MAY 19TH 2009- HAPPY BIRTHDAY EPISODE ONE!!!
By Scott Weller
Yep, today’s the day-the epic first milestone for the first film of the Prequel Trilogy.
Today was the day millions of STAR WARS fans dreams were realized. After so long an absence from our cinema screens, a new film was finally released-nay, let loose- in the world, and fan excitement and enthusiasm would never reach such tall volcanic peaks ever again. Ten years on, peoples opinions on THE PHANTOM MENACE seem to be as divided as ever, but, on this special day, lets celebrate everything that was sooo good about this movie-the scenes we all dreamed about witnessing finally in living breathing richness (the Jedi/Darth Maul duel, the epic ground and space battles that were to come across not only in this adventure but the next two to come, and the first steps in the takeover of the galaxy by the Sith Lord to be named Darth Sidious), the epic new locales (Naboo, Coruscant-the Imperial homeland to be finally in living and breathing spectacle!!), amazing, all defining and ground breaking special effects (the pod race is still superb after all these years, and Jar Jar Binks-well, whatever you think of him, he was still before Gollum!!!), the intriguing new characters added to the universe (Padme Amidala-the “Queen” and mother of the Skywalker children, no more shrouded in enigmatic mystery-and now a major player in the new STAR WARS universe, Darth Maul-badass Sith Lord who, to this day, is still unequalled in nastiness by his many legions of beloved fans, the emergence of Senator Palpatine-played with a relish to admire by Ian McDiarmid, Qui-Gon Jinn-the doomed and noble Jedi brought to life with such warmth and bedrock strength by Liam Neeson, and, of course, the brave, loyal, adventurous but ultimately afraid Anakin Skywalker as personified by Jake Lloyd and, finally, Hayden Christensen), and the Lucas masterplan (to show what happens when a universe become too big and too corrupt to sustain itself as a Republic of good-ultimately manipulated and devoured into itself as an Empire of fear and control, and what happens when an innocent, loving child turned hero to the people, with no prior sense of greed, is ultimately turned to the dark.
Brave storytelling, and an epic new saga for a new epic time…
All that story, all that foreshadowing, in one film, and against a STAR WARS universe that seemed even bigger than we'd seen before. But then, we should have expected that, shouldn’t we!! That’s the unique beauty, wonder and excitement of the STAR WARS SAGA, and one of the reasons why it will continue to endure into the next generation of fans, and the next, and the next…
Thank you, George Lucas, for re-igniting the creative fire we almost thought would never come back, and for once more catching all that magic in a bottle just for us!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EPISODE ONE!!
Above: superb artwork by Adriano Ticiano celebrating THE PHANTOM MENACE. Check out his great illustrations-including a lovely CLONE WARS animated series poster- at: http://fotolog.terra.com.br/aticiano
