Having seen Episode 1 for the fourth time, I now feel prepared to write down my thoughts on it. I am biased, of course: I knew I would love this movie years ago. Let me approach it in terms of a Star Wars experience and as a story in general. Let me try to discern what was going on in Lucas’ mind.
The story events worked very much like those in Return of the Jedi, but had the character development of A New Hope. The Jedi were sent to negotiate in order to rescue the Naboo from a dilemma just as Luke went to Jabba’s palace to negotiate Han’s release. Things go bad, but the good guys escape. It ends with a simultaneous land and space battle, both against overwhelming odds. The land battle is aided by a group of “primitives” after being convinced by the good guys’ diplomacy. The space battle is won by someone blowing up a focus of power, turning the tide of battle immediately. And, as we gradually discover, both the conflict in The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi are secretly orchestrated by Palpatine/Sidious to guarantee his domination of the galaxy.
As far as the characters go, we see the ensemble come together, but since this is the first film in the trilogy, we don’t see any great change happen to them by the end of the film. At the end of ANH, Han Solo is still the wily space pirate with a heart of gold. At the end of Jedi, however, he has become a deeper character. Anakin begins to follow a path he is destined to take, just as Luke does. Both have dreams of being a pilot and a Jedi. Both leave Tatooine after a break with a relationship, and both leave at the urging of a Jedi mentor. One path will lead to corruption and the other will eventually redeem that corruption. The parallels are intentional and genius.
TPM was visually superior to any of the other films. Amidst all of the computer animation and virtual sets, I was happy to see the restraint used in locales like Tatooine. Mos Espa looked pretty much like Mos Eisley in ANH.
Story-wise and character-wise, the film still falls behind Empire. I think that only Episode 3 (Fall of the Jedi?) will be a competitor to Empire. The exception is Qui-Gon Jinn. In my opinion, he is the strongest character I’ve seen in a Star Wars movie. His motivations are much more complex than anyone we’ve seen so far. But he is fated to die and pass the torch to a crew of unknowns, just as Kenobi is in ANH. By the end of the prequel trilogy we will have massive insight into Kenobi, but Qui-Gon will be forever out of our reach, which I find disappointing.
The film has been criticized for having a weak plot. But it was only after multiple viewings, much discussion with Dave, and much thinking that I even began to understand what was really going on. The Sith have been in hiding for one thousand years, passing their knowledge and secrets through a long line of masters and apprentices. At last they decide to take revenge upon the Jedi for destroying their order so long ago. The problem is, there are 10,000 Jedi and only two Sith. Sidious, aka the Phantom Menace, realizes that they may only win through guile and somehow amassing power enough to overwhelm the Jedi, but without the Jedi’s knowledge of this power.
Sidious, whether a native of Naboo or posing as a native, acts under his true name of Palpatine (the Sith change their name when entering the order) and becomes senator. Perhaps he helps Amidala become queen, knowing that she will be easily manipulated. Meanwhile, he orchestrates the blockade of Naboo by the Trade Federation. What sort of deal did he make with them, anyway? Naboo has nothing to offer in terms of wealth. The invasion made them pariahs in the senate; what could have made it worth it? Perhaps it will never be explained.
Anyhow, the invasion exists only to create the kind of unrest in the Senate that could lead to a vote of no confidence in Valorum. Palpatine plays Amidala like a fiddle, using her as an instrument to sweep Valorum aside. Oh, and that fantastic line: “I’m sure our situation will create a strong sympathy vote.” The position of Supreme Chancellor is virtually guaranteed for Palpatine. It is from this stepping stone that he will eventually be able to declare himself Emperor and eliminate the Republic altogether.
This is the plot that is happening behind the scenes and between the lines.
Now, let me discuss the characters, concentrating mainly on scenes Lucas decided to cut from the film. The film is very long for a Star Wars movie and I can understand the need to trim it down. But some of the decisions boggle the mind. Moments that add such depth and power to a character are removed. Why? Why not snip a out a few Jar Jar moments or parts of the planet core scene? As I understand, many of these scenes will appear in the video release in November.
ANAKIN: His prophetic power is completely downplayed as well as the qualities that will pull him into the dark side. When he first meets Padme/Amidala, he says “I’m going to marry you.” Padme says that’s not possible since he’s just a little boy. Then he says “But I won’t always be.” Chilling.
Removed also is the scene where Anakin tells Padme about his dream where she is leading a large army into battle. Foreshadowing, maybe?
In another cut scene, a young Rodian, possibly Greedo, accuses Annie of cheating in the pod race. Anakin immediately jumps on him and begins beating him up. Qui-Gon pulls them apart and asks the Rodian if he still believes Anakin to have cheated. He says “yes.” Qui-Gon then tells Anakin that fighting did not change the other’s opinion. But this is a lesson Anakin never seems to learn.
When Anakin is being questioned by Yoda, Yoda says “I sense much fear in you.” Anakin’s next line was “I’m not afraid,” echoing a very similar scene between Yoda and Luke on Dagobah.
All of these scenes would have made Anakin such a different character. Did Jake flub the scenes or did Lucas not want these things to be on our mind just yet?
QUI-GON: These cut scenes don’t elaborate on his character, but certainly help explain some of the events in the movie.
When Anakin brings his new friends home to meet Shmi, we see Qui-Gon reach into his belt, but then the scene cuts. What we would have seen was him bringing out several Jedi food capsules that would make enough meals for all of the unexpected guests. This would have shown a bit more consideration for dropping in on Shmi.
Just before Maul attacks Qui-Gon in the desert, we see the Jedi and Anakin running towards the queen’s ship. Why are they running? It’s because that on the outskirts of town, Qui-Gon encountered one of Maul’s probe droids and destroyed it. Sensing impending danger, he tells Anakin that they must run to the ship. This would have been such a cool scene.
Back on Naboo, when the Gungan army is amassing, Qui-Gon tells Obi-wan that they cannot use their powers to help the queen. Why? It’s because the Jedi are not permitted to take sides in a war unless the Republic has given permission. This is explained in the book.
Why didn’t Qui-Gon’s body fade away, becoming one with the Force? It has to do with the fact that becoming one with the Force is a conscious decision made by a Jedi. Obi-wan let himself be struck down so that he could be of more use to Luke. Yoda also did this willingly because it was just time to go. Qui-Gon had no idea he was going to be killed by Maul. Obi-wan was still there to train Anakin and Obi-wan was already on the verge of becoming a Jedi Knight, so there wasn’t any point for Qui-Gon to attach himself as a ghost to Kenobi or Anakin.
PALPATINE: Two critical scenes were cut, probably because they just about scream that he and Sidious are the same person. When Amidala announces that she will return to Naboo and prays that Palpatine will bring sanity to the Republic, he smiles secretly. You can see the beginning of this smile just before the movie wipes to the next scene.
Then there is a scene right after that where Sidious contacts Maul, informing him that the queen is on her way to Naboo. Maul is to capture her and force her to sign the treaty.
The more times I saw the movie and thought about it, the more I became convinced that Sidious and Palpatine are the same person. There is no question in my mind. As eagle-eyed viewers have pointed out, the balcony on Coruscant where Sidious meets with Maul is identical to the balcony outside of Palpatine’s residence. But there are so many other factors that convince.
But, as Dave pointed out, how can Palpatine stand across from Mace Windu and Yoda at Qui-Gon’s funeral without sensing an evil presence? But that is the nature of the Sith: They have had 1000 years to perfect the art of remaining undetected. Yoda himself says that the dark side is hard to see. Also consider that Maul was able to surprise Qui-Gon, a Jedi Master, BOTH times. The Sith can shield their presence from the Jedi. I’m convinced of it.
Now some opinions on characters who had too many scenes or too little.
JAR JAR: I did not hate Jar Jar. I understood his role as comic relief and his importance to other characters in the film. Qui-Gon viewed him as a pet project and an object lesson for Obi-wan. Obi-wan needed to look beyond the surface of people and situations to see redeeming value. Amidala viewed Jar Jar as a link between the two races of Naboo, an instrument that would bring about peace.
Also, Jar Jar is a textbook Lucas character: the underdog. Every Star Wars movie has them. The farm boy who destroys the Death Star and becomes a Jedi. The space pirate who become a General in the Alliance. The senator from an outer rim backwater who becomes Emperor. The slave boy who enslaves a galaxy. The clumsy Gungan outcast who becomes a General and helps save a planet.
Jar Jar is necessary on many levels. But I agree somewhat with Dave and Jeff: Jar Jar took up a lot of screen time that could have been spent more wisely elsewhere. The entire land battle did not need to be experienced through Jar Jar’s antics. Look at Endor: we didn’t need to see Wicket in every battle sequence to enjoy and understand the battle.
DARTH MAUL: “Not Enough” or “Less is More”? I’m in the second camp. Maul is trained to kill Jedi and that is all. We don’t need to see him unless we are supposed to learn a bit more about how the Sith operate. He is used sparingly because the scenes in which he does appear are significant: for the first time in 1000 years, the Jedi are once again fighting the Sith.
Maul is presented as a kind of Sith pit bull: all fight and little talk. He is stronger and more skilled than the Jedi. He fought Obi-wan and Qui-Gon at the same time without breaking into a sweat. But he was undisciplined and arrogant, and it got him killed.
If Maul had been balanced by finesse and intellect, a character such as Vader would be unneccessary. Compared to Maul, Vader is a stunted, crippled old man in an iron lung. But Vader is far more intelligent and tactful, a much deeper villain.
Also, because there can only be two Sith at one time, Maul MUST die in order for Vader to exist.
General story elements:
THE FORCE: The Force is suddenly much more complex than it was before. We now know that there are different “channels” of the Force, including the Living Force and the Unifying Force. The Living Force deals with the present and the interaction between living things. It is the channel which introduced us to midichlorians. Qui-Gon’s philosophy leans more in this direction. The Unifying Force governs the past and the future, the big picture. In a way, it is like Destiny. This is the channel which Obi-Wan concerns himself with. These two channels seem to be balanced in Yoda, who has mastered each equally.
When I first learned of midichlorians, I was pretty upset. At the time, I thought Lucas was going to say midichlorians = The Force, making the Force biological rather than spiritual. But that is not the case. Midichlorians are revealed as symbionts within living things that RECEIVE INFORMATION FROM the Force, which is still a separate entity, just like always. The midichlorians are simply a new layer of complexity in the Force, which, if you think about it, should be pretty complex anyway.
I anticipated all kinds of religious grumblings surrounding Anakin’s fatherless birth. I feared many would see this as some kind of parallel to the Virgin Birth. But this is short-sighted. Lucas borrows ancient story elements from all over the place and this is no exception. In literature, it is a common device to have someone touched by destiny to be born in an unusual manner. It happened all the time in Greek literature. Lucas is simply tapping into this familiar concept. He has never had any kind of religious agenda and we shouldn’t start looking for one now.
LANGUAGES: This has been one of the harshest criticisms and I agree: What is up with all of the funky accents? Until now, if the language wasn’t alien with subtitles, it was American or British. Why set yourself up for a racial backlash by making the Neimoidians speak with a Thai accent?
I understand that they are both aliens and the film had a huge emphasis in different cultures, but why make the Gungan accent so thick? Also, I felt that the Neimoidians could have easily been given their own alien tongue with subtitles. Heck, the Ewoks NEVER spoke English and NEVER had subtitles, but did you ever question what Wicket or Logray were saying? I didn’t.
The languages were a poor choice. They seem capricious and deliberately antagonistic. I chalk it up to one of the mysteries of Lucas’ mind.
Special Effects:
Without question, this film had the best visuals ever made. Having seen the behind the scenes footage at the Denver convention, I was especially amazed. For most of the sets there was a floor and nothing else but bluescreen. That plaza outside the Theed palace? Stairs, floor, four feet of wall and the rest was CG.
Computer-generated animals have been perfected. I never questioned the dewbacks, rontos, kaadus, eopies or any of the other creatures. They were real. So were the battle droids, especially when there were only a few of them on screen.
I never questioned Watto or Sebulba either. It seemed that since they had less screen time, the animators had more time to focus on details and tweak them. I DID question Jar Jar at times, when he seemed a bit too rubbery and his clothes seemed too plastic-looking. But, for the most part, he looked great and I accepted him a character.
It must be a tradition to have really great visuals in Star Wars films, but to leave aweful, glaring, shameful errors in the final print. In A New Hope, it was, among other things, Vader’s white saber and the Stormtrooper hitting his head on the door, matte borders, etc.
In The Phantom Menace, we have a scene where a bunch of children gather around Anakin who is working on the pod. One girl is obviously wearing braces. Now, granted, this IS one of Lucas’ daughters and perhaps he wanted her to remain unedited. But still, it breaks a bit of the fantasy when we see something like that. You might as well have let the boom mic poke in from the top of the screen.
In many Tatooine scenes, when R2-D2 is rolling along a dusty Mos Espa street, the rod holding the remote-controlled robot’s legs together is clearly visible. This will always be a blemish and I will always notice it.
In the “Interesting, but who cares?” department: When Qui-Gon escapes Maul on Tatooine, Maul holds up his saber, revealing a flat end on the unlit portion of the saber. In other scenes, there is a hole for the other blade to emanate from.
Near the end of the film, when everyone is disembarking from the ship to the Naboo plaza, Mace Windu is seen among the other Jedi in the background, but he is played by a completely different actor!
To sum up (whew!), the film was great. When viewed in the proper context of the original trilogy, the rest of the prequels, and the novel, the film really is very complex and operates on many levels. Although I knew all about the story going in, I still enjoyed it immensely. I had realistic expectations and it did not let me down. I can’t wait to see it again!