In the run up to the release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Joe Richards will be looking back at the series. This week he focuses on the infamous prequel The Phantom Menace.
One of the biggest questions about the Star Wars series has always been why its creator, George Lucas, decided to make episodes 1-3 after episodes 4-6. The most believable story, out of the many, is that Lucas never intended to make six films in the first place, with the appearance of Episode IV only appearing before A New Hope in its 1978 re-release, after it proved so successful the first time around.
Lucas himself would have you believe that he’d always intended to make the trilogy of prequels, but only at a time when the technology would be available for him to successfully bring his ideas to life. Whilst probably untrue, I like to believe this is the case because it plays so perfectly into my little conspiracy theory about the films.
I like to think that Lucas did in fact plan each chapter in the Star Wars saga way back in the seventies, and in doing so knew full well that the beginning of the story was so weak, that he was better making the latter part first. Let’s face it, were it not for the original trilogy of films and their success, The Phantom Menace would not have been made – unless, perhaps Lucas had approached the Syfy channel and done them a good deal.
Each time I revisit Star Wars, I always think to myself that the first episode in the series can’t be as bad as I remember it. It always is. It’s a film which has been so widely maligned by fans and non-fans alike, which truly deserves every bit of criticism that’s thrown at it; a disaster on the largest scale possible.
Ironically, it’s Lucas himself who is to blame for the failure of the movie. There’s no denying his talent when it comes to thinking of stories, without which we wouldn’t have the likes of Indiana Jones and the original Star Wars films; but, when it comes to directing and writing, things begin to get a little sketchy.
He has of course directed and written a couple of good films – namely American Graffiti and A New Hope, but there’s a reason why his list of films is nowhere near as long as his good friend Steven Spielberg – he’s just not that good. Is it a coincidence that the very best Star Wars films actually have very little involvement from Lucas, other than a story credit? Of course not. Even the story in The Phantom Menace is quite solid – it’s just a shame about everything else.
A lot of people’s gripes with the prequels are Lucas’ overuse of CGI, which, compared to the practical effects from the previous movies, makes Episode I feel like it lacks soul and imagination. I actually don’t have too much of an issue in this respect, and despite the film looking like a big budget video game, I think it’s glossy effects are the least of its problems.
The first thing you notice about The Phantom Menace, is just how bad the acting is. The humans can’t act, the aliens can’t act and the droids can’t act – but then I suppose the droids have an excuse, being robots and everything. Liam Neeson looks either depressed and confused for the majority of the time – apparently he signed on without even reading the script. I can only imagine his shock.
Ewan McGregor is the only one who puts in a half decent performance, and is shamefully underused in this installment. The least that’s said about Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker, the better; although, as we now know, things were going to get a lot worse in that respect.
Then we come onto Jar Jar Binks, who is quite easily the most annoying creation to have ever graced cinema. I can sort of see what George Lucas was trying to achieve with the character – a bit of comic relief to lighten up the whole thing – but his inclusion in the film was a colossal mistake.
From the very moment you see him on screen, you can’t help but feel immediately irritated. He’s like the alien version of Mr Bean, only Binks is less funny and not as charismatic.
What’s made worse is that in the few interesting scenes that there are in the film, Lucas will have him in the background doing something annoying like yelling “esqueeze me” or slurping up apples with his tongue. He totally ruins every scene he’s in and makes the film a million times worse than it could have been.
The fact that Jar Jar gets a lot more screen time than Darth Maul – the villain of the movie that shows up way too late, only to be pretty much killed off immediately – proves just how wrong Lucas got The Phantom Menace. What was he thinking?
The only reason I can see why Binks would be included so much in the film, is that it was a last ditch effort to make Episode I entertaining. After all, for the most part, The Phantom Menace is utterly boring.
Yes, it isn’t all bad, and the film’s final twenty minutes or so are fantastic – aided largely by John Williams’ wonderful score. It’s just a shame that The Phantom Menace didn’t just consist of the final act, and that the first two thirds were such a mess.
You can tell that even Lucas knows how boring The Phantom Menace is, by all the whooping and cheering he has his actors do throughout the thing. It’s a blatant attempt to fool us as into thinking the film really is fun – because if the actors are enjoying themselves, it must be fun, right?
Seriously, next time you put yourself through this travesty, look out for just how often somebody excitedly yells “yippee” or “wow” at the most mundane of actions, like being lifted into a pod racer. It’s shocking. And that, in a word, describes Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Shocking.
Is is the worst film ever made? No, but it is the worst Star Wars film that’s ever been made. Each of the prequels is problematic in their own ways, but this first episode is on a whole other level of awfulness that will taint the Star Wars brand forever.
words JOE RICHARDS