For story synopsis and cast/crew details, please the see the entry on this film in the Star Wars LogBook.

Going into this, you should keep in mind that I saw The Phantom Menace five times in the theater, and I enjoyed it each time. It wasn't as fun as Star Wars or as complex and gripping as The Empire Strikes Back, but I liked it. It was beautiful to look at, with some truly stunning design work - the Gungan underwater city, the Galactic Senate Chamber, heck, most of Coruscant was the kind of stuff you could just stare at and ignore the dialogue. (We'll get back to that later.) John Williams turned in a great score; Duel of the Fates is one of the most exhilarating pieces of music I've heard, right up there with the Imperial March. Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn was just about everything I imagined a Jedi would be, and I liked most (if not all) of the other new characters. That final lightsaber duel is one of the best hand-to-hand combat sequences I've ever seen. Perhaps most importantly, it felt like a Star Wars story to me - it fit in that universe, and all of the wonder and excitement that that universe holds for me.

And to be honest, I just didn't have the problems with the movie that a lot of other people did. I liked the political machinations surrounding the blockade of Naboo - no matter how things turned out, Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious came out ahead, and that shows that he's a worthy adversary. (Plus, for people who like the darkness of Empire - regardless of the big celebration at the end, the bad guy won here, and we all know it. That the heroes don't know it adds some complexity to things.) I liked that Anakin was depicted as such a good boy, with no real hint of a dark side - it sets up a sharp contrast with what we know he becomes, and establishes the starting point for an interesting journey, and unlike many, I liked Jake Lloyd's performance most of the time. I even liked that we saw relatively little of Darth Maul. The beauty of that makeup job is that it immediately establishes Maul as someone dangerous; the mere knowledge that he's chasing the heroes creates tension, and I think it makes the moment where the doors of the palace open to reveal him all the more effective.

I'm not saying the movie was perfect. I'm not a Jar Jar hater - I even kind of liked him during the early parts of the film - but his slapstick was out of place in the final battle. The movie was certainly slow and talky at times, and since Lucas doesn't always write the most engaging dialogue, that can be a problem. The scene where Qui-Gon explains midichlorians to Anakin sounds like it comes out of a science class filmstrip - and while we're at it, why do we need a scientific explanation for the Force, anyway? What was wrong with it just being an energy field generated by all living things, that surrounds us, penetrates us and binds the galaxy together? I liked that element of mystery and spirituality, and in the name of pushing the symbiosis theme that Lucas seemed intent on introducing here, he stripped some of that mystery away. And I was annoyed by the anything-Luke-can-do-Anakin-can-do-younger theme of the film's climax, complete with starfighter-setting-off-chain-reaction sequence. I expect and hope for better from Episode II, now that Lucas has gotten the ball rolling and shaken off some of his rust, but overall the pluses outweigh the minuses for me.

For story synopsis and cast/crew details, please the see the entry on this film in the Star Wars LogBook.