Title: Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
US Release:
Directed by George Lucas
Written by George Lucas
Distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Cast:
Liam Neeson – Qui-Gon Jinn
Ewan McGregor – Obi Wan Kenobi
Natalie Portman – Queen Padme Amidala
Jake Lloyd - Anakin Skywalker
Ian McDiarmid – Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious
Ray Park – Darth Maul
Anthony Daniels – C-3PO
Kenny Baker – R2-D2
Terence Stamp – Supreme Chancellor Valorum
Samuel L Jackson – Mace Windu
Ahmed Best – Jar-Jar Binks
The Skinny:
---Who
doesn’t remember this movie? The most
anticipated movie of all time (and probably still holds that record). ---
The
prequel introduces a new plot: the greedy Trade Federation is over taxing trade
routes throughout the galaxy, and the sovereign but remote planet of Naboo
disputes the Trade Federation’s reasons for the high taxation. In response the Trade Federation setups a
blockade, cutting the Naboo off from all trade of goods and necessities. The Imperial Senate is locked in debate
about the validity of the Trade Federations actions, while the Supreme
Chancellor Velorum (Stamp) secretly dispatches two Jedi Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn
(Neeson) and his padawan Obi Wan Kenobi (McGreggor) in hopes of resolving the
conflict peacefully and quickly.
Once
aboard, the Viceroy in charge of the blockade panics when he’s informed Jedi
are aboard his ship, and informs Darth Sidious (McDiarmid), the true brains
behind the over taxation and blockade.
Sidious, annoyed by this action, orders the Viceroy to accelerate their
plans and begin (illegally) invading the planet, and that the Jedi be killed at
once. The Jedi sense the treachery and dispatch
the droid detail sent to eliminate them with ease and agility. They then stow away a droid drop ship to
escape to Naboo and find Queen Amidala (Portman) before the droid army can
kidnap her and blackmail her into validating their invasion through threating
of the lives of her people.
On
their way they stumble across a clumsy Gungan, Jar-Jar Binks (Best) a native of
Naboo, who leads them to the underwater Gungan City. The Jedi are given transportation under water
so they avoid the droid army while venturing to the Palace of Theed, the Queen residence. Jar-Jar accompanies them as their guide, thanks
to Qui-Gon’s negotiating and to avoid punishment for his clumsiness.
The
Jedi arrive, after surviving attacks from underwater creatures along their
journey, and rescue the Queen and her entourage from their droid captors. Qui-Gon, sensing there is more to the
invasion than political gain, convinces the queen to accompany him to
Coruscant, the city planet that is home to the Imperial Senate, as well as the
Jedi Council.
Running
the blockade in a lone ship proves to be no easy task, but this is when R2-D2
(Baker) makes his official entry into the Star Wars epic in heroic fashion,
repairing critical systems that allow the ship to slip past the blockade and
into hyperspace before they can be pursued.
Upon
hearing that the Queen has escaped, Darth Sidious is displeased. He exercises his control over the Viceroy and
sends in his apprentice Darth Maul (Park) to find the Queen and her Jedi
companions. Now the Viceroy is scared,
as he has no more control over the situation and two Sith to deal with.
The
Jedi and company have to land on a nearby planet of Tatooine to repair their
ship. Without replacement parts, Qui-Gon
finds the parts in the nearest settlement of Mos Espa but doesn’t have the
money to pay for them. Enter one Anakin
Skywalker (Lloyd) the human slave boy of the shop and also amateur
pod-racer. He convinces Qui-Gon to
sponsor him in a major race the following day, which will win him the money to
pay for the replacement parts. Qui-Gon
agrees, but senses there is something more to the boy, thinking he may be “The
Chosen one” from a Jedi prophesy long ago.
Qui-Gon becomes more aware of his novice abilities to use the force to
foresee events which allow him to win the pod-race and the money to secure the
needed parts.
Qui-Gon
brings Anakin back to the ship after the parts have been installed, only to be
attacked by Darth Maul, who tracked them to Tatooine. Qui-Gon holds his own and escapes aboard the
ship.
Now
aware that the Sith, long thought extinct by the Jedi, have returned and have a
hand in the events unfolding on Naboo. The
group arrive on Coruscant, and the Queen and party quickly make way to the
Imperial Senate to plead their case.
Qui-Gon requests an immediate meeting of the Jedi Council to discuss
what to do with Anakin.
The
situation grows grim when Queen Amidala is forced to make a motion to dismiss
Chancellor Velorum, their strongest ally, to bring about a swifter solution to
the plight of the Naboo. Also, Anakin
passes his tests given to him by the Jedi Council, but Yoda and Mace Windu
(Jackson) do not agree to train him.
Qui-Gon objects, and states he will train Anakin. He states Obi-Wan is ready to be tested to
become a full-fledged Jedi Knight, freeing up Qui-Gon to take on another
padawan. The Jedi Council avoids the
matter by ordering the duo back to Naboo with the Queen to expel the Droid army
and flush out Darth Maul in hopes of exposing the Sith and their plans behind
the invasion.
On the Surface:
The beginning of the Star Wars
saga, the first prequel to answer all the questions even the lukewarm Star Wars
fan had been dying for since “I am your father”. Even those of us who grew up on the home
videos, and watched them more than what was deemed healthy by the NTSC. The Special Editions (which I still like)
only made the fanbase more impatient for the prequel to be announced so we
could finally get answers that would end all doubt about Darth Vader’s origins,
why Anakin became so dark and heartless, and how Luke and Leia entered the
picture. Of course, this was only the
setup to answering those questions but the anticipation was high none the less.
After all the glitz and glamour
died down, the film wasn’t well received by critics. Many calling it a billion-dollar popcorn
flick or a showcase in CGI, with little character development and even less
substance. The bandwagon fans denounced
the film almost as quickly as they had lined up to view it. Fans
and critics did not like how C-3PO was shoe horned into the film. Most of all, people did not like Jar-Jar
Binks. Ahmed Best definitely played the
part, but the character was not a good fit for the film and his role as the
goofy comic relief just came off as annoying.
Jar-Jar is one of the few characters in film history that reached
celebrity character status for being a notoriously hated character. Lifelong fans didn’t like him and the younger
fans (whom he was more geared towards) got bored with him almost
immediately.
The ending sequence, even though anchored
with a specular 3-way light sabre battle between the Jedi and Darth Maul, did
not deliver for the audience, and many fans left the theater feeling either
exciting but not knowing why or disappointed and wondering if they saw an
actual Star Wars film.
Years later, it seems the truly
faithful fanbase stood by the film and truly appreciated it after it was
forgotten as a fad.
Production wise:
After the success of the original
trilogy, George Lucas considered doing prequels, but wanted to take a break for
a while and work on other projects (these being the Indiana Jones films,
Willow, etc.). Lucas had created the VFX
studio “Industrial Light and Magic” (ILM) in 1975 in preparation for the VFX
work he was planning for the first Star Wars film (later retitled “A New
Hope”). ILM would soon become the
unquestionable leader in visual effects for film: pioneering miniature effects,
compositing techniques, and would even develop the first pipeline for using
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI).
ILM forged their place in the VFX
industry with CGI work in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (the genesis planet),
but would become solidified in film and VFX history with their CGI renderings
of the T-100 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
ILM furthered their CGI mastery with the iconic film “Jurassic Park” and
its sequel “The Lost World.”
Lucas would revisit his Star Wars
creation soon after and began developing the prequel trilogy. He would release the special editions of the
original trilogy with additional scenes, updated coloring and sound-dubbing
effects, but most of all, updating all the space battles, lazer and Light Sabre
effects with CGI. This proved fruitful
and the fanbase grew bigger because of it.
Lucas began work on Episode I (titled Phantom Menace) soon after.
A massive budget was secured, top
VFX talent was hired, and Lucas once again would direct his creation. 20th Century Fox agreed to
distribute the film, knowing success was pretty much guaranteed. Production was super-secret, even rumors that
production crew and ILM staff were searched at the beginning and end of every
day were circulating among fans. One ILM
staffer was rumored to have been fired on the spot after he allegedly had tried
to leak concept art to a fan publication.
Post Production took the longest,
compositing in CGI elements and characters, and rendering the scenes done
entirely in CGI. Iconic film composer
John Williams returned to score the film, and Lucas would even test a prototype
camera developed by Sony to shoot entirely in digital. This would become what is now High-Definition.
Why I like the film:
I can
understand how critics and uninitiated Star Wars fans could write this film off
as a disappointment. It did have the
makings of a summer popcorn flick and most likely was nothing close to what many
fans had thought the prequel would be or should be, especially the older fans
who saw the original release in 1977. I
personally was open minded about it, eager to see how this story would start out.
The pod
race sequence was supposed to be the big selling point of the film, but it was
a very different concept and felt different compared to the sequences of the
original trilogy. I still liked it as it
was very creative, and its fast pacing, along with John Williams always top-notch
music, was the intense sequence needed for the near halfway point of the film
But the
one element that made the film for me and gets overlooked by pretty much
everyone else, was Darth Maul. Seeing
his dual bladed light sabre in the trailer blew my 14-year-old mind. His face painting made him mysterious, and
when he moved acrobatically across the screen, I was thrilled. I wanted to watch the film again just to watch
Darth Maul. Ray Park definitely could’ve had a more
expansive career and reach martial arts movie star status on par with Bruce
Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jean Claude Van-Damme.
I loved
the CGI and feel it showed the Star Wars universe during its height. The retro look of the Naboo fighters, the
blasters and their shiny appearance showed a thriving society contrasting the
dark and gritty look of the original trilogy.
Each of the pod racers had their
own unique look, and the engine sounds, made by sound engineers and foley
artists, solidified each pods identity making it easier to tell who was racing
by you on the screen.
I still prefer the original cut of
the film and even went to a used DVD store just to buy it, as I do prefer
puppet Yoda to CGI Yoda that is now in all re-releases and Blu-ray versions of
this film. CGI Yoda does have his place
in Episodes 2 and 3, but puppet Yoda fits better in this film in my opinion.
At 14 years old and even now, I
think this film was a great way to start the iconic space opera that is Star
Wars. Many will debate for years if it
was the right way, but I think that’s wasted time and to accept that this film
exists and let it have it place in the Star Wars mythos.
The film is rated PG, mainly because the only parental
guidance needed is just to tell any kids watching it to watch the original
trilogy for back story. Some may say
the battle sequences might be too intense for kids, but I’m pretty sure kids,
especially boys, love intense Sci-Fi and would want to watch it over and over
again. I did!
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