Thoughts on Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace · 4:32am May 9th
The last time I watched this movie, I was around eight years old, having rented it from Food City. I'm glad to have watched it again, and on the big screen to boot.
So, this is the movie that spawned a generation or two of angry "fans" attacking George Lucas for having "raped their childhood". And that's not even getting into stuff like the hate for Jar-Jar or young Anakin's actors. (And the less said about things like the Plinkett reviews, the better.)
Is it really so shocking to say that, frankly, having watched the movie as an adult, that one can look back on the backlash and hatred and find it all so ridiculously overblown? Like, yes, the movie isn't GREAT by any means, but it's certainly enjoyable enough.
"There's too much politics and debate"? If you timed the scene in the Galactic Senate, I'd doubt it'd come to much more than five minutes. And yes, the opening crawl DOES mention taxes and trade disputes, and they get brought up a fair few times, but frankly it's so surface-level as to be inoffensive. Like the movie doesn't just grind to a halt to lecture the viewer about economics or trade franchises. In the first few minutes the Jedi's ship gets blown to bits and we're off watching battle droids get chopped to bits. I'd be more considerate of this point if it were specifically criticizing the runtime spent on Coruscant as a whole, but if we're just talking generally I'd say the Senate issue really isn't that awful.
Hell, frankly, in hindsight, there's something depressingly relevant in how easily and adroitly Palpatine takes advantage of the situation in the Senate; convincing Padme (more on her in a bit) that the Republic is run by bureaucrats and gutless corporate types and that progress will only be achieved if they get a "strong" Chancellor elected. In 2024, George's point, however basic it might be, hits closer to home than ever.
"midichlorians"? Honestly not a deal-breaker for me. I thought the scene made it clear that they were not the *cause* of the Force, just in symbiosis with it. Yeah, it's de-mystifying it to an extent, but it by no means ruins the movie the way that so many might make it out to be. The movie brings it up and then moves along.
"Queen Amidala is too wooden"? Funny then that most of the time the person in the makeup isn't even Natalie Portman. Padme herself, while not written deeply, is certainly no worse than anyone else in the movie, and Natalie goes a decent way towards imbuing her with enough charm.
Though for me, watching this as an adult, I'd still definitely name Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon, and to a lesser extent Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, as the MVPs of the protagonists. Neeson's performance gives the character a nice dignity and gravitas (you can easily see him as a surrogate father to young Anakin in their interactions, which to the movie's credit are shown without it being hammered home) while McGregor perfectly captures the persona of a younger Alec Guinness. I was particularly moved by two moments: one that snuck up on me was Qui-Gon's wistful "I wish" when Anakin says that nobody could kill a Jedi; those few words really conveyed the feeling of a story behind them. The other moment being Qui-Gon's death, as Ewan sells every moment of Obi-Wan's grief in witnessing his mentor and father figure's last moments.
Jar-Jar Binks is goofy for sure, but I didn't find him nearly as obnoxious as his detractors would have one think. His accent may sound unfortunate (or just obnoxious depending), but I really do think that most claims of racism are probably the result of cluelessness rather than actual intent. Certainly Ahmed Best didn't deserve the hate his character got!
Of course, Ian McDiarmid is a gem, both as Senator Palpatine ("A surprise to be sure") and as the Sith Lord Sidious. And while Darth Maul only has about three lines of dialogue, but the character's look is so memorable, and the climactic Duel of the Fates so magnificent, that it's easy to see just why he became the breakout character of the prequel movie era.
Though it pains me to say it... watching this movie, it did drive home to me what I think was probably Lucas' big mistake in making Anakin so young. As one book I read put it so succinctly, a fifteen-year-old racer who built his own vehicle is James Dean but in outer space. A nine-year-old racer who built his own pod is a Wacky Races character in outer space. Nothing against Jake Lloyd at all - in fact his goodbye to Anakin's mother Shmi is perfectly fine and moving - but this simple fact does color everything about his character. A teenage Anakin standing up to Sebulba is cool. A little kid Anakin doing it just seems kinda silly. I totally understand Lucas' intention in having a sweet young kid be the eventual Darth Vader (and I will always adore the poster showing Anakin with Vader's shadow) but I feel like Lloyd's Anakin would have been better suited to one introductory scene before skipping ahead to an older version of the character.
All that being said though... the podracing scene in the movie is a highlight. George Lucas' talent for vehicular action (and, I assume, his past as an avid racer) shines in this section of the movie, and makes for nearly as good a reason for watching as the duel with Darth Maul.
In the end, despite some issues shining through for me, others were nowhere near as bad as had been driven into me time and time again, so it was definitely affirming to watch this movie again and find myself enjoying a lot more than I didn't. (And yes, in some moments I did laugh at the reminder of several of the specific prequel memes.) But whatever the case, it was nice to see this through, and get a good reminder that sometimes a movie can be enjoyed on more than one level, or that its reputation can definitely be rehabilitated with time.
It may not be perfect, but it still has enough fun to have kept me entertained, and even to appreciate some aspects of it I'd never considered before.
All of that sounds perfectly fair to me ^^
Boy howdy you're uncomfortably right.
The Force has been a known quantity in Star Wars for thousands if not tens of thousands of years. People are going to try to science the Force. The Empire no doubt ceased all but very specific private research on it and made sure only a handful had access to that info.
She's also meant to be a stoic Queen doing everything in her power to not freak the fuck about because Space-Amazon invaded her planet with their very real army, and Space-Amazon has a voice in the Space-Senate.
100%. Dislike a character all you want, but for the love of human decency, don't send death threats to actors.
Fair. Would have been interesting to see a version where Anakin is 15ish.
Oh it's a gorgeous sequence.
Oh the Prequels are full of amazing memes. They also have amazing music because John Williams cannot miss.
Still my favorite of the Star Wars prequels, though I'll freely admit that a big part of that is the childhood nostalgia talking. It was definitely one of the ones I watched the most of the Star Wars movies we used to have on VHS. Certainly isn't perfect, but it's one of those movies where I can watch it and feel like I'm going back in time a couple decades and letting my problems fade away for a while.
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Thanks, Four.
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Good point about the Force and how people *would* try and science the hell out of it.
Also, calling the Trade Federation "Space Amazon" is hilarious and I'm gonna have to borrow that one.
(It reminds me of the videos I've seen putting the droid army theme to footage of Amazon drones activating. Certainly fitting, honestly!)
I will say, I do wonder what an older Anakin would've been like in another version of the movie... I read about George's original draft of TPM and it's both stronger in some places (for one thing, Obi-Wan is squarely the protagonist, and Jar-Jar and the Gungans speak normal English) and yet weaker too (Darth Maul appears without any prior buildup, and Qui-Gon appears in the story just to be killed by Maul) in other places. Just, curious to say the least.
And yes, the soundtrack for the prequels is just outstanding. Some of John Williams' finest work ever, in my opinion.