Star Wars 1 - not that bad actually...
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Why was everyone so pissed off about the latest Star Wars film? As far as I could gather a lot of fans slated it for poor acting, a poor storyline and being seemingly aimed at kids.
Well first of all I am 19 and some of my earliest memories are of playing with Star Wars toys and having to go out of the room when that scene in the first Star Wars in which R2D2 gets zapped came on because I was scared of the Jawas. I am not a complete expert. I could not tell you what the name of the caterers who worked on The Empire Strikes Back were. I think I could probably quote most of the first three films line by line because I spent many hours watching them as a kid. It was a very effective method of keeping me quiet according to my mum. Basically I am a great fan, but not an authority on the whole Star Wars phenonmenon.
The first point mentioned above was the bad acting, particularly that of Natalie Portman, that kid who played Anakin (Jake Lloyd?) and, to some extent, Ewan McGregor. I must admit that I found the scene when Queen Amadala begging the Gungans for help almost painful to watch. There is no denying that it was not a classic performance by her or the young Darth Vader. But did it spoil the film? Neither of them were consistrently bad throughout - I thought the scene where the two first meet in the workshop was quite charming in its own way. The performances of Liam Neeson and the bloke who played Senator Palpatine were very good and, in my opinion, more than made up for the other acting shortcomings. Finally on this point if we cast our minds back to Star Wars - A New Hope, I can remember being distncly unimpressed, even at an early age (I come from an acting family) by the performance of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker. I thought he was very wooden in several scenes, as was Carrie Fisher. Both of them got better in the next two films.
On the subject of a poor storyline, I think people missed the point slightly. This film is supposed to be an introduction to the series. What was required was a film which would introduce us to key characters, the beginnigs of corruption in the Old Republic and the notion of the dark side of the force beginning to rise. This film does that satisfactorally. I firmly believe that after the next two films are released and the depth of the characters and overall plot are expounded then people will enjoy Episode 1 a lot more. It was never intended to be a stand alone film and leaves too many loose strings to be considered as one. There are flaws in the plot and it probably could have been done a bit better I will admit that. There is too much going on at the end of the film with 4 different action sequences. Return Of the Jedi managed to get away with 3 only because the plot had been building up to them throughout the trilogy. Another minor point that annoyed me was that the two jedi seemed to get their lightsabres out everytime someone so much as sneezed at them - it had the effect of reducing the 'specialness' of the fight scenes somehow. But all this leads nicely onto my final point...
...was it aimed predominantly at kids? Perhaps a better question to ask is 'was it aimed at kids more than the first films were?'. In the case of the Empire Strikes Back then I think probably it was. I remeber that I always used to get a bit bored at Empire when I was a kid - the scenes with Yoda seemed to drag on a bit and there was only one really good battle on Hoth at the beginning. But now I am older I appreciate that film more. However, in the case of Star Wars and Return Of The Jedi, I loved them when I was younger, as I love them now. Episode 1, like it or not, follows more or less the same formula as Jedi. I think what made it (episode 1) seem to be aimed at a younger audience was its relatively simple plot (but as I mentioed above in an introductory film a complicated plot is not necessary) and its bright and much-used special effects. The technology has come a long way since the first film was made and consequently the film is more colourful and fantastical. It also means that characters such as Jar Jar Binks can be created (more on him later). The point is that if George Lucas had made Star Wars A New Hope today instead of over twenty years ago, it would have looked like episode 1! Why do you think they re-released the original films with added computer tecnology? Because with technology available at the time Lucas could not produce his definative vision. With Episode 1 he could. And if you are still unconvinced then sit there and try and tell me that you did not feel a sort of nostalgic excitement the first time you saw the two jedi ignite their lightsabres, or that the stunning special effects of the pod race didn't have you on the edge of your seat, or that the atonishing choreography of the final battle with Darth Maul didn't make you pick up a stick on the way home from the cinema and start swinging it around making that 'whummm' noise with your mouth.
A more cynical argument would be that Lucas DID make a kids film because he knew that no matter how many reviews slated it, the old fans would go and see it anyway, and he needed to appeal to as many people as possible in order to ensure the longevity of the series' success. But I don't agree with that because I went to see The Phantom Menace three times and I loved it.
In conclusion, the trouble is that the wait for the film has been so long and so fervent was the anticipation (people even queued to see the TRAILER for God's sake), that it was never ever going to fully plese the long term fans. I would urge those of you that remain unconvinced to be patient, wait for the next two films and THEN decide if The Phantom Menace really was that bad after all.
Oh - Jar Jar Binks. You've got me there. I can think of no possible excuses for him.
Well first of all I am 19 and some of my earliest memories are of playing with Star Wars toys and having to go out of the room when that scene in the first Star Wars in which R2D2 gets zapped came on because I was scared of the Jawas. I am not a complete expert. I could not tell you what the name of the caterers who worked on The Empire Strikes Back were. I think I could probably quote most of the first three films line by line because I spent many hours watching them as a kid. It was a very effective method of keeping me quiet according to my mum. Basically I am a great fan, but not an authority on the whole Star Wars phenonmenon.
The first point mentioned above was the bad acting, particularly that of Natalie Portman, that kid who played Anakin (Jake Lloyd?) and, to some extent, Ewan McGregor. I must admit that I found the scene when Queen Amadala begging the Gungans for help almost painful to watch. There is no denying that it was not a classic performance by her or the young Darth Vader. But did it spoil the film? Neither of them were consistrently bad throughout - I thought the scene where the two first meet in the workshop was quite charming in its own way. The performances of Liam Neeson and the bloke who played Senator Palpatine were very good and, in my opinion, more than made up for the other acting shortcomings. Finally on this point if we cast our minds back to Star Wars - A New Hope, I can remember being distncly unimpressed, even at an early age (I come from an acting family) by the performance of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker. I thought he was very wooden in several scenes, as was Carrie Fisher. Both of them got better in the next two films.
On the subject of a poor storyline, I think people missed the point slightly. This film is supposed to be an introduction to the series. What was required was a film which would introduce us to key characters, the beginnigs of corruption in the Old Republic and the notion of the dark side of the force beginning to rise. This film does that satisfactorally. I firmly believe that after the next two films are released and the depth of the characters and overall plot are expounded then people will enjoy Episode 1 a lot more. It was never intended to be a stand alone film and leaves too many loose strings to be considered as one. There are flaws in the plot and it probably could have been done a bit better I will admit that. There is too much going on at the end of the film with 4 different action sequences. Return Of the Jedi managed to get away with 3 only because the plot had been building up to them throughout the trilogy. Another minor point that annoyed me was that the two jedi seemed to get their lightsabres out everytime someone so much as sneezed at them - it had the effect of reducing the 'specialness' of the fight scenes somehow. But all this leads nicely onto my final point...
...was it aimed predominantly at kids? Perhaps a better question to ask is 'was it aimed at kids more than the first films were?'. In the case of the Empire Strikes Back then I think probably it was. I remeber that I always used to get a bit bored at Empire when I was a kid - the scenes with Yoda seemed to drag on a bit and there was only one really good battle on Hoth at the beginning. But now I am older I appreciate that film more. However, in the case of Star Wars and Return Of The Jedi, I loved them when I was younger, as I love them now. Episode 1, like it or not, follows more or less the same formula as Jedi. I think what made it (episode 1) seem to be aimed at a younger audience was its relatively simple plot (but as I mentioed above in an introductory film a complicated plot is not necessary) and its bright and much-used special effects. The technology has come a long way since the first film was made and consequently the film is more colourful and fantastical. It also means that characters such as Jar Jar Binks can be created (more on him later). The point is that if George Lucas had made Star Wars A New Hope today instead of over twenty years ago, it would have looked like episode 1! Why do you think they re-released the original films with added computer tecnology? Because with technology available at the time Lucas could not produce his definative vision. With Episode 1 he could. And if you are still unconvinced then sit there and try and tell me that you did not feel a sort of nostalgic excitement the first time you saw the two jedi ignite their lightsabres, or that the stunning special effects of the pod race didn't have you on the edge of your seat, or that the atonishing choreography of the final battle with Darth Maul didn't make you pick up a stick on the way home from the cinema and start swinging it around making that 'whummm' noise with your mouth.
A more cynical argument would be that Lucas DID make a kids film because he knew that no matter how many reviews slated it, the old fans would go and see it anyway, and he needed to appeal to as many people as possible in order to ensure the longevity of the series' success. But I don't agree with that because I went to see The Phantom Menace three times and I loved it.
In conclusion, the trouble is that the wait for the film has been so long and so fervent was the anticipation (people even queued to see the TRAILER for God's sake), that it was never ever going to fully plese the long term fans. I would urge those of you that remain unconvinced to be patient, wait for the next two films and THEN decide if The Phantom Menace really was that bad after all.
Oh - Jar Jar Binks. You've got me there. I can think of no possible excuses for him.
