As an avid Star Wars fan, I will always desperately want to love The Phantom Menace. Unfortunately, the Rolling Stones said it best: "You Can't Always Get What You Want." With the re-release of Episode I in 3-D, George Lucas' 1999 movie is back on our screens and is making the entire sci-fi community cringe yet again.
Despite some tantalizing action scenes and blossoming relationships for the romantics, any true Star Wars fan will be disappointed by the movie. The substance and sincerity of the original three 1970s installments - A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi - have disappeared. In their stead, Lucas created whimsically ignorant and annoying characters, including, but not limited to, the overwhelmingly awful Jar-Jar Binks (voiced by Ahmed Best), a Gungan who tags along with Anakin and his crew for most of the movie.
While the first installments focused on intriguing plot lines and well-developed characters, The Phantom Menace, a prequel to the original films, does not pick up until about halfway through the movie when Lucas steers us back to familiar Tatooine and as far away from the fairyland Naboo as possible. Episode I is also plagued by a number of one-dimensional characters who simply pop in and out of the plot as needed.
The movie redeems itself slightly with the appearance of a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), and fans' first look into the early life of Anakin (Jake Lloyd), who later becomes the reformed villain Darth Vader. This episode also offers enthusiastic five-year-old boys an enticing new villain, Darth Maul (Ray Park), but the more seasoned Star Wars experts will still be left desperately wishing for more Yoda and less Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman).
While The Phantom Menace is necessary to give background to the subsequent episodes, Lucas should have realized computerized mumbo-jumbo is not necessary for Star Wars movies. The first three films, made before the days of digital special effects, were low-tech at best, leaving viewers able to focus on the quirky and sarcastic Han Solo and the romantic and brave Luke Skywalker.
In creating Episode I, Lucas seemed so wrapped up in trying to upgrade Star Wars' special effects, the original magic got lost in translation. While the soundtrack is spot-on and Lucas develops a decent plot, the boring pod-race glitters with unrealistic special effects, and the pathetic drone war is only redeemed by the small acknowledgement of Queen Amidala's feminine power - a power few women have held in the Star Wars franchise.
While my love for Star Wars has not diminished much, it has dimmed in the pale light The Phantom Menace provides. I appreciate the fact Lucas is re-releasing the six episodes in their chronological order and in 3-D to give fans the full view of the story, but I honestly wish he had skipped the newest editions and gone straight to the original movies where the true magic of Star Wars shines through, captivating audiences everywhere.
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