continues to follow the downward trend of the entire series. Star Wars was fresh, exciting and unpretentious. The Empire Strikes Back was less fresh, naturally, but no less exciting. By the time of The Return of the Jedi, however, a distinct lack of originality had set in: the big climax: blow up the Death Star- Again! Worse, was the fact that the battle scenes were reduced to slapstick with those stupid Ewok-Teddy bear things, which completely undercut any tension these scenes might otherwise have generated. Lucas and the gang were obviously attempting to broaden their demographic base, to the detriment of the story.
The Phantom Menance is hands down the worst of the series so far. Return of original director George Lucas is no help; in fact the acclaim he's received from the original movie may have contributed an inability to think critically about this project.
The plot is both bland and complex and shows definite signs of having been written by committee. Our hero is a young boy rather than a young man, thus underscoring the fact that this movie is being pitched to infantile sensibilties. Once again the battle scenes are suspense-free. In one scene war is waged with water balloons between the crypto-Caribbean stereotype fish people and the nerdy robots. I mean, who really cares how it turns out? Young Anakin was (will be) far more engaging as the ominous Darth Vader. I was only young when I saw Star Wars, but Vader was actually intimidating. There's no comparable villain here. Darth Maul just looks like some sort of WWF creation.
The only amusement here was watching for the video game tie-ins. I'm pretty sure I spotted them. Sadly it just goes to show that the series, which was always a commerical package, has lost anything that made it transcend its commercialness.
I know I'm being hard on this movie, but it's hard not to be critical when it could have been so much better.