Underrated Sci-fi Flick

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2011)

Star Wars has got to be my favourite movie saga collection of all time. I mean, there is so much stuff to sink your teeth into- the 7 films, the TV series, the comics and books- They are all monumental.
However this one isn't really up to scratch. Yes, this is my review on the first Star Wars Prequel, The Phantom Menice.
The plot goes like this; In a Galaxy far ,far away, a republic is under the threat of rebellion. Two mighty Jedi, Qui-gon Jinn and Obi-one kinobi, are sent out to investigate a flying fortress which has been spotted making aggressive moves toward the peaceful planet of Naboo. Things Don't go to plan, and The Jedi stumble across a plot that eventually leads to war.
The movie's plot is rather deep and may require a couple of watches for people new to the star wars saga- That's if you want to see it again! The film contains LOTS of things that will put people of the franchise for good. Take Jar Jar binks for example. There is absolutely no reason why he should be in this film! Every time he appeared on the screen I just wanted to whack the TV. His annoying personality and jokes my appeal to younger viewers, but not to anyone over 8 years old. It was clearly obvious that the character was made to provide comic relief to viewers who either couldn't understand the plot, or didn't want to.
Other than that, The character are well acted and well thought out, especially Qui-Gon Jinn's character. There seemed to be a lot of background to the character that you just don't find our in the film. He is wise and rebellious at the same time which I find a very intriguing and different. After seeing 3 films with "perfect" Jedi it was good to see a Jedi with different views of the Jedi way. It was also good to see Obi-wan Kanobi ALIVE again. There was a lot of mystery in the character when you watch Episode IV, but now, you start to see a bit more of his past. There was actually one Ironic scene where he meets anikin for the first time. It will float over the heads of casual viewers but it was rather interesting to see Obi-Wan talk to the child that will eventually kill him later on in the series. Both these characters are well acted.
Another character that i found interesting was Darth maul. This was the first time we got to see another sith on the big screen other than Vader and Saidous. It was also the first time we see a person wield a double-bladed light sabre. Although he only has a couple of lines of dialogue, You grow to like the character. When he starts fighting you only see on blade, which was normal enough. At the showdown at the end however you see him with two blades and it's quite interesting to watch.
The storyline flows, for the most part, rather smoothly, but I thought it started to drag abit when the the Jedi land on the desert planet Tatooinee and gamble over a young boy, Anakin, who eventually turns out to be Vader. I'm not a huge fan of his appearance in this film. He acts like any child would but for some reason, it zaps the evilness out of his later character. I never really cared for the character and just longed for him to shut up and do what he had to do. In this case, he had to race in a planetary "Pod-race". This may entertain some, however I found it rather boring. The whole "Tatooinee sequence" Lasts for almost half the movie and sometimes it makes you feel as if you are watching a different movie. It takes away from flow of the story completely and at one point it nearly made me want to turn it off! They finally get back on their ship and just when they are about to leave, Darth Maul jumps out of nowhere and starts attacking Qui-Gon. This is where the film gets interesting. Seeing light sabre clash was just what I needed to refresh my mind after about 30-40 minutes of boredom.
"Why do you give it such a High rating then?" you may ask.
Well, I would've given this film a 4/10 if the following 30-40 minutes hadn't happened. It was like the creator of the film just said "right, we've probably bored the fans to tears. Lets give them what they want" I don't know about anyone else, but it was certainly something to admire. There was about 4 battles happening at the same time!- One huge space battle, one fantastic palace shootout, one massive ground battle and one well-choreographed light sabre battle. What I cant understand is that people who hate this film never seem to mention this part of the film. Maybe they were sleeping. Whatever they were doing, don't let them put you off if you love a good battle. There was explosions, loud gunfire, droids blowing up, fighters blowing up- Edge of you seat entertainment if you ask me! When all the other battles die down, the battle with maul continues and (Spoiler) to my surprise, Master Qui-gon Jinn gets stabbed.It was a huge surprise and quite a shock. And to a further shock, Maul gets sliced in half. These Characters were starting to grow on me but, like most Star Wars Movies and TV shows, The good characters have to be killed off.
I'm going to be honest, Some parts of this film were absolutely rubbish. But I have to say, the climax more than made up for it. All in all, a great film with some really horrid talk scenes in it. Skip the middle part, leave your brain off at the door and enjoy.