The Phantom Gooberfish

With all the fuss surrounding the trailer/footage for James Cameron's Avatar recently, it reminded me of the pre-release hype surrounding George Lucas' return to the Star Wars universe with 1999's Episode I: The Phantom Menace. After all, both are intent on introducing revolutionary CGI to create a massively detailed outer-space environment as well as convincing CGI characters. I haven't seen Episode I for a while so I was intested as to whether my opinion of the film had risen or fallen in the intervening years.

Two things hit home immediately; the effects and the acting. First off the environments are utterly top notch with ritchly detailed interiors, exterior model shots, epic planetary vistas, cityscapes and flawless integrated CG characters. Sure, there's a few areas where improvements in computer graphics could have enriched the universe further (Bos Nas / The climactic grass battle) but is all looks damned good. After being wrapped up in The Matrix sequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy over the last decade, it's cool to go back and admire where the era of super-rich fantasy movies started.

On the negative side there's the acting (or perhaps the direction given to the actors); it's bloody dull. Neeson is restrained and terribly bland as the film's lead Qui Gon Jin. Natalie Portman, while enigmatic as the Queen of Naboo, is also unenergetic and lifeless as Padme. Her delivery comes across as uninspired pre-production, practice script-reading. Ewan MacGregor, in the Padawan leaner role, is subdued also, and plays it too 'eager-to-please'. This partly comes from a director who's unable to articulate his needs to his actors or a belief that he can 'fix' the acting in the editing suite. It's shot with a great deal of medium and long shots, further distancing the audiences from the characters. But the biggest problems are the characters, who are too wrapped up in the formality of their duties (Queens, Jedi, Senators) to interact with any sense of fun; they're too stiff and reserved. Jake Lloyd is too young and too poor an actor (he lives up to his Mannequin Skywalker moniker) to lift the movie with the lust for life that Anakin possesses.

So it's up to the voice cast of the CG creatures to lift the overall performance level of the cast. Ahmed Best is engaging as Jar Jar. Yes he's a twat but it fits the tone of the movie, before the darkness sets in and The Clone Wars begin. Andrew Seacombe is great as Wstto while the unmistakable Brian Blessed gets to unleash his vocal chords as Bos Nas.

Plot wise, Lucas toys with a lighter story, despite the political manuverings. From our knowledge of the original trilogy, you can see plot elements being nudged into position; Anakin's fear of leaving his Mom and joining the Jedi. Also, the whole point of the invasion of Naboo is to manipulate the Senate/Padme/Trade Federation into making Palpatine Chancellor.
It's less urgent than the other films in the saga as the stakes aren't quite so high at this early point. The relationships are too new and too overwhemed with formalities, so there's very little emotional depth or interpersonal drama. It's all set-up with no meat on the bones; just tantalising glimpes of what might be.

The first half lacks pace, with a diversion to Gunga City and shopping trips and yakking on Tattoine slowing the movie down. A lot of the smaller action set-pieces don't registar that well either, particularly the running of the Naboo blockade.

BUT, once the midpoint podrace kicks in, the movie doesn't let up. Indeed, the film is saved from some of the best action editing and direction of the decade..firstly in the beautifully structured pod race and in the multi-threaded climactic battles. All of the final action is top-notch action but the obvious stand-out scenes are the Darth Maul vs Jedi sword fight. It's exhilarating and gravely serious and undoubtedly the best lightsabre fight of the saga. Ray Park as Darth Maul makes a dangerously aggressive foe with an raw, untamed attitude that is showcased even further against the calm of Neeson and MacGregor. Williams score, while a little too whimsical and flourishy at times, is one of his best of the decade. The sword fight accompaniment of 'Duel of the Fates' proves that Williams is the best film theme writer ever.

It's still not improved with age but that doesn't matter 'cause I loved this film anyway. Despite the stiffness, it's still a Star Wars film. That means there's more imagination per second than any other movie series out there (apart from LOTR perhaps). And it's produced to such a staggeringly high standard that the film stills alone are worth gazing at for hours on end, let alone a 2 hour movie. So all the Jar Jar haters and Midichlorian moaners can sod off back to Transformers 2 cause I'm sticking with Phantom Menace.