The Phantom Menace - What does it add to the Saga?

Regarding the performances and Lucas' direction of the actors in TPM:

I just watched TPM in English last night for the first time in several months; lately I've been watching the PT in Spanish (having found that the dialogue and vocal performances are rather improved upon in the Latin-derived language). That said, I found that I had missed Jake Lloyd's voice; he's actually a pretty good little actor and I have no problem with his performance. MacGregor is similarly indelible, and obviously Neeson is hard to beat as a magnetic, authoritative presence. Portman is also very good as the queen, but her dry, lifeless voice as Padme is distractingly amateurish and needs a re-dub (too late!). I'm also not a fan of Pernilla August, who just seems to scream "I'm acting! Look at me, I'm acting!" every time she's on screen and/or opens her mouth. Everyone else is terrific in their bit parts, esp. McDiarmid, and I like Quarshie's constantly negative criticisms of everything going on around him. Perhaps Jackson is a little underwhelming here, but Mace is a small role and he becomes more compelling in the next film.

So what does TPM add to the Saga in terms of performances? It adds charismatic actors trying to do their best to breathe life into clunky dialogue and one-dimensional, cliched archetypes. Portman isn't quite up to the task yet, but Lloyd acquits himself nicely, and everyone else does a fine job of it.

 

TPM shows us how an unarmed society can suddenly find a need for an army, AND suddenly raise one in order to defend itself and save the day.

it prepares us for the events of the next two films, by making the audience sympathize with the creation of the clone army, before it even happens.

the KEY SCENE in the entire movie is where padme is staring out the window and jarjar says "yousa peoples gonna die?.. the gungans have a grand army.. etc"

IN THAT SCENE she decides on a course of action which is PARALLEL to the creation of the clone army in episode2.



conundrum ---> if the audience sympathises with her motivations in TPM, then they NOW MUST sympathize with the creation of the clone army AND the beginning of the clone wars AND the creation of the Empire.

((which is exactly why jar-jar is the one to propose the creation of the army, in her absence. we know that padme was against the military creation act. BUT jar jar was the one, in that pivotal scene in TPM, who witnessed her decision to suddenly raise an army and fight for naboo. he is ONLY doing EXACTLY what padme did in TPM - and for the SAME reasons))

TPM introduces the audience to the moral dilemna that Our Heroes face in ep2 ..AND.. it makes us sympathize with the wrong decision which is made at the end of episode2.

ie: HOW can the audience possibly sympathize with senator Organa in the final scene of AOTC (watching the Clone War begin with a sense of dread)..
.. if they (also) sympathize with padme in TPM ?

-==================-

TPM introduces, on a planetary scale, the political mechanism by which the Empire will ultimately be created, on a galactic scale

!AND!

it makes us sympathetic to it - because padme thought it up

 

Darth Maul, the twin bladed light sabre and the score. Indeed, the JW score is ironically very, very powerful (second only to ESB!) for such a weak movie.