Shaf-2

...that the grossly cynical and horrifically misguided review that graces the imdb entry's front page would be written by someone that doesn't know the difference between "its" and "it's". Or, for that matter, someone who claims that the movie abuses its source material but then proceeds to take to task plot points that stems directly from the book.

A defining movie for our times. The power of LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring in its nearly-perfect filmic form goes to illustrate just how effective the source material is to begin with - just how good a story it tells. The movie is impressive in its own right, bringing an epic feel to the screen that hasn't been seen since Hollywood's Golden Age, and that accomplishes it via a revolution in technology, special effects, and meticulousness. Expect the genre of fantasy filmmaking to receive its long-overdue true genesis as a direct result of Peter Jackson's efforts to bring the genre's most classic story to life. The movie is every bit as groundbreaking as the books were.

Permanent Record is one of those rare movies that doesn't feel like a movie; it feels like it could have been lifted straight out of your past. While most high school movies center upon the superficialities of High School life, Permanent Record goes right for the guts of it, knowing that there are no easy answers, no simple solutions.

As such, it represents not a single stitch of calculated drama, and doesn't even really have much of a plot, substituting that instead for a series of seemingly disconnected events that don't lead anywhere definite, but still manage to give off the distinct impression that none of the characters' lives will ever be the same as they were when the movie begins.

This isn't a movie you will watch if you want to be entertained. But it is a movie that, if you are prone to such behavior, you will be thinking about even years after having seen it. To that end, it is virtually unsurpassed.

If you truly want to comprehend the impact a movie like Episode I is capable of delivering, the only way to see it is with somebody who has never seen the older trilogy. I've had the good fortune of doing this, and the look on this person's face, the absolute delight at the visual wonders and magnificently simple story-telling, was worth the price of admission for both of us. If you can do this and still state that this movie lacks the soul of the original trilogy, well, phooey. You're wrong.

Opinions of this movie were formed well before it was finished ... well before anyone knew anything about it, in fact. The die-hard fans could have been subjected to a showing of Speed 2 and claimed it to be a masterpiece, while the naysayers could have seen a movie with twice the impact of Citizen Kane and still proclaimed it to be a piece of crap. In a very real way, this movie is an inkblot test: your opinion of it says more about yourself than it does about the movie.

As for myself, well, I feel sorry for anyone that doesn't love this movie. To take an object of such pure imagination and dissect it, searching for flaws, is to miss the point. No single specific criticism has been made of The Phantom Menace that can't also be made of the original trilogy, but these criticisms aren't important. What matters is the fact that these movies are the visual realization of an amazing imagination, contained within a mythological story of good versus evil, told in a way that will, with time, transcend the criticisms of it that have been made thusfar.

Lucas knows how to tell a story the way stories were originally meant to be told. He wowed us once, with a trilogy that has defied its aging and will forever remain a classic. 20 years later, he's showing us he hasn't missed a beat.