Early Word: Patchy <i>Menace</i>

Much to the chagrin of the movie's distributor, professional critics already are publishing their opinions of The Phantom Menace, and they are far from unqualified raves.

Critics for several newspapers and magazines are making their reviews public before May 19, the day of the movie's official release, a departure from custom, and Twentieth Century Fox is not happy.

Here's a sampling of what the professionals are saying:

The movie is a disappointment. A big one. Will you take my word for it? Of course not. This massively marketed movie is virtually critic-proof. Everyone feels he must find out for himself.

It's been 22 years since Lucas directed a movie, and he's gotten rusty. His rhythm is off. Many of the scenes feel shapeless and flat. They're not ended, but abandoned. He doesn't seem to care about building a character.

In the end, Phantom needed more human and less digital scale. The magic of Star Wars lay in Lucas' ability to play the human comedy in a fantastic future. With Phantom, he has brought the series to the brink of total artificiality, the future as a video game.

Who knows? When he gets around to making the third trilogy, he may require no cast at all.

It's safe to say that Phantom Menace presents the most elaborate, thoroughly integrated fantasy universe ever put on film.

You could watch it without sound and still be enthralled.

One suspects that Lucas was more interested in the aliens than the humans, and in the art direction than the direction of actors. The vistas of the imperial city Coruscant and the Gungan sea kingdom have a suave rapture; but some of the dialogue scenes are way too starchy, as if the actors had been left to their own resources while George minded the computerized menagerie.