Noah Louie

                                                 Reviewing the Phantom Menace.

                                                                

The 1999 movie “The Phantom Menace” develops each and every character so well that the audience is immediately hooked from the first moments of the film. The movie is expectantly action packed but it is the characters that hold your attention and keep you wanting to know more right to the very end. 

Many different characters are introduced in this movie and play a role in the Jedi’s success. The main Jedi characters show the common “good guy” elements and their actions seem to speak strongly to the audience as well. Likewise the Siths are built up to be equally hated. Without such strong character development, the audience would not care what happened to either group and the movie would ultimately lose it credibility and become simply bland, even if it was full of action and fight scenes. 

The whole plot rotates from outer rim space right into the middle of everything. The mission of the Jedi is to stop the trade war and the only way to do this is by freeing the captured people of Naboo and fighting back against the Sith. The amount of time and effort that is put into showing the struggle and persistence in the Jedi is incredible. It really shows the task ahead of them, how difficult their journey will be and adds greatly to the climatic end, but until then the audience is always wondering “Will they make it or won’t they”? As mentioned before the characters are incredibly well developed, so much so that it makes you care more about them and want to know their fate. This is probably what keeps even the most reluctant viewers staying engaged. 

Another aspect of the movie is the development of Anakin  from a clever young slave boy to a mature skillful pilot.  All the missions he completes for the Jedi show the development of the character in so many ways including skills, confidence and bravery. It keeps the watchers wondering what his next adventure will be like, and will he turn out to be the Jedi of the Prophecy? 

 The sentimental part of the movie is the death of qui gon Jinn which concluded the movie in a sad, yet uplifting tone because of the acceptance of Anakin as a padiwan.  Knowing that Lucas Films was building a franchise, the effort the directors put into character development ultimately payed off. While the Star Wars movies are full of action and special affects, without the commitment to strong characters the series of movies would not have lasted nearly this long and been as successful as they have been, making this an important movie in the Star Wars universe.