A long wait for a pretty good movie - but where was the menace?

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 1999)

Like many people who saw Parts IV, V and VI I was thrilled when I heard George Lucas was at last going to stop tormenting us and get on with Episode I. My enthusiasm was somewhat dimmed by the hype which lead up to the UK release; Star Wars talk was starting to get dull, dull, dull. And then it opened and still I waited. You spend this long waiting for a movie you might as well wait a few weeks until the cinema is no longer full of 8 year olds demanding to know when they can see Jar-Jar!!
So now I've seen it and I've seen that overall its pretty good. The effects were eye-popping, the characters were well drawn and even Jar-Jar Binks surpassed my expectations by not being TOO irritating. Ewan MacGregor's accent took a bit of swallowing but I got used to it. Strange to devise a plot around a trade dispute though - I kept being reminded of the USA's efforts to force the rest of the world to eat its steroidally enhanced beef!! All in all I thought it was a good afternoons entertainment but don't expect it to change your life (unless you haven't really GOT a life, of course).
What was wrong with it then? The explanation of the force as a whole bunch of microbes whispering to your conscience was laughable. I was on tenterhooks to see Darth Maul having seen so much Maul-merchandise in the shops and so was amazed to find he was barely in it apart from his tremendously athletic fight scenes. I am sure George Lucas is kicking himself for giving such an obvious asset such limited scope let alone for "limiting his chance of appearing in subsequent installments" [can I say that? surely everyone's seen it by now!]. My last criticism was the singular lack of menace. The sense of a dark presence at work in the universe was palpable in episodes IV, V and VI (particularly V) but The Phantom Menace was about as menacing as Scooby-Doo.