Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
Written: Jun 07 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: um . . . "Duel of the Fates" is pretty good.
Cons: "Duel of the Fates" is the only song I can pick out among the crowd.
The Bottom Line: Then again, I could be wrong. Maybe the ones who prefer Star Wars over Star Trek LOVE this soundtrack. Give me a certain Starship any day, though.
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| cdm72's Full Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace by Origi... |
You can drink Coke and Pepsi, but you know there’s one you prefer. You can listen to the Beatles and Elvis, but you know there’s one you prefer. You can watch Star Trek and Star Wars, but you know . . . you get the point. Myself, I drink Coke like my life depended on it, listen to The Beatles, and I’ve always been a much bigger Star Trek fan than Star Wars. Oh, I dig Star Wars. I think Lucas’s universe is a magical one, and his films are some of the prettiest visually ever made. But I also think his universe, from what I’ve seen and read, depends too much on one particular struggle, the empire vs. the rebels or, on a grander scale, the dark side vs. the light. Trek, however, is all about starship captains kicking a** and taking names. Over and over.
I saw all three original Star Wars movies in the theater as a kid, and when Lucas re-released them in 1996 and 1997, I saw the first one again. I even bought the ticket for the re-release of EMPIRE, but I never made it to the theater that night. And to be honest, I never regretted my change of plans. Because in my heart I’ve always known that, well, it’s just Star Wars. And here are just certain things you’ll always be able to rely on with a Star Wars movie. One, there are going to be about a million scenes in the movie, some may be only a minute long, and absolutely nothing will happen before the wipe to the next scene. EMPIRE is rampant with this. Two: if you’ve seen the movie once, sure there’ll be action and adventure, but you think viewing EMPIRE a second time is gonna change the outcome? Vader tells Luke “I’m your father” no matter how many times Lucas re-cuts that film. Three, John Williams’s score will overpower large chunks of the movie.
Which brings us to today’s review. When Lucas finally got around to making more Star Wars movies, the world was abuzz. The first of the new trilogy, THE PHANTOM MENACE make almost a BILLION dollars worldwide and you couldn’t turn on a television for a good three months without some new PHANTOM MENACE marketing ploy being touted like it was the be all end all of marketing ploys. I saw PHANTOM MENACE in the theaters and you wanna know my verdict? Well, I waited for ATTACK OF THE CLONES to hit video, that was my verdict. Oh, I enjoyed PHANTOM MENACE, just not enough to rush out on opening night for the sequel.
And when I was given a copy of the soundtrack, I listened to it a couple times, but quickly realized this wouldn’t be anything that received too much play in my stereo.
John Williams’s score for THE PHANTOM MENACE isn’t much different--isn’t ANY different--from anything else he’s done for the Star Wars series. It’s all very grand strings and horns, a hugely sweeping overture that comes down from Heaven and blankets everything. His “Star Wars Main Title” is one of the most recognizable pieces of music anywhere on this planet.
Unfortunately, with the exception of the main title and track two, “Duel of the Fates”, there’s not one other tune on this soundtrack that stands out. Hell sometimes, for instance track 6, “The Trip to the Naboo Temple and The Audience with Boss Nass”, the score is so quiet you can’t even be sure it’s still playing without turning it up a little more. Which is funny to me because subtlety is NOT Lucas’s strong point.
At other times, the whole thing feels just too over the top, “The Arrival at Tatooine and The Flag Parade” being such a case. And yes, as you can see most of the tracks are doubled:
“Jar Jar's Introduction and The Swim to Otoh Gunga”
“The Sith Spacecraft and The Droid Battle”
“The Droid Invasion and The Appearance of Darth Maul”
“The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon's Funeral”
“Augie's Great Municipal Band and End Credits”
Maybe Lucas and Williams were just trying to cram as much onto one disc as they could.
I’ve always thought a good score should make good background music if you’re listening to it while doing something else, for example at work if you have an office job. THE PHANTOM MENACE makes terrible background music. During “He is the Chosen” one, you’ll think someone turned down the volume because you can barely hear it. So you turn it up a little, but then “Anakin Defeats Sebulba” comes on and, God willing, your office isn’t a very busy one because you’ll be blasted away and everyone around you will look over and wonder WTF??? But don’t worry because the next song, “Passage Through the Planet Core” is another whisper of a tune. Well, for the first 3 minutes anyway, then it sounds just like all the other loud songs here.
As you listen to THE PHANTOM MENACE you may begin to think John Williams and Danny Elfman have a lot in common, namely if you’ve heard one composition you’ve heard them all. In Williams’s defense, though, he does switch back and forth on THE PHANTOM MENACE between barely there and in your face, so there’s that I guess.
What it all comes down to is this: THE PHANTOM MENACE doesn’t make a great soundtrack. It’s got its moments where it reminds you you’re listening to it, but overall it pretty much keeps to itself and doesn’t bother anyone. You won’t remember a thing about it once the disc is over, you may even forget you own it from time to time. God knows I have. As a soundtrack THE PHANTOM MENACE was obviously designed to accentuate the movie, NOT to stand alone as its own thing. It works well as a seasoning, but as a main dish, not so much. Williams obviously had only two settings when scoring the first movie, too quiet or too loud, and with no middle ground, and so little variety--again, the loud songs all sound alike, the quiet songs all sound alike, you just can’t tell from one song to the next what you’re even listening to without checking the track list yourself--it all kind of melds together until all you’re left with is one 74-minute song. YAWN.
Other Soundtracks in My Collection:
10 Things I Hate About You
300
Boogie Nights
City of Angels
Daredevil
Death Proof
From Dusk Till Dawn
Garden State
Godfather Trilogy
Grosse Point Blank
Independence Day
Jackie Brown
Juno
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Napoleon Dynamite
Natural Born Killers
The Passion of the Christ
Planet Terror
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
The Punisher
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Spider-Man 2
Star Trek the Motion Picture
Recommended:
No
Great Music to Play While: Listening
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cdm72
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Location: St. Joseph, MO, USA
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That's me in front of Trent Reznor's house in NOLA several years ago.
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