Note: This contains spoilers. You can safely read as far as "Super spoiler" without learning anything about the plot. There's lots of blank lines to help you out. Tue May 4 23:05:02 EDT 1999 I'm sitting at my desk around 5:45pm and my phone rings. My friend Jed is on the other end; he says, "I'm at the Loews Astor" (at Times Square). "Tonight is a special screening of the Phantom Menace, and I have an extra ticket. Can you make it?" I literally gasped out loud. I couldn't believe it. I said yes, and he said he'd call me back in ten minutes and leave the ticket at will-call. My hands shook a bit during that short wait! After he called back saying it was taken care of, I headed straight there (it's a block away from me). Burly men were at the theater entrance, checking people for audio or video recording equipment; they stopped me and asked if they could help me. I said, "You don't need to see my identifi^H^H^H^H^H I said I had a ticket at will-call and they let me right through. The pass was a long cardboard thing, and I didn't look at it (unfortunately) and headed straight for the line. A girl checked it with a hand-held UV light; I asked what she was looking for, and on the reverse side the Lucasfilm logo showed under the lamp! She wouldn't let me keep the pass. Inside I met my friend, giving him a big thankful hug, and sat with his other buddies. "I've waited since 1983 for this!" I remarked. "So have we," one said dryly. The guy next to me, an animator for MTV's Celebrity Death Match, showed me a couple of the new toys for the film: a fighter and one of the troop carriers. The mother of two boys seated in front of me came in waving a Jabba the Hutt figure she just bought, still in the package. You open his head and pour in some green slime (included) and he drools ooze and those little frog things (also included). After an hour's wait a guy from 20th Century Fox came to the front to speak. He said the print of the film we were about to see was a rough cut and would be destroyed shortly after the screening. The color was not corrected (couldn't tell though), there would be lines (there were but not bad) and the sound might be off (never was though). It was a bit grainy and the focus was soft. Spoiler: I'm going to discuss details of the film soon. I'll warn you when. Right now some general observations that won't affect your expectations much. First, the action scenes go by really fast. Blink and you miss things. The light sabre fights are incredible, the best yet. Darth Maul is really wicked. The integration of computer generated effects is decent, maybe slightly better than Babylon 5 effects; they still don't have skin worked out yet. The movements of animals and humanoids varies, at times uncanny and at times obviously fake. (I'm always looking for a perfect illusion in special effects). The background details are overwhelming at times, and I often found myself trying to see what was going on in the rest of the scene instead of the main action. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor (Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan) are really good in this film, particularly Neeson. He does well in the roll of stately Jedi night. Ewan doesn't get as much screen time but doubtlessly will in the next one. Super spoiler: Turn back now or forever hold your peace. I'm going all out now. The plot centers around the Trade Federation forming a blockade around the planet Naboo, whose Queen is Natalie Portman. The blockade is in response to taxation passed by the Imperial Senate (or the Republic? Their politics are as convoluted as real life :-) It's actually being put on though by the soon-to-be Emperor, who will be cast into the chasm in Return of the Jedi. He appears in the rest of the film as Senator Palpatine, for those hardcores in the know. (The film never made explicit the connection between the pre-Emperor and Palpatine, but Palpatine's name figures in the book version of Star Wars, which I memorized when I was 13). Jinn and Kenobi are sent to Naboo to end the blockade, but the Trade Feds try to snuff them out. The droid troops invade and the two Jedis get the Queen off the planet, only to be forced to land on Tatooine due to engine problems. There they encounter young Anakin, a slave owned by a blue guy who is short and flies around like a Cupid all the time. The blue guy owns a shop that sells used machinery and spacecraft stuff, and has the only hyperdrive that will fit the Queen's ship. This results in a bet that Anakin can win a "pod race," which is the first sequence that features too much of the kid. (Wesley Crusher syndrome begins to set in). After winning the race and his freedom, young Anakin sets out with the Jedis to plead before the Senate. The Queen is a pawn in Palpatine's bid to become Chancellor, which he does. Jinn appears before the Jedi Council (headed by Yoda), to tell them he thinks Anakin is "the One who will restore balance." The council examines him, and finds him wanting. The Queen decides to return to Naboo to enlist the help of a race that lives underwater, to battle the droid army and free her planet. The Jedis join her, and Darth Maul is waiting for them. This will lead us to Anakin winding up in a fighter and attacking the orbiting ship that controls all the army droids, which got supremely annoying at times. I'll skip the rest, and I've left a great deal out. The film is as much a kid's film as Return of the Jedi was, and I'd rank it third in the series at this point. (I still like SW and Empire better). There was a strong Thai influence in set design and costumes, which were really cool. Other interesting facts to drive the detail freaks crazy: Anakin is really adept with mechanical things and built C3PO, who is left behind on Tatooine; his mother claims he has no father (shades of Christ), that she had a kind of immaculate conception; the army droids are worse shots than the storm troopers were (no wonder they're replaced by the fourth film); and Yoda has forebodings about the future of young Anakin. Also everybody has these little beings in their cells, and the more of them that live in your cells the more in tune to the Force you are. Anakin has more than have ever been measured in anybody. Well, enjoy sitting in line. It will be worth it though. I'm gonna see Matrix again until the lines die down for PM before taking in a few more viewings.