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| Directed by George Lucas; Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Oliver Ford Davies, Hugh Quarshie, Ahmed Best, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Park, Peter Serafinowicz, Ralph Brown, Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Sofia Coppola, Adrian Dunbar, and Kenny Baker |
Can we say overhyped? The behemoth George Lucas called “his vision” has turned into kiddie fodder. I’m not against a film being open to the children as well as adults, but Star Wars? My favorite of the previous trilogy was actually (brace yourselves) Return of the Jedi. I thought it was fun and featured the best scenes the series had seen, plus it was dark and quite disturbing throughout (maybe with the exception of the Ewoks scenes). I mean I was not hoping for a science fiction take on Happiness, but I think I at least deserved a freedom from Jar Jar Binks. The computer animated Binks was the worst looking CGI I’ve seen since summer double header of Volcano and Dante’s Peak. He serves as supposed comic relief while never being comical. I found the character to be annoying and off setting (a face Ewan McGregor makes at him at one point was the same face I used throughout). The only thing more annoying than Jar Jar this year has been those talking babies in Baby Geniuses (you know I’m serious when I bring out the big guns, aka Baby Geniuses).
The first part of the six episode Star Wars epic attempts to set up the characters that will either appear in the first three films (for the few unaware: Star Wars [A New Hope], Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) or make a mark on the characters in those episodes. Returning (or is it appearing) characters include Obi Wan Kenobi (McGregor; playing a young Alec Guiness [fun anagram: genuine class]) is a young learning Jedi in this before taking on the role of mentor to future Jedi Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Yoda (puppeted as always by Frank Oz) as a leader of a board over seeing the Jedi in this only to go into a sylvan exile by the new trilogy, and Anakin Skywalker (annoyingly played by Lloyd) who will grow up from this film to be Darth Vader after being tempted to the Dark Side. The only actor that actually makes a recurring appearance is the very good Ian McDiarmid. In Return of the Jedi he played the evil Emperor Palpatine that battled the father-son duel of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, here he is Senator Palpatine, a conniving senator that attempts to become chancellor by waging a battle in the senate after dressing up as Darth Sedious.
Then there are new characters abound beyond Jar Jar. Natalie Portman plays the Kabuki dressed Queen Amadala of the planet Naboo, a planet under duress from a conspiracy of the Trade Federation (some crap about an embargo). A new mentor comes in as the overseer to Obi-Wan in the form of Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson). For the sake of a Citizen Kane rip-off, we are also given the mother of Anakin named Shmi (played by the exquisite Swedish actress August of Best Intentions and Fanny and Alexander fame). Of course, there also has to be a new bad guy. Here we have the far from verbose Darth Maul, face painted in the most fiendish way that Lucas could probably think of, as the apprentice to Palpatine/Sedious.
The story is the most uninteresting yet complicated PG film I’ve ever seen. The fact that there is a Trade Federation alone let’s you know how over head this film gets. After Jinn and Kenobi find a young boy Anakin Skywalker, who they think is the chosen one, the three set out to make him a Jedi. If his “vibes” didn’t prove it, the fact that he is the child of immaculate conception should be enough to convince the Jedi Council that he is the one. That doesn’t exactly come true since the always “smarter than thou” Yoda senses that Anakin is not the chosen one, instead his son will be. After saving the Queen from the battle droid forces attacking Naboo, we are forced to sit through what seems like a thirty-minute long pod race, only to prove the worth of young Anakin (as well as for a stupid three time cameo for Leprechaun and Willow star Warwick Davis). All along, the senate is forced to vote in a new chancellor, due to the urges of Senator Palpatine on the Queen (also serving as a chance for a stupid ET cameo). War breaks out around the universe and we now have to sit through six battles intertwining each other.
That intertwining sequence is one of many problems found in this film. The battle scenes include uninteresting stuff between the Queen and battle droids, Jar Jar against battle droids, and Anakin and what seems to be the pre-dated Death Star. In the midst of these boring parts is the best part of the entire film: a duel of light sabers pitting Jinn and Kenobi against Darth Maul. The scene is well done (until a poor climax to the fighting) but hard to keep up with since Lucas also wants us to keep up with all the other scenes he’s throwing at us. Another problem is in the actual ending to the film. It ends in what maybe the worst ending of all the episodes. This wouldn’t hurt half as much if it was not for the fact that the scene that comes before it is arguably the best of the film. A cut off from that scene would have almost brought me to a B rating (I find endings to be incredibly important), but Lucas could not help but ruin the best scenes of the film. On the plus side, there are some good performances in the film. Natalie Portman is quite nice (though a twist in the film is way too easy to spot), but she is no match for the three guys from the United Kingdom: McDaniel, Neeson, and McGregor. The film is also interesting when you put into mind some of the things it is introducing that will be useful in the rest of the series. Still no matter what good things I can think about the film, I have to be reminded of those ever so painful words: Jar Jar.
