A brave/foolish decision

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2004)

I automatically assumed that The Phantom Menace would be good. After all, Lucas had over a decade in order to think of the script, adapt his ideas and to ponder what made the original trilogy so great.
Perhaps my expectations were a little too high. As a big Star Wars fan, I found it hard to believe that I'd just seen a brand new Star Wars film and thought it was rubbish.
However, 5 years later, I can appreciate where Lucas was coming from when he made TPM and I can understand the decisions he made. That doesn't necessarily mean that I agree with them wholeheartedly.
I think the main problem is that the film lives up to its title of Episode I too much. It is the very beginning and no mistake and, consequently, is really only a prologue to the rest of the saga. With Episodes II and III profiling the Clone Wars and IV-VI the Civil War, TPM will stand very much separate from the the other 5 films once the saga is completed. I think it was a brave/foolish decision on Lucas' part to make a Star Wars film that wasn't, well, Star Wars! One of the reasons it received the criticism it received is that it wasn't what the audience expected at all.
With Lucas deciding to set TPM so much apart from the other films, it means that Episode II Attack of the Clones also serves as an introductory film. One can't help wondering if the the first two episodes could have been condensed into one or if Lucas should have made four new films with AOTC being Episode I and TPM being a stand-alone movie sitting outside of the saga rather like the Ewok movies and Droids cartoons, and Episode II taking place during the Clone Wars before the events that we'll see in III.
However, none of this excuses the fact that, as a film, it was badly made. The villains weren't threatening: the worse thing we saw them do was mow down a few trees. The main characters weren't engaging: where was the chemistry between the cast that Hamill, Ford and Fisher had in the original trilogy? Why was the acting so appallingly bad in places when you had the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Liam Neeson, Ewan McGraggor and Natalie Portman in your movie? The film even included a fart and a cartoon battle!!!
All in all, the film had characters that non-Star Wars fans didn't care about, being placed in a situation that didn't interest them. Therefore, it's of no surprise that the film wasn't well received by the majority.
Once the saga is complete though, I think the film will serve as a curiosity and even a cult classic among the die-hard Star Wars community, but it will, by no means, reach the same heights of adoration that A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back enjoy.
5 years on from the shock, I can enjoy TPM for what it is: the opening chapter of what is a fantastic saga.
5/10