STAR WARS - EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999)
Featuring: Liam Neeson; Ewan McGregor; Jake Lloyd
Director: George Lucas
Best wishes for 2018 to you all - hope you had a happy festive season. During the holiday break I went to see Star Wars - The Last Jedi and that prompted me to start this year off with a look at this classic sci-fi series. As you no doubt know, the Star Wars franchise followed a somewhat unusual course of action. Usually a prospective franchise will start off with a movie or two and then, when it proves to be successful, build onto that. But after the original Star Wars trilogy ended in 1983, creator George Lucas felt he was left with so many unanswered questions that it justified another whole series, predating the original. And the rest, as they say, is history...
In the Phantom Menace we meet Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his protégé Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), two Jedi Warriors who were sent to negotiate a peace settlement between two seemingly warring factions on the planet Naboo. In the process they get stranded on a remote planet in the outer rim of the galaxy where they discover a young boy called Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd). However, it doesn't take long for them to realize that this is no ordinary boy. The 'force' is him so strongly that he just might be the 'chosen one' as for-told long ago by ancient Jedi masters.
By the time George Lucas came around doing this series of films, it is clear that he had learned a thing or two about special effects. It is a lot more sophisticated than it was in the originals. Still, it is not so overwhelming that it distracts one from the actual story which, unfortunately, is the case in so many films of this genre. And his use of comic relief is also impeccable. In my humble opinion and in all aspects, this movie is a worthy continuation of the phenomenon that is Star Wars.
Trailer link:
A highlight of this movie is of course the famous pod-race
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