Ah yes. The star wars movie that generation X had been waiting for more than a decade and a half to supplant their own sci-fi movie-dominated childhoods since the release of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) and the initial introduction into the Star Wars universe for many belonging to generation Y and the millenial youth such as myself. It is probably a bit embarressing when I think about it that my first foray into the most profitable and endlessley scrutinised intellectual property in popular culture history is through one of its lesser-regarded entries. Even to this day after growing up with the initial six Star Wars movies, experiencing the wonder that is Disney making a seventh movie, living through the days of those two really underrated Clone Wars cartoons, growing up playing games like Star Wars Battlefront II (2005), Star Wars Empire at War (2006) and Star Wars Republic Commando (2005), I maintain that the best thing to come out of the franchise so far is the omnipotent blockbuster powerhouse that is Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980). This film in particular being the best film in the franchise to date, the quintisential sci-fi movie of the early-1980s alongside ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Blade Runner (1982) albeit still not being my personal favourite sci-fi movie of all time, that distinction would probably still have to go to Robocop (1987). But still, the fact that Phantom Menace was the link between this megafranchise and the new technological and cultural age of the new millenium meant that the first Star Wars film in 16 years had a BIG pair of shoes to fill.
Unfortunatley, much of the population of popular-culture's response to Phantom Menance when it initally came out was akin to...
So, you guys are probably wondering what I think about the film that works right? Well allot of things really primarily in its art asethetic. In fact, many people who argue in favour of this film as both a follow-up to the original trilogy or upon its own merits seem to vaunt the action as its strongest feature and they're probably right but I personally enjoyed the ethos, cultural imagery and style of the film the most. Admittedley there's no wonderous whimsy as with Endor, any naturally lethal environs as with Hoth but the film at the very least offers up an interesting look at some unfamiliar and new planets like Naboo and Courasaunt and reinvents the Mad Max-style of Tatooine. Naboo is the place for me where most of the positives about the style lay as this planet in particular is emblamatic of much of the cultural style of sci-fi epics from the late-1990s (again with exception to The Matrix which had more of a retro-futuristic timelessnes)
as it shows a regal smoothness to much of the architechture in a similar sense to the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003). This is also combined with the uniquely vibrant and timeless cultural stle of the old Star Wars universe and the jedi order which up until Phantom Menace had been an unkown enigma to a large degree in popular culture. Now think about that for a second, this is the film that introduced us personally to the jedi council which in large part asied from the dark machinations of the sith lords and the life and tribulations of Luke and Anakin Skywalker is in fact the main driving narrative force behind the entire franchise. So in a sense, not only did this movie update the visual style while keeping in touch with the style prevailent in the old films but also introduced us to one of the most important and mythologised parts of the overall Star Wars narrative.
In turn, what is undoubtedly the other best part of the film is the action scenes. Admittedley the direction in the lightsaber fights is a little weak and lacking in the same level of elegance and style that made the previous lightsaber fights in the franchise so iconic (although the best lightsaber fight is still the final one from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)). However, the action and fights overall still convey their intended purpose; a rising level of stakes throughout the film's plotline and the ever-present swashbuckling blaster-battles and lightsaber-duels. My personal favourite action scene either has to be the very first aboard the battle-droid flaghship as Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Ewan McGreggor) and Qui-Gon Gin (played by Liam 'stop messing with me bad-guys' Neeson) or the very last wherin Obi-wan and Gin face off against the brutal enigma that is Darth Maul (played by Ray Park).
Aside from the aforementioned action and art-asethetic, Ray Park's Darth Maul is definetly the other main aspect of the film that people both love and remember the most. Up until this point the two representatives of the sith lords had been the half-man half-machine tragic vilain of Darth Vader and the cruel, whizened and dictatorial sadistical evil of Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine. Darth Maul represented a new and fresh take on the dark enigma of the sith lords when Phantom Menace came out as he was definitivley younger than either previous vilains of the franchise, was much more energetic and spoke far less. Add to this his now-iconic double-bladed red lightsaber (which is still probably the coolest one in the franchise aside from Samuel Jackson's Mace Windu's purple one) and you get one of the most iconic film antagonists and characters in general of the whole of the 1990s. Darth Maul was also an interesting design and character sidestep when you think about it in the context of the Star Wars franchise as both Sidious and Vader are recognised as two of the most iconic vilains in pop-culture history and were characterised not only by their iconic actions but also their iconic vilanous quotes. Maul on the other hand is far removed from that image being more colourful, barely saying even a couple of lines throughout the movie and being more younger and enrgetic when we are introduced to him than we were when introduce to Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Many people sight either Vader, Sidious or Count Dooku (played in the two sequels to Phantom Menace by the legend Christopher Lee) as the best vilain in the franchise but for a long chunk of my younger, millenial years, my top dog in terms of sci-fi movie vilains was definetly Maul.
So taking all that into account and considering why I still think that this film is the fourth best in the franchise (and yes, I do think its better than Return of the Jedi), what doesn't work about this film? Well the unrestricted intellectual machinations of George Lucas for one thing. Its quite clear from the original trilogy as well as his other earlier works that Lucas was and always has been a huge well of creativity and fresh ideas particularly to do with the pop-culture of sci-fi and especially in movies. For the longest time, even up to this day, he is considered as being one of the most impactful producers and directors in filming history. Which in turn makes it all the more necessary for him to have some limitations placed on that creativity. Now I'm not saying that all creativity needs a leash, you only need to look at Quentin Tarentino or a good chunk of the directors of the Marvel movies to see that unrestircted creativity can yield wonderous fruits and good films, depending on the individual and context. Lucas however, is one of those people in the film industry who like the legendary actor Marlon Brando (1924-2004), is so overbued with creativity that if you completley let him have total control over his work yyou'll end up with something that is far more style-over-substance than people originally thought. Hence thre reason why Phantom Menace is probably so derided for its plot and rightfully so. Look, I can freely admit that I really like Phantom Menace but you'll never find me defending the story and plot to a great extent as it goes all over the fuckin place and is thematically, almost nonsensical at certain points. Certainly, the film has the weakest plot of the franchise despite certainly not being the weakest of the bunch and as such gets lauded as one of the worst films of the 1990s which I just flat out disagree with. Like I said, the film is far from perfect but taken on its own merits as a cheesy, action-packed sci-fi blockbuster, it kind of adds up to something charming.
You know what isn't charming about the film though? This fucker...
The other main reason why people tend to lump this film with other late-1990s and early-2000s sci-fi misteps like TITAN A.E (2000, which I happen to also think is a little over-hated) is because of the admittedly weak peformance as a young and freshfaced Anakin Skywalker by Jake Lloyd.
Now I'm not going to defend Lloyd's peformance in this film as it is definetly his weakness and is a big factor in why people tend to dislike Phantom Menace but I at least tend to think that the hatred aimed towards him because of his peformance and involvement in what amounted to an ultimatley disappointing follow-up to the original trilogy garners him some disproportionate hatred. Besides, at least he wasn't as bad as Hayden Christensen.
All in all, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is perhaps not the best way to follow up the groundbreaking, genre-defining and massive popularity of the original trilogy but as a singular movie ti still holds up. Its good as an action and sci-fi film, captures at least a small part of the wonder of the earlier years of the Star Wars franchise, defined sci-fi action flicks for half a decade afterwards and gave us at least two now-iconic characters for fans to mull over.
But hey, if you even still disagree with me, at least it wasn't as bad as this...
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