Understanding the Action
The action scenes are likewise perfectly realized. But, as with most of the picture, they are far less well conceived...and realization isn't worth much without conception. The high-speed pod race between Anakin and the nasty Sebulba is certainly the standout. (If Ernie Fosselius, the genius behind Hardware Wars, is still around, he'll have a field day with Suburbia, Zsa Zsa, Cal-Gon, Queen I'm-a-Doll, Macy's Window, and Anacin.) The race is so viscerally exciting that you can't help being on the edge of your seat. At the same time, it's not a tenth as exciting as it could have been if Lucas had written an interesting race. It's a retread of the chariot race in Ben Hur, but without the earlier film's clarity.

Clarity in action sequences has always been a problem for Lucas, even in the first Star Wars' climactic battle. He doesn't seem to have even a novice's grasp of clever exposition. So, in Phantom Menace, we see Sebulba do...something...to Anakin's pod before the race. Unfortunately, whatever it is, and what effect it will have, and how Anakin overcomes it, is never clear. Nor are the contestants' respective strong points and weak points. We need to know the process by which the race plays out. Otherwise the "good guy" wins for random reasons, not through admirable skill or cleverness. (The textbook example of the sort of exposition this scene needs is the compressed-air tank shtick in Jaws: we know, the moment Brody looks over at the tanks, what he's thinking and what he's going to attempt.)

These flaws will neither deter the Legions of the Faithful nor keep the film's opening weekend gross from breaking $100 million. The only thing that's likely to bother the real fans is the new information the movie reveals about the Force: Lucas has inexplicably reduced the mystical center of his epic to a simple medical issue. After twenty years, now he decides that the force isn't any more mysterious than a blood cholesterol level.

It's no longer a matter of belief. Now it's a matter of platelets.

Andy Klein is a film critic for the New Times newspaper chain. He is head of the animation committee for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).