It should be an emotional moment, but it occurs all too easily. This necessitates that Anakin leave his mother. Sensing the boy’s abilities, Qui-Gon wins the right to free him. The key new revelation here concerns the miraculous nature of his birth, which may be connected to the origins of the Force.Īnakin lives with his mother on the planet Tatooine, where they are slaves to a grotesque, winged creature called Watto. From the other films, we already know that Anakin grows up to be corrupted by the Dark Side and become Darth Vader, as well as the father of hero Luke Skywalker. Young Jake Lloyd, who plays Anakin, is a fair-haired, good-looking kid, but unaffecting in a role that is underwritten, given its significance to the “”Star Wars” legacy. (And don’t go to “”Phantom Menace” because you’re a Samuel L. There is little insight into the roots of their relationship. But “”Phantom Menace” offers only the rudimentaries of a relationship between its adult heroes, the young Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his long-haired mentor, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson).Īt the film’s start, they remove their hoods, immediately get into the first of several big lightsaber battles with a seemingly overpowering enemy, and never look back. Maybe Jar Jar would be easier to take if the human characters were better. It’s an attempt at a new Chewbacca, but it’s as if Barney, instead of Harrison Ford, played Han Solo. But a little bit of Jar Jar dialogue - like “”Who suh are you suh” or “”Is you thinking youse people gonna die?” - goes a long, long, long, long, way. Jar Jar is in this movie as much as anyone. And there is an allegedly “”cute” creature called Jar Jar (pronounced Zsa-Zsa) Binks, a floppy-eared lizardlike thing with stand-up eyes, a flickering tongue, awkward body movements and an annoying vocabulary of mangled-English baby talk. The action scenes have the kind of relentless PG-rated intensity that will appeal to older preteens, for better or worse.īut the central character, 10-year-old Anakin Skywalker, is just a little boy. Yet even then, it has a split personality. Lucas wants this event to have the excitement of “”Ben-Hur’s” chariot race, but it is closer to a numbingly repetitious video game.Īll these elements give “”Phantom Menace” appeal for young viewers. Legislators sit in box-seatlike platforms that detach and float through the air like rafts on water when they want to speak.Īlso impressive is the desolate Mos Espa Arena on the desertlike planet Tatooine, where some 100,000 spectators gather as Jabba the Hutt presides over a NASCAR-like Podrace. So, too, is the cavernous Galactic Senate Chamber on the skyscraper-packed planet of Coruscant. The underwater city of Otoh Gunga, protected by gigantic membrane-like floating bubbles, is a noteworthy accomplishment. “Phantom Menace” does offer the kind of sights and sounds that kids should relish - lightsaber battles, heroic children, fantastical creatures, exotic cities and a mysterious teenage queen.Ī lot of this is fine - Lucas and his crew at Industrial Light & Magic can conjure worlds that are as delightful as they are strange. The film made me want to visit a park or a zoo the artificiality of its computer-generated world grows suffocatingly fakey. ![]() ![]() “”Phantom Menace” lacks these.Īnd for that matter, computer effects have their limits - there are times in “”Phantom Menace” when it looks as if the backgrounds have been superimposed. ![]() It also takes good writing and inspired acting, as well as plot points that are clever and detailed rather than perfunctory. Perhaps he has become too lost in his mastery of computer-generated effects and digital sound to remember that creativity in the movies is not just a technical thing. Lucas has had 16 years to imagine what his “”prequel” to that trilogy would be - “”Return of the Jedi” was made in 1983. Maybe, as he claims, he just wanted to make a high-tech adventure film for 12-year-olds and the rest is just the creation of an overstimulated, overpopulated media.īut he is responsible for “”Phantom Menace” being nowhere near as good as the original “”Star Wars” trilogy. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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