The Phantom Menace Rewatch

Me sa hate myself

I hate Jar Jar Binks. He is annoying, clumsy and useless. I completely forgot how big a role he plays in The Phantom Menace.

Maybe it is because I was so enamored with the film when it first came out. The first trailer, foggy mysterious scenes filled with weird aliens walking through the mist, is etched into my memory. I remember news stations doing small featurettes, and everyone going bonkers (myself included). I remember seeing Darth Mauls dual lightsaber and how my knees buckled because I couldn’t handle the awesomeness. Much like how A New Hope was the first taste to alot of people the late 70’s, The Phantom Menace was my true entrance to Star Wars hysteria. Sure, I had seen the original trilogy countless times, but this was the first time I was going in unprepared; no one knew how the universe would be expanded and to me that was exciting.

Fast forward to late 2015 and I am re-watching The Phantom Menace in preparation for the next big chapter in Star Wars. How does it hold up to my initial viewing over 15 years ago? Well…I hate Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar almost ruins the entire movie. Almost!

For such an epic franchise, the movie began with a relatively insignificant story. I never really felt engaged with the trade federations blockades and clumsy droid soldiers. The introduction of the Jedi saved what would have been a pretty bland debut. It helps that Ewan Mcgregor(Obi Wan Kenobi) and Liam Neeson(Qui Gon Jinn) are both in the movie.

Obi Wan and Qui Gon’s initial trip to the Gungan city appeared to exist only to validate the existence of Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar was infuriating to watch. He was clearly there for comic relief, but I sometimes wondered if George Lucas simply wanted to play with his big expensive cgi toys. An entire city of cgi Jar Jar look alikes seemed to confirm my assumption. The trip out of the city, while more interesting, was one big unnecessary action sequence. These were probably my least favorite sequences of the movie.

Things got significantly better when the Jedi met Queen Amidala. Natalie Portman did a commendable job portraying the queen. Her costumes are also worthy of note. They are superbly done and sometimes felt more alien than the actual aliens around her(Jar Jar Binks). The droid invasion and consequently, our heros fleeing to Tatooine sped up the pace of the story.

Amidalas costume and makeup were compelling

For as good a job Portman did as Amidala, Jake Lloyd did the opposite as Anakin. He really was miscast. Anakin is supposedly the most complex character in all of Star Wars and we got Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen to play him… Bummer. To his credit, Lloyd came across as a better actor than Christensen did in the later movies.

The film slowed down a bit with all the talk of freeing slaves and midi-chlorians ( a completely unnecessary inclusion) but things picked up again with the pod race. If you are going to insist on doing action sequences for the sake of doing action sequences, then you better do it right. The pod race did it right. It was and is still one of my favorite race/chase scenes.

Lucas managed to maintain a good pace from this point on. The quick glance of Darth Maul. The first look at Coruscant. The Gungans going to war. All of these sequences flowed together alot better than the earlier parts of the film. The movies’ political pieces felt less believable than the action sets, but this was not shocking after recalling how bad episode 2 and its political mess was.

AWESOME!!!

The final encounter with Darth Maul was far and away the best part of the entire film. I could recommend the film for this scene alone. It had, in my opinion, what is still the best Jedi duel in Star Wars. Obi Wan waiting impatiently for the energy barrier to turn so he can kick the crap out of Darth Maul was fantastic. It was believable action storytelling as well as convincing special effects.

While some of the other special effects in the The Phantom Menace appear a bit dated, the overall look and cinematography align much closer to the original trilogy than that of episodes two and three. The greater use of practical effects makes this movie feel more like Star Wars. The introduction of Obi wan and his master, the encounter with Darth Maul combined with exciting pod racing overcame a bland performance by the trilogy’s main character as well as the completely useless Jar Jar Binks.