Saturday, June 27, 2015

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace


RATING: C

Ah, Star Wars. Both famous and infamous; famous for revolutionizing sci-fi and overall cinema as everyone knew it back during the 70's-80's, and then infamous for taking a dump on said older films, at least in the eyes of many. 

The prequel trilogy pretty much tells the tale of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. The Phantom Menace decides to focus on him as a young child and his first chance occurrence with the Jedi. In this case, he meets his eventual trainer Obi-Wan Kenobi as well as the new character Qui-Gon Jinn. 

The Phantom Menace also focuses on how, after a time of apparently being almost nonexistent, the dark side of the Force seems to beginning to rise--led by the mysterious hooded Darth Sidious (get it? Phantom Menace?) and his apprentice Darth Maul. 

The Phantom Menace has some interesting things to tell about Anakin's past and the beginning of his path. Perhaps the most interesting thing is Qui-Gon's belief that he is "the chosen one"--the one to destroy the Sith for good. Also, the Phantom Menace has arguably the best lightsaber fight out of all six films, involving Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon vs. Darth Maul, who carries a double-bladed lightsaber. After the earliest films having much more restrained lightsaber fights (the one between Vader & Obi-Wan in the first film looks pathetic now), this one looks far better, and has held up well since 1999. 

Despite that, it's also still a quite flawed film. The movie does move pretty darn slowly at times, but by far the biggest issue is the inclusion of the Gungan aliens, who by themselves threaten to put you to sleep when you're not trying to decipher what they're saying, as well as Jar-Jar Binks, who was supposed to be an attempt at comic relief for the kids--and I suppose it succeeded at that, but otherwise it fell flat on its face. Ironically, much of the rest of the humor is far better--namely the expendable battle droids (perhaps the funniest bad guys ever), and although they're a far cry from the early films, C-3PO and R2-D2 are still good. 

The Phantom Menace suffers most perhaps from Jar Jar Binks, and though the removal of him would certainly have improved things, it still would never have been A-grade material, in part because things just move pretty slowly at times. The climax and conclusion are pretty satisfying, but it's not quite enough to save the film. If you like the idea of the prequel trilogy and having some extra insight, it's worth a watch--and it's also arguably worth a watch just for the ending lightsaber fight alone. But it's not likely to win over any new Star Wars fans. 

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