Year: 1999Director: George Lucas
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd
Who hasn't seen or heard of Star Wars? Everyone knows Star Wars. It holds such an important role in pop culture today. Even if you've never seen the movies, you must surely be familiar with its story of good versus evil taking place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This was the film franchise that spawned arguably the most well known villain in the history of Hollywood: Darth Vader.
The original trilogy of episodes four to six were made in the 70s and 80s. The new trilogy of episodes one to three were filmed within the last eight years. This movie, the first one, was screened in 1999. Basically The Phantom Menace traces the beginning of the life of a young boy who would eventually become Darth Vader.
Episode I begins at the planet Naboo, where the greedy Trade Federation has formed a blockade in orbit. They plan on forcing Naboo's ruler, Queen Amidala to sign a treaty with them. With a massive army of armed droids at their command, they seem likely to succeed. But they are thwarted by two Jedis who arrive to escort the Queen safely to Coruscant, where she can plead her case to the Galactic Senate.
Due to damages sustained by their spacecraft during their escape, the Queen and the two Jedis: Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, are forced to land on a desert planet called Tatooine, where they hope to repair their ship and continue their journey. This is the place where they meet a mysterious young boy named Anakin Skywalker, who offers to help them. Qui-Gon senses that the boy is special and is destined to become a great Jedi. But there are bigger problems at hand when the Trade Federation's ally in the Senate, the mysterious Darth Sidious, sends his apprentice Darth Maul to stop them...
If you're not a fan of Star Wars, you'd probably have stopped reading at this point. But if you are a fan, then all this would be already too familiar to you. So what can I say? Well, if you've always been intrigued by sci-fi and you love action and adventure, then this film would do nicely. It has everything from speedy pod races, space dogfights, laser shootouts, lightsaber duels etc.
However, if you're looking for good acting, you won't find much here. Neeson, McGregor and Portman do just fine. They are after all good actors. It's just that some of their lines seem corny, and that affects their performance a little. Lloyd is hardly impressive with his acting, looking lost and wooden half the time. Pernilla August however is quite good as Anakin's mother.
The final half hour of the movie is my favourite part, where four different battles take place. The Gungans, residents of Naboo who live underwater, fight the droid army; Naboo's starfighters including Anakin attack the Trade Federation vessel in orbit; Queen Amidala leads her guards to capture the Viceroy of the Federation; and the two Jedis battle Darth Maul in a breathtaking lightsaber duel.
Most Star Wars fans love Episode III the most out of the new trilogy, but I love this one best. Jar Jar Binks isn't as annoying as most people think, it has great action sequences, and thanks to the absence of the lovestruck adult Anakin played by Hayden Christensen in the later films, the dialogue is actually a whole lot better.
Being a Star Wars fan, I'd give it 4 out of 5. 3.5 for non-fans reading this. (4/5)
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