STAR WARS EPISODE ONE: THE PHANTOM MENACE will have a limited one week re-release...
Published at: Nov. 22, 1999, 6:31 a.m. CST by staff
Hey folks. Well it looks like George is doing a special one-week charity re-release of STAR WARS EPISODE ONE. This could be a really great gesture for charities all over the country... or for the cynical, it could be a one week advertisement for a new wave of Star Wars toys that should be stocking the shelves for Christmas. Personally I think a lot of people sort of went through a Star Wars burn-out process due to the immense hype and spectacle of the release. Has any film ever had the pomp and circumstance that the release this summer had? It was almost a disappointment that it was merely a movie.
I've been doing a lot of thinking in my head about the difference between something like Episode One and The World Is Not Enough and Toy Story 2... ya know... movies in franchises. The whole sequel thing. and I've decided to do a little thinking out loud here.
For me, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK just blew me away when it came out, and now... TOY STORY II did the same. Why is that? What is it that they did that... oh... say the latest Bond didn't do?
Well... In both Empire and Toy Story 2, the films didn't have to waste any time introducing the established characters. We already know who they are and what they are about... instead far more time was invested into the plotline and story as well as advancing characters that we already know quite a bit about.
In Star Wars, we were allowed really solid looks at Luke, OB1 and Han. Leia, Chewie, R2D2, Threepio and Vader were all touched on, but not given any real depth. In Empire... There was zero rehashing, and just lept straight into adding to all of those characters, plus introducing a couple of new characters that blew us away.
The same thing happens in TOY STORY. The first film really introduces us to BUZZ and WOODY and gives us tiny little glimpses at everyone else. The backstory and motivations are really left to BUZZ and WOODY is left to be basically they guy holding his hand. In TOY STORY 2... well... Time has passed. There are some new toys in the room, the dog is there... But this time it's Woody's story, adding a complete new dimension to his character. All of the 'gang' have more going on, they don't reintroduce any of them. The new characters are smart and fast and instantly more in depth than say Sid.
The film explores quite a lot more than the first one, because it has the time to do it. You aren't having to do all the 'Hey howya doing, My name's Woody' type of thing... you can just hop to it. And they do...
Now we have, STAR WARS EPISODE ONE... First off... this is all new to me. We have a film with nearly no cultural icons from the other films to point to. No Stormtroopers or X-Wings or Millenium Falcon or Han Solo or Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia or Chewbacca or Darth Vader or... well you get the idea. Threepio and R2 are little more than cameos... as is Yoda. OB1 isn't even really given much time. Instead we have all these Robots and Trade Federations... What is all this stuff?
And why the hell is Jar Jar Binks there? Well... I can't say for sure. But this is Chapter One... the story is... allegedly supposed to follow this one... and lead all the way to Return of the Jedi.
One of the problems that those people that don't like EMPIRE STRIKES BACK as much as either 4 or 6 is because the film doesn't stand alone. There is no real resolutions, it just adds all these questions. Personally.. I love that. It's a perfect middle chapter.
So... that leads me back to Episode One. And why the hell is Jar Jar Binks in there? I don't know. You don't know. George knows. Perhaps it is so we can have a parallel innocent fall at the same time young Ani falls as well. Anakin will fall to the dark side, perhaps Jar Jar's story is one where he watches his people die, he becomes the last of his people and then one day he too meets his end. Perhaps he has an arc like that, and when you watch the entire story... it makes his character tragic.
Perhaps the robot army and their incompetence was created to set up the reason why a droid army couldn't wipe out the Jedi, so clones... living beings with their own life forces would be... a more efficient enemy to fight the Jedi with. I don't know. I've just seen Chapter One.
Sure... for now the movie isn't a perfect film. But what if Lucas really is some sort of evil genius? What if the larger scheme of things hasn't yet been revealed? Or... perhaps I'm just a pathetic fanboy that never stops hoping... I don't know, but I like the film quite a bit. It is still my third favorite in the franchise (5,4,1,6 is the order of the moment in my mind).
