An attempt at objectivity

Rating: 2/10 (15 February 2001)

It's almost impossible to set aside the expectations of what this film could've been. I'm as big of a fan as there is of the original trilogy. I loved the characters, the look, the pacing, the sense of wonder, and endless hours of thought that must have gone into the writing. They were simple, clear, and as effective as sci-fi fantasy can be. Scenes rarely felt recycled, and they usually concluded taking a surprising twist you didn't expect.. i.e. Luke's defeat of the Rancor monster by closing the gate over him, Luke cutting off the front of a Speeder bike, sending the rider twirling about, etc. We were entering worlds through the eyes of characters who were more or less fleshed out, and in every scene, there's was something clever. This cannot be said of the Phantom Menace.
As much as I want to call Phantom Menace the worst film of all time, it's really not fair to. It's just an okay movie in my opinion, and the opinion of MANY. Everything on screen is basically something we've seen before. Whether it's battle droids ala Terminator 2, or a pod race ala Jedi meets Ben Hur, but somehow still lacks excitement. A scene of Phantom might go the following way: battle droids shoot lazers at Obi-wan. He runs away. Whereas think of an escape scenario in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Remember the scene where Han Solo was trying to escape from the imperial cruiser. First there was an unexpected flight through a meteor shower, then landing inside the belly of a creature, the landing on top of the cruiser they were following. That was wonderful clever, well thought out writing. Phantom writing is just so routine and uncreative.
The Phantom menace storyline is actually very complicated. If I understood it right, two jedis are sent to negotiate a peace treaty between a petty band of merchants who have formed a blockade over a planet, but they're really being backed by renegade element (Darth Sideous) in the galactic senate. Rather than cave in, the Jedis are attacked and flee to the neighboring planet as it's attacked by the invading Phantom Menace (trade federation). They befriend a sea creature who looks like a cartoon, and attempt to involve his underwater friends into .... yada yada yada. The story is extremely muddled. It's not clean. It ultimately feels like it's about.... nothing. How about... a nice clean, direct, effect storyline, just like each installment the original trilogy. Let's analyze... A NEW HOPE, it's the story of a farm boy who aspires for something more, leaving his home behind and embarking in a mission to rescue a princess from the clutches of a power villain who's the threat to freedom to the know galaxy. He saves the princess, and defeats the villain.
There you go, a simple, effective storyline. The layers, characterization, and magic, etc. is what you add to that clean story concept. But at the heart of any strong story, the spine exists. Lucas spent years writing the original, and he made every element as clear as could be. So, imagine the Phantom Menace was the following:
A noble Jedi sets forth to defeat what he believes is a threat to the galaxy, only to discover that the villain was set forth by his own mentor. He defeats the villain, but not his mentor, and the movement known as the empire begins.
So many possibilities. So many wondrous worlds never visited. So many characters under, or just not developed at all. Most of the actors spoke their lines as though they didn't know what the hell they were talking about. And then on top of that, the look of the film was just so... blah. I'll take the ships, weapons, vehicles, architecture of the originals any day.
I can accept this film as an experiment. And had it been an ABC movie of the week entitled, BEFORE THE WARS, I'd like it a heck of a lot more. But as is, it defames the originals. >