Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999)

3 out of 4

Stars: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Pernilla August

Director: George Lucas

Time: 136 mins

Well, it's finally here. The long-awaited first instalment of the Star Wars saga. Sixteen years after Return of the Jedi was first shown in 1983, and two years after rumours of a new series began circulating during the special edition re-release of the original episodes in 1997, George Lucas has sent us back to a galaxy far, far away.

Was it worth the wait? Well - yes, and no. It is, after all, a Star Wars film, which usually guarantees, if nothing else, a couple of hours of good, solid entertainment and escapism. I must admit that while I enjoyed the original series, and indeed consider Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back to be classics, I am not one of those hard-core, die-hard fanatics (in fact, I like the Indiana Jones trilogy better) who dress up as Chewbacca in their spare time and buy thousands of dollars of action figures. So while I had certain expectations, they weren't so high as to make me come away disappointed. I was left, however, with the feeling that The Phantom Menace was lacklustre. There isn't the same sense of fun one experienced during the originals. The character brought in for comic relief, Jar Jar Binks, becomes annoying after a while, especially when his slapstick antics aren't that funny. And even the highlight of the film, the pod race, seems like it was included to sell video games.

In its defence, one must add it has to introduce the characters and set up the whole Star Wars chronicle, while trying to remain true to the original series' ethos. The story has always been one of the strong points of Star Wars, and in The Phantom Menace the plot serves to introduce us to the main players in the ensuing saga: Anakin Skywalker (Lloyd), who would eventually become Darth Vader; Obi Wan Kenobi (McGregor), his mentor; Queen Amidala (Portman), Yoda, the Jedi master; and Palpatine (McDiarmid), the Emperor. There is even a momentous first meeting between C-3PO and R2-D2, the bumbling droids. Lucas' failing is that the characters are fairly bland, (with the exception of Neeson's Qui Gon Jinn), and as such there isn't the same exhilaration or emotion during the numerous space, land and lightsabre battles.

Visually, the film is spectacular. Lucas presents some amazing, breathtaking landscapes, all brought to life by the magicians at Lucas' own Industrial Light and Magic. There are lush forests, an underwater city, palaces perched atop waterfalls, stark deserts, and the incredible city planet Coruscant. The creatures are numerous, and the computer-choregraphed battle between hundreds of Gungans and thousands of droids is dazzling. For all its visual candy, The Phantom Menace generates very little excitement. Unlike the action-packed final forty minutes of both Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, or even the non-stop Millennium Falcon chase through the asteroid field of The Empire Strikes Back, the action set pieces here are ho-hum, with little momentum. The final battle seems tacked on, with little build-up, and is too reminiscent of Return of the Jedi's 3-way finale. Compare the Death Star attack in Star Wars, which was almost as long, and which came after the prison cell shootout, the garbage disposal adventure, corridor chases, a chasm leap, the lightsabre duel between Obi Wan and Darth Vader, and the one-on-one dog fights as the Millennium Falcon escaped. (Phew!)

All in all, The Phantom Menace is good, but not great. What it has done is set up the second episode's potential, and I'm looking forward to it very much. Go see Episode 1 for the visual effects and technical wizardry.

(c) Joe Wong