{An extension of the Greek Gods pairings, where Padme Amidala is Athena, Leia Organna is Artemis, and Rey is Nike.}
As a teenager in the 90s, I was as big into Star Wars as you can probably be without dressing up as a stormtrooper. I knew every line of dialogue from the films, I had all the toys, read all the comics and novels, even played the RPG. Then a new Star Wars movie came out and pretty much put the kibosh on my intense fandom in one fell swoop.
Now that The Force Awakens is out, people seem to be re-appraising the prequels. I wondered if time might rehabilitate them a bit for me, but sadly that hasn’t really been the case. They remain an intensely flawed series of films, though I have come away from re-watching them all with a renewed admiration for George Lucas’ willingness to try new things. For all the wrong moves these movies make, they are constantly giving us new environments, new ships, new types of aliens, and even new wrinkles to Force and the way it’s used. I think The Force Awakens is probably a better film than each of Episode I-III, but it’s conservative interest in fan service and homage calls even further attention to Lucas’ bravery with the prequels. It’s just a pity he couldn’t translate that daring into quality films.
Looking at The Phantom Menace (1999) in particular, I think it has actually aged the best of all three and is the only one of them that works as a reasonably pleasing stand-alone film. Jar Jar Binks remains a major miscalculation, as do all the racist caricatures standing in for aliens. The CGI has also dated very badly. The environments lack texture and the droids and creatures don’t have much heft or presence. On top of all that, most of the performances are stiff, though this is something that actually gets much worse in Attack of the Clones.
Phantom Menace is also the most blatantly directed at young children of any of the SW films, and while this tone is incongruous with whole, it does seem to help blunt the edges of it’s faults and allow for the good stuff to shine through a little better. The script deftly handles Palpatine’s manipulations, John Williams delivers an excellent score that combines classic themes with exciting new pieces, and Ben Burtt provides excellent sound design, especially during the lengthy pod race sequence.
Speaking of, I think this film probably features all the best action in the entire trilogy. The big four-battlefront finale is worthy of the extended denouements in Episodes IV and VI, with the climactic lightsaber duel being especially thrilling. The moment wherein the blast doors open to reveal Dath Maul and the opening notes of ‘Duel of the Fates’ play is a legitimately spine-tingling bit of filmmaking and the entire remainder of that fight is packed with good character work. And no offense to the great Christopher Lee, but Maul remains the prequels’ best new villain.
In short, I was pleasantly surprised in a way, that The Phantom Menace is actually a bit better than I remember it. The dodgy stuff in it doesn’t seem so bad in comparison to the follow-ups, and the best stuff in it is probably the best in the trilogy. I’d rank it my fifth favorite out of the seven films in the entire series, for whatever that’s worth.
More screenshots to come, as well as reviews of the other two prequels.
So cracking open our box of star wars memorabilia from the 90s-00s was a sheer delight
From Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). More on the homepage.
You have to admire the chutzpah of that opening crawl paragraph!