Back To Special Features
The entire Master Gamer staff went and saw The Phantom Menace, and now we're back with an individual review from each of us. Of course, what we're reviewing here isn't a video game, but who cares? It's Star Wars! Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace Review By Contributing Writer Rob Pecknold Rating: Awesome The lines were long, the fans were obsessive, and the nerds were plentiful. All of these factors could've prevented me from going see The Phantom Menace. COULD’VE is the key word here. But, fear not, I DID see the movie, and here is the review to back it up. My experience seeing Episode I was very similar to my experience trying to play Racer at Toys R Us. Yes, I had my nerd whip in hand, and one after one, the Jedi Robe-clad Warshippers fell to my feet. The line was ludricrous. I mean wrapped-around-the-theater-two-and-a-half-times ludricrous. But finally, after about two hours in line, they let me into the theater for the 5:00 showing of The Phantom Menace. I will beat around the bush no longer. The film doesn’t live up to the hype. But there was no way it could have. Here's an example: My local newspaper gave the film two stars, yet in the same issue they had an eight- page Star Wars newspaper spoof called the "Star Times." Gimme a break. They ridicule the same hype that they themselves are adding to! But onto the film. As I said, it doesn’t live up to the hype. But that doesn’t mean it's a disappointing movie, and nothing could be further from the truth. The film sets new standards in imaginative film making and in visual effects (there are entire scenes with only computer-generated characters in them). And while the majority of the characters are interesting, the acting is merely adequate. I'm sorry, but Jake Lloyd, the little Anakin Skywalker who we all know will become Darth Vader, couldn’t act his way out of an open X-Wing. I don’t think its appropriate for a future Sith Lord to be exclaiming "Yippee!" Also, an emotional scene between Anakin and his mother is completely ruined by bad acting and tinny dialogue. Episode 1 basically tells the story of how Jedi masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn come across young Anakin Skywalker, and how Senator Palpatine becomes the actual Chancellor of the Galactic Senate. Of course, the sub-plot is something about trade blockades and the planet of Naboo not signing a treaty, but in the end that is the most boring part of the film. There isn’t much story there, but what is there has the amazing visuals to back it up. Even though the story is fairly weak, it isn’t a big problem. The majority of my complaints stop at Lloyd. The rest of the film is beautifully choreographed, with beautiful sets and props filling the screen. The most breathtaking moments of the film are the ones that most replicate the first Star Wars Trilogy, such as the pod race scene and the final lightsaber battle between Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), Obi-Wan Kenobi (the hugely talented, but wasted in this film Ewan McGregor), and Darth Maul (the menacing Ray Park). This battle is obviously the climax of the film, and I would have it no other way. The scene has a huge amount of production values, as does the pod race. It is obvious what George Lucas was looking for in this film: a beginning to the Star Wars saga. The critics and fans who say that the story of Episode I could’ve been told in 20 minutes as the opening scene of Episode II are dead wrong. The pacing of the film successfully sets up the entire saga, but it does a mediocre job of forshadowing the events that come about in Episodes IV-VI. But in the end, it is a Star Wars film. It has more breathtaking moments than every film in the last year combined, and has set new benchmarks in visual effects and computer-generated acting. Episode I is one of those rare movies that gets better over time. The more times I watched it, the more I could ignore the sometimes weak dialogue and bad acting from Jake Lloyd, and look at the movie as a whole. The Phantom Menace is a film for the ages. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne Rating: Awesome There was never a doubt in my mind that Star Wars: Episode I would be completely awe-inspiring. The question was whether or not it could live up to the hype. Well, the answer is no, but in reality nothing can live up to the magnitude of hype it created. Still, The Phantom Menace is completely phenomenal and is going to get more than one visit from me in the movie theater. There are some downsides that everyone is talking about concerning the movie. However, when I evaluated them carefully, they were all counter- acted by positive things. For instance, some are complaining about Jar Jar Bink’s voice. Sure, he’s hard to understand, but I could understand most of what he was saying. It really didn’t matter if you couldn’t understand him anyway because he didn’t have many important lines. Another complaint was the great amount of dialogue described as a "boring part" right smack dab in the middle of the movie. Well, I figure this is much better than what most summer movies offer: crappy scripts mixed in with action scene after action scene which are basically pointless. Even if there were some slow points in the movie, you are well rewarded when such scenes as the pod racing and the light-saber battles commence. And believe me, the last 45 minutes of the movie make it all worthwhile. The last huge complaint I’ve been hearing is the poor acting. This was directed mainly towards Jake Lloyd, who plays Anakin Skywalker in the film. Give the kid a break, he’s only just going into middle school from what I hear, and he does a better job than what most young actors could do. I do have to take the side of the critics, though, when they say he needed to show more of an alter ego to show that he would one day become the dark lord known as Darth Vader. Oh well, maybe that was too much to ask. But this was the first and last Star Wars movie for Jake Lloyd. My one and only complaint about The Phantom Menace were the backgrounds. Blue screens (or green screens, I think they used both) were used entirely too much in this movie. There were points in the film that my eyes actually traveled directly to the background because they were so obviously fake. Did Lucas forget about movie sets or what? Whatever he did wrong with this movie, the backdrops were number one on my list. Once again, The Phantom Menace is great fun and a must-see movie... period. I talked mostly about negative things in this review, but to tell you about all the awesome things would be spoiling the movie (and it’s too good to spoil). The movie isn’t perfect, but if it were then there would be nothing to look forward to in the next two installments. I fear that the movie will lose a lot of its effect once brought to video so I strongly recommend seeing The Phantom Menace in a movie theater. So close your web browser (but read Ivan's review first...) and go to the movie theater right now, and may the Force be with you. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Review By Editor in Chief Ivan Trembow Rating: Awesome After the massive hype for The Phantom Menace, movie critic after movie critic began to denounce the movie, saying that it's disappointing and it doesn't live up to the standard set by the original Star Wars Trilogy. After watching the movie for myself, I'm in agreement with the hype on this one: The Phantom Menace is an incredible movie from start to glorious finish. Before I praise the vast amounts of things there are to praise, I'm going to nitpick about the small amount of things there are to nitpick about. First of all, the classic Star Wars theme music doesn't play anywhere near as often as it should. The many new music tracks in The Phantom Menace are very good in their own right, but they aren't as catchy and they can't stack up to the original tune. While Jake Lloyd did a decent job as Anakin Skywalker, the sight of little "Annie" jumping around saying "Yipeee!" doesn't conjure up memories of the dark and foreboding Darth Vader. One of the biggest annoyances in the movie intially was Jar Jar Binks, the clumsy gungan who talks like a Rastafarian and is always getting into some sort of trouble. Jar Jar seems to have been thrown in by George Lucas as something to keep the kiddies happy, and he seems very out of place in the midst of an epic struggle in the Star Wars universe. However, there were many points in the movie that Jar Jar admittedly made me laugh, and he grew on me as the movie went on. Jar Jar and his fellow gungans are sort of like Return of the Jedi's Ewoks in a way, but it's much more believable in The Phantom Menace. The gungans serve as much more of a decoy than the destructive force that the Ewoks were in Return of the Jedi. The battle droids in The Phantom Menace make the Ewok-fearing stormtroopers of previous Star Wars movies look tough in comparison. The battle droids are complete and total wusses from the beginning of the movie, and they should have at least had the battle droids kill something early on in the movie to establish that they really are tough. This would have added some tension to some otherwise dull and predictable battle-droid- getting-their-butts-whipped scenes. One last complaint before I start heaping on the praise: the pod racing sequence was too long, and it was more of a headache-inducer than it was an intense action scene. The movie as a whole was way too loud, although that can be said of most movies these days. The first thing that stood out in my mind about the movie is its incredible visuals. There were many individual things (and complete scenes) in the movie that made me stop for a moment and think, "Holy s---! Look at that!" The attention to detail in every single scene is inhuman, and it makes me understand why the movie was over 15 years in the making. The fact that we take all of the sensational special effects and gorgeous visuals for granted in a Star Wars movie is a testament to the talent of George Lucas and everybody who works for him. And as awe-inspiring as the visuals are, The Phantom Menace is by no means a shallow movie with nothing but eye candy. The rest of the movie rocks, too. The movie does a great job of laying the groundwork for the future, but it was much more limited in scope than the previous Star Wars movie, with much of the movie revolving around the fate of a single planet. For the purposes of comparison, a few measly seconds were dedicated to the destruction of an entire planet and all of its inhabitants in the original Star Wars. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a major difference from previous Star Wars movies. The Phantom Menace left me feeling very excited about Episodes II and III, and it raised some very interesting questions that I can't wait to have answered. What happens between Obi-Wan and Anakin? How does Anakin end up going to the dark side of the Force? How are all the Jedi except Yoda and Obi-Wan killed? How is the Republic overthrown? Thankfully, the action is still fast, furious, and plentiful. It was nice to see such characters as R2, CPO, and Jabba the Hut back. Darth Maul is a much better bad guy in The Phantom Menace than Darth Vader was in the original Star Wars Trilogy. The stars of the film are talented actors without being too "Hollywood" for Star Wars. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor do good jobs filling the roles of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, repsectively, and the very attractive Natalie Portman is great as Queen Amidala. Ultimately, I think that the movie does the impossible and lives up to the hype. The only thing that supports the claim of some people that it is a dumbed-down kid's movie are Jar Jar's antics, and even Jar Jar isn't really that annoying by the end of the film. So do yourself a favor and go see Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It will be the best movie you see for a long, long time. So, the entire Master Gamer staff rates The Phantom Menace "Awesome" Now let's take a look at how the staff rates the original Star Wars Trilogy: Star Wars Ivan: Awesome Rob: Awesome Jimmy: Awesome The Empire Strikes Back Ivan: Good (too depressing, but still a great movie) Rob: Awesome Jimmy: Good (way too many slow scenes and a weak ending, but still a worthy sequel) Return of the Jedi Ivan: Awesome Rob: Average (the Ewoks sucked and the dialogue in Return of the Jedi was the worst of the series) Jimmy: Awesome Add up the ratings and you'll find that the Master Gamer staff ranks the four Star Wars movies like this (in order from best to worst): The Phantom Menace, the original Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, and The Empire Strikes Back. In a completely unrelated note, the Master Gamer staff ranks the female Friends in this order (in order from hottest to least hot): Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow.
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com