So I decided to start a journey of re-watching the six movies in order over the next several weeks/months. I would do it quicker, but I have a family and a job, and I would like to keep both.
To kick off 'Episode I: The Phantom Menace', I'm not sure why there's so much bad talk about the newer prequel trilogy. Were these movies as good as the first three? No, but the first three were three of the best movies ever made, so that's asking a lot. But all three movies were commercial successes. Phantom Menace, when adjusted for inflation, is the 20th all-time grossing movie, ahead of movies like 'The Godfather', 'The Lion King', and 'The Dark Knight.'
If you didn't like the movie, fine, but the Star Wars movies are not about awesome stories or compelling dialogue. The Star Wars formula is simple: fun adventure story + cool characters you care about + visually excitement + just plain coolness. Phantom Menace worked in the formula. Am I a Lucas apologist? Absolutely. But this is a very, very good movie. I even ranked it as the No. 5 movie of the 90s.
That being said, Lucas & Co. missed the opportunity to make this a transcendent film (like the first three), so in that way it was a slight disappointment. Here are some of the misses:
- Jar-Jar Binks. What a waste of screen time. I realize that this character was an attempt to engage younger viewers, but that's a crock to me. With young Anakin playing a central role, and R2-D2 and C3PO involved, he was completely superfluous and completely annoying. And he turned the Gungans from a warrior race into a joke.
- Anakin. Young actor Jake Lloyd just didn't get it done. Child acting can ruin movies, and he didn't do that poorly, but either Lucas was too impatient to get young Jake to the right point, or Jake just didn't have it in him. It was likely a little of both. Regardless, this detracted from the film.
- Medachlorians. Reducing the Force to some symbiotic creature was dumb, and Lucas never mentioned it again. Neither will I.
- Virgin birth. Anakin was conceived by the Force? Oh good golly. Again, we will never mention this again. I would have preferred that Palpatine had an affair with his mother, or it was Jango Fett. Anything but a virgin birth.
- More Darth Maul. He needed to blow out who Darth Maul was a little. His appearance in the series was too brief. What a cool character who only barely touches the surface of what he could have been.
Without further desecration of my Star Wars fandom, here's my not-so-random thoughts regarding Phantom Menace.
The Worlds of Naboo and Coruscant
The movie takes place on three planets: Naboo, Coruscant and Tatooine. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the third one. It's a desert planet visited in three of the other five films. Naboo is only briefly featured again, and Coruscant is introduced to us.
Naboo, both the beautiful countryside and the spectacular capital city of Theed, gave Lucas and a his team their first chance to create a world with the new technology that was available at the time. It's a vibrant world, with two divided nations, the Gungans and the humans, who live in a tense peace. And we also get to see the beautiful Gungan underwater city. (By the way, how do the Jedi swim underwater with all those robes? That's got to be tough.)
Coruscant is a planet that is one entire city. Awesome visually, with ships and speeders criss-crossing everywhere. Coruscant is featured more in the later films, so I won't waste too many pixels here, but it was great to see the capital planet in all its glory.
The Jedi
In the first three films, there are a couple of old Jedi (Obi-Wan and Yoda), a young Jedi in training (Luke), a potential Jedi (Leia) and a Jedi-turned bad (Darth Vader). But we see very little of the Jedi, and know very little about them.
The movie begins with Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Knight, taking his padowan apprentice Obi-Wan on a diplomatic mission that ends up with them in some minor skirmishes. We finally get to see Jedi in action as a team, and it's pretty cool, knocking down droid soldiers and running through different terrains. Awesome.
We also get to see the Jedi Council, are re-introduced to a younger Yoda and meet other major players, including the very serious Mace Windu. We also find out that the wise Obi-Wan was trained by a somewhat rebellious mentor, someone who frequently defied the council's best wishes.
This movie left me with some questions about the Jedi Council, some of which were answered in the other movies, some of which weren't:
- What did they know about Anakin? We'll get into this later, but if Mace Windu and Yoda were do nervous, why didn't they take him as a padowan?
- Why was Mace Windu so arrogant about the Sith? Why did he believe they couldn't rise again without the Jedi knowing?
- If the Republic was already corrupt, why weren't the Jedi already becoming more proactive? Was Palpatine's power over them that complete?
The Sith
Darth Sidious (aka Palpatine) quickly becomes the central evil mastermind of this drama. He's pulling all the strings, attempting to manipulate the Republic, the Jedi, the Trade Federation, basically playing everyone off each other, all with the goal of consolidating power underneath him, ruling the galaxy under the hand of the Sith.
The question is how much of what happens in this movie was his plan or what was an accident he used to his advantage. Hard to say. I think he misjudged Amidala and her abilities, but it accelerated his opportunity to become Supreme Chancellor. I think he also greatly underestimated Obi-Wan, which he would do again decades later. He thought Darth Maul would earn his stripes against Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and instead, he inadvertently launched the career of the Jedi Knight who would ultimately lead to his downfall (by watching over and training Luke).
Speaking of Darth Maul, I'm not exactly sure what Palpatine had in mind for him. Was he eventually to become the enforcer Darth Vader would become? Seems to make sense. Was he more of an apprentice experiment? That's the problem with the Sith; they don't want an apprentice that's too powerful, and maybe Palpatine recruited and trained Maul to be too weak, and this bit him. And that's what drew him to the more powerful Anakin.
And the end of the movie, Palpatine makes a passing comment to Anakin about watching his career. It's clear he saw him as someone to manipulate, as an emotionally vulnerable child who would have a set of weaknesses unlike most Jedis. I don't believe Palpatine knew how he would use Anakin yet, he just knew that, unlike Obi-Wan or Yoda, he was someone he could steer.
The Seeds of a Villain
Was Anakin destined to become Darth Vader? Qui-Gon obviously believed something different, unless he believed bringing balance to the Force was killing almost all Jedis and eventually killing Palpatine. But that seems like a stretch.
I think Yoda said the most important things about Anakin: his path was unclear and dangerous. And because no one, at that point, seemed to realize that a Sith Lord would be trying to manipulate Anakin in order to destroy the Jedi Order, he was allowed to be trained by Obi-Wan in the traditional fashion, instead of being kept in the temple in a more special arrangement. But certainly, as Obi-Wan pointed out to Qui-Gon, the Jedi Council viewed Anakin as a dangerous person to train. But they also probably thought of him as a dangerous kid to leave untrained.
Obviously his attachment to his mother is the problem, worsened by his slavery and the hatred he felt toward the evil authorities on his home planet. Combine that with the chilly initial reception he received from the Jedi Council, and the seeds were planted for his rebellion.
The Mother of Luke and Leia
Amidala is a vexing figure. One of the things viewers forget is that Padme Amidala is a democratically elected, 13 year-old queen, who 5 months into her reign was faced with the aggressive blockcade of the Trade Federation. How inconceivable that may seem to us, she was put into political training at age 8, and the culture of the planet was to groom young politicians before they became corrupt.
She shows a tremendous amount of courage, similar to the courage her daughter Leia Organa would show decades later in opposing the oppressive rule of Emperor Palpatine. Her alliance with Palpatine is one of the great ironies of the story, as is the trust she places in him. This trust would dissolve in the future as his truer nature began to be revealed.
Closing Thoughts
I really could go on forever, but I won't, mainly because, as I mentioned above, I have a job and a family. But Phantom Menace does a beautiful job of setting up the next two films and establishing the three most important characters of the prequel trilogy: Anakin, Padme Amidala, and Obi-Wan. And anytime Yoda is shown on screen is awesome.
When I saw Phantom Menace on screen in 1999, it was a sublime moment, a fulfillment of boyhood dreams for a 23 year-old. Yes, I realize some of you probably find that pathetic. Others of you remember the feeling all to well. Was I slightly disappointed by some elements of this film? Yes, but I was overwhelmingly pleased with what came out.
So hopefully soon I can watch 'Attack of the Clones' and continue this little series. It's been fun to get back into the Star Wars galaxy.
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