Defending Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

By Scott Mendelson

TrendPK.com: Like so many who read and write about movies, I saw Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on Wednesday, May 19th, at 12:01am. Like many who read and write about movies, I did not think it was the greatest film of all time. But like the majority of the movie-going public, I also did not think it was the worst film of all time, nor did I find it to be some kind of glorious affront to cinema as an art form. And 13 years later, it is what it always was: a Star Wars movie through-and-through. It has problems unique to itself, unique to the prequel trilogy, and even some problems that have existed in the series right at the start. Taking away the fact that one film was a cinematic breakthrough an launched the fandom of a hundred-million would-be movie lovers and the other was released under the crushing expectations of two generations of film fans, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is really no better or worse than Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

One is overly revered because it was the first film in the series and had the benefit that comes with discovery. The other was crushed by the weight of impossible expectations. Objectively speaking, they are both fine introductions to their respective trilogies which pave the way for arguably superior sequels (you may prefer Star Wars to Return of the Jedi, I happen to prefer The Phantom Menace to the somewhat pandering but admittedly more entertaining Attack of the Clones). They both suffer from campy acting, stilted dialogue and inconsistent pacing. The Phantom Menace lacks a rouge-ish Han Solo character, even if the film (by virtue of being the fourth entry in a long-running series) doesn’t need a cynical ‘audience surrogate’ this time around. Natalie Portman was always unfairly derided for not playing Queen Amadala as a clone of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Lea. Her somewhat cold, Elizabethan portrayal is both her best performance in the prequel trilogy and a prime example of fans objecting primarily because it wasn’t identical to the previous Star Wars universe (Lucas’s apparent cave in Attack of the Clones, making Padme ‘sexier’, is one reason Episode II is the weakest of the series). That The Phantom Menace (and by proxy the prequel trilogy) operates differently than the first three Star Wars films does not automatically make them inferior, merely different.

Taken as an individual film or the start of a three-film saga, it has eye-popping visuals, at least three terrific performances (Liam Neeson, Ian McDiarmid, and Pernilla August), a fine (if famously compromised) score by John Williams, and a politically wonky story that took hits for being overly complicated while serving was a chilling modern-day parable (a ‘good’ politician brought down by “baseless accusations of scandal” – remind you of anyone who was president in 1999?). Yes, the original Star Wars had a simple narrative, basically following the Joseph Campbell heroic journey. But Phantom Menace (and the prequel trilogy overall) compensates for its admittedly inferior characters with a more complicated and morally grey plot. Critics and pundits always complain about the simplicity and spoon-fed narratives of mainstream films. Yet when one comes along that actually requires audience to pay attention (Mission: Impossible, Quantum Of Solace, etc), they all complain that “It’s too confusing!” or “It’s too complicated and muddled!”. You won’t get me to admit that Jake Lloyd is cooler (or a better actor) than Mark Hamill, but I have always appreciated the intricate plotting of the more ambitious prequel trilogy. And for a film that’s been knocked as ‘kid-friendly’ (more on that later), it always struck me as darkly ironic that the entire journey in The Phantom Menace is basically a trick in order to pull off a Senatorial coup, replacing the decent Chancellor Valorum (Terence Stamp) with Palpatine (who is, of course, not so decent). Maybe kids didn’t realize it at the time, but every single character, be they good or evil, was working for the villain to further his authoritarian goals (this is actually the running subtext behind the fantastic Clone Wars cartoon series that premiered in late 2008).

Whether you like the pod-race or not (admission – I don’t and usually skip it when I watch the film), it is a triumph of technical action film-making. Of course, it’s also the scene where Lucas’s tilt toward ‘juvenility’, also represented by Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd’s performance as Anakin Skywalker, hits hardest, as the use of comedic announcers with cartoon-ish vocals stands out as something that just doesn’t fit within the Star Wars universe. Whether or not the god-awful narration is evened-out by darkly comic relief (where Tusken Raiders murder the other pod racers purely for kicks… I always laughed at that) is a judgment call. But one bad scene, which sits awkwardly in tone with the rest of the six film-saga, does not a movie make. And if one centerpiece action scene doesn’t quite hold up to repeat viewings, the other one does. Even the most virulent detractors of the picture openly admit that the climactic light-saber fight between Darth Maul and the two Jedi warriors (Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi) is exactly what we nerds waited sixteen years to see. It’s not as emotionally engaging as the high-water mark duels in The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi, (my wife and I affectionately call it ‘Duel of the Red-Shirts’) but it is the most technically perfect light-saber fight in the entire six-film series and it beats the living crap out of the downright pathetic ‘old man vs. asthmatic robot’ slap-fight in Star Wars.

Of course the film does have its issues, some of which were noted above. Perhaps because Lucas knew that he was going to get to make the next two chapters, The Phantom Menace lacks any real character arc for any of its major players. The dialogue is occasionally stilted and delivered in a relatively rigid fashion, as if most of the cast was directed to ‘do what Guinness did in A New Hope’. In terms of plot, it is quite self-contained, but as a character piece it is clearly just part one of a three (or six) part story. The four-part action climax, a clear attempt by Lucas to top the three-pronged finale of Return of the Jedi, suffers from a lack of engagement in three of those action sequences. The space dog-fight, the Padme blaster shoot-out, and the large-scale battle of Naboo feel more perfunctory, which is ironic since they are the sequences that resolve the prime conflict, while the light-saber battle is basically two Jedis dealing with unrelated Jedi business. Slight digression, but I love that the two Jedi stumble upon the first Sith warrior seen in centuries and they immediately set out to kill him as quickly as possible. Simple questions like “Who are you? What do you want? Who are you working for?” never come up.

Arguably the biggest story problem is that Anakin saves the day completely by accident, while the biggest character issues is that Jake Lloyd is pretty terrible as Anakin Skywalker (if you watch the terrific documentary on the Phantom Menace DVD, titled “The Beginning”, you can literally watch Lucas pick the wrong kid to play young Skywalker). That the Jedi are cold, unfeeling bastards basically sets up their downfall in the next two films. That Anakin is such a naive and wide-eyed innocent actually makes his final destiny that much more heartbreaking. Lucas didn’t want an obviously troubled and disturbed Anakin turning into Darth Vader. He wanted a completely good young child to slowly morph into a person capable of complete evil. Just as, over the course of the prequel trilogy, the seemingly good Republic allows itself to become a tyrannical dictatorship out of fear, so too does Anakin’s fear allow him to be undone. Point being, especially if you know what’s coming, this is all pretty heavy stuff for a ‘kids’ film’.

But in the end, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace *is* a kids’ film. It is a sci-fi outer-space fantasy adventure designed to appeal to kids who are about as young as you were when you first saw Star Wars. We may cringe at Jar Jar Binks (even as we ignore that he’s barely in the film after his introductory moments), but younger audiences do find him funny and charming. We may wish that Jake Lloyd was a bit darker and introspective as the boy who would be Darth Vader, but younger boys see themselves in him and his wish-fulfillment fantasy adventure. Come what may, warts and all, The Phantom Menace was always intended as a gateway drug, a kid-friendly space opera designed to snag young audiences into the world of Star Wars just as it was being reborn. In the 13 years since it was first released, an entire generation of moviegoers grown up loving or liking The Phantom Menace in the same way we fell for Star Wars all those decades ago. If Lucas had given us the Star Wars prequel that was tailored-made for the now-adult audience that grew up on the franchise, if he had made Anakin quasi-evil right from the start, had he filled the film with unrelentingly graphic violence and characters that lacked any real kid-appeal, there is little chance that kids today would still be playing Star Wars on playgrounds all across America.

In all objectivity, I wish The Phantom Menace was a better movie. I wish it was a tighter picture, that the all-important pod race sequence wasn’t overlong and relatively suspense-less. I wish Lucas didn’t feel the need to make the enemy robot army into chit-chatting clowns and that he had cast a better actor as Anakin. But The Phantom Menace is still a good fantasy adventure picture, arguably better plotted and more visually imaginative than any number of would-be blockbusters that have followed its path over the last decade. And it is absolutely a Star Wars movie that holds its own against pretty much any entry in the series with the arguable exception of The Empire Strikes Back (which, with its scaled-back and character-driven intimacy, is the odd-man out in the six film saga). And as a gateway drug that successfully ensnared an entire generation of young kids and turned them into Star Wars junkies as well, it is an unqualified success.

You can still find kids playing Star Wars adventures on the playground this very day. They pretend to be Anakin Skywalker, Padme, Obi-Wan Kenobi and any number of characters from both trilogies. You don’t hear them complaining that “Jar Jar sucks!”. You don’t hear them protesting that “George Lucas raped my childhood!”. For a generation of kids who came of age 13 years ago, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith ARE their childhood.

To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos

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Arnold, Rambo team up for action thriller "The Tomb"

LOS ANGELES: Arnold Schwarzenegger will join fellow muscle man Sylvester Stallone starring in Summit’s action thriller “The Tomb,” Summit said Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger will play Church, a prison inmate who fights to keep other prisoners from losing their humanity. Stallone plays Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost expert on security — who, framed for a murder he didn’t commit — has to escape from a prison he designed.

Swedish filmmaker Mikael Hafstrom, who directed New Line’s 2011 “The Rite” and The Weinstein Company’s 2010 “Shanghai,” is directing.

Miles Chapman wrote the script, which was rewritten by Jason Keller. Brenner originally set up “The Tomb” as a spec script at Summit. The movie is scheduled to begin filming in Louisiana this spring.

The movie is an Emmett-Furla Films/Mark Canton production. Mark Canton, Randall Emmett, George Furla, Robbie Brenner and Kevin King-Templeton are producing. Emmett/Furla Films is financing.

Summit has worldwide distribution rights.

Schwarzenegger and Stallone’s next movie, “The Expendables 2,” is now in post-production and will be released this summer by Lionsgate.

Schwarzenegger, the movie star-turned California governor-turned movie actor, just wrapped “The Last Stand,” produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

Policy group files lawsuit to stop Google policy change

 

A consumer advocacy group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to try to derail Google s plan to merge user data from YouTube, Gmail, Google and other services in individual comprehensive profiles.

 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center urged a federal court to block Google from implementing the change on March 1 as planned and to direct the Federal Trade Commission to intervene.

 

Google announced the change to its terms of service in January, explaining that it will essentially “treat you as a single user across all our products” when it comes to use patterns tracked for targeting services, content or ads.

 

EPIC charged that the change would violate an agreement that the commission negotiated with the California Internet giant last year to address privacy concerns raised by the launch of a failed Google Buzz social tool in 2010.

 

Combining user data as planned without consent from the people involved would breach the consent decree signed by Google, EPIC argued.

 

“EPIC is wrong on the facts and the law,” Google countered in a statement released Wednesday.

Google, facing pressure from US lawmakers over the new privacy policy, said on January 31 that it remains committed to

 

protecting consumer data as it creates a “seamless and easy” Web experience.

 

The Internet giant sent a letter to lawmakers and posted comments on its public policy blog defending the changes, which will consolidate the policies of its offerings such as search, mail, video and map usage.

 

Google said in a blog post at the time that said the change will make Google s privacy policy “simpler and more understandable” and will “make our users  experience seamless and easy by allowing more sharing of information among products when users are signed into their Google Accounts.”

 

Some privacy advocates have expressed concern that users will not be able to “opt out” of the new policy, which will allow advertisers to develop personalized messages based on Web searches, use of Android mobile devices or activity on other Google products.

 

Google allows people to opt out of any data collecting by searching, watching videos on YouTube, getting directions on Google Maps, and performing other tasks without signing into a Google Account.”

 

US Representatives Edward Markey and Joe Barton sent a letter to the FTC last month asking if the planned changes are a violation of the settlement.

 

Google said in its letter to lawmakers that “our approach to privacy has not changed,” and that Google users “continue to have choice and control” over private data by not signing into accounts or by using other tools like anonymous search or chat.
 

Study on mice shows fasting weakens cancer

 

While it remains unknown if the same approach could work in humans, or if it would even be safe, researchers said the findings suggest a promising new route of study for improving response to cancer treatment.

 

In the mice experiments, “the combination of fasting cycles plus chemotherapy was either more or much more effective than chemo alone,” said senior author Valter Longo, professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California (USC).

 

Longo and colleagues previously published findings in 2008 that showed how fasting protected normal cells against chemotherapy in a study that focused on one type of cancer and a single chemo drug.

 

The latest study expands on that research to show that fasting makes cancer cells more vulnerable, and spanned several different types of cancer in mice.

 

Types of cancers studied included breast cancer, melanoma, glioma and human neuroblastoma.

 

All cancers studied showed that fasting combined with chemotherapy improved survival, slowed the growth of tumors and/or limited their spread.

 

The study appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

 

“We don t know whether in humans it s effective,” Longo said, adding that for now fasting should be “off-limits” to cancer patients, although they should feel they can ask their doctors about the possibility.

 

In 2010, a small study of 10 human cancer patients who tried fasting cycles with their drug treatment showed that they perceived fewer side effects from chemo, according to self-reported data. The study was published in the journal Aging.

 

The results of a phase 1 trial assessing the safety of fasting two days before and one day after chemotherapy in patients with breast, urinary tract and ovarian cancer, conducted at the USC, have been submitted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cancer Oncologists later this year.

 

“A way to beat cancer cells may not be to try to find drugs that kill them specifically but to confuse them by generating extreme environments, such as fasting that only normal cells can quickly respond to,” Longo said.
 

Nick Cannon completely healthy after health scare

TrendPK.com: It looks like things are back on track for Nick Cannon as he is working and healthy after his recent health scare involving his kidneys.

Cannon was one of the hosts for NBC’s Super Bowl pre-game show and revealed that things are going well for him now that he is feeling like himself again, states TooFab. “This is a great place to get back and debut the healthy Nick … I am 100 percent feeling good right now,” Cannon commented during his appearance.

Cannon has reportedly changed his diet a bit in order to stay feeling this way as he claims he was once a “fast food junkie.”

Do you like how he handled his illness?

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Oscars: Final ballots for the 84th Academy Awards® were mailed out

TrendPK.com: Final ballots for the 84th Academy Awards® were mailed today (February 1) to the 5,783 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) by 5 p.m. Tuesday, February 21. Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted.

Listed on the ballots are nominees in 19 Awards categories. Separate ballots for five categories (Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film) will be distributed after verification of mandatory member attendance at screenings.

Following the tabulation of the votes, the winners’ names will be placed in sealed envelopes to be opened on Oscar Sunday, February 26.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

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Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds home for sale

TrendPK.com: Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds are continuing to settle things in their former marriage as they are now selling their Los Angeles, California home.

The two Hollywood stars have reportedly finally put their home in the Los Feliz area up for sale at about $3.65 million, states TooFab. The home is reportedly 2,800-square-feet with eco-friendly solar power.

The house has four bedrooms and an oversized saltwater pool. You can also enjoy the master suite that has its own walled mini-garden and outdoor bath.

Do you think it’s worth that price?

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Jennifer Lopez to present at Oscars in February

TrendPK.com: Jennifer Lopez has officially been announced as a presenter for the 84th Academy Awards that will take place on February 26, 2012.

Lopez will be on hand to present at the ceremony produced by Brian Grazer and Don Mischer that will take place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Lopez is currently a judge on ‘American Idol’ and will be seen in the future film ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting.’

Will you tune in to see her present?

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Taylor Lautner may be back with ex-girlfriend

TrendPK.com: It looks like Taylor Lautner’s love life may be going pretty well as he has reportedly been spotted back out with his ex-girlfriend Sara Hicks.

The two were reportedly spotted together at a performance of OVO by Cirque du Soleil in Santa Monica, California, states UsMagazine.com. But more than that, Lautner and Hicks have reportedly been spotted out to dinner and shows for some time now.

The two were high school sweethearts. Hicks is now a cheerleader for the L.A. Clippers.

Do you think he’ll stay with her?

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Oscars: Some “Artist” patrons are asking for a refund? – AWARDS ALLEY

By Sean O’Connell
TrendPK.com: Remember that lady who tried to sue the producers of “Drive” because she felt the ads made it sound like a “Fast and the Furious” sequel and she was disappointed that Nicolas Winding Refn’s film instead provided depth, tension and substance?

Yeah, we actually managed to find some people who are dumber than that.

The UK Telegraph reports that patrons at select Odeon Cinemas are complaining to managers and asking for refunds because “there is no sound and the screen is smaller.”

The projectionists admit that they ratio of the picture has been reduced to replicate the silent films from the 1920s and ‘30s. But it’s not enough for the blockbuster crowd, who likes them big (and empty).

Initially, Odeon reps denied having to issue any refunds to “The Artist.”

“We can confirm that there have been no complaints/refunds regarding ‘The Artist’ screenings,” they claimed, only to change their tune when pressed by Telegraph staff. Now they admit that some refunds have been given.

“Odeon Liverpool One can confirm it has issued a small number of refunds to guests who were unaware that The Artist was a silent film,” they said. “The cinema is happy to offer guests a refund on their film choice is they raise concern with a member of staff within 10 minutes of the film starting.”

Awards Alley brings you the best Oscar coverage. Click below to read our exclusive interviews with:
– Harvey Weinstein
– The cast of “The Artist.”
– Kenneth Branagh for “My Week With Marilyn.”
– Bennett Miller talks “Moneyball.”
– Sir Ben Kingsley and Chloe Grace Moretz for “Hugo.”
– Tilda Swinton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”
– David Fincher, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara on “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
– Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for “The Help.”
– Tate Taylor for “The Help.”
– Woody Harrelson for “Rampart.”
– Gavin O’Connor for “Warrior.”
– Gary Oldman and Colin Firth for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
– Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody for “Young Adult.”
– Steve McQueen for “Shame.”
– Glenn Close for “Albert Nobbs.”
– Seth Rogen and Will Reiser for “50/50.”

For complete Oscar and Film Festival coverage, visit our Awards Alley for the latest news items, reviews and interviews all season long.

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