Film Review: The Phantom Menace
My virginal movie experience, contrary to some other virginal experiences, was a good one. It was 1978. I was 5. My father decided to take me to the movies to see a fantasy story of foreign worlds, superhuman powers, destiny and love. Aha… Star Wars, you might be thinking. Nope! It was actually Superman and I absolutely loved it.
It’s
a long time since I’ve experienced that tingling sense of child-like wonder.
Where there is no grey – there is good and there is evil. Nothing is
complex. Everything makes sense. But the 4th Star Wars movie, The
Phantom Menace, returned me to that world ‘ …in a galaxy far, far away…
‘.
We might not have been drowning in hype in Ireland compared to the US, but this movie still means a lot to 20 and 30 somethings all over the island. So CLUAS has undertaken not to reveal any plot details, beyond the general. The paranoid reader can stop here, and rest assured that no matter what the critics say they have a treat in store on July 16th.
George Lucas has described his movie as “…an uncynical film in a cynical world… ” and he should be lauded as his creation is a celebration of style, vision and escapism. Just as the original Star Wars in 1977 suffered from a critical mauling of its rickety script and melodramatic acting, The Phantom Menace will not be studied at acting school.
Liam Neeson and Ewan MacGregor are Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, two Jedi knights dispatched by the Jedi council to settle a trade dispute between the planet Naboo and a mysterious faction called the Federation. Naboo is benevolently ruled by Queen Amadala, sensitively portrayed by the beautiful Natalie Portman. But none of the established stars make an impact like Lucas’ new baddie, the sinister Darth Maul, played by newcomer Ray Parks who spends most of his time trying to disembowel our Jedi heroes.
The climactic light-sabre duel between the three will result in many a nail being bitten to the quick, recalling the swashbuckling of Errol Flynn in his heyday. Darth Maul is the embodiment of evil in this movie – a silent demon of death, his head stubbed with horns like a mutated ladybird. The most memorable image of this movie occurs during the Qui-Gon Darth Maul showdown – an energy shield separates the two of them. Qui-Gon kneels down, closes his eyes and summons all his power in a Jedi meditation – Darth Maul paces back and forth, staring, waiting to pounce like a trapped tiger. Dripping with hatred.
Of course, as has been highly publicised, we are also introduced to a
pre-pubescent Darth Vader, the young Anakin Skywalker on the desert planet
Tatooine. It’s difficult not to think of future events – Darth Vader
striking down Obi-Wan with his light-sabre. This power of Star Wars
mythology infuses these scenes with a resonance, a poignancy that all Star Wars
fans will appreciate.
It’s impossible to talk about The Phantom Menace without mentioning its special effects. Lucas’ Industrial Light And Magic permeate every scene – wondrous worlds unfold before us, computer generated creatures interact seamlessly and even come to blows. Curiously, instead of inventing new languages and providing subtitles, as in the original series, Lucas has decided to give his creations accents and mannerisms obviously based on races that exist somewhat closer to home… This controversial stance has provoked some criticism from the Italian, Jamaican and Jewish sectors of American society.
Cultural faux-pas aside, the film did provide this reviewer with the most astonishing cinematic sequence ever seen – the Pod Race. Resembling a futuristic drag-race, the racers inhabit tiny pods tethered to a pair of gigantic rocket-boosters and career around a course cut out of the sheer canyon walls of the planet Tatooine. The excitement is palpable, it is a sequence that will be immortalised.
All this combined with the reappearance of some old friends (a certain couple of intrepid androids, a rather fat intergalactic gangster and a small, green future cave-dweller) make for an exhilarating couple of hours. One little hint – stay till the end of the credits for a taster of treats to come…
Stephen McNulty
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