Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace

I never thought I'd have reason to watch any of the first trilogy of Star Wars, but Episode 1--The Phantom Menace, was mentioned in Brian Raftery's book on films of 1999, so I thought I'd look again to see if it was as bad as I remember. It was. It was also the highest grossing film of that year, and though many critical brickbats were hurled at George Lucas, who wrote and directed, he is still doing okay, and the last trilogy, which completes later this year, is a vast improvement (as Lucas has nothing to do with them).

Lucas had a grand, nine-film plan, but burned out, and it took sixteen years from the retconned Episode 6 until this prequel. Fans were abuzz, seeing that Lucasfilm logo again, hearing that stirring John Williams music, and then seeing that crawl of words--but wait, taxes on trade routes? That should have been a tip-off there. A sci-fi space opera with tariffs as its central plot isn't going to be too thrilling.

The first three films are the character arc of how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. He is discovered as a nine-year-old boy on Tattooine, where Jedi Knights Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kanobi (Ewan MacGregor) are repairing their ship. Neeson senses the force in the boy, and an analysis of his blood shows a high level of mid-clothians, which in the Star Wars universe means he's got the stuff. Everyone teams together with the Queen of Naboo (Natalie Portman) to stop a Federation invasion of her planet, and young Anakin is left to be trained by Obi-Wan, though Yoda rightfully fears his power.

The Phantom Menace has elements of what makes Star Wars great, but Lucas makes two key mistakes. One is the casting of Jake Lloyd as Anakin. Cute kid, but terrible actor. Every time he opens his mouth it's wince inducing. Even worse is the character of Jar Jar Binks, a CGI character motion-captured and voiced by Ahmed Best. Binks was rightly pilloried by just about everyone, as his Stepin Fetchit demeanor and patois was both racially insensitive and profoundly unfunny. I pity poor Best, who must have been so excited to get a Star Wars role but then ended up contemplating suicide because of the reaction. Ah, the cruel vicissitudes of show business.

There are some good actors doing their best here. Portman, who was only sixteen, shows none of the brilliance she would display later in her career, but fortunately survived these three films, which might have killed the career of others (such as Hayden Christiansen, who would play the older Anakin in films two and three). Neeson and MacGregor gamely go through their bland dialogue with straight faces. Neeson is the best thing about the movie, and gets two great lines--one is "There's always a bigger fish," when their ship is menaced by giant sea creatures, and then, when he and MacGregor face down Darth Maul in the climax--"We'll handle this." The fight between the two of them and Maul (Ray Park) is thrilling.

The film certainly had its champions--somewhere in the comments on IMDB there is a young fellow who stakes the claim that The Phantom Menace is the best movie of all time. I wonder how he feels today in hindsight.

Fun trivia--look for Keira Knightley as Portman's decoy, and Sofia Coppola also is one of the queen's handmaidens. She wanted to hang around the set and getting a part was the best way.