NOW "Phantom Menace" makes sense!

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2002)

If George Lucas knew the whole story for 9 movies back before the original 1977 Star Wars was made, why did he choose to make Episode IV first? Who knows? All I know is that if he'd decided to begin with Episode I, the series may have stayed at one film. You don't know the exact reasoning for the choice, but you can't argue with it.
"Phantom Menace," which once seemed like a tragic mistake, an epic misguidance, now seems tolerable after seeing Episode II: "Attack of the Clones." Events of "Clones" give weight to what happens in "Menace." Pieces of the puzzle are fit together, making sense of both films, and lifting the weaker Episode I to 'acceptable' status. A film should still stand on its own, however. Episodes IV through VI were all good movies, but were even better if you'd seen all of them.
Unlike "Menace," "Clones" stands on its own without the benefit of the other films. To be exact, it's an absolute riot, a hoot, great fun at the movies! For Star Wars fans it must be paradise. Everyone gets in on the action this time. R2-D2 flies to the rescue! C-3PO carries a rifle (and gets his head knocked off yet again)! The most fulfilling moment of course, belongs to Yoda. By now everyone has heard about Yoda. He fights! He commands an army! (Many have wondered how the little guy goes from hobbling along with a cane to bouncing and flipping around like an acrobat. My guess is he moves his own small body around as he would other objects, while still managing a light-saber. It's not his feet and hands that are moving, but his entire body).
I'm told that Lucas was not intentionally Â‘making up for' the disappointment of "Menace," but given how amped up this film in the series is, it sure feels like it. Lucas really pours it on, but it doesn't feel overloaded. He follows more closely to the structure of "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi," with space battles and lots of traveling from planet to planet. Many early reviews of "Clones" claimed that Lucas saved the really good stuff for the film's final act. I found that there was a good balance of action throughout, that you never wait too long for some action to happen (this IS an action movie and doesn't pretend to be anything else). It does reach a fever pitch near the end, as any in the series do, but there is good stuff all the way through.
Grade: B