In the summer of 1999, I saw The Phantom Menace four times in theaters. Star Wars had been introduced to me by my mom when she rented all three old school VHS tapes when I was ten. From there, I taped all of them on USA when they aired, and eventually bought the badass VHS remastered box set that came out in 1995. I also saw the doctored original films upon rerelease in 1997. So, at the time of the release of The Phantom Menace, Star Wars was already an imbedded, personal, important part of my life. I bring all this up to provide a little context surrounding the fact that I was obsessed with this movie when it opened despite its very obvious flaws. Even at the time of seeing it, I loved it, but questions lingered in the back of my mind. Yeah, young death Vader is in this movie, but why is this movie not really about him? Why is there an entire sub plot about random amphibians in a pond? Who gives a **** about trade federations? It looked like Star Wars, had that iconic John Williams score, was even edited like Star Wars, but it didn't FEEl like Star Wars.Eventually the realization hit me: this is straight up not a good movie. While that seems fairly obvious now, it hit this Star Wars obsessed teenager like a bag of hammers. It was my first pop-culture disappointment. So, countless reassessments, viewings , and hatred-filled internet posts later, and The Phantom Menace's reputation as - childhood raping, cinematic cancer was created. What this rewatch revealed to me though is something far simpler. Now, after years of life experience and perspective, I see The Phantom Menace for what it is-a deeply flawed film that actually has some good ideas at it's core.
The Good:
Believe it or not, there's alot of good stuff going on in this film that could have the basis for something a lot better than the final product. For starters, Liam Neeson provides gravity and stability to some of the patented stilted George Lucas dialogue that really no other actor could. In later roles, Neeson would become a pro at making ridiculous scenarios and dialogue,( the Taken films,) believable. Harrison Ford was able to do that in the OT, and I really think it's one of the main elements that is severely missing from the other prequels-actors who can handle terrible dialogue. Qui Gon dying, while essential to Obi Wan's arc, probably doomed the prequels.
Now, the obvious high point of the film is the Darth Maul/Oni Won/Qui Gon light Sabre battle. in rewatching the film, it's just as thrilling, we'll-shot, emotional, and well-choreographed as I remember it being. It really suggests a more interesting and interesting conflict between the Sith and the Jedi that the film simply doesn't explore.
I know Jake Lloyd has gotten a ton of underserved **** for his performance here, and this rewatch basically confirms it wasn't warranted. For a child actor, he does fine. Unfortunately, if you know about Lloyd's history, he's basically never gotten over the dumb Ass and toxic fanboy hate that ensued. Even if he was as bad as people suggested, he didn't deserve it. Unfortunately this sector of Star Wars fandom would rerun with The Last Jedi. More on that when we re watch it. Ian Mcdramdcis also great in this, as he is in al of the prequels.
The Bad:
Kind of everything else sucks on this movie. One thing that really stuck out with this re watch was the fact the George Lucas, as he has endlessly suggested in the past, was making a film for kids, then inexplicably included complex politics about trade federations, blockades, senates, and political corruption. These two threads of the plot constantly clash and really clutter the story. So, you'll get a Jar Jar poop joke followed by A long lecture by Palpatine about corruption- it's whiplash inducing.
In speaking of story, the tight plot construction of the OT is thrown out in favor of coincidence, "jazz riffs", and other random plot elements that don't make a whole lint of sense. red Line media does a better job than i ever could jace explaining how the plot or this film makes no sense, so I won't even try. But it doesn't make sense. Rest assured.
This is already a novel of a Texags post, so I'll keep this brief- the dialogue sucks. Now, on to the ugly.
The Ugly-
I've kind of forgiven a lot of the elements I used to hate about this movie,( Anakin, the politics, etc), but there is one element that only gets worse with age. Like a baby bottle that has been lodged under a car seat in the Texas heat , it only gets more pungent and awful the more you discover and examine it. This would be Jar Jar Binks. Look, I kind of know what George Lucas was attempting here,( comic relief for kids amidst the boring politics), but damn is he awful. Hes so cringeworthy, even after seeing this film a ton of times, I still want to turn it off when he's on screen. I think it's hysterical the theory that Jar Jar was the real villain in that it hilifjted how badly the character was conceived from a story perspective that outright villainy is the only way to save Jar Jar as a character. Then orderline racism angle is another loegtimste gripe as well. I'm no SJW, but damn
Overall:
Frankly, there was more good here than I remember there being. Like others have stated, it was at least shot on film, had some cool ideas behind it, and had a vision attaches to it. Even if much of the movie doesn't work, you can tell the George Lucas wasn't half assing it. For that, I'll kind of give it the benefit of the doubt. Now, with Attack of the Clones, that's s different story. That's for next month though.
Rating:
** out of ****
