Jason Maloney reviews

Distributed by

20th Century Fox

Cat.no: 14246 W

Cert: U

Running time: 127 minutes

Year: 1999

Sound: Dolby Surround Sound

Widescreen: 2.35:1

Price: £17.99

Director:

George Lucas

Cast:

Qui-Gon Jinn: Liam Neeson
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Ewan McGregor
Anakin Skywalker: Jake Lloyd
Queen Amidala: Natalie Portman
Darth Maul: Ray Park
The Emperor: Ian McDiarmid
C3PO: Anthony Daniels
R2D2: Kenny Baker
Anakin's Mother: Pernilla August
Counsellor Valorum: Terence Stamp
Ric Olie: Ralph Brown

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away... oh, you know the drill by now. Slightly hokey mystical shenanigans somewhere in outer space. Good guys, bad guys... a bit of philosophising thrown in. Or, to put it in real terms, the most exhilarating and influential feelgood movie franchise of the last 25 years. Forget how it comes across on paper, Star Wars - any Episode, be it 1 or 6 - has to be seen to be appreciated. Even reviewing them is rather pointless, but then where would that leave me?

Thirty years prior to the events catalogued in Episodes IV, V and VI - the ones with Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker et al - we find some familiar names in vaguely familar surroundings. A youthful Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor with an odd delivery that could be excused as an approximation of Alec Guiness) is an apprentice Jedi Knight to the enigmatic, wisened and graceful Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson, virtually reprising Oskar Schindler - no bad thing).

Brought in by the Galactic Council to negotiate a peace treaty between warring planets, they find themselves swiftly engulfed in a battle to escape with their lives. Arriving on Naboo, under attack from evil Federation forces, they link up with Jar-Jar Binks... a blundering, flappy-eared creature with a bizarre pseudo-Carribean patois.

A chain of events leads them to the recently-elected Queen of Naboo (Natalie Portman, stunning and convincing), who has to flee with Jinn and Kenobi in order to prove to the Council that her people are in grave danger. An unexpected diversion lands them on the remote slave outpost of Tattoine (scene of the first Star Wars film). Sensing something afoot within the Force, Qui-Gon Jinn encounters a precocious and wide-eyed young boy. His name is Anakin Skywalker... later to become Darth Vader. Fate is about to be set in motion, although how such an innocent soul could ever mutate into the most deadly and dark of all Sith Lords only time (and Epiodes 2 and 3, of course) will tell.

"Every Saga has a beginning"... the accompanying poster campaign and packaging grandly proclaims. So much was expected of this, the first of the three "prequels" to the original Star Wars Trilogy that turned the concept of mainstream movie-making on its head between 1977 and 1983. An almost ridiculous amount of expectation, in fact, to the point where considered and sensibly-contexted judgement appeared to vanish. What did people expect?

Taken as another instalment in the already established - in stylistic and narrational terms - Star Wars canon, The Phantom Menace (not the best title in the world, it has to be said) is an unqualified success. The oft-levelled criticisms of "poor" dialogue, "one-dimensional" characters and "simplistic" plot conclusions are all missing the point, quite frankly.

As for the look of the new film... it simply leaves you awe-struck. Technological advances have moved forward several times over since the last of the original trilogy 16 years before, meaning Lucas can create all kinds of wonderous and jaw-dropping visual tableaux. The scope and potential for the droid and alien aspects of the project have also improved dramatically, with blue-screen and stop-motion techniques now integrated seamlessly with the live action. In fact, this is the very first film of any kind where the mix doesn't leave a feeling of phoniness.

The set-pieces which really impress do so as much from their unexpected nature as their visual prowess. Two early underwater sequences push the boundaries of all exisiting Star Wars settings, bringing an ethereal quality quite apart from the usual Outer Space ambience.

If there are any short-comings, then perhaps the mysterious Darth Maul could have been afforded a more prominent place in proceedings. As it is, his brief appearances at regular intervals light the blue-touch paper on action scenes of almost balletic poise and physical adroitness. The light sabre duels are far more electrifying than before, the surroundings brought into play so that some serious damage is inflicted. Neeson and McGregor do themsleves proud in these scenes, investing just the right amount of intensity and gung-ho spirit.

In conclusion, this admittedly over-hyped and overdue slice of movie history is a worthy successor to the legacy passed on by its forefathers. This is a true Star Wars film through and through. Those of us now in our late 20s and early 30s are not going to see things in quite the way we did all those years ago, so the fact that The Phantom Menace should manage to evoke such a potent response is testament to its adherence to (and recapture of) what made Star Wars such a magical experience in the first place.

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Review copyright © Jason Maloney, 2000.