Star Wars: Episode I---The Phantom Menace
Rating = B+
I thoroughly
watching this (I mean the literal “watching”). I'm not enough of an expert to
have been amazed by the special effects (although having a complete CG
character was pretty impressive). However, throughout I smiled and sometimes
laughed out loud in delight at everything that was going on visually on the
screen.
Overall it was fun!
The acting was not particularly more stilted than in the earlier films,
although there was no one with the exhuberance of Hans and the Princess in
Episode 4, and the new Jedi's don't have the presence of Alex Guiness (who
could?). The level of character development is at about that of a superman
film — good enough for the genre.
The plot is no worse than in Episodes 5 and 6. In my view none
since Episode 4 have had the childlike simplicity that makes you
not really care about it and just follow the characters.
Jar Jar Binks and his kind have been accused of talking baby talk
by some critics. Actually it is a sort of creole, which anoying
because it's hard to understand. However the “people” of this
species have a cool strut to their walk (which further suggests
that Lucas's eye and ear were influenced by creole speaking
“black dudes”).
The movie is in the genre of the old Saturday matinee serials — realized with
\$100M of the most modern computer imaging and sound.
The Williams score does a good job of supporting the movie.
[1999-05-30]