Viewed as a travesty by rabid Star Wars fans upon its release, time has been kind to Episode One. While riddled with faults, Lucas shows himself once again to be ahead of the times with a film that has set the template for the modern 21st Century blockbuster. Though lacking the charm and excitement of the original trilogy, this first of the prequels is still a thoroughly entertaining children's movie that builds an interesting backstory to the boy who will one day become Darth Vader.
First and foremost, forget all this 'Episode One' bollocks. Yes, this is a prequel, but one that is absolutely constructed to be watched with a knowledge of the original Star Wars, its themes and its characters. The same opening fanfare and titles instantly tap into a shared cultural nostalgia. The opening blurb, however, is our first warning that this will be different to the first trilogy with its yawn inducing talk of taxation and blockades. Instead of sci-fi we seem to be watching Newsnight. Thankfully we soon get a pretty spaceship, a space station that looks like a doughnut and a couple of Jedi Knights. Soon Qui Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson - mullet) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor sporting the galaxy's worst ponytail) are in trouble and battling killer robots before landing on Naboo and witnessing an invasion of CGI tanks. Once again, time has been kind - while our teeth ground at the slightly slapstick CGI robots slathered against CGI backgrounds back in 1997, this is now how most of our blockbusters are made. In a world of John Carter, Avatar, 300 and Watchmen, this worship of pixallated sets and characters doesn't seem as extreme.
 |
| Yussah say mesah a big old racial stereotypie? How rude! |
What hampers Episode One the most is the fact that it's all set up with little pay off. With three films to fill Lucas can't go all guns blazing. The nature of Anakin's established story, that he became a Jedi and then turned on his kind means it has to be a slow burn - the obvious end to this trilogy has to be Anakin becoming Vader so the trick is to seed enough to satisfy while still keeping us wanting more. Here Lucas fails. Phantom Menace is slow and initially quite dull and only really gets the blood pumping once on Tatooine. Once again seen with distance Jake Lloyd is fine as a pre-teen Anakin and is similar to Mark Hamill's Luke (his film son after all). It probably would have better to start with a slightly older and more nuanced Anakin but that's not the Star Wars way. Once again, Anakin is perfectly acceptable to the children the film is aimed at, who would love to fly a dangerous space mission with R2-D2 beeping from the rear - and how nice it is to see the little robot and his camp sidekick, even if poor C-3PO is naked.
We must be less forgiving of some of Lucas's other choices. Watoo is a grotesque Jewish stereotype, a hundred times more offensive than Jar Jar and the pseudo-scientific explanation of the Force as some symbiotic alien organism that has created Anakin, immaculate conception style, is also in very bad taste, riffing on Christianity in a way that just isn't necessary. Anyway, Shmi Skywalker would say that, wouldn't she? C'mon - we've seen Return of the Jedi and know what goes on with slave girls on Tatooine - Anakin's dad is probably Jabba the Hut. Phantom Menace is also dominated by scenes of people sitting and talking. Yes, we know this is to show the indolence and overconfidence of this Republic, but it hardly makes for edge of your seat viewing. To cast Samuel Jackson as a Jedi and then have him sit in a funny chair talking to a puppet is pretty unforgivable. While we're on this subject, who designed this Yoda puppet? It's bloody awful.
The cast do their best with a range of one dimensional characters. Neeson can do this noble act in his sleep but does ground the film with his calming presence. McGregor is game and his accent, though initially comical hits the right note of influence but not impersonation of Alec Guinness. Natalie Portman gets more of a bum deal, spending much of ther film dressed as a giesha with a candalabra stuck on her head. She's better while posing as servant Padme but still has little to do other than get close to stamping her foot now and again. As an aside, yes that is Kiera Knightley playing her double. The rest of the heroes are pretty faceless and poor old Terrence Stamp wanders on for a cameo as the soon to be deposed Chancellor as if he's just wandered in from a different movie. The villains, as usual, have more fun. Darth Maul is a good Vader replacement with a fantastic look and played with gusto by Ray Park. It's a shame he's killed off as he could have become as iconic in his own way as Vader. Best of all is Ian McDiarmid as Senator Palpatine, the Sith in their midst. With his mock innocence and ingratiating manner McDiarmid gives the best performance in the whole movie (and consequently the whole trilogy).
 |
| Kids - don't try this at home |
 |
| Look out for the sidesplitting new Lucasfilm sitcom 'Roger Roger' |
GK Rating: *** The Blog of Delights
No comments:
Post a Comment