Is this a story that needs to be told?

Rating: 3/10 (20 October 2012)

When it was announced that three new Star Wars movies were to be made the world was absolutely thrilled. The queue to the box office stretched beyond the horizon. It had been 16 years since a Star Wars movie played in the theaters and expectations were through the roof. But when watching the original Star Wars trilogy, did we ever wonder that much about the history of the world in that galaxy far, far away? Were we really that interested in how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, and was it really that important to know all the details about the Jedi knights' engagements decades earlier?
"Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" revolves around the two jedis Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who through an unfortunate and improbable series of events find themselves stranded on the planet Tatooine along with some other people, where they for the first time meet the boy Anakin Skywalker. There's also the questionable story of the Trade Federation blockade of the planet Naboo which involves the evil Darth Sidious, who for some reason sends the almost as evil Darth Maul to assassinate queen Amidala of Naboo. I'm trying here to point out this movie's main problem. People's intentions and motives are often unclear and they don't get explained very well either. Events and circumstances that push the story forward seem implausible and highly unlikely most of the time. The story isn't dependent on the characters' accomplishments or their ability to solve problems, but merely on chance, which makes their qualities and personal traits unimportant, not that they were given any to begin with. Events seem to be detached ideas forced together to make out a coherent story line, and when the movie has ended it's actually quite difficult to account for what happened in it.
Much of the feel and atmosphere of the original Star Wars trilogy comes from the fact that we don't know exactly what happened in the past. Obi- Wan mentions something about the clone wars and Luke's father being a jedi knight, and that's it. That small glimpse of history is what creates all the mystique and excitement we need. Luke's story is that of a forgotten legacy. "The Phantom Menace" is the first step out of three to take away a little of that great feel and atmosphere of the original movies, and for that I am a bit angry. Nowadays I have to disregard the new movies to be able to watch the old ones the way they deserve to be watched. Also, in "The Phantom Menace" the mystique and excitement is replaced by a bland feeling, and the story of the forgotten legacy turns out to be completely uninteresting, which some of us already had suspected. What's the point in telling a story that everyone knows the outcome of, anyway? (Yeah, the guy gets corrupted by the dark side and eventually starts to dress in black, wear a helmet-mask-thing and breathe funny. We don't really care HOW or WHY because it's not important!) The story in Episode 1 is also told in a very bleak manner which makes me care even less than I first did. The characters lack depth, it's hard to understand why they say what they say, and why they do what they do. Things are illogical and people are irrational. The only thing that prevents this movie from being a complete catastrophe is the performance and credibility of Ewan McGregor, but unfortunately the history of Obi-Wan Kenobi isn't especially interesting either.
I had high hopes for the special effects in this one, but to me it seems that the special effects company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) has gone from being absolute pioneers in creating unbelievable, yet extremely good looking and realistic effects on the screen, to just being lazy guys behind a computer. The reason I'm saying this is because it appears ILM is under the impression that they can computer-animate anything and make it look real. I'm sorry to say that that is far from the truth. CGI-shots are easy to spot, and a lot of it in this movie just doesn't look good, sometimes even cartoonish. I expected more. The sound quality and sound design, however, was great.
I also keep wondering what the target audience is. The slapstick humor delivered by Jar Jar Binks and the not-so-funny jokes presented by Anakin and his kid friends annoy the hell out of an adult audience, but the tactics and politics talk is way too boring and complex (and in this case, illogical) for a child to endure. Maybe the script is written by someone who has the reasoning of a child, is under the impression that he understands politics and warfare strategies but actually hasn't got a clue, and who doesn't know how to make an appealing movie for the intended audience. (I know George Lucas wrote it.)