Author: George Lucas
Category: movie
Company/Publisher: ILM
Line: Star Wars
Cost: $10 US
Page count: 2h30m
Capsule Review by David Rowe on 05/20/99.
Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Space

Sandy probably has around a half dozen Star Wars reviews to look through this week; so, I am going to add one more to the list.

This review though is going to focus on The Phantom Menace from the gamer's perspective. Additionally, I am not going to include any story spoilers within this review.

First, the movie is great. Go see it and then go see it again. There is plenty to see and it is impossible to catch it in one pass. There is stuff going on in the background. I saw an occasional bit but I am sure there was plenty that I missed.

Now to the gamer's perspective of the movie.

First the stuff I felt was bad or hurt the Star Wars image.

1 ) The idea that the ability to use the force is the result of some kind of symbiote that lives in some people's cells. That makes using the force the result of some sort of bug or a disease. I am sorry but the idea of players running off to get their blood tested to find out many bugs they have in their blood is not my idea of the force. Some times people work to hard at providing a "scientific explanation" to everything rather than admit that some things are beyond are present level of science to understand fully. Personally, I liked the idea that the force was the result of mystical spiritualism and am revolted at the suggestion that the force is a product of a germ in Jedi Master's bodies. Yuch!

2 ) Queen Amidala's ship is too sleek and mirror polished for my taste and view of the Star Wars universe. It also looks suspiciously like a Blackbird plane. It also is a dead ringer for the space ship in Beast Wars that brings Rampage to earth. I think the modelers cut corners here rather than do something original. The ship should have had more metal work on the outside to show some detail and definitely some of the burn damage after getting shot up.

3 ) The Federation blockade suffers from the same problem as the Death Star. I am sure in the books it will be written up as possessing a whole fighter wing and several cruisers but where were they when the base was attacked. For that matter where did they all go between the start of the movie and the end of the movie ( Originally there must have been over a hundred bases and at the end of the movie there is only one with no explanation for where the others went. )

4 ) The casting of Anakin as an eight year old was too young. It would have been far better if he was twelve to fourteen. I find it hard to believe he is supposed to have a love interest at eight years of age. Not any boys I know want anything to do with girls. They also establish he has the potential for being a good pilot in the pod race but then have him act like in idiot in a fighter. Far better to have built are confidence in the character of Anakin to have a short scene where he flies a computer simulation of a fighter rather than have him fumble around for the start switch. It is also hard to believe that the Jedi decide Anakin is too old to be trained as a Jedi when he is only eight yrs old. When do they start training Jedi? When they are two?

5 ) Someone is going to have to provide Lucas with a science lesson about the nature of planets and their cores. Trying to fly through a planet's core is going to be a bit difficult ( I understand it was done in Lost in Space but they had an explanation why they could do in their case; the whole world was breaking apart ).

Now on to the good stuff that does not need a suspension of disbelief.

1 ) You get a great example of a spaceship battle, ground assault, commando mission, Jedi battle, and political battle. This provides GM's with countless examples of good plot development and opportunities to borrow ideas for future roleplaying.

2 ) There is a great look at Corsucant and how the Republic government functioned including the council chambers.

3 ) There is a great profusion of new droids and alien races. Lucas does a great job of making them all feel unique. Some may not like Jar jar BInks but I think he adds the needed comedy relief that would have been missing without more involvement of the characters of C3-P0 and R2-D2.

4 ) We get some important origin stories for characters like the droids and Obiwan.

5 ) We get new ships to add to our space battles.

6 ) We get to see how technology is applied in truly backwards ways in the outer rim. This is best summed up in two scenes. The first is of a Bantha pulling a repulsor sled ( what no engine? ). The second is in the ground battle scene ( remember no spoilers but see the movie and you will understand ).

7 ) We get to see Jedi powers at work again. No new powers that I noticed ( except possibly in the beginning of the movie ) but they are much more prominently used.

8 ) We learn more of how R2 and R5 units are meant to be used for damage control.

9 ) Overall, it is a good story which will provide plenty of opportunities to spawn new adventures.

Overall, I would say that the pluses out weigh the minuses to roleplayers. I may have to say my RPGing is no longer in the official Lucas world as I refuse to accept being a Jedi is akin to a bad cold ,but otherwise it will continue to the source of roleplaying inspiration for a long, long, time to come.

DM_Dave aka GM_Rowe aka