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"The Phantom Menace" Soundtrack
"The Phantom Menace" Novel(Darth Maul Cover)
You can also read this guest review of the "Phantom Menace" by Guy Martin.
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MY REVIEW:
In the interest of those who have not seen the film yet, I will focus more on my general views on the film and try to stay away from giving away too much of the plot.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Starring Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson
20th Century Fox
Ah, the fun of standing in line. Even though I had ordered my tickets earlier, I still found myself waiting in a line of about 750 or so people who were waiting to get into various shows during the day. The group behind me had another five hours to go until their show for example. You could feel "the force", though: a collective energy as people were waiting anixously to get into what will likely be the event of the century in terms of cinema. Would people like it, love it, or hate it? As I looked through the crowd, at various faces waiting in line(and of course, those in costume), I couldn't believe that I was part of all of this and I couldn't help but feel excitement. There were many die-hard fans in the crowd; people who have counted down the days, moments, seconds to this event and it was hard not to share their excitement and anticipation as they talked with each other, dressed in the costumes of various characters or fighting with light sabers they'd brought.
But, I'll stop and move on to the main event: what did I think of "The Phantom Menace". Well, the answer is that I certainly didn't feel negatively about it walking out, but the question is, how much did I like it? I found it to be an enjoyable film, but it didn't contain that sort of urgency or excitement that the first 3 films had, with the exception of the last 45 minutes, where the film realy begins to kick into high gear.
The story focuses on a trade block by the Federation of the planet Naboo and begins with the two main Jedis of this story(Obi Wan and Qui-Gon) coming to negotate an end to the trade block, but find themselves under attack and trapped upon a space station, where they barely escape to the planet below. So far, so good. The fight between the two Jedis and a legion of droids has a great electric energy. When they reach the ground though, things start to go downhill slightly. They come upon Jar Jar Binks, a fully animated character that is somewhere around ten times more annoying than that animated monkey creature from "Lost In Space" last year. Unfortunately, Jar Jar joins the heros for the entire trip, but thankfully, he begins to talk a little less as the film goes on. Even when he does talk, I could barely understand the garble he was saying.
The group is assigned to protect the queen of Naboo, the teenage Queen Amidala(Natalie Portman) and save her and her people from death. After a lightning fast opening sequence, the film slows down for a while, until they happen upon Anakin Skywalker, a young boy who the two Jedis feel has "the force" within him. It's young Anakin that takes part in one of the film's most incredible sequences, a pod race on Tattoine that seems to move at the speed of light.
And that's part of the occasional problem of this film: it sometimes focuses far too much on the visuals and special effects and forgets about the human element of telling the story. The effects are wonderfully done, but they just dominate the film at points. There were quite a few moments where I became distracted by what was going on outside the windows of some of the buildings, watching the spaceships fly by the windows rather than focusing on the speeches that are sprinkled through the middle of the film. Whenever we're focusing on the main characters, the film works; the actors occasionally show strong performances amidst a sea of digital effects work. There's a lot of talk about "the balance of the force" in this film as well, and I think "the force" was what made the first few films so successful, it was balanced between stunning both our ears and our eyes- a total sensory experience. This film may stun our eyes, but my ears, for a lot of the film, weren't pleased. The dialogue is pretty basic for the most part, and lacking the sort of sharp spark of the kind of one-liners that Harrison Ford had throughout the first few films.
The film finally moves into the last act and begins to gain the sort of energy and impact(and even excitement) that we've come to expect. Those kind of visual thrills that bring us to the edge of our seat with excitement and definitely on display during this last act, a battle to take back the planet Naboo that is the sort of vast, grand entertainment that Lucas can bring.
Performances are generally good, but varying in tone, from a gleeful young Jake Lloyd as Anakin to the serious Liam Nesson as Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor, sort of in-between as Obi Wan. Natalie Portman is also excellent as the young queen. Neeson is great as the rather serious element of the film and the film certainly needs someone being serious, because the goofiness of all of the digital characters begins to get far too silly after a while. McGregor is good, but he isn't given much of a part as Obi-Wan. Ray Park is also good as Darth Maul, but unfortunately, Maul is only given one great battle scene towards the end of the picture with the two Jedi. The film definitely could have used more of a "bad guy", and Maul should have been included through more of the film.
Again, next time, I hope the future films in this trilogy will focus more on the characters and story(and dialogue) and less on the special effects. I don't think there was one shot where there wasn't digital work or a digital goofy character added in; it just seems like the film relies on the effects too much at times. The effects at the end work because the energy and excitement are backing them, the ones during the rest of the film occasionally feel like "too much."
In terms of technical performances, the film is almost too impressive. John Williams's score provides a push of energy in some of the scenes that slightly lack it; the set design is goregous throughout and David Tattersal's cinematography is fantastic.
"The Phantom Menace" is enjoyable and entertaining throughout. It moves quickly and whenever I began to get a little bored, there was always something around the corner waiting to excite. Don't go in expecting the first "Star Wars"; it does not achieve the excellence of that film, which will always be considered a classic. "The Phantom Menace" is simply an entertaining, joyful tale, told by a master filmmaker. "The force" isn't quite balanced here, but I can only hope that Lucas will leave some of the effects(and especially the animated characters) behind and make a great, old fashioned epic that focuses more on creating classic, memorable characters and wonderful dialogue next time.
Do I recommend "The Phantom Menace"? Definitely. Spend some time in line, talk with your fellow moviegoers, get excited, and sit back and enjoy the film in the biggest and best theater with an energetic, excited crowd.
***
Warning: Go early and bring a magazine or something to read, because you will 99% likely have to be waiting in lines for a period of time. Definitely try to arrive early.
ARTICLE I WROTE BEFORE SEEING THE FILM:
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Go To The Trailer Page And Watch The "Star Wars:The Phantom Menace" Coming Attractions"
I haven't even seen George Lucas's already dubbed classic release, but I feel as if I've already sat through it with a popcorn on one armrest and a tanker truck worth of Diet Cola on the other. The promotional push smartly came out weeks before the May 19th release date, so toy manufacturers have some time to sell, sell, sell regardless of whether the final product itself is a hit or not, something the horrid "Godzilla" chose not to do last year; the end result was a lot of angry tie-in companies on the sidelines.
Am I saying that "The Phantom Menace" won't be a hit? Of course not. It's the biggest cultural event, the most valuable watercooler conversation piece this side of that big "boat" film that James Cameron brought out a couple years back. I was pleased when I visited a toy store recently. Suprisingly, there were no kids: they hadn't been around when the first "Wars" became a pop culture phenomenon. All that were left were adults. On their breaks, businessmen and retail employees, talking to each other about the days when movies were all about grand, mythical entertainment, characters that you'd tell your children about. There's certainly enough toys to go around, as well: locally, stores still haven't run out of supply. It reminds me of the baseball card industry: it used to be children sitting in their rooms pitting Darth Vader against their toy replica of the Millenium Falcon. Now, adults buy in bulk and make room in their closets to store an onslaught of possible valuables. These aren't toys to be enjoyed, for the most part. They are "collectables" that must be kept in mint condition, safe from the light of day and the grip of the grand imaginations of those who would enjoy them; the new children who will be taught the "force", become one of the new "jedi" on May 19. A $6.99 Darth Maul is now going for $15.99 on the www.ebay.com auction site. No longer is it about fun, it's about the profits. I certainly don't include all of those who have shelled out the estimated $1 billion in profits as those who are looking as these figures as profitable and as a business of their own. It was amazing to watch those at the toy store almost split into two groups: those who didn't know who the characters even were, and were just looking for anything in a mint condition box; and those whose faces lit up at the first glimpse of Darth Maul; those who sat in the aisle and just escaped from the world around them, talking about their memories of a "Galaxy Far, Far Away".
My advice: leave the figures around your house. We live amazingly hectic lives, full of incredible stress on a day to day basis. Stop for a moment to take a look at the C3P0 sitting on your shelf looking back at you, and bask in the glow of the force, remembering that first moment where you were introduced to the wonders of Lucas's epic.
It's certainly a different "Star Wars" these days, with ten times the budget, ten times the effects, but we've still got Lucas; we've still got the guy that came up with the richly satisfying trilogy that started it all.And from my calculations, there's still enough of the "force" left in him to produce a movie that will chill, thrill, challenge and entertain us once we all sit down in our plush chairs at our local theaters on May 19. May the force be with our expectations as the Trilogy starts anew. We've seen the trailers before each and every movie it seems for the past few months; we've waited with incredible expectations for those even. Mini-movies all their own, the trailers were just a warm-up, a wake-up call after a 20 year absence of the force.
But on May 19th, the force will live again.
