Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.
While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict....
(I am watching the 2011 release of the film - the only real difference is that the puppet Yoda has been replaced with CGI)
OK, a lot has been said about this film in the 17 years (17 YEARS????) since it's release, most of which has been negative. Some of that is fair criticism, and some of that is a bit overblown. If I'm going to go through literally most of Star Wars, it's only fair everything gets a fair chance.
A common description of the original Star Wars trilogy is that it was George Lucas' way of paying tribute to the sci-fi serials of his youth: Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, etc. While is is absolutely true of Star Wars, it's not a description that really fits either Empire or Jedi. In fact, the Star Wars film that next best fits the description of "serial tribute" is The Phantom Menace.
One of the things I've seen said about TPM is that it doesn't "look" like a Star Wars film. That is, it doesn't use the 'used future' aesthetic that was so revolutionary in 1977. Instead, the designs of the film are very much looking back to the 1930's, from art deco to the sleek lines of Flash Gordon's rocketship. Personally, I love this. I mean, look at Padmé's gun here:
It's not a real world weapon that's been tweaked to look sci-fi, it's a full on old school ray gun. Not that there was anything wrong with the "used future" stuff, but adding this new style gave us something the original trilogy never did: context.
In the original trilogy, there were generally only two styles of design on display: the used and natural looking ships and equipment of the Rebels, and the cold and sterile designs of the Empire. Now, with this third style in the mix we get a sense of how things were at their peak, which is important is it means that now we can see how things change and evolve throughout the films. Basically, if this film had just looked like "Star Wars", it would have been boring, because we've already seen Star Wars.
But it's not just the design that calls back to the serials of the 30's, the pacing of the film does too. In the first act especially, you could easily edit the film into 15 minute chunks, with a cliffhanger at the end of each one, just like the serials used to do (this is, as I'll get to, something you could also do with Star Wars). This was Lucas' only real chance to do this more lighthearted style of film, before he had to go into the drama of Anakin's turn to the dark side.
But beneath this throwback, there's a lot more going on. Take the Jedi. The way this film presents the Jedi is really interesting, especially if you go in with the mindset that because this is "Episode I" this is the
first time an audience would have heard of a Jedi.
The Jedi, mostly being represented by Qui-Gon and Obi Wan, are initially shown as an unstoppable force: they cut their way through droids like they don't matter, and burning their way through walls to get to what they want and whenever the Neimoidians mention the Jedi it's with absolute terror. Before we're really given any characterisation to the Jedi themselves, we're shown that they're basically unstoppable space wizards.
But when we do get to spend more time with the Jedi, there's a distinct lack of emotion behind everything they do. Qui Gon especially is basically emotionless to everything going on around him - there's a bit when they're going through the planet core in the Bongo when they narrowly escape a giant sea creature because an even gianter sea creature ate it an ripped it apart. Jar Jar is freaking out, but both Jedi basically are blasé to the entire situation. Now, true, it's very possible that part of this is simply the fact that the actors couldn't see any of this happening, and so didn't really react to it, and that's a fair point. But the end result is that the two main Jedi in the film - "
guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy" - don't ever really seem to care about the things that happen around them. Then when you get to the Jedi council, it's full of emotionless, uncaring Jedi - this time sitting around in their tower (that might as well made of ivory) telling a 9 year old boy off for missing his mother. When you look at the Jedi just from their introduction in this film, they don't come off as swashbuckling heroes, but stuffy old priests stilling in their high tower, not really doing anything about anything. But that isn't a complaint, in fact I think it was a deliberate choice by Lucas. Don't forget that Qui Gon, who, again, is a "
guardian of peace and justice in the galaxy" just straight up tells Shmi "WELL SORRY YOU'RE A SLAVE, NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT THAT! BYE!!". The Jedi are kind of assholes (on a group level, not an individual level), and this is a really important bit of characterisation that continues throughout the prequels.
But I think the thing I like the most about this film is that, in the grand scheme of all Star Wars, this is really the story about how Palpatine manipulated everyone into getting himself made Chancellor. And I think that part of it is great, mostly because of Ian McDiarmid. If you watch him in his scenes, he's giving a really masterful performance of someone who is, deep down, loving every second of watching his plan come together. When he's talking into Padmé's ear about "oh look I guess ~we'll just have to call a vote of no confidence~", he's so evilly manipulative, but in a way you only notice if you're aware he's doing it. This is why I love the ending of the film so much, there's a huge celebration and everyone's happy and cheering that they've managed to put the most evil person in the galaxy into the most powerful position, and the only person who knows it is Palatine. Even John Williams rubs it in your face,
with the Parade music being a cheery, upbeat version of Sidious/The Emperor's theme.
But with all this great stuff going on in the film... why isn't it very good?
Well, simply, the biggest problem The Phantom Menace has is that it's trying to be two different films at the same time. It's trying to be 1930's throwback action & adventure good times fun at the same time it's trying to be a political drama about the manipulation of bureaucracy, and this clash of mood is what makes the film really hard to watch sometimes.
Take the first act - there's a lot of people talking about The Senate and Treaties and Trade Negotiations, but the audience isn't really given a reason to care about any of it. This is mainly because, as far as the audience knows, there aren't really any stakes to everything that's happening, because we don't really identify with any of the characters.
Having an "audience identification character" isn't something a film
needs to have, and it's perfectly fine for something to be an ensemble film (which is what TPM is), but when there's crazy alien space politics being talked about by people we don't know, an audience needs something,
anything, to latch on to. But it's not really the Jedi, they're too emotionally detached from everything around them, it's not Queen Amidala, as we barely even see her during act 1, so really the only option is: Jar-Jar. Jar-Jar Binks is our protagonist.
But, look, OK, fine, right, let's get it out of the way: People hate Jar-Jar. In the time since the film's release I've learnt to accept Jar-Jar Binks into my heart, but he's not a good protagonist. He's about one-step too alien, just
slightly removed from something an audience can really identify with (which isn't to say you can't identify with him
at all, of course you can, it's just not a strong enough connection to hang a film on).
Things get better in act 2 as two more relatable characters appear: Padmé and Anakin. The problem with Padmé is that she really doesn't do anything during the entirety of the Tatooine sequence (
as a side-note, I'd like to say that Natalie Portman's performance as Padmé is really good, especially her naivety at just how bad things are outside of her planet of Rich People. It's subtle, but it's there.).
That leaves Anakin. And the problem with Anakin is that he's played by Jake Lloyd. I'm not exactly treading new ground when I say that Jake Lloyd isn't really very good in this film, but he really does come across as someone who's constantly trying to remember his next line, or his next action. It's not really his fault, he was 9 years old for crying out loud, but it doesn't exactly help us to care about the character.
So going into the third act, the film is really hoping that you care about both Jar-Jar and Anakin... and most people don't. But the action in the third act is really fucking good I don't care what anyone says and Duel of the Fates is great and I really like the look of the N-1 Starfighter OKAY???
I really,
really believe there's a lot of interesting stuff in The Phantom Menace. It's just not presented at all well, and the audience isn't really given a reason to care about any of it. It's only when going back to the film can you actually try and see any of this stuff.
Nute Gunray's cool, though.
