Every 10 years or so I get an itch to watch some ‘Star Wars’ movies. I wouldnt say im the biggest fan of the franchise, but I almost certainly have an appreciation for what they’ve come to stand for within the film ecosystem (Technological advancement, gripping stories of espionage, action and thrilling adventure taking license from action thrillers of the 40s and 50s, peppered with a mild whimsy to help make it digest better with the audience)

I watched the recent ‘sequals’ trilogy as it came out in theaters, I last watched the original trilogy back in 2014…But the ‘Prequels’? Thats a different kettle of fish. I’ve never seen ‘Revenge of the Sith’, I watched ‘Attack of the clones’ once on DVD and barely made it to the end credits. And as for ‘The Phantom Menace’? Tonight was my 3rd ever watch. Having first watched it on it’s opening week back in 1999, followed by a drunken rewatch at some point in 2010/2011 where Im 90% sure I passed out before the 3rd act.

While I welcome the other star wars trilogies with open arms, the sheer venom thats been levelled at the ‘prequel’ films from nearly every corner of the internet, made it feel like something not really worth bothering with…I mean…if the vast VAST majority of people say its one of the worst films ever made…they’ve gotta be right…right?

Well…I sat down stone cold sober tonight and I freebased all 2 hours and 16 minutes of ‘The Phantom Menace’ and…my honest response?..Is an understanding of why some people would think this was bad, but a total confusion over the utter bile spat out in this films legacy.

Im not sure if it’s just the fact that i’ve addled my brain with 10+ years of terrible TERRIBLE movies and very little else. But having sat through this thing, there were only TWO notable things I really picked up on that I feel let this film down. The plotting and how it handles its plot elements. And the fact that this is unmistakably attempting to do a ‘Return of the Jedi’ and basically act as a toy commercial.

With the former point, I’d argue that its subjective. In my opinion the films padded quite heavily, scenes run on for WAY longer than they realistically should have (the pod racing scene is an example. It really should have been MUCH shorter than it ended up being) and the result is a movie that has a rather strong first act I feel, but slows to a crawl the moment they set foot on Tatooine and it never really gets its momentum back from there.

Theres multiple elongated VERY dry exposition scenes, my understanding is that this was originally supposed to set up a much slower burn series of Anakin turning into Vader through the corruption of politics and sacrifice of his own beliefs. However when this film garnered SUCH a negative backlash the whole thing was condensed and retconned into something more audience friendly and ‘safe’…Not that that gives the film a reprive if I still have to sit through it as part of the trilogy.

The other issue to this point is that this film was almost always set up to fail in the eyes of the fandom. ‘Return of the Jedi’ came out in 1983 and Lucas spent the best part of 16 years delaying ‘Episode 1’ from being made because he said he would only make it when the technology caught up with his vision. Star Wars fans are some of the most rabid fans on the planet, so when this film got announced, as you can imagine, story ideas, plot theories and leaks went WILD.

I feel that, even had Lucas made a different, even marginally tighter production, the fans still would have savaged it because it wasnt in line with the 16 years of extended media and merch that had followed it.

To that point however, I do feel there are plot points in this film that could have been explored in more depth vs, what we actually got as a finished product. Darth Maul almost certainly would have benefitted form a bit more screentime, he’s the emporers apprentice and he’s on screen for collectively 15 minutes or so. I feel like Qui-gon would have benefitted from more time on screen, even beyond this film to Boi up Obi-Wans transition into a full blown Jedi Knight. Anakins character is a little too charismatic and outspoken, I feel a kid who’s strongly with ‘the force’ might have presented as a little more subdued and introspective. Maybe even nervous…

But! with that being said, I can only judge whats here, and whats here is fine enough…but a little dry. The script works with light and dark relatively well to deliver a pleasing contrast on tone. Jar Jar Binks is a little overplayed, less Jar Jar would have been better in my opinion. The dialogue, as mentioned is a little overly dry, the action is consistent…But I feel like the sabre battles do somewhat overshadow any chance for a more meaningful encounter. Arguably one of the best scenes in the entire franchise is in ‘A new Hope’ when Obi Wan fights Darth Vader. Its a sabre battle…but they openly talk as old friends, they challenge each other. It feels more naturalistic…Here its just sabre battles…and thats fiiiiiine…But I just wish there’d been more.

The whole thing rounds off well enough, But Episode 1 to me almost feels too much like a self contained film than the opening part of a trilogy. As the credits rolled on this thing I didnt feel like I’d just been left with the threads that would open up this new era of a cinematic world spreading 2-3 generations…I felt like i’d just watched a kinda sorta alright ‘Star Wars’ movie…and thats…not really the tone you want to leave your audience with when your promising two more movies. I wanted to leave pumped for ‘Episode 2’…instead I left thinking ‘Well…that wasnt quite as bad as I remembered it…’

In terms of everything else? I have no issues really. The direction is an above average studio offering for the time. Its George Lucas working with more money than god and no restraint. I’ve seen films shot for a dollar in an alleway…it looks fine. Direction of the cast is a little bit mixed for me, given how stilted the dialogue is the cast work with it as best they can. But they have to deliver a lot of their lines very stoically and….with the best will in the world, its hard to do that for 2 hours and keep it interesting. The overeliance on CGI (which did bother me a bit) also means we lose a lot of the more personal/naturalistic touch that a live action performer can provide. With Yoda and JarJar in particular REALLY suffering as a result in this one.

The cine, much like the direction is decent for an above average studio picture. I think again the overeliance on CGI to worldbuild ultimately harms the film more than helps it…But I realise that this trilogy is like 99% greenscreen sets. So its going to be a losing battle for me if I have a problem with that for the next couple movies.

Performances are fine. Liam Neeson, Natalie Porter, Ewan McGregor and Jake Lloyd are all pretty rock solid in their key roles. and, in a breaking from my own personal rules against ‘discussing child actors’ I do want to take a moment to air my utter UTTER contempt for the people who bullied Lloyd off the back of his performance in this film. Those fans should be ashamed of themselves quite frankly.

Soundtracks solid…Look. ‘The Phantom Menace’ has its problems. and given its 2+ hour length it’ll be a while before I revisit it, purely because I dont really have the time these days…I can totally understand why it got the hate it got back in 1999, I could even understand how salty fans from back in the day would still find this insufferable. But on this rewatch? I cant honestly say I disliked this film. It was flawed, and…for me it probably IS the worst ‘Star Wars’ film in the franchise…But I think that has more to do with the fact that, if your ranking the films from best to worst, there ultimately HAS to be a film thats at the bottom of the pile…rather than it being the case that this films horrendous and has earned its place at the bottom of the pack.

Theres a difference between a film being ‘So bad its deserving of ridicule’ and a film ‘Not being as good as the other films, but still being alright’ and I think thats where this film lands for me. I dont love it, I dont hate it, it’s fine. flawed…but fine.

Which…If you believe every film should strive to be the absolute best it can possibly be or its a failure, will inevitably be problematic for some people. But if like me, you think that it should be a goal, but not the be all and end all…you’ll probably just think this thing wasnt anything to write home about and move on to the next movie…thats what im doing at least…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace/