Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

The first film of the series in chronological order, and a continuation made after sixteen years. There is a trade dispute. A planet is blockaded and two Jedi are sent to mediate. It goes wrong quickly. The Jedi escape, land on the planet, rescue the queen and leave by ship, and when the ship breaks down they come down on a desert planet. They find a boy there. Anakin is a slave, nine years old, and extraordinarily gifted. From there the film is a race and a return. Entering a race for the boy's freedom, then going to the capital, then taking the planet back. What the narrative is interested in is not war but bureaucracy: most of the film is senate votes, trade taxation and political manoeuvring, and that was the main criticism at release. The narrative is building one person. Senator Palpatine advances in the background and is the only one who gains from the whole crisis. The duel is the best section. The choreography is faster than anything seen in the series to that point and the music became one of its best known pieces. Jar Jar Binks was a turning point. He was the first large-scale computer character placed inside live action, and the audience reaction was very hard. The desert sections were shot in Tunisia; the set was damaged by a storm during filming and the crew had to rebuild it. Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd and Ian McDiarmid are in the cast. George Lucas wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants to watch the series from the start. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the tone of the first trilogy; the film is aimed at children, the dialogue is wooden, and the child at its centre does not carry it.