My 1st year anniversary TPM review

Originally posted at my board. I have minor spoilers in here, so I expect that you've seen the film...

Now that I've had a year to think about this film, it's time to review it yet again. Although I own it on VHS I haven't seen it in that medium yet - in fact, I haven't seen the film at all since December, during the one-week re-release. So, from what I remember after thirteen or fourteen screenings at about six or seven different theatres across the city... here goes.

PROS

First, the look of the film. And I'm not just talking about the effects - I'm talking about how the effects were used in relation to the production design. This film is the ultimate in bringing a director's vision to the screen. At the mention of the word "imagination" when discussing the art of film, this will be the one that comes immediately to my mind. It is absolutely stunning how beautiful this film looks, and how entire worlds were created in such exquisite detail. The towering metropolis that envelops Coruscant shown in three different times of day - midday, evening and night? Absolutely spectacular work. The palace of Theed in Naboo immediately comes to mind as well, particularly the power generation chamber where the final duel takes place. The natural landscapes were also well done, particularly the canyons and crags of Tatooine in the pod race, which were undoubtedly photo-realistic.

On the technical side, the visual effects were absolutely brilliant. The best demonstration of this is obviously the pod race, probably the greatest FX sequence I have ever seen on any film. Better than the Tyrannosaur jeep chase in Jurassic Park, the shootout in the lobby in The Matrix, and the sinking of the Titanic in Titanic. It was absolutely fantastic, and the first time I saw it, it was quite literally a jaw-dropping edge-of-your-seat experience. Now I know where that expression comes from. Of course, that was not entirely due to visuals - it was also because of the wonderful sound editing, TPM being the first film ever to employ that new Dolby EX technology. This film is a technical marvel - I think the only justification that The Matrix shut it out for FX at the Oscars was because the blend was better than in TPM, although the latter is most certainly superior from a technical perspective.

The story itself was well-constructed. While TPM definitely does not stand alone as a film by itself (although not to the same extent as The Empire Strikes Back), it leaves just the right plot holes to be wrapped up in the next two episodes, and closes just the right portions of the storyline to keep things consistent. The political background obviously has many realistic parallels with past historical situations, from the rise of the Holy Roman Empire under Julius Caesar all the way to the debate of free trade that has been going on for the last decade or two. The amount of detail is magnificent.

The last fight scene is the best lightsaber duel of the Star Wars saga in terms of excitement, technique, and plain adrenaline, although in terms of actual dramatic and emotional value it pales in comparison to The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Darth Maul was a great fighter, a well-crafted tool of the enemy. That's right - he's not the enemy himself, he's the tool. I cannot believe how many people missed that point, and end up complaining about how little screen time he had.

The musical score is no Empire Strikes Back, but it's still wonderful. Like the art design of the film in general, it corresponds with the more free-flowing pre-Imperial feel of TPM in general as opposed to the military tone of the Classic Trilogy episodes. It is more lyrical, more melodic, and less fanfarish - and while that is a disadvantage in some places, it is a clear advantage in others.

I obviously can't write a review of TPM without revealing my opinion on Jar Jar Binks. I had no issues about him, really. The first few times I watched the film, he was fine so long as I passed him off as just another passing character. His dialect did not annoy me in the least, nor did his voice, nor even most of his over-the-top kid-friendly antics (except for a major exception to this, which I'll mention in the CONS section).

Finally, the screenplay itself. Personally, the screenplay is very good, minus a few lines here and there. Most of the problems with the lines were really problems with delivery, or to be more general, acting. I tend to judge a screenplay based on how witty and quotable it is. There are films where the screenplay is so incredibly brilliant, the film is almost worth memorizing for the purpose of public recital because every single line is penned with exquisiteness - Casablanca comes to mind. Then on the other end of the spectrum, there's films where you can quote them because the lines are memorable for their stupidity, and you can't help but blush and crack up every time you utter them - Titanic is a great example of this. The Phantom Menace is in the middle. The lines are for the most part very quotable without sounding silly. Unfortunately, there are several extremely annoying lines to put up with (Anakin's "Now this is podracing!" and just about everything Ric Olié, the Queen's pilot, says), and they balance out the good lines.

CONS

First of all, there just simply isn't enough blood in this film. I'm not saying there needs to be a whole lot of bloodshed... but having no bloodshed whatsoever was excessively kid-friendly, and is the one element that makes this film far less realistic than the blood, sweat and tears mentality of The Empire Strikes Back. Ironic, because this film is likely the most violent of all the Star Wars films! I mean, in all the other ones you didn't see guys impaled or sliced in half with lightsabers... yet you saw blood. Blood from minor injuries that stack up one by one. Cuts, gashes and bruises from all that sparking, flickering faulty equipment in that rustbucket X-Wing or snowspeeder or whatever.

As many may have noticed, the final space battle also sucked. It is the one part of TPM which is clearly and indisputably inferior to the standards of the Classic Trilogy in every way. Star Wars? More like Land Wars. Not only was the battle too short... but the difficulty of it did not match up to the task at hand, which was disabling all the battle droids on the planet. Sure, it's not blowing up the Death Star here, but this wasn't even a battle. It was a skirmish.

Speaking of which, the ground battle was not all that spectacular either. Out of all the computer graphics art in the entire film, it was probably the part that was the most fake-looking. The landscape, the sky background (those cartoonish clouds!) and the battle tanks themselves were not nearly textured in enough detail. And with this battle comes the most glaringly annoying scene in the entire movie, which is Jar Jar Binks actually managing to kill off some droids by acting like Ace Ventura or some other overly cartoonish, slapstick so-called hero. If I had one problem with Jar Jar, that was it. If I had one problem with this entire movie, that was it. The worst part in the entire Star Wars saga? No, that would be a stretch - I'd have to compare it to the battle on Jabba's sail barge in Return of the Jedi, where there was cheesy shot after cheesy shot. That's if you don't count the Special Edition, which added the absolutely intolerable scene with Jabba in the original Star Wars, the "Jedi Rocks" number in Return of the Jedi and several other blasphemic atrocities.

I had some other peeves with this film as well. The "come on, let's play balf" (that's right, "balf" not "ball" as some people have suggested) scene was terrible. Also, I could not stand the clichéd voicing of the battle droids in general. Why would they have to talk to each other? They're a collective conscience! Besides, if you can make droids like that, why stick to the all-too-synthetic and generally overused and bashed-to-death voice?

The acting was not terrible, but it was certainly not all that good. I am of course referring to Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Sure, he's a kid... and he acts like a kid... but that doesn't by itself excuse his all-too-realistic and underdramatic portrayal of the main character of the whole damn story. Maybe it's because we're purposely expected to think so low of him, so we can't imagine how he could possibly become the greatest and most memorable villain ever conceived, and his fall will be larger in scale when the next two episodes roll around.

The final lightsaber duel, as spectacular as it was, lacked emotional power. It was a fight for the sake of a fight, and had little to no symbolic value. Perhaps this was intentional, to show the audience that Darth Maul was a tool of the enemy, not the actual enemy himself. But all in all, this was a lightsaber duel for the sake of having a lightsaber duel. It does not mark any sort of development in plot or character as was done in all three of the Classic Trilogy films. Perhaps it was the lack of dialogue that caused this, or again, the fact that Maul was a pawn in the game.

OVERALL

This is a flawed film.

BUT HELL IF IT ISN'T ENTERTAINING! This is one of my favorite movies EVER simply because of the film-viewing experience. This film bewilders me with its sheer level of enjoyability. The look of the film amazes me. Its adrenaline (eg. pod race) is spectacular in scale.

Overall, I LOVE THIS FILM despite its various flaws. No, it's no Empire Strikes Back, which is easily the highest in quality out of all of the Star Wars films. But it was worth the thirteen theatrical viewings I gave it.

Naturally, I expect the next episode to be even better, and Episode III the best of them all.