Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Something Of A Second Opinion

Director: George Lucas
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Pernilla August, Frank Oz, Samuel L.Jackson, Terence Stamp
Plot: Two Jedis, Qui Gon Jin (Neeson) and Obi Wan Kenobi (McGregor) are sent to settle a trade dispute at the blockaded planet of Naboo, but uncover a wider conflict that hints to the return of the Sith.



*Some Spoilers*

Much has been said about 'The Phantom Menace'. Opinions have ranged from biggest disappointment ever to the film that raped my childhood and for some people this is going to be true. For me however it was just always a crap boring film that didn't grab my attention. The prequels were supposed to be my generation's 'Star Wars', but since I had no real connection with the franchise having not grown up with the original trilogy it obviously wasn't the disappointment to me as it was for others, but it failed just purely on an entertainment level.

Having rewatched the 'Phantom Menace' for the first time in 5 or 6 year I had something of a realisation - 'The Phantom Menace' isn't anywhere near as bad as I remember. I mean it's still bad and at time it's plain awful, there's too many things that are wrong to call it good, but it's not quite as terrible as I thought it was back when I first laid eyes on Qui Gon and co.

Everyone knows what was wrong with this film so it's pointless focusing on it for too long but even was a young lad I could see Jake Lloyd was annoying as hell. We'll never know if he was a decent actor but frankly it doesn't matter he was terrible in this. We also have the devil spawn Jar Jar Binks that is shoved in our face ruining any effectiveness some of the more touching scenes could have had, while the acting is generally quite poor with Neeson sleepwalking, McGregor almost completely absent from the movie and Portman making people wonder if she was actually any good in 'Leon: The Professional'.

Aside from the glaringly obvious flaws I think I did find some slightly more salvageable aspects to 'The Phantom Menace' - yeah believe it. Now I know many others will disagree and say 'Phantom Menace' is still a pile of sh*t and I wouldn't disagree - it being bad would affect others much more than me. Firstly the story should have set up the rest of the trilogy perfectly. The plot of 'The Phantom Menace' follows a taxation dispute which on the surface seems dull because..well it is, but it didn't really matter what the dispute was about; all that mattered was the conflict leading to Palpatine (McDiarmid) becoming Chancellor. That was essential and ignoring how convoluted and stupid his scheme was in the following movies, this much of his plan worked well.

The story itself made no sense to me when I first watched it. All the talk of senators and midichlorians was just boring to me, however watching it again it is much easier to swallow. It may not be particularly 'Star Wars'sy but it was a serviceable sci-fi story that while not emotionally investing was watchable and not  much more than that. Furthermore the main characters weren't likeable or dislikeable - they were just  there. Qui Gon and Obi Wan are deeply uninteresting with the latter given nothing to do will the end, although I had some connection to Anakin remarkably as the scene where he leaves his mother was actually quite touching - the less said about him flying the fighter in the climax the better.

There is a lot wrong with 'Episode I' but in my humble opinion it did quite a good job of directing the franchise to where it needed to. It could be said we didn't really need to see anything that happened in this film as it essentially sets up the rest of the trilogy and we could have just started with Obi Wan and Anakin ,but Lucas chose this way and it has to be accepted. There are some good action scenes with the pod race and the duel of fates ending (I do love that score) being good to watch if a bit lacking in human connection. This may seem a poor argument and it is because the movie isn't the greatest but I enjoyed the movie so much more than I did when I was younger despite Jar Jar existing.

Basically I thought they set up the next movie perfectly. Palpatine was Chancellor, Obi Wan was left to train Anakin despite not being fully trained himself and the threat of a Sith Lord is lingering on the Jedi council's mind.Plus I thought they got Anakin's character right (discounting Lloyd's performance of course) in terms of starting an arc for him, as he is kind person who does everything to help Qui Gon and Padme making his eventual descent into darkness a huge contrast. Regardless of how it ended up (i.e.terrible) they started off his character in the right way. It should have made for a great second movie where we see Anakin's training and Palpatine's plan to build an empire begin, but what went wrong there is for another review.

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