THE PHANTOM MENACE IS THE MOST HATED STAR WARS FILM BUT IT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT
No film has quite bore so much expectation as The Phantom Menace, the first entry in the Star Wars franchise in 16 years, since Return of the Jedi.
In the era of streaming and mass content releases, it feels hard to imagine that level of anticipation and expectation.
We were about to get our first glimpse of the long-awaited origin story of Darth Vader, his turn to the dark side, and his largely unexplained relationship with former Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
However, the token movie crawl largely explained economic strife rather than the expected space opera tones. Between this, special effects that didn’t always feel right, the introduction of the infamous Jar Jar Binks and massively unwarranted dislike for Jake Lloyd’s portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in his boyhood, the film received a lukewarm response – it stands with a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 52%, the only movie lower in the Skywalker saga is The Rise of Skywalker.
Todd McCarthy, for Variety, wrote that due to the hype, TPM ‘can scarcely help being a letdown on some levels, but it’s too bad that it disappoints on so many.’ and correctly predicted its box office success, raking in over $1 billion (and counting), from a $115 million budget. Despite financial success, the film still found itself hated by a faction of fans and ultimately being considered skippable and a mark on the legacy of Star Wars.
For many fans, especially millennials, in childhood at the time of the film’s release, TPM is loved. Speaking to Metro.co.uk, fan Luís, 36, says he has a soft spot for it, having been able to experience Star Wars in the cinema with his family after hearing stories from his parents of their viewings of the Original Trilogy. He appreciates it more as an adult and like many, became enthralled with Darth Maul.
As a professor, Morse now sees students devoted to prequel trilogies not seen in his generation. Many of the risks taken in TPM have paid off and solidified Star Wars’ legacy yet again. To look at recent years, with the return of Ahmed Best, Kenobi gracing our screens once more, and Anakin Skywalker playing a major part in Ahsoka, we’re soon to see neimoidians returning in The Acolyte. Hemingway believes that the Prequels stand taller, now we’ve seen multiple other films in the franchise release to sombre acclaim, and others exist in limbo with long gestation periods.
Matt Zoller Seitz, for RogerEbert, writes that he originally found the film lifeless, comparing it to a bricked phone that seems functional from far away. But now, on reflection of today’s Hollywood landscape, where we see not the vision of directors but the vision of megacorporations, he holds a fondness for the Prequels – seeing them as ‘a product of a singular consciousness with a definitive artistic signature.’.
The Phantom Menace seems to age well, how much of that has been our nostalgia weaponised and capitalised on by Disney? It’s hard to say, but it’s clear at this stage, that we’re no longer craving simply more exposition of the Original Trilogy, the history and lore of the world given to us in the Prequels is oft our favourite part of the Galaxy far, far away.
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2024-05-04T07:07:39Z dg43tfdfdgfd