It’s been an entire month since it opened. Well, about a month. Anyway, I now feel that I have digested this film enough to review it. Of course, by now it’s already become a part of pop culture–witness the denigration of Jar Jar Binks–as well as a part of Star Wars lore, so I’m probably not looking at it entirely objectively. But I’ll do my best. This review, unlike several of my others, will not be a pseudo-professional review–given my enthusiasm for the subject matter, though, that would be nearly impossible anyway. But I digress–on to the review!
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is a (deep breath) good film. I will not lie; it is not a great film, nor is it anything like what I expected. That is both a good and a bad thing.
I was discussing this film with a friend online, and I believe I have hit upon the main dilemma that George Lucas faced and, ultimately, failed in solving. Lucas wanted to create a film for both the core group of Star Wars fans and the mass-market audience. Thus, he ends up pandering to both. Jar Jar Binks is not just in there for kids; he’s there to make the women who came with their obsessed boyfriends laugh. And I have first-hand evidence–a friend or two of mine–that he did his job, in that respect. The “Jar Jar Must Die”-style websites are the creation of diehard Star Wars fans, embittered by this shameless creation.
Jar Jar Binks was entirely computer-generated. This could have been an excellent opportunity to show how a realistic CGI character could take the leading role in a film–IF JJB had been cool. But he is decidely not so. However, he is at times amusing. Even I will admit that. This may actually be a greater achievement than a bad-ass CGI character.
But allow me to lay JJB aside. He is just one part of the problem. You’ve also got the stuff for the core group which the mass-market knows nothing about–for instance, the fact that Senator Palpatine becomes the Emperor of Return of the Jedi. Lines like “We’ll watch your career with great interest” (spoken by Palpatine to young Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader) fall entirely flat on the ears of anyone who hasn’t seen the previous trilogy. In that respect, this is almost definitely a film that must be watched after viewing the original trilogy.
But enough–down to the nitty gritty. The characters are not particularly well-developed; only Neeson’s Jedi Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, is given any kind of backstory–and that’s because he dies at the end of the film (I warned you there’d be spoilers!). This is Lucas’s only chance for characterization; Ben Kenobi, Queen Amidala, Senator Palpatine and, most importantly, Anakin Skywalker will be developed over the next few films. Luke, Leia and Han were similarly underdeveloped in the original film; only Ben Kenobi was given any characterization (Peter Cushing embedded some in Tarkin with his acting alone, but that’s somewhat different).
Now, the acting. Neeson does fine in most scenes, especially when acting with Ewan McGregor; however, if he’s ever in a film with CGI characters again, he’s going to need to work on his imagination. He never feels like he actually sees Jar Jar Binks. Ewan McGregor, on the other hand, does a marvelous job with Jar Jar, as does Natalie Portman. Portman’s performance is also wonderful, and seeing a young actor like her do so well makes Jake Lloyd’s acting seem even worse. I really, really hate to pick on a kid at all, but I simply wasn’t impressed with Lloyd’s performance in this movie.
However, all the actors–including Neeson–are upstaged by Ian McDarmid as the sinister Senator Palpatine. Darth Sidious aside, McDarmid seamlessly enters the science fiction world of Star Wars, and seems perfectly comfortable in his role. He’s devious, scheming and insincere–just as his character should be. He’s a pleasure to watch.
The plot: mediocre at best. Who is this Trade Federation? I’ve never heard the like mentioned in all of the Star Wars mythos. In terms of the Star Wars mythos as a hole, this film’s plot has no real significant elements except the fact that Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker meet, and Senator Palpatine becomes the Supreme Chancellor. The Gungans? Never heard of ’em in the original trilogy. Darth Sidious? Pretty obvious he’s just the Emperor. Darth Maul? Dead, dead, dead.
The effects, of course, are astounding. However, I’ve reached the point where I’m a bit jaded with computer graphics. This film, with a computer-generated aspect in almost every shot, actually rings a bit false to me. In the original films, those deserts, those arctic places, even those forests–none of it was CGI, and we got to see lots of it, close-up. Naboo looks gorgeous–in the CGI long-shots. But we never get a real good look at the landscape. And as good as the effects are, I can still tell that JJB, the battle droids and most of the pod-racing aliens are CGI.
I have to admit, this review isn’t as in-depth as I’d like to be, and it’s also a little more negative than I might have written. I may revise it at a future date, maybe after I see it again, because it’s been a while. In any event, it is a Star Wars film, and it’s still a lot of fun.
If anyone strongly disagrees with this review or any other review on this site, feel free to write in your own–I’ll post it under the same review.
—06/20/99
I planned to read A Midsummer Night’s Dream before I saw this film. Unfortunately, I got busy and was unable to do so. However, the plot is simplistic enough that one can tell where the film was taking risks or toying with Shakespeare’s play (though some would say that these are one and the same).
At any rate, the creators chose to set this adaptation in late 18th-century Italy–apparently just so the characters could ride bicycles. While the locations, including a castle and the Italian countryside, are often gorgeous, the majority of the film takes place in a grove that looks like it was left over from a 40’s Tarzan film. This grove is also dark and dank, and overall a rather uninteresting place to set a film. But that’s more a limitation of the script than the filmmaker’s vision.
The plot centers around four lovers. Demetrius (Christian Bale) wants to marry Hermia (Anna Friel) but she loves Lysander (Dominic West). But her father approves of Demetrius and not Lysander, so she is given the choice to marry Demetrius or die. Complicating matters is Helena (Calista Flockhart), who is infatuated with Demetrius and thus annoys him to no end. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away, and tell Helena their plan; Helena then tells Demetrius in hopes that he will abandon the hopeless Hermia and love her instead.
The four of them end up in this mystic grove, where Oberon (Rupert Everett) and his wife Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer) have apparently been hanging out since Roman times. Oberon, angry with his wife over the custody of their child, comes up with a concoction to make Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees–which turns out to be Nick Bottom (Kevin Kline), an aspiring actor turned into a half-donkey half-man creature by an amused Puck, a satyr and aid to Oberon, the latter of whom also decides to try and rectify the situation with the four lovers by sending the oft-confused Puck (you can just imagine the chaos that creates). Got all that?
For what is supposed to be a comedy focusing on the trials and tribulations of the four lovers, the biggest laughs in Midsummer come after the young’uns’ problems have been solved, when they’re at a play passing the time before they can all go to bed and make love. Nick Bottom, cured of his ass-ness, and his fellow actors put on a performance of Pyramus and Thisbe that is awesome in its amateurism.
With the exception of Kline, who gives a certain kind of romantic wistfulness to his Nick, and Pfeiffer, whose Titania has one excellent scene (the one in which she is introduced), none of the actors provide a particularly impressive performance. Of greatest interest is, of course, Calista Flockhart of Ally McBeal fame. Her performance as Helena is one of the better in the film, but still rather dull, in a very not-quite-ready-for-film manner. A pleasant surprise is found in Max Wright, best known for his work on the 80’s sitcom ALF. Wright plays a wry member of Bottom’s acting troop whose cigarette is in his mouth so often that at one point he pulls it out to repeat a line.
While the film is at times fun and definitely a good date film, it’s not much more than that. It’s a light bit of fluff, but perhaps that’s the way the Bard intended his comedies to be.
—06/20/99
Like the original film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is a fun romp that mocks 60’s pop culture and Bond films. While it recycles quite a few jokes from the original, there’s enough new material here–and enough fun in seeing the familiar characters–that Spy lives up to its only claim–to be not bigger, not better, but funnier than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace…and in some ways, more fun.
The story once again pits Austin (Mike Myers) against his arch-nemesis, the indefinably accented Dr. Evil (also Myers). After a ridiculous but amusing plot twist to rid Austin of his new bride, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley, in a game cameo), Austin is back on the case, this time tracking Dr. Evil back to 1969, where he has gone to swipe the frozen Austin’s “mojo” and thus render him powerless.
While the loss of his mojo doesn’t seem to affect Austin much (there’s really only one scene in which his lack of mojo figures prominently), he still has his hands full tracking down Dr. Evil, who’s residing in his “hollowed-out volcano.” Luckily CIA agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) is there to assist him. While Graham does a competent job as Austin’s sidekick (her intelligence upstages Austin’s, in the same way Penny on Inspector Gadget was the real reason Gadget always succeeded), she doesn’t mesh with Myers as well as Hurley did–and her American accent seems strangely out-of-place.
However, there are several new characters to spice things up. Before leaving the 90’s, Dr. Evil has himself cloned–but the clone is a mere 1/8 his size. He dubs this creation “Mini-Me” (Verne Troyer). A hilarious dwarf that gives off, as Dr. Evil puts it, “creepy Oompa-Loompa vibes,” Mini-Me is much funnier than the disgusting Fat Bastard (Myers yet again), a Scottish double-agent for Dr. Evil that weighs “a metric ton.” While Mini-Me’s vicious nature and flat-out creepiness, combined with Dr. Evil’s fatherly affection for the little monster, makes for some of the film’s best laughs, the toilet humor surrounding Fat Bastard is utterly sickening. Watch out for the “coffee scene.” There’s no need for it.
The film’s best laughs come from a wonderful scene, of a type not found in the first one, when Austin and Felicity are caught in a compromising silhouette. No, it’s not what you’re thinking–it’s much funnier than that. Other amusing scenes include Dr. Evil’s rendition of Will Smith’s “Just the Two of Us” to his precious tiny clone and Dr. Evil’s reaction to a sip of Austin’s mojo.
There are a few problems in the film. The most obvious is the lack of the fish-out-of-water theme from the first film; once Austin’s back in the 60’s, the film begins to drag a bit. There’s also too much of Dr. Evil–he definitely has more screen time than Austin, unlike the original film. This is unfortunate; a little Dr. Evil goes a long way. However, since Dr. Evil is vastly funnier and more interesting than Austin, his overuse is forgiveable.
The aforementioned toilet humor does go overboard too often. But it’s made up for by scenes like the silhouette.
Overall, the film is about as funny as the first one–it recycles some old jokes, but makes up for them with new ones. While the fish-out-of-water theme is lacking, the switch to a focus on Dr. Evil–it could almost be called “Dr. Evil: The Spy Who Came After Me”–creates some balance. But most importantly, it’s fun.
—06/20/99