"Star Wars": Hype Over Substance. - Brief Article - Review - movie reviews

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 1999 by Christopher Sharrett

THE NEW "STAR WARS" FILM is finally here. In fact, by this writing, "Star Wars: Episode One--The Phantom Menace," the first of a "prequel" trilogy that will tell the origins of series villain Darth Vader, is rather old news. Although hardly a fizzle, "The Phantom Menace" turned out to be the Second Coming only to the most die-hard fans. Some reviewers, such as David Ansen for Newsweek and Anthony Lane for The New Yorker, took off the gloves and separated the picture from the colossal hype machine that preceded it. The reverential audience for whom the "Star Wars" phenomenon has long been a secular religion, some of whom waited in line for weeks, got their fill and went home.

"The Phantom Menace" shows much of the cynicism of the corporatized Hollywood that many say was heralded by George Lucas and his sci-fi brainchild. Long on special effects, "The Phantom Menace" has a script so thin and implausible as to turn off even some of the juvenile audience. It is savvy enough to play on the "Star Wars" formula: The film has a sage teacher and young acolyte, cute aliens, scary aliens, a black-clad bad guy (two, in fact), space travel, exotic settings designed to wow the spectator, and a happy ending that wants to leave the viewer anticipating more. With all the formula, everything about the movie seems surprisingly poorly calculated.

It begins the chronicle of Anakin Skywalker, who, as the later films of the prequel cycle will show, turns from being the brave hero father of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia to becoming a pop icon that is mass culture's closest correlate for the devil. In "The Phantom Menace," Anakin (Jake Lloyd) is a nine-year-old boy enslaved with his mother by a craggy alien vaguely resembling Fagin in Oliver Twist. He encounters and is eventually liberated by a wise Jedi Knight named Qui Gon Jin (Liam Neeson) and his disciple Obi Won Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor as the character made famous by Alec Guinness).

The narrative would seem to begin at the beginning well enough, but it offers few entertainments to those expecting this picture to start taking the "Star Wars" saga over the top. It places a good deal of responsibility on a child actor who would seem to interest only young viewers (perhaps no mystery here), with other actors just slightly used. Samuel L. Jackson does a minute cameo as a Jedi sage wary of young Anakin and is there merely to lend the movie a little credibility. The same is true of Neeson, who offers a number of Jedi profundities, but somehow leaves his charisma in "Schindler's List" and "Michael Collins." MacGregor is the film's small gem, conceiving of a younger version of Alec Guiness' role in somewhat the same way as Robert De Niro thought out the young Vito Corleone in "Godfather II." None of this goes very far, though, and some of it is downright annoying.

Watching "The Phantom Menace," the sense is constantly reinforced that "Star Wars" is not sci-fi or space opera, but kiddie fare. Who but a five-year-old could be enamored of a cutsie-pie alien named Jar Jar Binks, who dresses a bit like the Honeymooners' Ed Norton, keeps doing pratfalls, and speaks a babytalk patter? The movie's villain, Darth Maul, fills the space that would be occupied by Darth Vader, who isn't yet old enough to put on the cape and mask. Darth Maul has about three lines of dubbed-in dialogue, five minutes of screen time, and is played by an actor hired solely for his martial arts skills. Yet, Darth Maul is constructed by the ad campaign as another incarnation of evil--in case you miss the point, he has a red face with horns on his head.

Darth Maul tells us a good deal about Lucas and "The Phantom Menace." A character with almost nothing to do is a principal tool in selling the picture. Maul's yellow-eyed visage stares out from soft drink cartons (Pepsi is a major "Star Wars" franchise), backpacks, posters, cookie jars, TV chairs, jogging shoes, and candy bars. Already there are a half-dozen Darth Maul action figures, offering various poses of the black-clad baddie wielding his twin-bladed light saber--the weapon is the film's idea of innovation. He is a figure "cool" enough in his design simplicity to catch on with collectors, probably not so for most of the other characters.

Part of the problem of "The Phantom Menace" could flow from the publicity designed to make it work. For months, the production was protected with a hush-hush secrecy, of course inviting to the inquisitive fan knowledgeable of the Internet. Rumors about the film soon began to leak. The Christmastime trailer for the movie had people buying tickets to a theater merely to sit through a three-minute preview. As the movie went into release, Lucasfilm gave it the full-court press, with Toys "R" Us opening at midnight the week of the picture's premiere to herald the arrival of all the paraphernalia. Although hardly a revelation, it became apparent like never before that "Star Wars" is less a movie than a product, and an excuse for selling other products.