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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Lookback/Review by Markdc
Arguably, no film in the history of cinema experienced more pre-release hype than Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The anticipation officially kicked off in the fall of 1993 when George Lucas announced that he would be making a trio of prequels portraying the events leading up to the original Star Wars trilogy. Over the next six years, Lucas, who returned to the director’s chair for the first time since making Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope back in the mid-1970’s, worked tirelessly on Episode I. Meanwhile, the hype grew to unprecedented levels, thanks in large part to the release of the “special editions” to the first three Star Wars films in early 1997. In the six months leading up to the release of The Phantom Menace, which was treated as a Hollywood version of the Second Coming, America—if not the entire world—was consumed by Star Wars fever.
In November 1998, when the first teaser trailer for Episode I was shown in select theaters before a handful of films, including The Waterboy and Meet Joe Black, thousands of Star Wars fans purchased tickets just to watch it, and after the two-minute-long trailer ended, many of them left before the actual movie started. (A few diehard fans even filmed the trailer with videorecorders, but their tapes were promptly confiscated by vigilant theater employees.) And when the trailer was put out on the internet, legions of people crashed web servers in their rush to view it. The second trailer for Episode I was released in March 1999 and paired with the movie Wing Commander, and, once again, fans purchased tickets just to watch it, and this trailer was downloaded more than a million times during its first 24 hours online—a record at that time. The frenzied reaction to both trailers caused quite a sensation on the pre-social media internet; according to a New York Times piece about the first one, a number of Star Wars fans “talked about weeping and shaking while watching the trailer.” And on the entertainment website Ain’t It Cool News, one devotee proclaimed, “What can I say! George Lucas must be a superior form of life!” (In case the reader is wondering, no, I couldn’t find out whether this person still thought the creator of Star Wars was a “superior form of life” after watching The Phantom Menace in its entirety.)
During the wee hours of May 3, 1999 brawls nearly broke out at a number of stores across the country as eager shoppers scrambled to get their hands on toys connected with the upcoming Star Wars film immediately after they appeared on shelves. Fans camped outside theaters for days and even weeks just to buy advanced tickets, which went on sale on May 12—one week before the movie’s official release date; many of these people returned a few days later with their sleeping bags and folding chairs in order to make sure they got good seats when the Big Day arrived. Naturally, the media lavished these stalwarts with breathless coverage, and the fans, many of them dressed up as their favorite Star Wars characters, were only too happy to express their excitement over Episode I for the cameras. “There’s no way this is going to be a disappointment!” one person in a Darth Vader costume told a television crew from CNN. Several people even quit their jobs in order to get early tickets, and a number of citizens from the United Kingdom made arrangements to travel to the United States so they could watch The Phantom Menace during its opening weekend instead of waiting for the film’s UK release, which wasn’t scheduled to take place until July 16. On top of this, the U.S. economy was expected to incur a toll of up to $300 million in lost productivity as a result of more than 2 million workers being absent from their places of employment in order to see Episode I on opening day. Indeed, so many workers were expected to call in sick that media outlets gave this movie-induced epidemic a name—Phantom Flu. (Personally, I would have called it the Black Darth.) And, one month before the film’s release date, the popular singer “Weird Al” Yankovich wrote and recorded a satirical but affectionate tribute to the first Star Wars prequel called “The Saga Begins.”
As May 19 approached, the stage was set for the biggest movie event of all time. In a February 1999 puff piece on George Lucas and his new Star Wars film, titled “The Force is Back,” Vanity Fair writer David Kamp summed up the prevailing sentiment this way:
“The Phantom Menace will be a massive film financially—in all likelihood the eventual champ over Titanic—but that's not why it's such a big deal. It's important as probably the most craved film ever. When George Lucas shut down the Star Wars moviemaking machinery in 1983, the year of Return of the Jedi's release, he walked away from the most popular film series in history. Yet he kept insisting that the finished trilogy was only parts four, five, and six of a longer narrative. He had parts one, two, and three all mapped out—they were ‘prequels,’ detailing the early lives of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader—but he just wasn't up to making them at the moment. For Star Wars fans, this was torturous—like knowing that the Beatles had written and rehearsed three follow-ups to Abbey Road but never recorded them. So when, in 1993, Lucas announced that he was back in the saddle (Episodes II and III are promised for the years 2002 and 2005), it was hallelujah time. He has returned. It's really happening.”
For six years, the manic hype and anticipation surrounding Episode I had allowed Americans—especially Star Wars fans—to soar right up to the heavens. Then the movie finally opened nationwide, gravity reasserted itself, and everyone came crashing to Earth.
The backlash began even before the movie’s official release. In the days leading up to May 19, early reviews from media outlets indicated a mixed reception overall, and this remained the case throughout The Phantom Menace’s initial run. Professional movie critics commended, among other things, the film’s visual effects, action scenes, and composer John Williams’ score. However, criticism focused heavily on the film’s plot, which centers around the Jedi’s involvement in a war between the Trade Federation and the planet of Naboo, the return of the Sith and their plot to bring down the Galactic Republic and destroy the Jedi, and the introduction of a young slave boy named Anakin Skywalker. Other targets of criticism included several of the characters and performances and the dialogue, oh that dialogue.
Although a number of Star Wars fans liked the movie, reactions from many of them ranged from mild expressions of disappointment to apocalyptic meltdowns. Not since the Death Star exploded in Episode IV and then again in Episode VI had the universe witnessed such a fiery combustion. One typical fan response came from a then-unknown Eli Roth. Under the cover of anonymity, Roth, who would go on to become a celebrated filmmaker and actor, wrote a review of Episode I for a now-defunct website which began with these words:
“Few films in history have had greater anticipation than The Phantom Menace. People have been waiting on line for over a month to get tickets. I know I have been waiting since 5th grade, following every rumor in ‘Starlog’ and on the Internet. So here’s the kicker: IT SUCKS. I’m sorry, it does. I know it’s sacrilege to criticize George Lucas or the Holy Grail of movie trilogies, but after waiting 16 years I can honestly tell you this film is an unbelievable disappointment.”
Irate fans attacked the movie for a number of reasons, but most of the fire from their rhetorical blasters was aimed at Jar Jar Binks, a CGI alien character that Lucas created in order to provide comic relief for the benefit of younger viewers. As it turned out, many of the children who saw The Phantom Menace on the big screen did fall in love with the clumsy but good-hearted Gungan from Naboo, who was portrayed in a motion-captured performance by a stage actor named Ahmed Best. However, older Star Wars fans viewed Jar Jar as an insufferable, oafish creature who was nothing more than fodder for toy manufacturers, and they launched a war against the character—and Lucas himself—that made the war the Sith waged against the Jedi look like a lovefest. Anti-Jar Jar websites sprouted up all over the internet almost overnight, and someone even composed a song with the not-so-subtle title “Jar Jar Binks Must Die.” It should be said here that there were a few notable exceptions among the diehard fans. For instance, in his review for Episode I, Harry Knowles, founder of Ain’t It Cool News, expressed his feelings for the Gungan this way: “Mesa Luved Him!” Suffice to say, however, Mr. Knowles’ views were decidedly in the minority. Interestingly, Jar Jar Binks received a much warmer reception among professional movie critics. To be sure, he had his haters in this quarter, too; Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty, for example, referred to the Gungan as “Jar Jar Stinks.” But there were far more boosters for the floppy-eared alien to be found in American cinema’s cognoscenti than in the Star Wars fanbase. Just to cite a few examples: Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Jar Jar a “scene-stealer.” (Well, Mr. Travers was correct—just not in the way he meant.) And Andrew O'Hagan, film critic for The Telegraph, wrote that the Gungan “will soon be as loved as Winnie-the-Pooh.” (Suffice to say, that statement hasn’t aged very well.)
Jar Jar Binks didn’t create controversy just because people found him stupid and annoying. A number of fans, critics, and academicians also alleged that the Gungan’s appearance, voice, and behavior were reminiscent of racist stereotypes of African-Americans, especially those from the Caribbean. Indeed, the only thing that could have possibly made the situation with Jar Jar Binks worse for Lucas was if he had given the role to the late pop singer Michael Jackson, who reportedly sought it. (Also, several other characters from The Phantom Menace, such as the leaders of the Trade Federation and Watto, Anakin’s owner, were accused of being anti-Asian and anti-Semitic caricatures. George Lucas and representatives from his company, Lucasfilm, vehemently denied these charges.) Lucas must have taken the criticism to heart because the Gungan only appears in a couple scenes in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and is given very little dialogue. In Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, he appears in one or two scenes and utters a grand total of two words. Still, while Lucas clearly didn’t enjoy the venomous reception that Jar Jar received, he was nonetheless fortunate that Twitter and Facebook weren’t around in 1999.
When the 72nd Academy Awards came around in early 2000, The Phantom Menace, like its predecessors in the Star Wars franchise, received Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing. However, the first Star Wars prequel lost all of these awards to The Matrix. In a way, this was a symbolic passing of the torch, for the latter film—like the original Star Wars trilogy—told the story of a group of rebels rallying around a “Chosen One” in a war against a tyrannical regime, employed groundbreaking visual effects, and had a profound impact on American culture. Needless to say, the prediction made by many people in the media world—such as the above-quoted David Kamp of Vanity Fair—that Episode I would dethrone Titanic as the biggest box office champ in movie history didn’t exactly pan out. During its initial run, The Phantom Menace grossed $431 million in North America and $924 million worldwide. (A 2012 re-release of the film in 3D would push the latter figure past the $1 billion mark.) These numbers were well below Titanic’s $600 million domestic gross and $1.8 billion global haul. And yet, despite all of the controversy, disappointment, and wailing and gnashing of teeth, Episode I was, by any measure, a humungous financial hit. At the time of its release, the film was the third-biggest domestic grosser ever, behind only Titanic and the original Star Wars, and, worldwide, The Phantom Menace edged out Jurassic Park to capture the No. 2 spot. Regardless of what one thinks of the first Star Wars prequel, this was an incredible achievement, and—as box office analyst Scott Mendelson has pointed out—it wouldn’t have been possible without sustained repeat business. Indeed, the film played in theaters throughout the summer of 1999, which means that even if a majority of Star Wars fans didn’t like it, many other people did. Still, time has not been kind to The Phantom Menace. The movie is generally regarded as one of the worst installments in the legendarily popular science fiction franchise, and on the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it currently holds a 51 percent rating—the lowest of any Star Wars movie. For his part, George Lucas vigorously defends Episode I. He has said it’s one of his favorite films and that Jar Jar Binks is his favorite Star Wars character (no, really).
Before I share my thoughts about The Phantom Menace, let me first say that no Star Wars prequel Lucas made could have lived up to the insane hype and stratospheric expectations, not even if it had possessed the combined cinematic quality of the original trilogy, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, and National Lampoon’s Animal House. Heck, James Cameron’s blockbuster juggernaut Titanic didn’t generate massive hype until after it had been released in theaters, and—despite smashing all previous box office records and winning enough awards to sink an ocean liner—the film still suffered a huge backlash. The Phantom Menace was always going to disappoint a lot of people—the only question was to what degree. I would never dress up as a Star Wars character—though I might make an exception in the case of Boba Fett—or be willing to wait as long as an hour to buy a ticket to a Star Wars movie, but I am a lifelong fan of this franchise. I didn’t see The Phantom Menace during its opening week; I think I first saw it the week after. I have always enjoyed Star Wars movies, regardless of their quality. But for a long time, I felt that The Phantom Menace was one of the worst films in the series. When I watched the movie in preparation for this retrospective review, more than a dozen years had elapsed since I had last seen it. As a cinephile, I have always found that a lengthy interval between viewings enables me to look at a film through fresh eyes, and this was certainly the case with the first Star Wars prequel. I enjoyed Episode I more than I ever had before, and I’m now ready to concede that I was wrong about it. In my opinion, 1999 was one of the greatest years in the history of cinema. Some of my favorite movies from that period include Magnolia, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich, Eyes Wide Shut, and The Sixth Sense. The first Star Wars prequel definitely doesn’t belong on this list. However, The Phantom Menace is still a very good movie and, in spite of its flaws, deserves to be re-evaluated by those Star Wars fans who hated it.
One of the biggest criticisms directed at The Phantom Menace is that it contains lots of dry exposition—especially during the opening crawl—and the political aspects of the plot cause the film to drag somewhat. Maybe this is because I’m a political junkie, but I enjoy the dispute between Naboo and the Trade Federation and the proceedings in the Galactic Senate. Given the fact that The Phantom Menace and its direct sequel, Attack of the Clones, portray the beginning of the end of the Galactic Republic, their plots were never going to be as exciting as Revenge of the Sith, which depicts the fall of the Republic, and the original trilogy, which follow a group of hardy rebels as they fight against the Galactic Empire. Lucas himself described Episode I as “more like a period piece, since it was the history leading up to A New Hope” and, in his interview with Vanity Fair’s David Kamp a few months before the movie’s release, he said, “You see the government at work, you see the Senate. You also see the demise of the Old Republic.” The way I view it, Episodes I and II are the setup, and Episodes III through VI are the payoff.
Yes, much of the dialogue in the movie is as flat as a pancake, but The Phantom Menace has a terrific cast who do the best they can with the words they are given. I love Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn. Neeson, who has always been one of my favorite actors, was born to play a Jedi master. (Speaking of Qui-Gon, I’ve always found it funny that even though he comes across as a wise Jedi who trusts his own judgment when others—including his superiors—do not, he makes several blunders that end up dooming the Republic he serves. For instance, although he frees Anakin from a life of slavery on Tatooine, he doesn’t make any serious attempt to do the same for his mother. Instead, Qui-Gon takes Anakin away from her, despite the close bond that the two of them share. And later on, he decides to train Anakin as his apprentice against the wishes of the Jedi Council. Both actions lead the young Padawan down the path to the Dark Side.) Although Ewan McGregor is not the actor that Alec Guinness was, I thought he was good as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. (Coincidentally, McGregor is the nephew of actor Denis Lawson, who played the Rebel X-wing starfighter pilot Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy.) Natalie Portman is a phenomenal actress and she’s okay here, but her character, Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo, reveals herself to be a complete idiot later in the prequel trilogy. (I elaborate upon this point in my retrospective reviews for Episodes II and III.) Also, it’s a joy to see one of my favorite actresses, Keira Knightley, in her debut role as Amidala’s handmaiden and decoy Sabé. (Another one of Amidala’s handmaidens was played by director Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter Sofia, who would go on to become a great filmmaker in her own right.) Despite the torrent of criticism and vitriol he received when The Phantom Menace was released, I think Jake Lloyd was perfectly fine as young Anakin Skywalker. As a child actor, Lloyd doesn’t distinguish himself the way Joel Haley Osment did in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which was released just two months after Episode I. However, the blame here might lie more with Lucas’ lousy writing skills. After all, I’ve heard that Hayden Christensen is a talented actor, but you wouldn’t know that from watching Episodes II and III. As for Samuel L. Jackson’s performance as the Jedi master Mace Windu, I’ve always felt that he was badly miscast in The Phantom Menace and its two sequels. This is not a question of acting ability—Jackson is one of the most gifted actors I’ve ever seen. He just seems out of place in a Star Wars movie. Since Jackson and fellow actor Laurence Fishburne are often mistaken for each other, I just want to say that Fishburne would have made an awesome Jedi master because of his numerous mentor roles in films as varied as Boyz N the Hood, Searching Hoodfor Bobby Fischer, and—most famously—The Matrix. The greatest performance in The Phantom Menace is by Ian McDarmid, who plays Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo and his Sith alter ego Darth Sidious. Prior to Episode I, moviegoers had only known McDarmid as Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi, and it’s a joy to see him here as a politician who is cunning, manipulative, and two-faced (literally). During the course of The Phantom Menace, we see Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious orchestrate a war between his home planet and the Trade Federation and then use this state of affairs to oust the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and become his replacement. This guy would make Machiavelli blush.
And now we must turn to the Gungan in the room. First, let me start off by saying I think we can all agree that the creation of Jar Jar Binks was not George Lucas’ finest hour. And, years from now, I don’t think lines like “Icky, icky goo!” are going to be quoted alongside “May the Force be with you” and “Luke, I am your father.” Still, Jar Jar didn’t deserve all the hatred he has received from Star Wars fans over the years. Sure, he’s annoying, but I don’t think he’s any worse than Chewbacca or the Ewoks. Also, I think the accusations of racism that have been directed at Jar Jar and other characters from Episode I are ridiculous. Furthermore, it’s important to acknowledge that, love him or hate him, Jar Jar was cinema’s first motion-captured CGI film character, and he paved the way for other—and more popular—CGI creations like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings and Caesar from the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy. And I want to say here that while Star Wars fans certainly had the right to express their (usually hostile) opinions of Jar Jar Binks, it’s clear that many them took things way too far. In addition to receiving harsh insults and accusations both online and in person (“You destroyed my childhood!” was just one of the many things he heard), Ahmed Best was also the recipient of a number of death threats. In 2018, nearly two decades after The Phantom Menace was released, Best revealed on social media that the toxic reaction to his character from Star Wars fans caused him to contemplate suicide. I understand that a lot of fans reviled Jar Jar, but it’s always important to remember that words matter, and there was a real flesh-and-blood human being behind all that CGI.
Best wasn’t the only actor from Episode I to find himself an unfortunate target of the fandom menace. Jake Lloyd was also the focus of an online hate campaign that doubtless caused him to wish he was in a galaxy far, far away. And just what horrific crime did this 10-year-old commit to warrant such abuse? Did he deliberately set an orphanage on fire or drown a litter of kittens for fun? No. Apparently, Star Wars fans detested the fact that this child actor acted like…a child. Of course, it was ludicrous to expect 9-year-old Anakin to do the Sith Lord routine from the outset, but even if fans didn’t like him acting his age and yelling “Yippee!” as he operated a podracer, they should have blamed Lucas, not Lloyd. In addition to the hate he received on the internet, Lloyd was mocked and bullied at school to the point where he decided to quit acting in 2001 at the age of 12. However, this didn’t put an end to the abuse, and Lloyd’s life continued to go downhill. Over the following years, he experienced several run-ins with law enforcement. (Ironically, one of them involved a high-speed chase, albeit with automobiles, not podracers.) Also, his younger sister Madison—who had a small part in Episode I—died in 2018. And in 2020, Lloyd’s mother Lisa disclosed to the public that he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I’m sure Lloyd’s mental illness wasn’t caused by the hostility he received from Star Wars fans, but there can be little doubt that this hostility made his situation much worse than it already was.
To this day, Lloyd’s reputation has never recovered in the eyes of the fanbase. However, in 2015, Best’s fortunes changed when a Reddit user, who went by the name Lumpawarroo, put forth an elaborate theory arguing that, rather than being a CGI version of the Three Stooges who was manipulated by Palpatine into giving him absolute power in Episode II, Jar Jar Binks was actually “a highly skilled force user in terms of martial ability and mind control.” Lumpawarroo pointed to several scenes in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones in which the Gungan displays unusual physical and mental acumen, in contrast to his normal behavior, gestures with his hands when attempting to convince others to follow a desired course of action, and appears to instill in young Anakin a romantic attraction to Queen Amidala and a lack of respect for the Jedi. According to the theory, all of this adds up to Jar Jar being a Sith Lord in disguise who secretly aided Palpatine, his fellow Naboo native, in the latter’s rise to power. The theory spread like wildfire on the internet and was eagerly embraced by Star Wars fans and discussed by a number of bloggers and mainstream media outlets, who dubbed it “Darth Jar Jar.” (Personally, I would have called it Darth Darth Binks.) Although George Lucas refused to comment when asked about the theory, Best went to Twitter to hint that Darth Jar Jar was a real thing. Later, during an interview on YouTube, Best went further and said the Gungan “could” have “evolved” into the villain outlined by the theory but that Lucas scrapped his plans for Jar Jar because of the negative reaction that the character received from hardcore fans. However, I share the view of some that Darth Jar Jar is—in all likelihood—total bunk. After all, Lucas has always said he created Jar Jar Binks in order to appeal to kids, and having this alien screwball turn out to be a Sith Lord isn’t exactly what I would call kid-friendly. But if this is true, you might ask, then why did Best appear to confirm at least some details of the theory? Well, there’s an easy answer to that question: Maybe the actor wanted to give Star Wars fans a reason to finally stop flaying him. Personally, I think that making Jar Jar a secret villain would have vastly improved the prequel trilogy as well as the character’s standing among the fanbase. In a May 2019 piece commemorating The Phantom Menace’s 20th anniversary, Clarissa Loughrey, film critic for The Independent, compared the Gungan to Forrest Gump due to his buffoonish personality and unwitting tendency to show up during significant moments in the film. But what if, instead of being Forrest Gump, Jar Jar was really akin to Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects—someone who appears to be a harmless, bumbling fool but is, in reality, an intelligent, cunning, and dangerous baddie? (We could call him Jar Jar Soze or Keyser Binks. Or how about the Usual Gungans?) If I had written the scripts to the prequels, I would have outlined a three-part evolution for Jar Jar: In Episode I, he’s a clueless nincompoop, in Episode II, he’s Palpatine’s unwitting patsy, and in Episode III, he’s revealed to be Palpatine’s secret accomplice. And if it is true that Lucas really intended for Jar Jar to be a villain and abandoned this plan due to the backlash from fans, then he blew one of the biggest opportunities he ever had to really make the prequels shine.
And speaking of villains and blown opportunities, it is now time to turn to Darth Maul, Darth Sidious’ apprentice. Played wonderfully by professional martial artist Ray Park, Maul, with his demonic face and double-bladed lightsaber, has “BADA$$” written all over him and is the only new villain in the prequel trilogy that I really liked. As every Star Wars fan knows, Maul fatally wounds Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode I’s climactic lightsaber duel and then is cut in two by Obi-Wan Kenobi and falls down a shaft. In a piece titled “Killing Darth Maul: George Lucas’ Biggest Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Mistake?”, Den of Geek writer Ryan Lambie outlined a fantastic alternate scenario for Darth Maul and how it could have impacted the prequels:
“Qui-Gon is mortally wounded by Darth Maul, who then makes his escape – perhaps assuming that Obi-Wan, who’d just fallen off a high platform in the Theed Generator Complex, was either dead or severely injured. Qui-Gon’s dying wish is that Obi-Wan takes Anakin under his wing and train him as a Jedi. Obi-Wan agrees, while privately vowing to avenge the death of his master.”
“In the subsequent films, Darth Maul would continue to serve as Obi-Wan’s nemesis. Obi-Wan aims to teach Anakin the ways of Jedi righteousness, but secretly fights his desire for revenge. It could even be that Obi-Wan’s bitter thoughts might in some way lead Anakin into turning to the Dark Side. At the very least, this plot strand, with Obi-Wan wrestling with the guilt and anger over the death of his master, could make his character something more than merely stoic and well-meaning.”
“With a little rewriting, Obi-Wan could have fought Darth Maul, and not General Grievous, in the third and final prequel, Revenge of the Sith. This would have solved three problems in one stroke: first, it would have resulted in a physical, Ray Park-led combat sequence rather than one heavily augmented with weightless CGI; two, it would have added an emotional dimension to the scene (finally, Obi-Wan gets to purge himself of his anger); and three, it would have provided an apt connection to the Revenge in the movie’s title.”
“How much more effective would it have been when, having finally killed Darth Maul in combat, Obi-Wan had recognized the depth of his own bloodlust, and the satisfaction at having killed his enemy? Just as Luke Skywalker looked at his robot hand and saw his own path to the Dark Side in the Original trilogy, Obi-Wan could have recognized the darkness in himself, and realized too late that hatred and a lust for revenge was already turning Anakin into another Lord of the Sith.”
I can’t think of any way to improve upon this. However, if Darth Maul had remained Darth Sidious’ apprentice until Episode III, where he would be slain by Obi-Wan Kenobi and replaced by Anakin, this would cause complications for the scenario mentioned above regarding Jar Jar Binks being a secret Sith Lord due to the Sith’s Rule of Two. Therefore, on second thought, I think it would have been best to have the Gungan merely be an ally of Palpatine’s who happens to be strong with the Force but not an actual member of the Sith Order.
I should note here that in spite of the relatively “unexciting” nature of The Phantom Menace’s plot, the film boasts three incredible action sequences. The podrace scene on Tatooine is exhilarating, although it goes on a bit too long. The invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation’s droid army and the resultant battle with the Gungans is pretty cool and foreshadows future large-scale CGI battles in films such as The Lord of the Rings. But the real standout is the aforementioned lightsaber duel between Gui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul. This climactic fight scene is one of the best in the entire Star Wars franchise, features fantastic choreography, and is accompanied by electrifying, spine-chilling, choral-driven music by John Williams. The action sequences are aided greatly by the film’s magnificent visual effects. There has always been a widespread misperception that the effects in the prequel trilogy were virtually all CGI. But, in point of fact, much of the effects were actually practical in nature, and it’s a great credit to the skills of George Lucas and the folks over at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) that the practical and digital effects are woven together so seamlessly that it’s difficult to tell one from the other. And speaking of visual effects, one thing I especially dig about The Phantom Menace is the city-planet of Coruscant. I’ve always loved seeing futuristic cities in movies, and the scale and beauty of Coruscant reminds me of my favorite science fiction film, Fritz Lang’s seminal silent classic Metropolis.
I’d like to address one of the most controversial aspects of The Phantom Menace among Star Wars fans—namely, the existence of midi-chlorians. In the wake of Episode I’s release, many fans objected to them because they felt that their existence greatly diminished—if not destroyed—the spiritual nature of the Force and revealed it to be nothing more than a biological form of predestination whereby characters could only become Jedi if they happened to have a whole bunch of these little buggers living inside their bodies. Midi-chlorians offended Star Wars fans who always saw Jedihood as a mystical, egalitarian vocation that anyone could work toward. For example, in an article for Time, comic book writer Evan Narcisse claimed midi-chlorians “ruined Star Wars for me,” and someone posted this on an Ars Technica message board: “Star Wars - the force is a mystical energy = fantasy. Star Wars - the force is caused by mitichlorians [sic] = fork you.” (Okay, this person didn’t actually use the word “fork.” He/she used a similar-sounding word. However, this is supposed to be a family-friendly review.) Personally, I don’t have a problem with midi-chlorians and don’t think they hurt the idea of the Force at all. Journalist Abraham Riesman put it best in an article for Vulture:
“The Force is still vaguely defined, allowing you to map whatever meaning you want onto it — it just so happens that there might be little creatures that help us become more sensitive to it, and some people have more of them than others. Ask yourself: How different is it from our other notions of the Jedi? It had already been established that they’re people who are somehow born with greater sensitivity to the Force, meaning we already accepted the idea of the Force as a birthright reserved for a chosen few, fundamentally different from the rest of us. Is it that big of a leap to say that their differences show up in biology, too?”
Speaking of chosen people, one thing that’s always annoyed me about Episode I is Lucas’ use of the “immaculate conception” idea to explain Anakin’s birth. It’s not a huge problem, but I’ve always thought it was kind of dumb. If I had written the script, I would have had it so that Anakin had a father who either died or left his family when the boy was an infant, and his identity would remain a mystery. Oh, sure, Anakin Skywalker may be a super-important Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord-turned-Jedi Knight, but he ain’t no Jesus Christ. Another part of The Phantom Menace that has received criticism is the climax, which has four things occurring simultaneously: 1) The invasion of Naboo; 2) The lightsaber duel; 3) Queen Amidala’s search and capture of Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray; 4) The attack by Naboo pilots (who are later joined by Anakin) on the Trade Federation’s Droid Control Ship. After he viewed a rough cut of the finished film, Lucas said the climax felt “a little disjointed” and conceded that “I may have gone too far in a few places.” After they saw the finished movie, a number of film critics and Star Wars fans heartily agreed with this assessment. Personally, I find the climax highly entertaining and don’t have a major problem with it. However, it probably could have benefitted from tighter editing and fewer plot elements.
The Phantom Menace ended up costing $115 million to make, which is ironic because, back in 1993, Lucas said one of the reasons why he waited so long to do another Star Wars movie after Return of the Jedi was so he could lower production costs with digital effects and prevent them from spiraling upwards to the point where they were on a par with the budget of Terminator 2: Judgment Day—at that time the most expensive film ever made but which actually cost more than $10 million less than Episode I. Because Lucas paid to make the first Star Wars prequel out of his own pocket, he enjoyed total creative control over every aspect of the production. This, of course, is every filmmaker’s dream. After all, Hollywood history is replete with examples of insufferable and often disastrous studio meddling—as celebrated directors like David Fincher, Ridley Scott, and Terry Gilliam can attest. However, the major pitfall for directors who can do whatever they want to their films is that…they can do whatever they want to their films. This situation is sometimes cited by people as a reason for why The Phantom Menace is a “bad” movie. As I have made fairly clear throughout this retrospective review, I don’t consider Episode I to be “bad.” However, I do think it was problematic for Lucas—one of the most powerful people in Hollywood—that he was surrounded by yes-people. He might have benefitted from underlings and associates who could have imparted constructive criticism at various points during the production or just said, “George, buddy, I’ve got a baaaad feeling about this.” With that being said, I do believe that The Phantom Menace was better off for having Lucas enjoying total freedom to make the movie he wanted as opposed to answering to studio executives.
One of the most controversial aspects of Episode I among Star Wars fans is Lucas’ decision to depict the future Darth Vader as a little boy, and, reportedly, the execs over at Twentieth Century Fox were fiercely opposed to it. When Lucas pitched the idea for the film, one of them is said to have shouted, “You’re going to destroy the franchise; you’re going to destroy everything!” Members of Lucas’ team over at Lucasfilm also had serious reservations about The Phantom Menace being centered around a 9-year-old Anakin, but he ignored their concerns and forged ahead. These fears appear to have been realized when the movie was released and many Star Wars fans reacted negatively to “Annie.” In a November 2020 article for Den of Geek, Joseph Baxter wrote, “The general consensus—which came about after an initial period of shock and a bit of denial—was that Young Anakin was a poor choice of a protagonist for myriad reasons.” Elsewhere in the piece, Baxter notes that “Lucas apparently thought that the character’s relationship and emotional separation from his mother was the most important aspect of his introduction and eventual arc toward the dark side. As Lucas explained in a 1999 interview with Empire, ‘I knew if I’d made Anakin 15 instead of nine, then it would have been more marketable’ he said, adding, ‘If I’d made the Queen 18 instead of 14, then it would have been more marketable. But that isn’t the story.’” Baxter shares the view of many fans that Lucas should have started Anakin out as a young adult because it would have given the character more time in the prequels to build his crucial relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme. This is a valid criticism, but I believe Lucas was absolutely right to portray Anakin as a child in The Phantom Menace, mainly for the reasons that the director gave in that Empire interview. In addition, I think it was important to show that Darth Vader, whom—during the course of the original trilogy—everyone had come to know as one of the evilest men in the galaxy, was once an innocent and loving child who possessed hopes and dreams and a desire to help others.
And speaking of little Annie, I would like to address another complaint that Star Wars fans made against The Phantom Menace. They didn’t like the focus on 9-year-old Anakin and the presence of Jar Jar Binks because these aspects of Episode I signified that Lucas was making a movie for kids as opposed to the adults who’d been reared on the original trilogy. They apparently forgot—or never realized—that the original, beloved Star Wars was also meant for kids. Shortly before A New Hope was released, Lucas said of it: “I’ve made a Disney movie, a cross between Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.” (Lucas’ remark about having made a “Disney movie” proved to be eerily prescient, as Walt Disney Studios would go on to purchase Lucasfilm in 2012 and—as of this writing—produce five Star Wars films.) Now I’ve never seen the latter film, and—judging from its title—I plan to keep it that way. However, I grew up watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which has always been a favorite of mine, and I must confess that I don’t see any great similarities between that movie and Episode IV other than the fact that the former features a character who’s the size of the Death Star. With that being said, I understand Lucas’ broader point, which is that the original Star Wars was always meant to be a fun adventure aimed at younger viewers as opposed to the artistic/intellectual/philosophical cinematic Taj Mahal that many of the film’s fans apparently see it as. In recent years, Lucas has reiterated that the Star Wars movies—at least the ones he was involved with—are, at their core, mainly for youngsters. For instance, during an event marking the 20th anniversary of the release of The Phantom Menace, he said, “The films were designed for 12-year-olds. I said that right from the very, very beginning and the very first interviews I did for A New Hope. It’s just that they were so popular with everybody, that everybody forgot that.” Personally, I like Episode I’s lighthearted, kid-friendly tone because it presents a stark contrast to the much darker tone of Episode II and the utter bleakness of Episode III.
Of all the film critics whose reviews I have read, my favorite was the late Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. One of the things I loved most about him was that he could make me see films for what they truly were, even if it took me a long time to do so. Although The Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars movie that didn’t earn a perfect four-star rating from him, Ebert gave the prequel three-and-a-half stars and called it “an astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking.” At the time, I thought he was nuts, but I now believe he was right. And despite its (current) abysmal Rotten Tomatoes rating, I hope that in future years, more people will view Episode I not as a great Star Wars film but as a damn good one and a worthy entry in the franchise. Yes, the movie comes up short in terms of cinematic quality when compared to the original trilogy. Yes, it has flaws. And yes, it failed to meet expectations. But for all that, The Phantom Menace is an impressive achievement from a true visionary. The Force is strong with this one.
Lookback/Review by Markdc
Arguably, no film in the history of cinema experienced more pre-release hype than Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The anticipation officially kicked off in the fall of 1993 when George Lucas announced that he would be making a trio of prequels portraying the events leading up to the original Star Wars trilogy. Over the next six years, Lucas, who returned to the director’s chair for the first time since making Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope back in the mid-1970’s, worked tirelessly on Episode I. Meanwhile, the hype grew to unprecedented levels, thanks in large part to the release of the “special editions” to the first three Star Wars films in early 1997. In the six months leading up to the release of The Phantom Menace, which was treated as a Hollywood version of the Second Coming, America—if not the entire world—was consumed by Star Wars fever.
In November 1998, when the first teaser trailer for Episode I was shown in select theaters before a handful of films, including The Waterboy and Meet Joe Black, thousands of Star Wars fans purchased tickets just to watch it, and after the two-minute-long trailer ended, many of them left before the actual movie started. (A few diehard fans even filmed the trailer with videorecorders, but their tapes were promptly confiscated by vigilant theater employees.) And when the trailer was put out on the internet, legions of people crashed web servers in their rush to view it. The second trailer for Episode I was released in March 1999 and paired with the movie Wing Commander, and, once again, fans purchased tickets just to watch it, and this trailer was downloaded more than a million times during its first 24 hours online—a record at that time. The frenzied reaction to both trailers caused quite a sensation on the pre-social media internet; according to a New York Times piece about the first one, a number of Star Wars fans “talked about weeping and shaking while watching the trailer.” And on the entertainment website Ain’t It Cool News, one devotee proclaimed, “What can I say! George Lucas must be a superior form of life!” (In case the reader is wondering, no, I couldn’t find out whether this person still thought the creator of Star Wars was a “superior form of life” after watching The Phantom Menace in its entirety.)
During the wee hours of May 3, 1999 brawls nearly broke out at a number of stores across the country as eager shoppers scrambled to get their hands on toys connected with the upcoming Star Wars film immediately after they appeared on shelves. Fans camped outside theaters for days and even weeks just to buy advanced tickets, which went on sale on May 12—one week before the movie’s official release date; many of these people returned a few days later with their sleeping bags and folding chairs in order to make sure they got good seats when the Big Day arrived. Naturally, the media lavished these stalwarts with breathless coverage, and the fans, many of them dressed up as their favorite Star Wars characters, were only too happy to express their excitement over Episode I for the cameras. “There’s no way this is going to be a disappointment!” one person in a Darth Vader costume told a television crew from CNN. Several people even quit their jobs in order to get early tickets, and a number of citizens from the United Kingdom made arrangements to travel to the United States so they could watch The Phantom Menace during its opening weekend instead of waiting for the film’s UK release, which wasn’t scheduled to take place until July 16. On top of this, the U.S. economy was expected to incur a toll of up to $300 million in lost productivity as a result of more than 2 million workers being absent from their places of employment in order to see Episode I on opening day. Indeed, so many workers were expected to call in sick that media outlets gave this movie-induced epidemic a name—Phantom Flu. (Personally, I would have called it the Black Darth.) And, one month before the film’s release date, the popular singer “Weird Al” Yankovich wrote and recorded a satirical but affectionate tribute to the first Star Wars prequel called “The Saga Begins.”
As May 19 approached, the stage was set for the biggest movie event of all time. In a February 1999 puff piece on George Lucas and his new Star Wars film, titled “The Force is Back,” Vanity Fair writer David Kamp summed up the prevailing sentiment this way:
“The Phantom Menace will be a massive film financially—in all likelihood the eventual champ over Titanic—but that's not why it's such a big deal. It's important as probably the most craved film ever. When George Lucas shut down the Star Wars moviemaking machinery in 1983, the year of Return of the Jedi's release, he walked away from the most popular film series in history. Yet he kept insisting that the finished trilogy was only parts four, five, and six of a longer narrative. He had parts one, two, and three all mapped out—they were ‘prequels,’ detailing the early lives of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader—but he just wasn't up to making them at the moment. For Star Wars fans, this was torturous—like knowing that the Beatles had written and rehearsed three follow-ups to Abbey Road but never recorded them. So when, in 1993, Lucas announced that he was back in the saddle (Episodes II and III are promised for the years 2002 and 2005), it was hallelujah time. He has returned. It's really happening.”
For six years, the manic hype and anticipation surrounding Episode I had allowed Americans—especially Star Wars fans—to soar right up to the heavens. Then the movie finally opened nationwide, gravity reasserted itself, and everyone came crashing to Earth.
The backlash began even before the movie’s official release. In the days leading up to May 19, early reviews from media outlets indicated a mixed reception overall, and this remained the case throughout The Phantom Menace’s initial run. Professional movie critics commended, among other things, the film’s visual effects, action scenes, and composer John Williams’ score. However, criticism focused heavily on the film’s plot, which centers around the Jedi’s involvement in a war between the Trade Federation and the planet of Naboo, the return of the Sith and their plot to bring down the Galactic Republic and destroy the Jedi, and the introduction of a young slave boy named Anakin Skywalker. Other targets of criticism included several of the characters and performances and the dialogue, oh that dialogue.
Although a number of Star Wars fans liked the movie, reactions from many of them ranged from mild expressions of disappointment to apocalyptic meltdowns. Not since the Death Star exploded in Episode IV and then again in Episode VI had the universe witnessed such a fiery combustion. One typical fan response came from a then-unknown Eli Roth. Under the cover of anonymity, Roth, who would go on to become a celebrated filmmaker and actor, wrote a review of Episode I for a now-defunct website which began with these words:
“Few films in history have had greater anticipation than The Phantom Menace. People have been waiting on line for over a month to get tickets. I know I have been waiting since 5th grade, following every rumor in ‘Starlog’ and on the Internet. So here’s the kicker: IT SUCKS. I’m sorry, it does. I know it’s sacrilege to criticize George Lucas or the Holy Grail of movie trilogies, but after waiting 16 years I can honestly tell you this film is an unbelievable disappointment.”
Irate fans attacked the movie for a number of reasons, but most of the fire from their rhetorical blasters was aimed at Jar Jar Binks, a CGI alien character that Lucas created in order to provide comic relief for the benefit of younger viewers. As it turned out, many of the children who saw The Phantom Menace on the big screen did fall in love with the clumsy but good-hearted Gungan from Naboo, who was portrayed in a motion-captured performance by a stage actor named Ahmed Best. However, older Star Wars fans viewed Jar Jar as an insufferable, oafish creature who was nothing more than fodder for toy manufacturers, and they launched a war against the character—and Lucas himself—that made the war the Sith waged against the Jedi look like a lovefest. Anti-Jar Jar websites sprouted up all over the internet almost overnight, and someone even composed a song with the not-so-subtle title “Jar Jar Binks Must Die.” It should be said here that there were a few notable exceptions among the diehard fans. For instance, in his review for Episode I, Harry Knowles, founder of Ain’t It Cool News, expressed his feelings for the Gungan this way: “Mesa Luved Him!” Suffice to say, however, Mr. Knowles’ views were decidedly in the minority. Interestingly, Jar Jar Binks received a much warmer reception among professional movie critics. To be sure, he had his haters in this quarter, too; Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty, for example, referred to the Gungan as “Jar Jar Stinks.” But there were far more boosters for the floppy-eared alien to be found in American cinema’s cognoscenti than in the Star Wars fanbase. Just to cite a few examples: Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Jar Jar a “scene-stealer.” (Well, Mr. Travers was correct—just not in the way he meant.) And Andrew O'Hagan, film critic for The Telegraph, wrote that the Gungan “will soon be as loved as Winnie-the-Pooh.” (Suffice to say, that statement hasn’t aged very well.)
Jar Jar Binks didn’t create controversy just because people found him stupid and annoying. A number of fans, critics, and academicians also alleged that the Gungan’s appearance, voice, and behavior were reminiscent of racist stereotypes of African-Americans, especially those from the Caribbean. Indeed, the only thing that could have possibly made the situation with Jar Jar Binks worse for Lucas was if he had given the role to the late pop singer Michael Jackson, who reportedly sought it. (Also, several other characters from The Phantom Menace, such as the leaders of the Trade Federation and Watto, Anakin’s owner, were accused of being anti-Asian and anti-Semitic caricatures. George Lucas and representatives from his company, Lucasfilm, vehemently denied these charges.) Lucas must have taken the criticism to heart because the Gungan only appears in a couple scenes in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and is given very little dialogue. In Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, he appears in one or two scenes and utters a grand total of two words. Still, while Lucas clearly didn’t enjoy the venomous reception that Jar Jar received, he was nonetheless fortunate that Twitter and Facebook weren’t around in 1999.
When the 72nd Academy Awards came around in early 2000, The Phantom Menace, like its predecessors in the Star Wars franchise, received Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing. However, the first Star Wars prequel lost all of these awards to The Matrix. In a way, this was a symbolic passing of the torch, for the latter film—like the original Star Wars trilogy—told the story of a group of rebels rallying around a “Chosen One” in a war against a tyrannical regime, employed groundbreaking visual effects, and had a profound impact on American culture. Needless to say, the prediction made by many people in the media world—such as the above-quoted David Kamp of Vanity Fair—that Episode I would dethrone Titanic as the biggest box office champ in movie history didn’t exactly pan out. During its initial run, The Phantom Menace grossed $431 million in North America and $924 million worldwide. (A 2012 re-release of the film in 3D would push the latter figure past the $1 billion mark.) These numbers were well below Titanic’s $600 million domestic gross and $1.8 billion global haul. And yet, despite all of the controversy, disappointment, and wailing and gnashing of teeth, Episode I was, by any measure, a humungous financial hit. At the time of its release, the film was the third-biggest domestic grosser ever, behind only Titanic and the original Star Wars, and, worldwide, The Phantom Menace edged out Jurassic Park to capture the No. 2 spot. Regardless of what one thinks of the first Star Wars prequel, this was an incredible achievement, and—as box office analyst Scott Mendelson has pointed out—it wouldn’t have been possible without sustained repeat business. Indeed, the film played in theaters throughout the summer of 1999, which means that even if a majority of Star Wars fans didn’t like it, many other people did. Still, time has not been kind to The Phantom Menace. The movie is generally regarded as one of the worst installments in the legendarily popular science fiction franchise, and on the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it currently holds a 51 percent rating—the lowest of any Star Wars movie. For his part, George Lucas vigorously defends Episode I. He has said it’s one of his favorite films and that Jar Jar Binks is his favorite Star Wars character (no, really).
Before I share my thoughts about The Phantom Menace, let me first say that no Star Wars prequel Lucas made could have lived up to the insane hype and stratospheric expectations, not even if it had possessed the combined cinematic quality of the original trilogy, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, and National Lampoon’s Animal House. Heck, James Cameron’s blockbuster juggernaut Titanic didn’t generate massive hype until after it had been released in theaters, and—despite smashing all previous box office records and winning enough awards to sink an ocean liner—the film still suffered a huge backlash. The Phantom Menace was always going to disappoint a lot of people—the only question was to what degree. I would never dress up as a Star Wars character—though I might make an exception in the case of Boba Fett—or be willing to wait as long as an hour to buy a ticket to a Star Wars movie, but I am a lifelong fan of this franchise. I didn’t see The Phantom Menace during its opening week; I think I first saw it the week after. I have always enjoyed Star Wars movies, regardless of their quality. But for a long time, I felt that The Phantom Menace was one of the worst films in the series. When I watched the movie in preparation for this retrospective review, more than a dozen years had elapsed since I had last seen it. As a cinephile, I have always found that a lengthy interval between viewings enables me to look at a film through fresh eyes, and this was certainly the case with the first Star Wars prequel. I enjoyed Episode I more than I ever had before, and I’m now ready to concede that I was wrong about it. In my opinion, 1999 was one of the greatest years in the history of cinema. Some of my favorite movies from that period include Magnolia, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich, Eyes Wide Shut, and The Sixth Sense. The first Star Wars prequel definitely doesn’t belong on this list. However, The Phantom Menace is still a very good movie and, in spite of its flaws, deserves to be re-evaluated by those Star Wars fans who hated it.
One of the biggest criticisms directed at The Phantom Menace is that it contains lots of dry exposition—especially during the opening crawl—and the political aspects of the plot cause the film to drag somewhat. Maybe this is because I’m a political junkie, but I enjoy the dispute between Naboo and the Trade Federation and the proceedings in the Galactic Senate. Given the fact that The Phantom Menace and its direct sequel, Attack of the Clones, portray the beginning of the end of the Galactic Republic, their plots were never going to be as exciting as Revenge of the Sith, which depicts the fall of the Republic, and the original trilogy, which follow a group of hardy rebels as they fight against the Galactic Empire. Lucas himself described Episode I as “more like a period piece, since it was the history leading up to A New Hope” and, in his interview with Vanity Fair’s David Kamp a few months before the movie’s release, he said, “You see the government at work, you see the Senate. You also see the demise of the Old Republic.” The way I view it, Episodes I and II are the setup, and Episodes III through VI are the payoff.
Yes, much of the dialogue in the movie is as flat as a pancake, but The Phantom Menace has a terrific cast who do the best they can with the words they are given. I love Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn. Neeson, who has always been one of my favorite actors, was born to play a Jedi master. (Speaking of Qui-Gon, I’ve always found it funny that even though he comes across as a wise Jedi who trusts his own judgment when others—including his superiors—do not, he makes several blunders that end up dooming the Republic he serves. For instance, although he frees Anakin from a life of slavery on Tatooine, he doesn’t make any serious attempt to do the same for his mother. Instead, Qui-Gon takes Anakin away from her, despite the close bond that the two of them share. And later on, he decides to train Anakin as his apprentice against the wishes of the Jedi Council. Both actions lead the young Padawan down the path to the Dark Side.) Although Ewan McGregor is not the actor that Alec Guinness was, I thought he was good as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. (Coincidentally, McGregor is the nephew of actor Denis Lawson, who played the Rebel X-wing starfighter pilot Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy.) Natalie Portman is a phenomenal actress and she’s okay here, but her character, Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo, reveals herself to be a complete idiot later in the prequel trilogy. (I elaborate upon this point in my retrospective reviews for Episodes II and III.) Also, it’s a joy to see one of my favorite actresses, Keira Knightley, in her debut role as Amidala’s handmaiden and decoy Sabé. (Another one of Amidala’s handmaidens was played by director Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter Sofia, who would go on to become a great filmmaker in her own right.) Despite the torrent of criticism and vitriol he received when The Phantom Menace was released, I think Jake Lloyd was perfectly fine as young Anakin Skywalker. As a child actor, Lloyd doesn’t distinguish himself the way Joel Haley Osment did in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which was released just two months after Episode I. However, the blame here might lie more with Lucas’ lousy writing skills. After all, I’ve heard that Hayden Christensen is a talented actor, but you wouldn’t know that from watching Episodes II and III. As for Samuel L. Jackson’s performance as the Jedi master Mace Windu, I’ve always felt that he was badly miscast in The Phantom Menace and its two sequels. This is not a question of acting ability—Jackson is one of the most gifted actors I’ve ever seen. He just seems out of place in a Star Wars movie. Since Jackson and fellow actor Laurence Fishburne are often mistaken for each other, I just want to say that Fishburne would have made an awesome Jedi master because of his numerous mentor roles in films as varied as Boyz N the Hood, Searching Hoodfor Bobby Fischer, and—most famously—The Matrix. The greatest performance in The Phantom Menace is by Ian McDarmid, who plays Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo and his Sith alter ego Darth Sidious. Prior to Episode I, moviegoers had only known McDarmid as Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi, and it’s a joy to see him here as a politician who is cunning, manipulative, and two-faced (literally). During the course of The Phantom Menace, we see Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious orchestrate a war between his home planet and the Trade Federation and then use this state of affairs to oust the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and become his replacement. This guy would make Machiavelli blush.
And now we must turn to the Gungan in the room. First, let me start off by saying I think we can all agree that the creation of Jar Jar Binks was not George Lucas’ finest hour. And, years from now, I don’t think lines like “Icky, icky goo!” are going to be quoted alongside “May the Force be with you” and “Luke, I am your father.” Still, Jar Jar didn’t deserve all the hatred he has received from Star Wars fans over the years. Sure, he’s annoying, but I don’t think he’s any worse than Chewbacca or the Ewoks. Also, I think the accusations of racism that have been directed at Jar Jar and other characters from Episode I are ridiculous. Furthermore, it’s important to acknowledge that, love him or hate him, Jar Jar was cinema’s first motion-captured CGI film character, and he paved the way for other—and more popular—CGI creations like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings and Caesar from the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy. And I want to say here that while Star Wars fans certainly had the right to express their (usually hostile) opinions of Jar Jar Binks, it’s clear that many them took things way too far. In addition to receiving harsh insults and accusations both online and in person (“You destroyed my childhood!” was just one of the many things he heard), Ahmed Best was also the recipient of a number of death threats. In 2018, nearly two decades after The Phantom Menace was released, Best revealed on social media that the toxic reaction to his character from Star Wars fans caused him to contemplate suicide. I understand that a lot of fans reviled Jar Jar, but it’s always important to remember that words matter, and there was a real flesh-and-blood human being behind all that CGI.
Best wasn’t the only actor from Episode I to find himself an unfortunate target of the fandom menace. Jake Lloyd was also the focus of an online hate campaign that doubtless caused him to wish he was in a galaxy far, far away. And just what horrific crime did this 10-year-old commit to warrant such abuse? Did he deliberately set an orphanage on fire or drown a litter of kittens for fun? No. Apparently, Star Wars fans detested the fact that this child actor acted like…a child. Of course, it was ludicrous to expect 9-year-old Anakin to do the Sith Lord routine from the outset, but even if fans didn’t like him acting his age and yelling “Yippee!” as he operated a podracer, they should have blamed Lucas, not Lloyd. In addition to the hate he received on the internet, Lloyd was mocked and bullied at school to the point where he decided to quit acting in 2001 at the age of 12. However, this didn’t put an end to the abuse, and Lloyd’s life continued to go downhill. Over the following years, he experienced several run-ins with law enforcement. (Ironically, one of them involved a high-speed chase, albeit with automobiles, not podracers.) Also, his younger sister Madison—who had a small part in Episode I—died in 2018. And in 2020, Lloyd’s mother Lisa disclosed to the public that he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I’m sure Lloyd’s mental illness wasn’t caused by the hostility he received from Star Wars fans, but there can be little doubt that this hostility made his situation much worse than it already was.
To this day, Lloyd’s reputation has never recovered in the eyes of the fanbase. However, in 2015, Best’s fortunes changed when a Reddit user, who went by the name Lumpawarroo, put forth an elaborate theory arguing that, rather than being a CGI version of the Three Stooges who was manipulated by Palpatine into giving him absolute power in Episode II, Jar Jar Binks was actually “a highly skilled force user in terms of martial ability and mind control.” Lumpawarroo pointed to several scenes in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones in which the Gungan displays unusual physical and mental acumen, in contrast to his normal behavior, gestures with his hands when attempting to convince others to follow a desired course of action, and appears to instill in young Anakin a romantic attraction to Queen Amidala and a lack of respect for the Jedi. According to the theory, all of this adds up to Jar Jar being a Sith Lord in disguise who secretly aided Palpatine, his fellow Naboo native, in the latter’s rise to power. The theory spread like wildfire on the internet and was eagerly embraced by Star Wars fans and discussed by a number of bloggers and mainstream media outlets, who dubbed it “Darth Jar Jar.” (Personally, I would have called it Darth Darth Binks.) Although George Lucas refused to comment when asked about the theory, Best went to Twitter to hint that Darth Jar Jar was a real thing. Later, during an interview on YouTube, Best went further and said the Gungan “could” have “evolved” into the villain outlined by the theory but that Lucas scrapped his plans for Jar Jar because of the negative reaction that the character received from hardcore fans. However, I share the view of some that Darth Jar Jar is—in all likelihood—total bunk. After all, Lucas has always said he created Jar Jar Binks in order to appeal to kids, and having this alien screwball turn out to be a Sith Lord isn’t exactly what I would call kid-friendly. But if this is true, you might ask, then why did Best appear to confirm at least some details of the theory? Well, there’s an easy answer to that question: Maybe the actor wanted to give Star Wars fans a reason to finally stop flaying him. Personally, I think that making Jar Jar a secret villain would have vastly improved the prequel trilogy as well as the character’s standing among the fanbase. In a May 2019 piece commemorating The Phantom Menace’s 20th anniversary, Clarissa Loughrey, film critic for The Independent, compared the Gungan to Forrest Gump due to his buffoonish personality and unwitting tendency to show up during significant moments in the film. But what if, instead of being Forrest Gump, Jar Jar was really akin to Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects—someone who appears to be a harmless, bumbling fool but is, in reality, an intelligent, cunning, and dangerous baddie? (We could call him Jar Jar Soze or Keyser Binks. Or how about the Usual Gungans?) If I had written the scripts to the prequels, I would have outlined a three-part evolution for Jar Jar: In Episode I, he’s a clueless nincompoop, in Episode II, he’s Palpatine’s unwitting patsy, and in Episode III, he’s revealed to be Palpatine’s secret accomplice. And if it is true that Lucas really intended for Jar Jar to be a villain and abandoned this plan due to the backlash from fans, then he blew one of the biggest opportunities he ever had to really make the prequels shine.
And speaking of villains and blown opportunities, it is now time to turn to Darth Maul, Darth Sidious’ apprentice. Played wonderfully by professional martial artist Ray Park, Maul, with his demonic face and double-bladed lightsaber, has “BADA$$” written all over him and is the only new villain in the prequel trilogy that I really liked. As every Star Wars fan knows, Maul fatally wounds Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode I’s climactic lightsaber duel and then is cut in two by Obi-Wan Kenobi and falls down a shaft. In a piece titled “Killing Darth Maul: George Lucas’ Biggest Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Mistake?”, Den of Geek writer Ryan Lambie outlined a fantastic alternate scenario for Darth Maul and how it could have impacted the prequels:
“Qui-Gon is mortally wounded by Darth Maul, who then makes his escape – perhaps assuming that Obi-Wan, who’d just fallen off a high platform in the Theed Generator Complex, was either dead or severely injured. Qui-Gon’s dying wish is that Obi-Wan takes Anakin under his wing and train him as a Jedi. Obi-Wan agrees, while privately vowing to avenge the death of his master.”
“In the subsequent films, Darth Maul would continue to serve as Obi-Wan’s nemesis. Obi-Wan aims to teach Anakin the ways of Jedi righteousness, but secretly fights his desire for revenge. It could even be that Obi-Wan’s bitter thoughts might in some way lead Anakin into turning to the Dark Side. At the very least, this plot strand, with Obi-Wan wrestling with the guilt and anger over the death of his master, could make his character something more than merely stoic and well-meaning.”
“With a little rewriting, Obi-Wan could have fought Darth Maul, and not General Grievous, in the third and final prequel, Revenge of the Sith. This would have solved three problems in one stroke: first, it would have resulted in a physical, Ray Park-led combat sequence rather than one heavily augmented with weightless CGI; two, it would have added an emotional dimension to the scene (finally, Obi-Wan gets to purge himself of his anger); and three, it would have provided an apt connection to the Revenge in the movie’s title.”
“How much more effective would it have been when, having finally killed Darth Maul in combat, Obi-Wan had recognized the depth of his own bloodlust, and the satisfaction at having killed his enemy? Just as Luke Skywalker looked at his robot hand and saw his own path to the Dark Side in the Original trilogy, Obi-Wan could have recognized the darkness in himself, and realized too late that hatred and a lust for revenge was already turning Anakin into another Lord of the Sith.”
I can’t think of any way to improve upon this. However, if Darth Maul had remained Darth Sidious’ apprentice until Episode III, where he would be slain by Obi-Wan Kenobi and replaced by Anakin, this would cause complications for the scenario mentioned above regarding Jar Jar Binks being a secret Sith Lord due to the Sith’s Rule of Two. Therefore, on second thought, I think it would have been best to have the Gungan merely be an ally of Palpatine’s who happens to be strong with the Force but not an actual member of the Sith Order.
I should note here that in spite of the relatively “unexciting” nature of The Phantom Menace’s plot, the film boasts three incredible action sequences. The podrace scene on Tatooine is exhilarating, although it goes on a bit too long. The invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation’s droid army and the resultant battle with the Gungans is pretty cool and foreshadows future large-scale CGI battles in films such as The Lord of the Rings. But the real standout is the aforementioned lightsaber duel between Gui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul. This climactic fight scene is one of the best in the entire Star Wars franchise, features fantastic choreography, and is accompanied by electrifying, spine-chilling, choral-driven music by John Williams. The action sequences are aided greatly by the film’s magnificent visual effects. There has always been a widespread misperception that the effects in the prequel trilogy were virtually all CGI. But, in point of fact, much of the effects were actually practical in nature, and it’s a great credit to the skills of George Lucas and the folks over at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) that the practical and digital effects are woven together so seamlessly that it’s difficult to tell one from the other. And speaking of visual effects, one thing I especially dig about The Phantom Menace is the city-planet of Coruscant. I’ve always loved seeing futuristic cities in movies, and the scale and beauty of Coruscant reminds me of my favorite science fiction film, Fritz Lang’s seminal silent classic Metropolis.
I’d like to address one of the most controversial aspects of The Phantom Menace among Star Wars fans—namely, the existence of midi-chlorians. In the wake of Episode I’s release, many fans objected to them because they felt that their existence greatly diminished—if not destroyed—the spiritual nature of the Force and revealed it to be nothing more than a biological form of predestination whereby characters could only become Jedi if they happened to have a whole bunch of these little buggers living inside their bodies. Midi-chlorians offended Star Wars fans who always saw Jedihood as a mystical, egalitarian vocation that anyone could work toward. For example, in an article for Time, comic book writer Evan Narcisse claimed midi-chlorians “ruined Star Wars for me,” and someone posted this on an Ars Technica message board: “Star Wars - the force is a mystical energy = fantasy. Star Wars - the force is caused by mitichlorians [sic] = fork you.” (Okay, this person didn’t actually use the word “fork.” He/she used a similar-sounding word. However, this is supposed to be a family-friendly review.) Personally, I don’t have a problem with midi-chlorians and don’t think they hurt the idea of the Force at all. Journalist Abraham Riesman put it best in an article for Vulture:
“The Force is still vaguely defined, allowing you to map whatever meaning you want onto it — it just so happens that there might be little creatures that help us become more sensitive to it, and some people have more of them than others. Ask yourself: How different is it from our other notions of the Jedi? It had already been established that they’re people who are somehow born with greater sensitivity to the Force, meaning we already accepted the idea of the Force as a birthright reserved for a chosen few, fundamentally different from the rest of us. Is it that big of a leap to say that their differences show up in biology, too?”
Speaking of chosen people, one thing that’s always annoyed me about Episode I is Lucas’ use of the “immaculate conception” idea to explain Anakin’s birth. It’s not a huge problem, but I’ve always thought it was kind of dumb. If I had written the script, I would have had it so that Anakin had a father who either died or left his family when the boy was an infant, and his identity would remain a mystery. Oh, sure, Anakin Skywalker may be a super-important Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord-turned-Jedi Knight, but he ain’t no Jesus Christ. Another part of The Phantom Menace that has received criticism is the climax, which has four things occurring simultaneously: 1) The invasion of Naboo; 2) The lightsaber duel; 3) Queen Amidala’s search and capture of Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray; 4) The attack by Naboo pilots (who are later joined by Anakin) on the Trade Federation’s Droid Control Ship. After he viewed a rough cut of the finished film, Lucas said the climax felt “a little disjointed” and conceded that “I may have gone too far in a few places.” After they saw the finished movie, a number of film critics and Star Wars fans heartily agreed with this assessment. Personally, I find the climax highly entertaining and don’t have a major problem with it. However, it probably could have benefitted from tighter editing and fewer plot elements.
The Phantom Menace ended up costing $115 million to make, which is ironic because, back in 1993, Lucas said one of the reasons why he waited so long to do another Star Wars movie after Return of the Jedi was so he could lower production costs with digital effects and prevent them from spiraling upwards to the point where they were on a par with the budget of Terminator 2: Judgment Day—at that time the most expensive film ever made but which actually cost more than $10 million less than Episode I. Because Lucas paid to make the first Star Wars prequel out of his own pocket, he enjoyed total creative control over every aspect of the production. This, of course, is every filmmaker’s dream. After all, Hollywood history is replete with examples of insufferable and often disastrous studio meddling—as celebrated directors like David Fincher, Ridley Scott, and Terry Gilliam can attest. However, the major pitfall for directors who can do whatever they want to their films is that…they can do whatever they want to their films. This situation is sometimes cited by people as a reason for why The Phantom Menace is a “bad” movie. As I have made fairly clear throughout this retrospective review, I don’t consider Episode I to be “bad.” However, I do think it was problematic for Lucas—one of the most powerful people in Hollywood—that he was surrounded by yes-people. He might have benefitted from underlings and associates who could have imparted constructive criticism at various points during the production or just said, “George, buddy, I’ve got a baaaad feeling about this.” With that being said, I do believe that The Phantom Menace was better off for having Lucas enjoying total freedom to make the movie he wanted as opposed to answering to studio executives.
One of the most controversial aspects of Episode I among Star Wars fans is Lucas’ decision to depict the future Darth Vader as a little boy, and, reportedly, the execs over at Twentieth Century Fox were fiercely opposed to it. When Lucas pitched the idea for the film, one of them is said to have shouted, “You’re going to destroy the franchise; you’re going to destroy everything!” Members of Lucas’ team over at Lucasfilm also had serious reservations about The Phantom Menace being centered around a 9-year-old Anakin, but he ignored their concerns and forged ahead. These fears appear to have been realized when the movie was released and many Star Wars fans reacted negatively to “Annie.” In a November 2020 article for Den of Geek, Joseph Baxter wrote, “The general consensus—which came about after an initial period of shock and a bit of denial—was that Young Anakin was a poor choice of a protagonist for myriad reasons.” Elsewhere in the piece, Baxter notes that “Lucas apparently thought that the character’s relationship and emotional separation from his mother was the most important aspect of his introduction and eventual arc toward the dark side. As Lucas explained in a 1999 interview with Empire, ‘I knew if I’d made Anakin 15 instead of nine, then it would have been more marketable’ he said, adding, ‘If I’d made the Queen 18 instead of 14, then it would have been more marketable. But that isn’t the story.’” Baxter shares the view of many fans that Lucas should have started Anakin out as a young adult because it would have given the character more time in the prequels to build his crucial relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme. This is a valid criticism, but I believe Lucas was absolutely right to portray Anakin as a child in The Phantom Menace, mainly for the reasons that the director gave in that Empire interview. In addition, I think it was important to show that Darth Vader, whom—during the course of the original trilogy—everyone had come to know as one of the evilest men in the galaxy, was once an innocent and loving child who possessed hopes and dreams and a desire to help others.
And speaking of little Annie, I would like to address another complaint that Star Wars fans made against The Phantom Menace. They didn’t like the focus on 9-year-old Anakin and the presence of Jar Jar Binks because these aspects of Episode I signified that Lucas was making a movie for kids as opposed to the adults who’d been reared on the original trilogy. They apparently forgot—or never realized—that the original, beloved Star Wars was also meant for kids. Shortly before A New Hope was released, Lucas said of it: “I’ve made a Disney movie, a cross between Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.” (Lucas’ remark about having made a “Disney movie” proved to be eerily prescient, as Walt Disney Studios would go on to purchase Lucasfilm in 2012 and—as of this writing—produce five Star Wars films.) Now I’ve never seen the latter film, and—judging from its title—I plan to keep it that way. However, I grew up watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which has always been a favorite of mine, and I must confess that I don’t see any great similarities between that movie and Episode IV other than the fact that the former features a character who’s the size of the Death Star. With that being said, I understand Lucas’ broader point, which is that the original Star Wars was always meant to be a fun adventure aimed at younger viewers as opposed to the artistic/intellectual/philosophical cinematic Taj Mahal that many of the film’s fans apparently see it as. In recent years, Lucas has reiterated that the Star Wars movies—at least the ones he was involved with—are, at their core, mainly for youngsters. For instance, during an event marking the 20th anniversary of the release of The Phantom Menace, he said, “The films were designed for 12-year-olds. I said that right from the very, very beginning and the very first interviews I did for A New Hope. It’s just that they were so popular with everybody, that everybody forgot that.” Personally, I like Episode I’s lighthearted, kid-friendly tone because it presents a stark contrast to the much darker tone of Episode II and the utter bleakness of Episode III.
Of all the film critics whose reviews I have read, my favorite was the late Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. One of the things I loved most about him was that he could make me see films for what they truly were, even if it took me a long time to do so. Although The Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars movie that didn’t earn a perfect four-star rating from him, Ebert gave the prequel three-and-a-half stars and called it “an astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking.” At the time, I thought he was nuts, but I now believe he was right. And despite its (current) abysmal Rotten Tomatoes rating, I hope that in future years, more people will view Episode I not as a great Star Wars film but as a damn good one and a worthy entry in the franchise. Yes, the movie comes up short in terms of cinematic quality when compared to the original trilogy. Yes, it has flaws. And yes, it failed to meet expectations. But for all that, The Phantom Menace is an impressive achievement from a true visionary. The Force is strong with this one.
Last edited by markdc; 2 weeks ago at 11:32 AM.
