Well, 2010 is over, and as a fellow internet blogger, I am proud that I was able to bring you wonderful movie reviews and other media. Hopefully, I can bring you much more in the coming year but for now, I would like to give my general opinion on a topic that can either be beaten to death or praised. The Star Wars Prequels. I don't think I have ran into one person who has had anything good to say about them, but one thing stands. They kept the fanhood going and inspired other films to follow in the same manner, and no matter how they are tackled, they always will be known to have expanded film cinema to it's full potential. With that said, I would like to begin a series of reviews on these films, and explain why I don't think they are the miserable trepidations people make them out to be, and what better way to begin this string of reviews than with Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.
Whether you love this film or not, it was a huge success none the less. The Phantom Menace today is the 9th Highest Grossing Movie of All Time, and was one of the most highly anticipated motion pictures of the last decade. I think the problem with this film is that it was met with expectations so high, they could reach the moon. This film was met with a huge merchandising campaign, whether it would be action figures, coloring books, and fast food promotions. I remember going to Pizza Hut around the time this movie came out, and getting a Star Wars toy with the meal. It was a huge thing when this movie was on the dawn of release. But with elevated hype comes elevated disappointment and misery. The Phantom Menace was met with a lukewarm reception, some bashing the film for all it's worth, some considering it to be one of the worst films of all time. But others, like myself, don't think the movie is the universal tripe it is molded into. I think The Phantom Menace IS the worst of the Star Wars saga, but it is still a great film, and a film children will love just as much as adults.
It has been said countless times. The politics, the midi-chlorians, Jar Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd. I could right a book about all the slime that is thrown at this film. But people look at this film by looking at what they didn't like about it, they do not focus on what they liked about it. I guess everyone fell asleep during the lightsaber duel with Darth Maul, and the podracing scene, they were AWESOME! The Phantom Menace had just as many OOOOHH AHHHHHHHs as it did UHHHHHHHs. I think what made the film great was the pacing of it. It's not too fast and it's not too slow, and though a lot of people show supreme animosity toward the children of this film, I think they add a bit of charm and simplicity to the film, giving the film a bit of depth and making Star Wars a bit more expanded than what it originally was. I mean, come on, there weren't that many children in the original trilogy, were there?
But the thing that makes The Phantom Menace the blacksheep of the series is the diversity in the creatures and characters in the film. From the slick agility of Jar Jar Binks, to the vacant expressions of Nute Gunray, all the characters in the film have a charm to them and something that makes them them. Kudos for Lucasfilm to incorporate all there elegant misfits of characters into the complete Star Wars Visual Dictionary, helping us to understand the characters a little bit better. I also liked the overall look and feel of the locations in the film. From the Trade Federation starships, to the Tatooine deserts, to the luxurious palaces of Naboo, and even the underwater wonderlands of Otoh Gunga. The settings are bombad ass! And sure the acting in the film can be a little wooden and stiff at times, but it is a lot better than the acting in those Ewok movies from the 1980s. Do horses and Wilfred Brimley ring a bell? The acting itself had a charm to it, and added a little bit of "zing" to the film.
The characters are also iconic...in their own way. The characters seen in this film and the entire prequels are not meant to be iconic in the same way as the characters in the original trilogy, but iconic in a different way. Qui-Gon Jinn, played by Liam Neeson, had a rogue appeal to him, which really distinguished him from many other jedi. I also liked Ewan Mcgregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, showing the wise old jedi master from the originals as he started out to be. But the big "eye popper" of The Phantom Menace was of course Darth Maul. Though he had very little lines in the film and he was gotten rid of quite quickly (or was he....), he was reminiscent of Boba Fett, proving that characters with very little screen development could be just as iconic as, oh, I don't know, Darth Vader. What made Maul iconic was his overall look and color. He was inspired by the fear of clowns, and his tribal markings help us in understanding the Sith religion and culture. And who could forget the double bladed lightsaber?
Overall, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a beautiful, appealing prelude to the Star Wars adventures yet to come. Sure, it suffers from elements which I am sure will be nitpicked to death even after reading this review, but for what it was, it was awesome! Terrible? In a way, yes. The worst movie of all time? Absolutely not! For what it was, it was not the best in the Star Wars saga by any means, but comparing it to another film like Batman and Robin, it's pretty epic. I think what can be best said about the film is that had a feeling to it that no other Star Wars film had. It has a safe, non-harmful approach toward it, similar to the first Harry Potter film. Sure, there was some violence in it, but it was the one film in the entire saga that was kid friendly. It had characters that younglings could eyeball and all sorts of younger children could relate to young Anakin. It had a smooth, linear style to it, and with all the creatures, settings, and characters that I mentioned before, it made the film much better and imaginative. George Lucas is not the money mobbing monster many think him up to be, he worked hard on this film, and pulled it off perfectly.
Watching The Phantom Menace through Jedi, you can really see the change and shift in the saga, from an innocent story of a child trying to fulfill his dreams, to a story of that child growing up into a man, to that man falling to the dark side, and the man trying to redeem himself, thus fulfilling the ancient jedi prophecy. It's a story that changes overtime, in both mood and tone, and I can't help but see the Bible within the stories of the Star Wars saga, and see characters change from bad to good, from good to bad, and from good to bad to good again. Star Wars uses the stories and morals of ancient myths and folklore to take form, and of course we don't see that, but we know it's there. The Phantom Menace pulls this off perfectly, and starts the Star Wars saga off on a high note, and prepares us for the epic hardships that are yet to come.
Well, that's all I can say on The Phantom Menace, I hope you enjoyed my review of this film, hopefully my Attack of the Clones review won't take that long to do, so have a great New Year, and I will see you around!
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