Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Was It Any Good? Seems like a simple question and, for pretty much any other film, it would be. When applied to this film, it comes with a surprising amount of other stuff to unpick (speaking for me personally, that is). As a child, like so many others of my generation, there were two sci-fi obsessions for me:- Doctor Who (which was still on the telly up until 1989, barring a brief hiatus) and Star Wars. Star Wars was a proper obsession too. Doctor Who never really had much in the way of merchandise other than the Target books and an Annual at Christmas. Star Wars, though… we had toys, comics, magazines, clothes, bedding (Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi duvet and pillow covers on careful rotation). Star Wars was written all throughout my childhood like Blackpool through a stick of rock.
So when George Lucas announced that he was making a new trilogy of films, the long rumoured Episodes I-III, it’s had now to accurately convey the level of excitement around this. It would probably be a similar feeling to a child of the 60s being told that the Beatles were getting back together to record a new album*. I pored over any article about it, dissected any trailers and clips and eagerly bought merchandise in the hope that it would one day be priceless**. When it came out, I took the day off to go and see it (something that I have only have ever done for Star Wars films and, even then, only the prequels). I was genuinely transported to somewhere else when I sat in the cinema watching the new titles for a new Star Wars film scroll up the screen and I came out of the cinema convinced that I’d enjoyed it. I even went back and watched it at the cinema again and, of course, being a dyed-in-the-wool Star Wars obsessive, I have owned it on VHS, DVD and BluRay.
Has It Dated? Time has not been kind to it and it had become fashionable within sci-fi fandom (and the wider critical world at large) to bash the prequels. Of the first six films, it’s the one that I really struggle to rewatch. The pod race and the climactic lightsaber duel/space battle are exciting pieces of cinema (and, let’s face it, Darth Maul is a cool-looking if underused villain) but so much of what surrounds those two pieces is clunky and hard to watch (trade federations, midichlorians, weirdly racist-sounding accents).
Still Worth A Watch? If you’re a completist who wants to see the Star Wars story from start to finish as George Lucas envisioned it then you’ll have to watch it as it’s the first one. Your enjoyment of this film will depend largely on your own relationship to Star Wars - it’s a tough one for fans of the originals, it’s a source of enjoyment for those who grew up with it as their Star Wars and it’s most likely a curiosity piece to those coming into it today. So, in summary then, oof, tricky. (Hey, at least I made it all the way through without mentioning Jar Jar…. oh, bugger.)
* I realise that this wouldn't have happened in 1999 due to John Lennon having been dead for some time. It’s not a perfect analogy but I’m sticking with it.
** The Folly Of Merchandise Speculating is a whole other discussion for another time.
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