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Fans give `Phantom' a galaxy of stars By BILL VARBLE Gavin Throop may have best summed up the reaction of local fans to "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," which opened Wednesday. "Eleventeen stars," he said. Throop, 18, of Phoenix had just seen the 1 p.m. showing at Tinseltown in Medford. "It was worth waiting for," he said. Arty Rozett agreed. "If anything, it was underhyped," said the 17-year-old Talent resident. "As many stars as you can," said 16-year-old Luke Minifie of Phoenix. "They just keep getting better." In case you've been in a galaxy far, far away, here's the deal with George Lucas' latest, the "prequel" to the original "Star Wars" movie trilogy of the 1970s and '80s: "Phantom Menace" goes back a generation earlier. Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are sent to the planet Naboo, where they wind up in an invasion and rescue a queen. They get marooned on Tatooine, where they meet Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the future Darth Vader, who may be a Jedi-predicted messiah. There's a lizard-giraffe creature, a wicked Sith warrior and an underwater civilization. We meet the future evil emperor Palpatine and a young Yoda and discover R2-D2 and C-3PO's roots, and uh, you get the idea. There's stunning art direction and costuming. There's Coruscant -- a planet of skyscrapers -- and Trisha Biggar's intricate costumes and incredible, new-generation computer graphics. Roger Moreno, 48, a fan of the original "Star Wars," went to the first showing, just after midnight Wednesday morning. Moreno, of Medford, said he wanted to see "Phantom Menace" with a hard-core crowd. He wasn't disappointed. "The atmosphere was electric," he said. "We were so excited we stood there afterward and talked." Moreno's son, Roger II, 20, thought the picture overcame a too-sudden opening scene ("It just jumped into the problem") and just went upward from there. He gave it a solid four stars. There were some quibbles among the faithful, to be sure, but they were minor, mere oscillations in the Force. Moreno thought the villainous Darth Maul lacked the presence of Darth Vader. And he was disappointed in Samuel L. Jackson's relatively minor part. Will Louks, 16, of Phoenix, sounded as if the special effects almost outshone the story. "I kind of like the story line behind the whole trilogy," he said. "They're trying to free a trade route, and ... " "Dude, did you fall asleep?" Rozett interrupted. Throop said the epic's flaws were minor indeed -- "Like the guys who were talking like a spoof of an old Japanese monster movie." Minifie said the picture's place in galactic history won't be known until the second trilogy is complete early in the next millennium. "We grew up with Han Solo," he said. "You went from `Lost in Space' to `Star Wars,' which is good. "We went from `Star Wars' to this." "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" is a 20th Century Fox release. It was produced by Rick McCallum with Lucas as executive producer and screenwriter. It contains violence without gore. It's rated PG. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA