Well, I recently spent a lot of time sleeping and dozing, but in between all that excitement I managed to squeeze in a viewing of the Prequel of all Prequels. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. It's been a little over nine years since its theatrical release and the prequel experiment as a whole has been widely panned (especially by me.) I thought I'd write up a few of my thoughts now that I'm a little older and have been exposed to the true spiritual sequel to Star Wars (the Firefly/Serenity franchise.)
The Good
Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor deliver solid acting even with stilted dialogue. I enjoyed pretty much every scene that had the two of them on screen. Liam was saddled with too many scenes talking to a ten year old, but more on that in the Bad section.
The special effects still hold up. I may be in the minority of old-school Star Wars fans, but I love the yellow Nubian fighters. I also thought the Gungan city looked great and that Coruscant was pretty cool (wow, Asimov how does that "entire planet is one city" feel?). Lots of life everywhere unlike in the previous movies (not counting the special editions.)
The lightsaber duels and Jedi fighting are fantastic. Certainly, when I walked out of the theater for the first time after seeing this movie, that was one of the parts that stood out the most. No more swing, pause, swing, exchange sneers, pause, swing. Nope, this was more like sword fighting with some Eastern martial arts theatricality thrown in. Definitely the best part of the prequel trilogy was seeing Jedis doing cool things with the Force.
I'm also not afraid to admit that I love the battle droids. I love their voices. I love their awkward movement. I love the interchange when Qui-Gon Jin tells the "sergeant" guarding the "Queen's" ship that they are leaving for Coruscant.
I love the fight scenes in general. The Gungan's odd little EMP catapults and shields tickle my fancy. The big tanks recoiling after firing a huge laser blast are great. The classic blaster fight in the palace could have been ripped out of the original trilogy.
Finally, if the whole movie had been as good as the trailer, this would have been one for the ages.
The Bad
The racial stereotypes are no good. I'm sure they're pulled straight out of Lucas' childhood memories, but they don't really help the movie. Maybe I'd appreciate them more if I were Michael Scott.
The Midichlorians scene. Pain still too fresh.
The fourteen year old "elected" queen. I was struck by how meaningless Natalie Portman's character really is in the trilogy. Sure, Anakin's obsession with her led him to the Dark Side (ugh, this is definitely not a review of Ep 3) but he could have knocked up some two-bit whore on Coruscant and obsessed over her and it would have had the same effect. Just a terrible decision on Lucas' part. If you're going to try to convince me that any kind of people would elect a teenager to lead them, then maybe you should go to the trouble to tell me that there's something special about that character. Really, all she seems to be is a pretty face plastered on a plot device.
Anakin being ten (and in ep 2 the baby Jedi). Really? Your awesome Jedi Knights, protectors of light, virtue, awesomeness, and the Republic go around stealing toddlers from their parents based on blood tests? Wow. Every scene with Anakin would have worked much better if he'd been about five years older. A surly ten year old building his own robots and pod racers is just dumb.
And on the subject of Anakin, why is he the ONLY character in the whole Star Wars universe who doesn't reply to Huttese in English? Seriously, subtitles? Is this a kids movie or a foreign film? Make up your mind Lucas. One of the coolest parts in the original series was watching Han and Chewbacca shout at each other while only having Han's side of the argument be intelligible. "Laugh it up fuzzball."
If Anakin had been older it would have made his "accidental" destruction of the droid control ship a little more palatable too. I could have done without the Nickolodeon screaming as he weaved in and out of what was supposed to be a deadly combat zone. The Nubian fighters are dying all around him and he's screaming "Whee!" In what filmmaking school do they teach that?
One last thing on Anakin. I don't blame the actor Jake Lloyd. He did just fine. I've met kids that behave and talk with the same mannerisms. It's not his fault the role was crappy and the dialogue worse.
The much maligned Jar Jar Binks. Well, I'll go ahead and say that minus the Jamaican/two year old speech and a few pop cultural references ("exqueeze me?") he would have been a fine addition to the C3PO school of bumbling morons. He has a couple of moments I laughed at, but he really needed a new voice and a complete rewrite of all his dialogue.
In summary, I'm going out on a limb to say that if George Lucas had brought in the folks that helped clean up episode 3 for episode 1, a lot of these mistakes could have been averted and we might have had a really great prequel trilogy. Honestly, the skeleton is there, even in this movie, for a great story, but he didn't, so The Phantom Menace will never be more than a so-so kids movie.