What if all movie reviews were like this?

After nearly 20 years of anticipation, George Lucas finally whets the appetite of millions of fanboys worldwide with the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to theaters everywhere. Although this latest installment has it’s share of issues, it proves absence makes the heart grows fonder and is not D.O.A. at the cineplex.

Screenplay

After the movie opens with its signature Star Wars crawl, it follows the exploits of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Trainspotting’s Ewan McGregor) and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn played by venerable actor Liam Neeson, approximately 40 years before the events of Episode IV (you know, the original Star Wars). Sent by the Jedi Council to investigate some political goings-on that just don’t seem right to the Republic, they encounter resistance with the Trade Federation and a new species of aliens called the Nemoidians; from which they are gassed, chased by cool roly-poly transforming Battle Droids, and subsequently escape as stowaways on a Trade Federation ship headed to the planet of Naboo.

Naboo and, for all intents and purposes, Coruscant, are beautiful new worlds to the Star Wars universe. The movie does a lot of backtracking to familiar surroundings, such as Tatooine, but through the magic of special effects these worlds seem new again. Especially one sequence which involves young Anakin racing for his life in a futuristic motorsport known as “pod racing”. Another memorable aspect of the movie involves basically every scene staring the franchise’s new bad guy, Darth Maul.

As the movie progresses, Obi-Wan’s party grows with the addition of Naboo’s queen, an amphibious alien known as Jar-Jar, the aforementioned young Anakin. The movie’s mechanic does a great job of growing the central characters Obi-Wan and Anakin with each encounter, with the other characters providing ample support and comic relief through quality dialog options. Of the 130 minutes it took to complete this film, it is well-paced and avoids any substantial lulls.

Graphics

Stunning, absolutely stunning. As mentioned above, the familiar Tatooine looks brand-new thanks to a facelift of galactic proportions. Alien races are all modeled particularly well and varied, and every world visited looks much different from the last. The framerate, especially during the pod racing sequence and the final boss battle, is consistent. Depth in scenery is far and shows off the environments as they were intended.

One thing of note is the sometimes awkward animations of the supporting character, Jar-Jar. Most of the time they are convincingly integrated with the live-action counterparts, but there are times where the animations look out of place. This does not deter from the overall experience and is but a blemish in an otherwise gorgeous movie.

Sound

Lucas does it again, and this is where his movies really shine. A Star Wars movie is instantaneously identifiable by its sound effects, and TPM is no different. From the lightsaber sounds to the spaceship engines, every sound is unique to the Star Wars world. Again, the pod racing sequence is especially gratifying and sounds just like a Formula One race from “A galaxy far far away…” should.

John Williams’ music is pretty much par for the course here. He’s had such a great career with other movies and raised the bar so high, this one has a hard time of beating anything else he’s done. Still, the music sounds great regardless of whether it is coming from a 5.1 surround system or a set of headphones.

Multiplayer

There is no multiplayer options to speak of with TPM, but the journey is so much fun it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of friends watch it with you!

Overall

TPM is not a perfect movie. Still, its issues are minor and it still delivers a qualiity and substantial experience that stands among the best of the year.

Score: 9.7 (not an average)

Okay, so does that not sound ridiculous to you? Why then does game “journalism” settle with such modest aspirations? And how is it that an industry with yearly revenue in the tens of billions of dollars depend on coverage by twenty-something English majors fresh out of college who got their first jobs at a game magazine by using a personal blog as a portfolio? I’m generalizing, and I apologize to the handful of truly worthwhile game journalists who can call themselves as such. But still, it’s a problem when investigative journalism takes a distant seat to what is dominated by product reviews. If that were pertinent to other industries like music, film and television, then why isn’t Consumer Reports the de facto source of information on these media?

I’ve always wondered why the games industry has never been covered like Silicon Valley during the dot com era. There are so many crazy stories to be told, but most outlets are afraid of breaking a story in fear they’ll be cut off from their future review copies. Instead they keep what they hear during industry pub crawls to themselves and go back to their offices to write crap that doesn’t do justice to the craft of making video games.

I’ve been inspired by recent gaming podcasts and magazines. Why is it that in 2008, what may very well be the best year for video games, coverage is relegated to amateurs? Why when a year releases like Mirror’s Edge, Too Human, and Little Big Planet have such a polarizing effect on their players, that this doesn’t inspire individuals to manifest such emotion into their writings?

This only has to be insulting to the people involved in making a game – from the developers to the publishers to the marketers to the PR groups. It’s all just a game.

And it shouldn’t be that way.