Favorite Franchises: Star Wars Episode I- The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman
Directed by: George Lucas


It should come as no surprise that I love Star Wars. Since as long as I can remember, Star Wars has been a part of my life. With a new film coming out in a few weeks, there's no better time than to share my thoughts on this groundbreaking saga. However, there's a lot of conflicting thoughts and feelings that I have for this franchise. For starters, while I am in full support of watching this in the order they were made (starting with A New Hope), I realize with The Force Awakens being the seventh film, I'll need to review these in numerical order. This also means I get to start with getting the worst out of the way early. It's no secret that the prequels aren't a beloved trilogy in most fans' eyes and a lot of that hate started with the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I think a lot of that hate arrives at the idea that fans waited 16 years since the last Star Wars film to get this one. Expectations were so high for it that I doubt any movie could have lived up to the hype. It's been 16 years since this movie's release, so let's see if the film is still THAT bad after the removal of the disappointing nostalgia goggles pertaining to the initial release of The Phantom Menace.

Let's start by bringing up the two scenes that most people bring up in defense of The Phantom Menace. The first is the Podracing scene. While a little too long for my taste, I can see where it gets its appeal. If you love NASCAR, you'll love seeing it in space. The true highlight of the film is the incredible lightsaber battle pitting Darth Maul against Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's so beautifully choreographed and accompanied by the amazing "Duel of the Fates" theme, it creates a final fighting scene that is worth the price of admission. As far as lightsaber battles go, this is my favorite one to watch. Sure, there are plenty of other lightsaber battles that are more story driven, but, on a pure action standpoint, this one gets me pumped every time I go through these films.

And then there's the one character everyone goes on about when it comes to this film, Darth Maul, played by Ray Park. Again, a lot of that comes to the physicality and choreography he brings to the lightsaber battles. There's also something very appealing about his look. The red and black skin, the red and yellow eyes, the horns, the double-bladed lightsaber. He's got a very memorable look that came about at the right time and took the world by storm. Heck, I remember dressing up as Darth Maul for Halloween in 1999. However, there's a big gripe that can be taken with Darth Maul and that's that his time in the film (and the entire series) is way too short. He has maybe two lines of dialogue, shows up in about 4 or 5 scenes, and then that's it. Yes, he's part of the film's best scene, but there's nothing to know about his character outside of his look. Sure, as a kid, I didn't care. But as an adult and a movie reviewer, you start to take notice of those things. Oh well, he's still pretty awesome.

Last of the fun characters and then we'll dig in to the crap. Liam Neeson plays Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. I think most people like Qui-Gon because of Neeson and not the character himself. Today, Liam Neeson has an almost Chuck Norris-like following from his fans, so when you put a lightsaber in his hands, people are bound to have some fun with that. However, I found myself getting really frustrated with Qui-Gon as a character. It's hard to explain, but he just makes a lot of mistakes and poor judgment calls that lead to him being a terrible main character to follow. Plus, he's responsible for explaining to the world that the Force is powered by midi-chlorians. The less we say about that subject the better.

The really good moments of the film stop there and the film's worst moments begin with the character of Jar Jar Binks, voiced by Ahmed Best. This clumsy, annoying, and (possibly) racially offensive character is the butt of many jokes geared towards the prequels. Every moment he's on screen is painful. There's only so much I can say about him that hasn't already been said by nearly every fan on the planet. He's a step in the completely wrong direction for tone and momentum when trying to watch the film. In the original trilogy, characters like C-3PO, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and even Han Solo in moments are used for comedic relief to bring a little levity to the deep and emotionally heavy story that is taking place. Here, the film is already so boring and hard to invest in, that when Jar Jar shows up in scenes, he's absolutely getting in the way and making it even more difficult to give a crap about what's going on. His comedy is not versatile. He has only one dial: annoy everyone in the film and in the audience. Cause that's something I'm really looking for in one of the characters with the most screen time in this film.

Jake Lloyd plays the child version of Anakin Skywalker. Here is the main problem with this film, in my opinion, but unlike a good number of Star Wars fans, I'm not blaming this kid. I'm a 22-year-old man and I'm not going to blame a film's failure on a 10-year-old child. What sense does that make? The real person to blame is George Lucas for thinking THIS was what fans wanted to see in exploring the origins of the man who would eventually (*SPOILERS?*) become Darth Vader. Yes, Jake Lloyd's acting is wooden and very noticeably bad, but he didn't just insert himself into the film. Someone had to audition 3000 child actors and say "Yeah, this kid's exactly what we're looking for." At the end of the day, it's the poor conceptualization that led to the insane amount of backlash surrounding Jake Lloyd and kid Anakin.

It's been 16 years and I think it's really difficult to add anything to the amount of hatred moviegoers have towards Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. What could I possibly say that would be able to stand out from what nearly every other critic or moviegoer has said for nearly 2 decades? It would be the movie equivalent of kicking a dead horse, and that can only be entertaining for so long. I will say one final thought about The Phantom Menace before I move on from it, this is NOT my least favorite Star Wars film. Don't get me wrong, it's a bad movie. But I'd rather watch something that is laughably bad than a film that is irritatingly bad. For that reason, I'll enjoy every cheesy, poorly written, badly acted, overly saturated CGI filled moment of The Phantom Menace.


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is filled with problems, but enough time has passed to where I can watch it and have a good laugh. Not every Star Wars fan is going to have this response, as this film still gets a lot of flak from a very large fan base. For that, I can't recommend this movie for everyone. The casual moviegoer looking to get in to Star Wars can go ahead and skip this installment, but look up the film's final lightsaber battle. That is quite a highlight for a horrible movie.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and movie images are copyrighted by 20th Century Fox