Find your best travel cloak and warm up your lightsaber.
Yes, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is back in theaters and in 3D (which is useless and often just distracting in this application).
It all starts when two Jedi are called upon to handle negotiations between the Trade Federation and the government of the planet Naboo. Unsurprisingly, things begin to go downhill after an attempt is made to kill the Jedi. As is usual with a Star Wars movie, there are explosions (mostly in space and, no, I don’t know if that complies with the laws of physics) and sinister Sith.
At least this Star Wars prequel has a plot worthy of a 2-hour movie, although it tends to give the audience less of what we love and more of the stuff we don’t care about. Whiny nine-year-old Anakin (Jake Lloyd) gets a ton of screen time while Obi-Wan Kenobi’s main occupation is being Qui-Gon Jinn’s sounding board.
This always disappointed me, because the best idea in the entire movie is the father/son dynamic between Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by the ridiculously attractive Ewan McGregor). Here is where George Lucas once again shows his incompetence.
It seems redundant, but George Lucas’ writing is terrible. The premise is a good one, just unfocused. Instead of letting the audience see more of the Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan relationship, Lucas decided to go the awkward-and-slightly-disturbing-teenage-flirting route.
To make matters worse, the dialogue is wooden and awkward, making the actors’ jobs very difficult, I imagine. George Lucas probably shouldn’t be left to his own devices.
Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor are as brilliant as you can be in such a poorly-written film, although I have no idea what happened to Natalie Portman portrayal of Queen Amidala/Padme. All this being said (or printed, rather), I still love this movie.
In 1999, when Episode I first made its debut, I was 8 years old and as of yet had no defense against Ewan McGregor’s awesomeness (still don’t, as it turns out). I had no clue this movie would make me a nerd. I am forever grateful.
