Pro's and con's

Rating: 6/10 (11 June 2009)

Ahhh, "The Phantom Menace" -- the scourge of "Star Wars" and movie-going fans everything. Notorious for Jar-Jar Binks and others, there was a lot of hype over this long-awaited prequel to the ultra-popular "Star Wars" trilogy. This is one of the most backlashed films of all time, and even today it's considered a great disappointment.
In a couple of ways, this disappointment is understandable. This is, in fact, a flawed filmed. An obvious problem, of course, is Jar-Jar, and stuff like him can get annoying. The concept of Midiclorians may not be too bad, but the Force is much more awesome and powerful when it is mystical and mysterious. The political ramblings in this film aren't that bad either, but the use of stereotypical accents -- the Jamaican Gungans, the Jewish-like salesman Watto, and the Asian-esquire Trade Federation villains -- are unnecessary.
But the biggest problem with this film is that it pales in comparison to the original "Star Wars" films. The original films had great characters and great personalities, from the naive but courageous Luke Skywalker, to the arrogant, self-centered, but lovable Han Solo, to the sarcastic and spunky Princess Leia. Here, the characters don't live up to their sequel counterparts. This is not to say they are bad -- Qui-Gon Jinn is a pretty likable character -- but Queen Amidala/Padme is no Priness Leia, and Anakin Skywalker is no Luke. "The Phantom Menace" also lacks a Han Solo-like characters to entertain us.
The original films had a simple storyline that was easy to understand, thus making it easy to enjoy them. They never took themselves serious, and that was their charm. Here, you need to be a fan of the originals to get it. There's no explanation of "the Force" concept, so complete newcomers, who lack any experience with the "Star Wars" universe, might end up asking more questions than actually enjoying it.
This film does try to pay homage to the original films by bringing over R2-D2 and C-3PO, but this seems to be more like fan service, and the part about Anakin creating 3PO sounds like something found in fan fiction.
Problems aside, there are things to like about "The Phantom Menace."
The actors generally aren't bad. Many may have criticized Jake Lloyd for his portrayal for Anakin, but I actually found his portrayal fitting of what Lucas meant Anakin to be -- an innocent, naive, and caring young boy; he is not yet the hardcore villain he soon will be. If anything, the fault lies with Lucas. It is true that the original trilogy had better acting overall, and nothing here is Oscar-material, but again, they're not too bad. There are some acting gems here: Liam Neeson captures the wisdom and radiance of Qui-Gon Jinn, Terrence Stamp is effective as the incompetent Chancellor Valorum, and Ian McDiarmind is awesome in a dual role; he makes a benevolent Senator Palpatine and a deliciously wicked Darth Sidious -- perhaps on of the most evil, and enjoyable, foes in cinema. The biggest treat here is probably Ewan McGregor, you nails his imitation of a young Alec Guinness to a perfection.
This movie has a lot of creativity. The filmmakers did a great job creating the extraordinary worlds of the pre-Empire universe, from the majestic palaces and gardens of Naboo, to the extraordinary Gungan city (which could only exist in a dream), to the desert earthliness of Tatooine, to the mechanical Trade Federation ships. The Naboo ships and weapons are elegant and beautiful, perfectly capturing what kind of a world Naboo is. I enjoyed the fact that Lucas was able to create worlds, civilizations and cultures so like and unlike ours, that he was able to transport the audience into an alien yet familiar world, just like historical epics do. And obviously, this movie is more recent, so the special effects, of course, are going to be better than the originals. While they may not be revolutionary for their time like the originals, they are actually the norm for films of the late 90s, not bad at all.
The Podrace scene is actually pretty exciting (never mind being borrowed from "Ben-Hur"). This film is a visual feast.
Of course, who can forget that final fight between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Darth Maul? It is just so exhilarating, so edge-of-your-seat, so suspenseful. This is a spectacle to behold most especially in theaters. It is very creative, and the choreography is right. If there's anything in this movie worth giving credit for, it's this scene. It's the best redeeming feature, and it's for this reason alone that this movie is worth watching at least once. Hands down, this is one of the greatest climaxes in movie history, and it was the best lightsaber fight in all of the "Star Wars" movies -- until "Revenge of the Sith" came out.
Darth Maul is one of the coolest villains in the "Star Wars" universe and in cinema. He has a cool design, and he has one of the coolest weapons ever. True, he has little of a backstory, but maybe this is what makes him interesting -- he's mysterious. It's shocking to see just how evenly matched he is against two Jedi, one of them being a master. Ray Park is a real athlete; he does a great job of giving Maul his excellent moves, and kudos to Peter Serafinowicz for giving him his sinister voice (although Maul would probably be more effective if he didn't speak).
"The Phantom Menace" may not live up to the glory of the original trilogy, but it's not too bad. The dialogue here is actually decent (there's no "I hate sand, it's not soft like you, Padme," "I'm only beautiful because I'm in love" or "Anakin, you're breaking my heart," or anything like that). This is actually a fairly enjoyable flick.