For the first time in five years, there is a Star Wars film in cinemas.
It’s not new, however. This year, Disney and Lucasfilm took advantage of May 4th to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menacethe first Star Wars prequel. (Yes, The phantom menace is older today than the first Star Wars was when The phantom menace premiered in theaters. The year 1999 itself was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.)
To call The phantom menaceComplicated legacy is an understatement. It arrived in theaters with more excitement and anticipation than perhaps any other film in history. It made hundreds of millions of dollars, but within a few years fan sentiment turned against it and the other prequels, and even against Jorge Lucas himself, the man who created everything Star Wars in the first place.
In the 2010s, there were documentaries about Star Wars fandom and its hatred for Lucas; people (it’s weird to call them “fans” in this context) wrote songs about how much they despised what Star Wars became and blamed Lucas for ruining their childhoods. (They also used a much less pretty word than ruined, which I won’t repeat here.) As hard as it is to believe today, when Lucas sold his company to Disney and they announced that they were reviving the franchise without his creative oversight, the reaction among fans was mostly euphoria.
SEE MORE INFORMATION: All Star Wars Film, ranked from worst to best
So Disney Star Wars the films were released and the pendulum began to swing in the other direction. Now, many fans blame Disney for “ruining” the franchise, while Lucas’ prequels are seen as misunderstood by many younger fans who grew up watching them over and over again. Ewan McGregor recently reprized his role as young Obi-Wan Kenobi from the prequels in a television series; Hayden Christen appeared as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader on that show, then made an even more positive appearance on Star Wars: Ahsoka.
In other words, nostalgia The phantom menace has never been higher, which made this the ideal time for Disney to re-release it in theaters It is for fans to re-evaluate the film with fresh eyes. How does that look separate from all this hype and all these huge expectations? Is it really a misunderstood gem?
I do not think. Although I enjoyed seeing it on the big screen for the first time in decades, unless Disney decides to re-release The phantom menace for its 30th anniversary, it may be a long time before I watch it again.
Certainly, The phantom menace has some standout sequences, all enhanced in a theatrical setting. Until Phantom Menace Haters admit that the ending of “Duel of the Fates,” involving a lightsaber battle between McGregor’s Obi-Wan, Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn and Ray Park’s Darth Maul, is special. On the big screen, it’s spectacular. The same goes for the long pod-racing sequence, where young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) competes in the alien NASCAR to win the parts Qui-Gon needs to repair his ship and help the embattled planetary leader, Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman).
From a story point of view, the podrace is path too long; the entire film stops for nearly ten minutes as Lucas unfolds the race in real time, lap by lap, and turn by turn. From the point of view of the spectacle, podrace is precisely what Star Wars needs: Pure excitement with incredible visuals, dynamic editing and incredible sound design – the last of which is particularly enhanced in a modern, well-equipped theater. When Anakin’s rival Sebulba roared past the camera in his cocoon, the entire auditorium shook with each distinct movement. buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh Bang of your huge engines.
The podrace and “Duel of the Fates” are both The phantom menace stand out for another reason: They’re largely wordless beats in a film where so many lines are incomprehensible, scary, or both. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are fine (and Neeson and McGregor are strong presences), but they keep hiring cute comedy sidekicks like the kid Anakin (who likes to pepper his dialogue with shouts of “Yippee!”) and, of course, the eternally exasperating Jar Jar Binks. The film continues to oscillate between genuinely cool characters and moments (like Darth Maul who, not coincidentally, barely speaks) and literal jokes about poop and farts.
The phantom menace It’s full of dichotomies like that. Lucas’s defense of Jar Jar and “Little Ani” and everyone Phantom MenaceThe usual endless comic relief was that it was designed as a kids’ movie, and kids love that sort of thing. He’s not wrong about that either. But if that was Lucas’s goal, why did he make a film with a plot so labyrinthine and inscrutable that not even those children’s parents can understand it? I’ve probably seen The phantom menace half a dozen times, and each time the opening text opens with “the taxation of trade routes,” my eyes glaze over.
The general outline of the story involves a scheme by a sinister Sith Lord named Darth Sidious (a holographic Ian McDiarmid) to gain control of the Galactic Senate by engineering a crisis on the planet Naboo. He convinces the Trade Federation to blockade the planet, and in the ensuing chaos, Sidious (in his alter ego as the benevolent Senator Palpatine) seizes dictatorial power.
This aspect is reasonably incisive in politics, both when The phantom menace was made and 25 years later. And yet every detail of Palpatine’s plot, beyond the broad strokes, is illogical, confusing, or downright stupid.
Naboo, for example, is presented as a verdant alien utopia filled with magnificent buildings, lush forests, and all manner of life forms. The Trade Federation (a federation of traders, I think, that also inexplicably commands a huge army of thousands of androids) blocks trade with the planet, and is instantly on the brink of total collapse. Meanwhile, Tattooine, Luke Skywalker’s deserted home in the original Star Wars (and Anakin Skywalker in this one), still seems to be getting along just fine, even though the place has no water and no obvious food sources without a huge spatial blockage. What does Naboo no Do they have what is so essential for their survival and what they need so much?
Individually, these elements can be qualified as criticism. But there are so many nits to pick in this story. Here are some more.
- Qui-Gon is obsessed with Anakin being trained as a Jedi because he believes he is a prophesied “chosen one” who will bring “balance to the Force.” But how The phantom menace begins the Force is fine. The Jedi don’t even realize that the Sith have returned until the end of the film. So why does it need to be in balance? How is this unbalanced? What could Anakin do to help the situation?
- Amidala is known as the “queen” of Naboo, but she was actually elected to that position. But she’s only 14! Do people on Naboo only live to be 25? Who elects a 14 year old to rule an entire planet?
- Amidala uses a decoy to protect herself from spies and saboteurs. (Famously, a young Keira Knightley plays Portman’s royal double.) But in a very strange scene, Knightley’s decoy orders Portman’s real queen (disguised as one of her maids) to clean up an R2-D2 dirty by no other reason other than, I guess, to mess with her boss at a time when she can’t do anything about it or risk blowing her own cover?
Together, all these little problems add up to an extremely strange film, full of great excitement and great boredom, supposedly designed for children and yet so incredibly complicated that no adult can understand it.
The phantom menace never ruined Star Wars, but it is not a forgotten masterpiece either. It has moments of wonder and grandeur and works better in the theater than at home. But I’m also pretty sure that if this had actually happened Episode I of this story – if the 1977 Star Wars was not done and The phantom menace was the way the public experienced this property for the first time – there would never have been a Episode II.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is now playing in theaters. It is also available for streaming on Disney+ – sign here.
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