The Phantom Menace Revisited 25 Years Later

...And The Acolyte Preview: the Prequel to the Prequels

Movies

As we all know, The Phantom Menace was screened this weekend for its 25th anniversary and Star Wars Day. I was four years old when this movie originally came out, and I *believe* it was my first cinematic experience. But I jumped at the chance to see The Phantom Menace on the big screen again. I don’t dislike the prequels as much as many Star Wars fans do, but I don’t absolutely adore them like others, either. I often wonder how these films would have impacted me differently if I was a little older and excited for more Star Wars or if I was younger and they were always there. I was right in the middle; I had always known Star Wars, and I don’t remember ever not having seen the original trilogy. I had Rubbermaid tubs full of Star Wars action figures from both the prequels and the OT. When the prequels came out, my four-year-old (to ten-year-old) brain just accepted them as “more Star Wars.”

However, some of these films’ merits were overlooked due to their less-than-stellar aspects, especially before the sequels came along. Now, people wish Jar-Jar Binks was the worst bugaboo plaguing Star Wars fandom and content. Despite growing up alongside these films, I don’t consider this to be primarily caused by nostalgia. Nostalgia doesn’t work on me, like I’ve noticed for other works. Many movies and shows I loved as a kid, like Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Disney’s Pocahontas, just don’t hold up for me. Meanwhile, movies that I didn’t care for in childhood, like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Nightmare Before Christmas, are now among my favorites. My policy tends to be that child me was dumb, and I don’t accept nor reject the opinions and preferences I held then. I have different criteria for what makes something “good” now, and I like Star Wars for different reasons than I did then. Regardless of all of that, this won’t be a straightforward review. The movie is almost as old as me, and we’ve had plenty of time to decide if The Phantom Menace is good or bad. Instead of grading the film, I will talk about things I found notable or interesting during this latest viewing. 

At my showing, the exclusive look at The Acolyte came after the movie’s credits rolled. However,  I’m going to break this down first to get it out of the way because there’s not a ton to discuss. I only saw 7-10 moviegoers in our showing on Sunday, May 5th. About half of them left during the credits, missing the Acolyte presentation. This actually did surprise me; I know on the internet, there’s a lot of negativity surrounding The Acolyte and pretty much all new Star Wars content. Still, I thought the average fan seeing a Star Wars movie would want the scoop. I’m trying not to assume too much from this anecdotal experience, but I was already wondering if Disney+ and Lucasfilm should be worried about this show’s reception. I have a couple of friends who went on Saturday who say their showing was a little fuller, but a lot of people still left before the Acolyte scene. 

Setting our experiences aside, what was shown was a short, five-ish-minute clip from The Acolyte. It feels like setup, so I can only assume it’s from one of the early episodes of the season. In the presented scene, Mae (Amandla Stenberg) is in a bar looking for Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss). I’m not sure why, as the two immediately see each other, but Mae proceeds to fight every random bar patron anyway. Once Mae has whooped every ass in sight, Indara finally faces her, seemingly still determined not to fight. We know from other footage that Indara has a lightsaber, but she dodges every blow and refuses to fight offensively. I know the Force is for “knowledge and defense,” but part of defense is spanking someone who comes looking for a fight unprovoked. Indara asks who trained Mae, who doesn’t answer. This is the gist of the new footage, although we get a replay of the first Acolyte trailer at the tail end. This scene doesn’t excite me, although I can now see precisely why Leslye Headland wanted Trinity from The Matrix, aka Carrie-Anne Moss, for Indara. She is just playing Trinity. I hope this isn’t the case for all of her fan casts, like X-23 (Dafne Keen as Jecki Lon) and Lee Jung-jae from Squid Game as Master Sol. The action in this sequence feels weightless and forced, no pun intended. It looks like the two women are just bouncing around like the floors are made of rubber. The regular trailers we’ve all already seen play much better than this completed scene; take that as you will. 

The Phantom Menace is a beautiful movie. The animation of Jar-Jar and his cohorts doesn’t hold up well, particularly characters who jive around a lot, like Boss Nass. But I feel this has come to overshadow the gorgeous makeup, costumes, and environments The Phantom Menace has to offer. And I think characters who are played seriously, like Sebulba, for example, fare much better in the suspension of disbelief. Even Captain Tarpals, another Gungan character, doesn’t stand out or distract like Jar-Jar or Boss Nass. I also think it’s worth pointing out that later, better-animated characters in live-action films, like Gollum, were likely influenced by the work done on Jar-Jar. Jar-Jar isn’t a character I love, but he doesn’t inspire the ire in me that he does for others. I think of him as a worse version of B.E.N. from Treasure Planet, another character that frustrates me, but not enough to ruin the movie. 

Aside from obvious upsides like John Williams’ impeccable score and most of the visuals, I love this film’s cast. Most people will agree that Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neeson are good actors. Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor are more entrenched in Hollywood now than before the prequels, and they weren’t newcomers even in 1999. Ray Park is criminally underused in the film; again, I know most people already think this. But his two big scenes feel so impactful that his death at the end becomes a real head-scratcher (good thing he’s not dead). I always felt this way about Qui-Gon Jinn, too. As a kid, he was my favorite Star Wars character, and while I have other favorites now, I still have a soft spot for him. He’s the one Jedi who follows his conscience and the will of the Force rather than dogma and politics. His relationships with Obi-Wan and Anakin are incredibly significant, yet his death feels a little hollow when you watch the movie. This is my biggest problem with The Phantom Menace, far worse than comedy aimed at kids or outdated visuals: there isn’t enough time to develop this many characters. Their relationships feel stilted, and the odd funny line (“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent”) feels like a wake-up call. But I still have a fondness for these characters, especially Padmé, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul. Others, like Palpatine and Obi-Wan, go without saying. My main gripe with this film is that I want more – more context, more relationship and world-building, more time. 

Much of The Phantom Menace serves to set up the following movies, naturally, and there’s plenty of that Star Wars “poetry” George Lucas famously talked about. The examples that struck me the most in this watch were Obi-Wan’s master dying here when he dies in the first movie of the OT, the destruction of the Trade Federation control ship mirroring the Death Star in Episode IV, and Padmé’s white dress and smile to Anakin in the end. This whole celebration is like a bigger version of the ceremony at the end of A New Hope, but I feel silly for never noticing how she smiles at Ani exactly the way Leia smiles at Luke and Han. 

The Phantom Menace is an incredibly audacious, inherently flawed movie. It has too many characters, too much intrigue, stilted emotions, and not enough time to explore everything. But I still like this film, and time has been kind to it. There’s a lot to enjoy here, from gorgeous skylines and exciting, unique cultures to now-iconic lines. There is, indeed, always a bigger fish.