Minority Report
The Phantom Menace: Better Than Bad
TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 11:52 AM
Star Wars has become the first movie to earn $100 million in its first five days at the box office. A remarkable feat, sure, but considerably less so when one takes into account the millions spent on various cross-promotional advertising schemes. Mr. Lucas' penetration of the market has reached John Holmes proportions, aided and abetted at every point by the media, which has spent the past two decades trying to concoct a villain on the level of Darth Vader. The media, it seems, exists to create hype, to perpetuate hype, and to report on hype with starry-eyed glee, feigning a reactionary stance to the exclusion of all salient facts. Granted, a rush of pro-SW sentiment could probably be expected whether the media reports on it or not, and this country certainly has no shortage of pathetic losers willing to spend weeks in line for a movie that will be available for our consumption for the rest of human existence (or lack thereof). But the media's role in all this is to take what would otherwise be a highly anticipated movie and elevate it to hysterical proportions, thus saving Lucas untold millions through free advertising. If he has any gratitude, he should set up a multiplex in Tirana so the displaced Kosovars can have a first-hand glimpse at that which is more important than they.
On its own merits, the movie is pretty good, if my opinion matters. It does, but only in a collective sense, in the sense that it matters only because everyone else feels the same way. A few critics and fans have alleged a lack of action, but it has about as much, time-wise, as the others. They're not as epic as the two rebel attacks on Death Star 1 & 2, or the Vader/Luke confrontations, for example, but more attention is given to plot development. This movie is set thirty years before the first one, so there's plenty of explication to be done, which is the point of a prequel.
Some complain that the Darth Maul/Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-wan Kenobi three-way dance doesn't end in sufficiently dramatic fashion, but it's no less infuriating than Vader's vanquishment of Kenobi in episode 4. It also stands as key to the series' plot progression by setting up the Kenobi/Skywalker angle, as well as alluding to a Jedi trick done by Luke (slightly modified) in Return of the Jedi. The choreography is very good, due primarily to the efforts of whomever plays lead heavy Darth Maul. He wields his double-sided lightsaber like a jo stick, and the toy will be held in more adolescent hands this summer than Michael Jackson's specked cock. All told, these Jedis and Siths kill more people by hand than any other incarnations, though the victims are usually droids. The podracing sequence clearly establishes the source of the Skywalkers' aerial prowess. The desert course is laid out rather like the bowels of the ever-present bad-guy monolithic space station. Obviously, the Empire's problem with structural intergrity lies in their recycling of blueprints. And The Phantom Menace has an open field, Civil War-style battle in which the digital sidekick Jar-Jar Binks is finally able to do something other than jabber like Jesse Camp with a belly full of gin.
The actors did well, especially considering that most of the sets and characters are animated. Jake Lloyd's work is the best I've seen from a child since The Bad Seed. Like the female lead, Lloyd displays prodigious talent at a very young age, younger in fact. Unless puberty turns him into a troll or he gets a taste for nose candy, he'll be a stud. Natalie Portman is enthralling no matter what she does. It's a credit to her dramatic dexterity that she can elicit an equally sympathetic on-screen rapport with Jean Reno, Timothy Hutton, and a computer-generated fascist reptilian. For all the hoopla over Princess Amidala's wardrobe and makeup, it should be noted that she looks no less attractive in, ahem, casual attire. (Phrased to spare you from one of the hidden twists mentioned below.) And she handles a pistol better than William Burroughs, which isn't really that hard. The Jedi team of Liam Neeson (who previously starred in several things) and Ewan McGregor (something else, including Trainspotting) are much better than credit is alotted for. Samuel L. Jackson plays Mace Windu, a member of the Jedi Council whose name is not mentioned and who barely appears at all. But his eyes speak volumes. Chapters, anyway. It's the kind of role that Scorsese would give his mom, bless her soul, but GL promises expansion of the Windu character in future installments.
As to be expected, there are plenty of plot twists. Many have been given away by the press well in advance, but they are the more obvious ones, such as that Senator Palpatine is destined to be the high-voltage emperor. But the more salient points are yet to be dealt with, such as what turns young Anakin to the Dark Side. I'd assume that to be somehow congruent with the demise of Queen Amidala. But that's not to be revealed until the summer of 2002, by which time the marks will have earned enough vacation time at the comic-book store to wait in line for tickets.
Shelton Hull (aka Archibald Bobo) has been writing professionally since 1995. He also does the column "Money Jungle" for FolioWeekly (Jacksonville). His work has appeared in places like Section 8 Magazine, Movement, CounterPunch, Lew Rockwell.com and the Florida Times-Union. He was a 2002 Fellow at the Academy of Alternative Journalism, AAN/Northwestern University. He works for himself.
