So far, the only thing I've done on this blog is talk about movies I like (or love). What kind of a would be critic would I be if I didn't exercise the other side a little bit?
Now, I realize that The Phantom Menace is not well loved. Interestingly, I never thought it was all that bad. However, sometimes a near miss feels worse then a really bad movie. In this case, I think it springs from the fact that the first 3 Star Wars movies were so good, and all of us who grew up with them saw the new trilogy as a major event. Sadly, they did not live up to their predecessors. Why? I don't think it was just the presence of Jar Jar Binks :). I think there are 2 major reasons, but first, the basics.
The film takes place one generation before the events of Episode 4. In this film, Anakin Skywalker (who eventually will become Darth Vader) is a small boy, and Obi Wan Kenobi is a young Jedi apprentice. It follows the adventures of Kenobi and his mentor, Qui Gonn Jinn, as they find Anakin on Tatooine, and join forces with Queen Amidala of Naboo to quench a rising dark power within the Republic.
There are some things to like here. First, Ewan MacGregor and Liam Neeson are good as always. The visuals are good. Also, I love the fact that this film and the other prequels add texture to the mythology of Star Wars. With this in mind, I feel this film got a bad rap. I also think this because I know for a fact that when I show this film to my kids that they will like Jar Jar Binks. There is still the same simplicity to this film. So, what went wrong?
I think there were two major issues. First, the chemistry and realization of the characters did not match the original trilogy. This is shown in many ways. First, though my kids will like him, Jar Jar Binks is out of sync with the tone of the movie. The first trilogy certainly had comic relief, but there was no slapstick humor. Jar Jar's tone is so out of place with the rest of the movie that it's almost as if he is in his own movie. Secondly, and even more seriously, the character of Anakin (the central character of the prequel trilogy) is not well realized. The character is not sympathetic, and he needs to be in order for us to truly appreciate his redemption at the end of "Return of the Jedi." As the prequel trilogy goes on, this continues. The character is never realized well. His motivations and actions lack sense, and that is because we never have sympathy. And that leads to the other major problem with these films.
These films strip the original trilogy of mystery. That is not the director and creator George Lucas' fault. It is inevitable that when all of the secrets are told, we are left with not as much to imagine. To me, the character of Darth Vader was terribly interesting until we got to know everything about him. While Obi Wan Kenobi was well realized in the prequels, I think the lack of good realization of the central character hurt this trilogy. I could not understand what the connection was between Anakin and Padme, so it was hard to relate to that as well.
In the end, this film can be seen as a disappointment, but still a movie a Star Wars fan can enjoy. And it also goes to show just how special good movies are. They are the result of the merging of so many factors (director, script, actors, etc), that it is amazing when you see a really great movie. Lucas made three really good movies, built a wonderful world, and then gave us a serviceable parenthesis with the prequels when we wanted another paragraph.
