May The 4th Review : The Phantom Menace by Ian Doescher

 

 

 

The Phantom Menace isn’t my favorite Star Wars film. In fact its the only Star Wars film I don’t own. Over the years I’ve mellowed to the film and so I was interested to see what Ian would come up with for this adaption, along with adding another beautifully illustrated volume to my book shelf.

I wasn’t disappointed. Ian has a wonderful way of distilling the essence of each of the movies and seamlessly pairing them with Shakespearian dialogue. Padme & to my surprise Jar Jar easily slip into story tropes consistent in Shakespeare’s plays: Valiant women, and  fools, whose innocuous nature hides a deeper intelligence.

I’ll confess that Doescher turned many of my cringe worthy memories about Phantom into interesting plot threads.  A really stellar read! I'm so excited for the next book in the series.