Hello folks,
I just wanted to chime in with a couple of thoughts on Episode I The Phantom Menace. I had the chance to view it at the midnight showing last night locally and much to my surprise, it hadn't sold out and people were still buying tickets. The evening was not without your fanatics running around wearing Vader Helmets and capes. Remember, these are the same people that get into arguments over which Princess Leia was hotter, the Cinnabuns Leia of Star Wars or the wire bikini clad temptress aboard Jabba's desert yacht in Jedi. Okay kids, you're thirty move out of you parents basement, take off the Spock ears and just try talking to a girl!! That is not to say that the film won't meet projections, but surprising nonetheless. Anyway I would like to start off by saying that I did enjoy the film tremendously. It was visually stunning and edited prolifically. My only regret is that I had chosen an inadequate space to screen the movie the first time, a mistake that I will not make the next time.
Prior to it's release, I did try to ignore much of the hype involved with the past few months, but could not completely numb myself to some of the negative feedback resulting from it's initial screenings this past week. Episode I has the unfortunate task of living up to the first series of films, an expectation that is undoubtedly unfair. Those who are comparing the the two series and Episode I's predecessors as the benchmark, or what have you, are certainly not viewing the film with an open and mind and are suffering from cinematic myopia.
There are those who may criticize the film for lacking the ability of standing on it's own. Normally I would tend to agree with this to a point, but this film is under different set of circumstances. True, the original Star Wars could stand on it's own, however, the following films do have a history or a through line to continue on with the saga. Episode I, despite being a prequel, has a history as well before the story begins, thereby raising the expectations of the film. Much like the Greek dramas, the stories and myths were already there, but it is the telling of each work is what separates them.
Episode I, is stylistically and environmentally different from the original series. It is obviously much brighter in it's production design and tones for good reason. It is the beginning, picking up the story line at the decline of the Republic. The end to an obvious era of prosperity that is destined to fall. Star Wars on the other hand, starts where the story line is entangled in the tyranny of the Empire. In addition, some of Episode I is viewed through the windows of innocence, the eyes of a child. I notion that deserves at least some consideration. The tone of the story will eventually develop into darker themes (no pun intended) and the depth of the characters will grow as well.
This rant may appear or come off as a defense of the film, which it just might very well be. I do have to say that I did like the film, it is a good film and should be recognized as that. Well, that's it. Talk to you later.
Michael
Box Office & Thoughts on Phantom Menace : Well, I was going to post a six or
seven page extensive negative review
of Phantom Menace, but, well, at this point, why kick a film while it is down
(so I will just whack it a little bit with a few
thoughts later on). Anyway, in a surprise to most people, myself included,
though the film did great business at the
box office in sum, it fell short of the mammoth, humungo opening many
expected. The film's $102 million total from
Wednesday through Sunday is certainly great, but it did not beat The Lost
World's Friday through Sunday $72.1
million tally, and the drop-off per day revenue versus Wednesday's opening is
not a good sign for it's longevity
(especially in this crowded summer season).
I'm sure in the coming weeks the Star Wars sites and industry pundits will
post many theories why as the film slowly
plays out its run. And in light of the fact that the Star Wars films have not
played quite as well overseas compared to
the US, it now not only seems unlikely Phantom Menace will beat Titanic
domestically, it will be quite an uphill battle
to beat its worldwide record as well. Is this justice for the hype and
incessant marketing by Lucas & Co., or simply
unfair expectations?
First the hype. Though some have commented that Phantom Menace indeed had far
less advertising than Godzilla
and other films, the relentless merchandising more than made up for it in my
opinion. If you are going to presell
your film as some sort of cultural touchstone, you better deliver. Way back
in the 70's, many forget that Star Wars
was not presold, and no action figures and web sites were rammed down
audiences throats months before the film
premiered. The genuine, sustained excitement caused by Star Wars earned its
toys, you might say. Also, some may
have overestimated the appeal outside the Star Wars cult (which is still very
large). Perhaps the average viewer
doesn't care all that much, perhaps it does.
Then, there is the film itself. If you read my brief post yesterday, I
thought the film was terrible, and though the
audiences in general have been more kind than the critics, it doesn't seem to
have the explosively positive accolades
and "must see" factor for those over the age of, say, 15, that Titanic did.
Now, I'm a Star Wars fan. I think that I
"get it", and do not simply dismiss it out of hand like many critics, though
I'm not a diehard fanatic or anything. I
really wanted to love the film, or at least have a fun time. But, I was
really shocked at how bad it was on just about
all levels, and shoddily put together. George Lucas is a stunning visualist
and conceptualist, no doubt; however, he is
not, and never was, a great director. THX 1138 was an interesting experiment,
and American Graffiti worked due to
the casting by ace Don Roos, the evocative cinematography of Haskell Wexler,
as well due to the benefit of a great
script (co-written by others, it should be noted). By all accounts, George
Lucas sat back and let the film happen; a
smart choice, but certainly not a great resume builder for the extensive,
hands-on talent a real director needs.
Say what you want about Spielberg or Cameron (and I myself don't love all
their work), but they can actually direct:
you know, things like craft a script (or know when to bring in outside
writers), shape a scene, work with actors and
utilize their crews to the fullest. In short, they generally understand the
word known as collaboration. Lucas, on the
other hand, has surrounded himself with "yes men" and even admits to not
being an "actor's director" (gee, what a
shock). This whole Phantom Menace thing reminds me of an old ILM joke: "How
many George Lucases does it take
to screw in a light bulb?" Answer: "None. George just stands there and the
world revolves around him". It is funny
'cause it might as well be true. But, on another level, it is very sad.
In light of the re-releases and now Phantom Menace, it looks as if the
original Star Wars worked more often than not
because of the limitations in technology of the time, as opposed to in spite
of it. Seeing the generally terrible
additions and changes Lucas made to the original trilogy for the re-releases,
it seems all the restraint, simplicity and
pure joyous fun Lucas created with the first film was not borne out of
choice, but out of necessity because he could
only get (his words) "50% of my vision on the screen" and not the "90%" he
got with Episode I. Really, can anyone
honestly say that Menace is a better film than the first Star Wars, even with
all the technology at Lucas' disposal?
Phantom Menace, with the "advances" in special effects, is overstuffed,
derivative, convoluted, horribly paced, lazily
plotted, dreadfully acted, lethargically directed, and, quite frankly,
boring. The Star Wars magic lasted for about the
first 10 minutes of the film and then quickly deteriorated. Jar Jar was the
first tip off (and, sorry, but CGI is nowhere
near photo-realistic for peformances...would anybody be surprised to find out
that Jar Jar was computer-generated?),
and then that pointless excursion into the Gungan underwater world. Sure, it
looked great, but, um, what was the
point? Was it exciting or suspenseful? was it necessary to the story or plot?
It wasn't nearly as much fun as the
Millennium Falcon's race through the asteroid belt in Empire, for example.
Unfortunately, such shapeless, pointless
CG set pieces is what Menace is all about.
What happened to "plot does matter"? Are you, the viewers, really satisfied
simply with just (admittedly cool) CG
sequences over and over? For me, there are so many of them that after a while
they blur into abstraction. Part of the
fun of the other Star Wars films was that there was usually only 3 or 4
locations in each film, and you got spend time
in each world. A main part of the excitement of the next installment was to
see where the storytellers would take us
to next. Tatooine, Endor, Hoth, Dagobah, the Death Star, all are so
identifiable and memorable they still stick in the
mind (I bet you could instantly pull up images just from the mention of their
names). Menace is so overdone,
however, who has time to stop and smell the roses? Though the CG vistas are
pretty, are they honestly in the end as
memorable or have the depth of those in the originals? And worse, Menace even
regurgitated many of the same
worlds and creatures of 4, 5 and 6.
The rest of the film continued with the leaden pace. Where was the urgency of
the originals? The excitement? The
well-drawn (if iconoclastic and archetypal) characters? Sure, some complained
about the performances in the first
film, but the roguish charm of Harrison Ford, the snappy wit of Carrie Fisher
or even the annoying but at least
appropriate innocence of Mark Hamill is sorely missed here. In spite of
Lucas' crap directing skills, the actors (in the
first film especially) seem to be having fun, not just being manicured like
lawn hedges. And, where is the interaction
between the cast and the sets? In Star Wars, you really felt you were in a
real world, with the actors touching things,
running into walls, or at least fiddling knobs or something. In Menace,
everyone is so stiff and not allowed to interact
with the green screen backgrounds that I kept looking on the floor to see
where their tape marks were.
And over and over (and over), Lucas lets his computer generated backgrounds
and characters interrupt and destroy
scene after scene. Almost every single time a real emotional note is about to
be hit or a scene actually starts to
come alive, Jar jar or some other crap CGI thing bounces in to obliterate it.
If this is what the next millennium of
filmmaking is all about, count me out. Many in cineaste circles wonder what
is next after postmodernism. I think it
may be The Phantom Menace, which is almost "trans-modernism" (I am making up
a word, but hey, I was a film
student, I'm supposed to). What I mean by that is, in a way, to fully
understand this film requires seeing it more
than once. But, even if you do, what are you left with? This sure seems like
a creative scam to me...let's overstuff the
film with everything as to give the appearance of depth via technically
impressive clutter, but when you look under
the hood, in actuality all you have left is a really snazzy tin can.
And then there is the horrendous plotting and pacing. All the political
gobblygook may have been potentially
interesting, but Lucas never bothers to show us who is affected by all of
this. All we get is the stiff-as-a-board queen.
Really, can anyone out there really say she made you feel or worry about the
fate of her people? Carrie Fisher
generated more empathy in her fingernail for the people of Alderaan (whose
world you never even saw) than Natalie
Portman (usually a fine actress) is allowed to do by Lucas, as she is just
set dressing (and a decoy at that). Aside
from Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor (who is given little to do), no one
registers here. And Jake Lloyd is nice kid,
but his acting, quite frankly, is very poor. I hate to be mean to a child,
but there are plenty of good child actors out
there, sorry to say.
And just whose story is this? The first Star Wars was about Luke. Is Phantom
Menace about Gui-Gonn or Anakin? If it
is about Gui-Gonn (did I spell that right?), it is a complete failure as a
dramatic story, as he has no character arc at
all...he just fulfills his plot function and then dies. And if it is about
Anakin, it is also very poor storytelling. His big
sequence at the end where he blows up the death star-esque thing happens by
accident. Some Jedi Knight! And, in
what should have been the equal to the "twin suns" bit in Star Wars where we
truly share Luke's dreams and feelings
in a glorious crescendo, Anakin's big moment of leaving his mother pales in
comparison. Though Shmi Skywalker
(Pernilla August) is probably the best actress in the cast, Jake Lloyd is not
her match, and Lucas saddles them with
insipid dialogue and fails to achieve what should have been Phantom's
penultimate moment. Even John Williams
score does not nearly equal his work in Star Wars and Empire.
Also distressing is that Jar Jar. His "ya mon" speech was so bad I am
expecting Aunt Jemina to pop up as his wife in
Episode II. And his antics are not funny nor do they inspire a child-like
sense of fun, but are simply childish. Easily
the low-point of the series so far. And the rest of the supporting
characters, CG or otherwise, are generally bland.
Only Watto emerges as a memorable character, up there with inspired Lucas
creations like Jabba, Chewbacca or even
the simplistic Stormtroopers.
Perhaps worst of all is the fact that Lucas not only made a crap film, he has
effectively ruined the storytelling arc and
mystery of the entire series, even resorting to plagiarizing himself. Since
this is supposed to be a six-part saga, if we
were to watch them in order, Lucas already has ruined the appearances of
Jabba, Yoda and the Emperor (and please
don't tell me you are surprised that Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious
are the same person). Would there be
any magic to Yoda's first debut in Empire, or Jabba's in Return if you saw
Menace first? And the entire crosscutting
finale of Menace is a total rip-off of the already blah ending of Jedi
(lightsaber duel, forest battle and space fight).
This shows a distinct lack of imagination on Lucas' part, is bad storytelling
form and really condescending to the
audience who is paying to a see a new movie. All we get in Menace is pretty
much the same worlds as before.
Where is the new stuff? The most inspired is probably the underwater world,
but it is all too brief, underutilized and
has nothing to do with the rest of the movie.
So, though I really wanted to like this film, and though it does have some
fun moments (the pod race is
breathtaking, and the backgrounds and scenic vistas are beautiful), it is
just lazy, inexcusable filmmaking. I continue
to see even Star Wars sites and reviews on other sites that say "the critics
are wrong!", only to go on and make
disclaimers like "well, Star Wars was always for kids", "it isn't bad if you
lower your expectations" or "it is a lot of fun
if you put your mind on hold". Sorry, but I just don't believe you should
have to make excuses for any film,
especially a Star Wars film! And, sorry, they were never "just for kids".
They were for the kid in all of us. I'm not
letting Lucas' severe lapses in judgment off the hook just because I can't
deal with my own disappointment.
So, I just have to say what I think everyone knows, but many don't want to
admit. Even with millions of dollars, the
most advanced technology ever available to a filmmaker and pretty much his
own studio at his disposal, Lucas blew
it. Phantom Menace is derivative, exploitative, insipid, juvenile and lazy.
Though I can certainly see enjoying parts of
it, I cannot understand how anyone over the age of 15 and with a passing
familiarity to the art of filmmaking could
possibly think this is a well-made movie. My grade: D+.
Where do you find the time for such activity on the keyboard?
Anyway... as some people know, lightsabers are specifically designed to destroy the soul/life essence of those they smite. Thusly, when QuiJon was run through, he ceased to exist. Now, you may say, "but Obi-Wan was killed with a lightsaber and still existed in soul/life essence form." In fact, Obi was not quite killed that way. Remember that he gave in to Darth Vader, rather than actually got killed by him. He sort of dissapeared, rather than got cut in half, so that he could continue to be there for Luke. Remember Vader kicking the robe around after Obi dissappeared? Many of us thought that that was the effect of a lightsaber after seeing just Star Wars, that it made you dissappear. Subsequent movies revealed that it could, in fact cut you, and this one showed that it could, in fact kill you. But Obi-Wan was not killed by a lightsaber. And that's the story on that...
Unless QuiGon shows up in apparition form in Episode II (and Darth Maul, for that matter), this should prove even truer than it already supposedly is. But, shit, all the Jedis would be running around Luke in ghostly form in the later movies if they weren't killed by the Sith in the next two, as they supposedly are.
Death by lightsaber bad. Death other ways not as bad. For the Jedi (and Sith?), that is...
Oh... you liked the kid, or not? I thought he absolutely sucked. Insincere, annoying, and everyone called him "Annie", which made me cringe.
Overall, I agree with your review. I didn't hate Jar-Jar as much as you did (I was too busy hating that little snot actor), and thought the warrior droids were a perfect predecessor to the (also not particularly effective) Stormtrooper, and of course Anakin would blow that space-station up accidentally, as he had no idea about what was to be done, or where to shoot, and he's not supposed to be a hero in this series anyway, but as for the other stuff, basically... yeah.
***, also.
Later,
Joel
Yo "Hammerhead",
WOW!! Dissertation is right!!! Oh well, I'm not here to criticize (although I believe you
examine, MAYBE, a bit TOO deeply), BUT I* agree with everything you
stated (if I were to get that analytical). So here's MY 2 cents: The
only things I have MAJOR gripes about are as follows- DEFINATELY needed
MORE Darth Maul- yes Jar jar Binks was a buffoon and it took me half the
movie to realize I WASN'T having difficulty hearing him, thats just the
way he talked- yeah alot of the langauge downplayed towards the "kiddie"
spectrum- MORE Samuel Jackson (why even have him in the movie for all
the character info and depth, not to mention screen time, they showed),
but I could forgive ALL this in view of the GOOD points you made + I
have these that, for some reason, especially impressed me, and while
they number only 4, they are great I believe. 1) seeing a young (is that
the right term, perhaps "new") R2D2 struggling in the midst of a battle
to get "things" back on line as fellow droids around him are getting
wiped out!! How anthropomorphic!!!!! Made me see the character with
even MORE human qualities!! 2) Seeing (in sheer disbelief) that it was
young Anakin Skywalker who created the C3PO unit, who knew, and WHAT
irony!!! 3) The part that sent chills up and down my spine (knowing what
wil happen), when Young Anakin introdced himself and shook hands with
Obi Wan!!!! I kept thinking, so this is how their relationship starts
and "if only they knew"!! WOW!! and 4a) When yoda "foresee's" that
Anakins future is "clouded" and does not want him trained in the Jedi
ways, but Qui-Gon Jinn saying that Anakin will bring "balance to the
force" (did he mean "personally"- not likely- Luke and Leia ? OR
killing the Emperor and rejoining the light side of the force? OR
something else completely, held in store for chaps. 2 & 3?).
4b) Obi-Wan seeing the death of Qui-Gon Jinn, Sooooooo he REALLY
understood (at least partially) what LUKE would feel as he witnessed his
own death blow!!
All these events and MANY more help shed knew light and understanding
into chaps. 4,5, and 6. Now I must watch themm ALL again with this knew
enlightenment. ..........Sorry I was feeling very "Zen" for a moment. At
any rate you two, those were my 2 cents, write back sometime and tell me
what you think! And, WE WILL (actually) TALK SOON, whenever are
schedules permit (soon I think). Til then, take care.
Your friend always,
Thom
Dear Paul,
Being one not to ever give into hype I waited until the eleven year old in my begged to go see the movie again to finally go. I did not expect anything. I personally have never watched Jedi all the way through because the ewoks were annoying furry heterosexual teletubbies unlike tinky winky who also annoys me. So - I went hoping this movie would make up for my disappointment in the last.
DID IT? - Yes - i was very tied into the movie and trivia I had not realized I had digested 20 years ago flooded back - The mention of Bale Antilles running against Palantine - brought all sorts of questions which i and the eleven year old discussed for hours. i was very drawn into the movie and for once sci-fi had a cathartic moment for me. I too was disappointed in independence day and also armageddon - or should i say aerogeddon. And because of those movies i didn't even bother to see Deep Impact. Easy reader as the President -come on.
Things i was disappointed with - The Viceroy did annoy me too - and they seemed to be some oriental stereotype - a strike at the superiority of the japanese in trade i think. Second - Jar jar - was fun but his people and their way of talking - I think Lucas has spent way Too much time in the islands mon. They all sounded like drunk jamaica swamp critters to me.
Other problems - Both when the jedi come upon the gungin city and when the camera panned across naboo - was the film out of focus for anyone else - My eyes just about tore themselves out of my head trying to make sense for a minute. Paul - on darth Maul you are right -where was he? The tatooine meeting was fleeting and why send out robots when it would have been more interesting if he'd gone looking himself and killed a few computer generated creeps. one last thing my roommates felt the droid army looked like a bunch of primitive snoopy dolls and they were not very imposing.
Other than these minor details I really enjoyed the film - Well(the hairdos could have stopped after two) - I'm sure drag queens everywhere will be doing the japanese fan thing this summer. Why did amidar only have an english accent when she was dressed as a queen - HMMMMM?
This was a very bloodless movie - I think that is what Lucas was going for - with the way things are going in society maybe he made the right move in trying to be funny and less bloodless to get new generations hooked with their parents. Perhaps in Menace 2 and 3 - we'll see more fear and loathing in outerspace.
I hope some of this has made sense.
From the land of the Rat,
Jeremy
Paul,
After reading your email, I would have to agree with you on many of your points. Three stars is more than adequate enough and I do believe that the next the next one will prove to be better and less "pop culture" oriented. Jar Jar in big doo doo because he has far too much screen time, enough of the cartoon crap already!!!! I do wish there could be more Jedis and definitely more Maul. I am going to try and catch it again this weekend. It's funny, I spotted the on of the E.T.s in the senate and shook it off, thinking Nah!! I feel vilified.