Essentially the prequels serve as the story of how Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader back dropped to the fall of the Galactic Empire. The Phantom Menace refers to Senator Palpatine and his shadowy plans that will come into fruition in later films to bring the Galactic Empire as the totalitarian ruler of the galaxy. One of the biggest problems with this film is that is has nothing to do with the overall arc of the prequels and merely served as a device for George Lucas to delve into a filmmaking area that he adores… special effects.
Jake as Anakin Skywalker is also a horrible casting. Every line he delivers is so forced, his face scrunches up as if he is concentrating so hard on the script in his mind its painful. Anakin should have been at least 3-4 years older, early teens, quite a strange kid. But Anakin is a fun loving, tech nerd that loves to make robots. How is this kid honestly going to be one of (maybe THE) most evil Sith Lord of all time?
Pod racing is really not as cool as I remember. C3PO and R2D2 seems so overbearingly sandwiched into the film as if to say, hey this is Star Wars! Jar Jar Binks is absolutely ridiculously retarded (“How woo’d!”) and his antics really do detract from the experience. Actually, the whole Gun Gan race is horrific. Why didn’t George Lucas show the Calimari home planet? It would have been a very simple swap, added a level of integrity and interest to a race that is held in high esteem amongst Star Wars fans.
Overall, this is a fun film and actually turned out to be much better than I seem to remember it being However, there are so many problems that I feel as though the prequels only truly start at the beginning the Attack of the Clones. Part 2 coming soon...
Rating: 3.5/5
