25 years later – What do you think of The Phantom Menace?
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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Much better concept of a movie than an actual movie. Duel of the Fates still slaps far more than it has any right to.
Maul vs Qui Gonn/Obi Wan is still some of the coolest shit in cinema history
It’s light heated. Too kiddy in some places with the poop and fart gags. Of the three Prequel movies it is the best looking, the digital cameras used for AOTC was not the best.
I love the character of Qui-Gon. I still feel Anakin should have been Padme’s age and the prophecy and virgin birth parts of the story are unnecessary.
I think George got ahead of himself and tried to do too much. I like the overall introducing all the characters and their semi origin stories.
At the time it was fine but going off the last twenty years of evolution in tv / movie writing not mention production quality.
It’s an OK start, with great characters, iconic Darth Maul fight, and the score has memorable and legendary songs.
As of now, I think it expand the lore nicely, it has some pretty good visual effects, iconic characters, a memorable lightsaber fight and an amazing score.
However, I find it a bit boring to watch. It is not worse than attack of the clones though
Darth maul FTW
Love it. Always loved it. It’s my favourite of the prequels and probably a top 5 Star Wars film, for me. I think it’s thoroughly inventive and fun with the droids (LOVE the destroyers!), under water city, double-bladed lightsaber!, energy shields and weapons, podracing etc. It did a ton of world-building and I enjoyed that about it. Also, it has one of my fave lightsaber battles.
Also, I’m going to say it and I don’t care if I get downvoted: Jar Jar was funny and was, I think, intended to be entertainment for the children. I think we sometimes forget, Star Wars is meant to be fun for all. And this film was a lot of fun.
I do have some minor gripes:
1) There were a smidge too many ‘accidental victories’. I could live with Jar Jar accidentally taking out a bunch of droids by accident but Anakin accidentally wiping out an entire enemy force felt like a bit of a stretch.
2) The space battle was a bit sucky. Which was a shame because the NS1 Starfighters look cool as hell.
My honest opinion would probably be met with downvotes lol.
I’ll just say I was never a fan of the PT and that hasn’t changed. A lot of additional material has done a ton of heavy lifting to make me not hate every idea put forward by the trilogy… that and 25 years has calmed me down.
I do love Ahsoka. I’m also not one of those weirdos who hated on the actors. I loved seeing Hayden and Ewan come back for example.
The fight with Maul, Obi Wan, and Qui Gon is still epic.
I like the pod racing and Duel of the fates that’s about it.
It’s a sloppy mess. But it’s an *honest* sloppy mess.
There’s the obvious stuff, like Jar Jar sucking, midichlorians being an awful retcon that trashes the mysticism of the original, and Jake Lloyd suffering under poor direction and writing (which would bedevil his older counterpart in the later films, even though both are, in fact, talented actors), not to mention the “WTF?” aspect of Qui-Gon being Obi-Wan’s master, rather than Yoda.
There’s also the jarring incongruity of a visual style that didn’t *feel* like Star Wars, and instead felt too “new” and like you were watching some other random sci-fi film.
To me, one of the really glaring missteps was the trend towards making Star Wars a “fishbowl” universe where everything *just happens to be* connected to everything else. E.g., Anakin building 3PO, the script version having Baby Greedo being told he’d come to a “bad end” after scrapping with Anakin in Mos Espa, etc.
The battle against the droids is also kinda dull and works better when set to Yakkety Sax, and the space battle likewise felt muddled, especially in comparison to prior space battles in the series.
But here’s the thing: the flaws it has all come from an honest, artistic place. This is *not* something I’d have admitted to 25 years ago, or even 15 years ago. But especially after the Disney trilogy came out and just felt so haphazard and “designed by committee,” I appreciate that TPM is a bold failure driven by an auteur. I have my criticisms of the auteur, but I’d rather the film industry have more TPMs than TROSs.
Really, though, if you ask me the best prequel era content is The Clone Wars. That show did a *ton* of heavy lifting to rehabilitate the prequels by smoothing over a lot of the rougher edges of TPM and AOTC. It also made clear that while Naboo has its aesthetic, that’s just one corner of a much broader galaxy, one which we got to see a lot more of in the course of the show.
It could have been the best of the prequels, hated the horrible CGI of the attack of the clones.
rank it in the middle somewhere but without a doubt the best lightsaber duel, duel of the fates
Liked it. But would prefer it to be a little more serious, dark and more qui gon
Weird story choices, lazy writing, lot of good actors trying to make bad dialogue work, incredible design, well-crafted setpieces, best prequel.
I appreciate more the setup for how the Emperor began to take power and how it sets up a fable of the fall to fascism in 3 parts. The story is super solid, it sustains me over the poor execution of Jar Jar, Padme and Anakin. Obviously there is more sympathy for Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best now than before, but some cuts removing some fart scenes and over the top stuff with jar jar would’ve helped, and if only they made Anakin just 4 or 5 years older with a better actor, it could’ve helped make it fully enjoyable, but I still enjoy it very much. Far more creativity in it than any Disney star wars.
Its still garbage.
Even disregarding my fuzzy memories of the movie as a kid, I still love it. There are some…*choices* in it, but despite the warts and dings in the paint, I still love it. The score is phenomenal, the podrace is thrilling, and my eyes are glued to the screen during Duel of the Fates. The special effects (mostly) hold up and the older I get the more I appreciate the political themes (*especially* these days.)
25 years later and I still love it.
I was about 12 when it came out and was pretty meh about it actually. My interest in the franchise dropped off steeply and I didn’t even see RotS in cinema.
Without nostalgia goggles on, it’s not a great movie. Bad dialogue, pacing issues, tonally all over the place.
Then again I appreciate all the stuff it did right, or at least tried to do. It’s vibrant and full of imagination with some great ideas and cool set pieces.
I recently introduced it to my own kids and they really liked it. Bored by the trade negotiation blather but loving Jar Jar and pod racing and double ended lightsabers.
Entertaining, fun movie overall that if you made some small changes would be awesome
Fun movie, but the lack of diversity among production allowed too much of Lucas’ direction into this movie. There needed to be more people around him to tell him, “Uh, George, that may not be the best way to do that.”
It hasn’t gotten any better, but a lot of folks have had time to develop nostalgia around it.
It’s still a bad movie, unfortunately.
Very dull. Extremely poor and boring considering it was the most anticipated movie in history.
Not good. The Prequels were and are subpar.
Worst SW film ever.
Still terrible.
Whenever I watch it I think about how amazing it would have been if Jar Jar had had his screen time reduced to like 10%
I think what people dislike are the annoying elements. Jar Jar and, unfortunately, the portrayal of young Anakin. The acting has always been kind of bad because the writing is so wooden and his directing favors those detached line readings. There have always been annoying characters for children (Ewoks, and I’m just gonna say it—Yoda). But I really love the politics he used for the prequels. There’s a lot that’s kind of strange and ridiculous about the movies but the political through-line is so compelling and solid that it holds this trilogy together as my preferred of the 3. It was at least back when Star Wars still kind of knew what it was, even if the loudest fans have never quite understood that.
**PLOT: 6/10** – The overarching, not-fully-revealed threat — some might call it a phantom menace — of Sheev pulling a Mac and playing both sides so he always comes out on top is not given the full respect that it deserves. Unnecessarily boring sequences — there are pacing issues on Naboo and Tatooine — hamper what is otherwise a decent storyline involving a galactic intrigue that will not be fully revealed for another two films.
**ACTING: 5/10** – Lucas is a god-tier creator of universes. Or rather, a particular universe. He’s right up there with Tolkien in his ability to create an amazing universe that inspires multiple generations of fans. I feel obliged to write that because his directorial abilities are sub-par at best. He has a unique talent for making otherwise remarkable actors seem flat. Natalie Portman is a gifted, Oscar-winning actress, and her talent was evident before and after these films (e.g. The Professional, Black Swan). But you wouldn’t know it from this movie. Samuel L. Jackson’s role as Mace Windu does not give him an opportunity to display his acting talents, at least not in this film. Pernilla August’s performance as Shmi Skywalker was as solid as it could be, given the script, but one gets the impression she could have provided a tear-jerking, heartbreaking performance with another director. Ahmed Best, who did not deserve the hate that he got in real life for playing Jar-Jar, did his very best with what he was given, but what he was given was utter garbage. Conversely, props to Terence Stamp by doing a great job of acting against type and playing a well-meaning but in-over-his-head bureaucrat who, in just a few minutes, managed to convey the great weight of the republic that had been resting on his shoulders. Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Ian McDiarmid managed to bring the appropriate gravitas to their roles as needed.
**PODRACING SCENE: 10/10** – It was totally wizard! I don’t think there’s any way the scene could be improved with the technology that existed (much of which Lucasfilm developed) at the time. Loved the Tuskin Raiders taking shots at the contestants.
**COSTUME DESIGN: 9/10** – World-class costume designs, particularly those worn by Queen Amidala. The only reason this isn’t a perfect score is because the outfits of the Naboo troops looked so goofy it was hard to think they were an actual combat force.
**NABOO LAND BATTLE: 3/10** – I know George was going for a noble-but-technologically-disadvantage-group-miraculously-defeats-the-technologically-superior-invaders theme, but I honestly just kept watching these scenes anxiously awaiting a return to the other action sequences. Making Jar-Jar the inadvertent hero of the battle through sheer incompetence may have been amusing for younger fans, but it just made me groan.
**NABOO PALACE BATTLE: 4/10** – Again, I think a better director could have done more with this sequence. While it’s exceptionally hard to make a prequel feel like high stakes when you know certain characters must survive, it still is possible. Consider Obi-Wan hanging on for dear life after it seems Darth Maul has defeated him. Even though we knew Obi-Wan had to survive, there was still a sense of “how will he get out of this situation?” At no point, however, did Padme retaking the palace feel like it had any sense of genuine threat. Just a bunch of lasers firing off until she inevitably retook the palace.
**NABOO SPACE BATTLE: 7/10** – It’s telling that this is underwhelming compared to either Death Star space battle, and yet it’s still one of the better space battles in cinematic history. Lucas’s appreciation for old war footage brought a certain degree of verisimilitude to some shots of the Naboo starfighters. Anakin’s survival throughout the ordeal felt a bit….forgive me…*forced*…but even him accidentally saving the day feels more genuine than Jar-Jar clumsily making his way through his battle. The special effects were exceptional for their time, however, paved the way for the stunning visuals of the Battle of Coruscant.
**NABOO LIGHTSABER BATTLE: 10/10** – I saw this film five times in cinemas when it came out. Why? The lightsaber fights against Darth Maul were the most dynamic such fights that had been filmed at that point, and remain some of the best choreographed lightsaber fights to this day. Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul in particular was just… *chef’s kiss*.
It’s okay. I really dislike the chosen one stuff with Anakin though
I tried watching it again after not seeing it for over a decade and it my reception on it had gone from lukewarm to bad (especially after that legendary redlettermedia video) to worse.
The acting and dialogue was more stilted than I remember. And jarjar still remains one of the most annoying characters to appear in a high profile movie. Not to mention all the non-canon events like midichlorians. I have nostalgia for the time I spent watching the film with family but not the film itself.
I took my kids to see this with the re-release earlier, so it’s the only Star Wars movie they’ve seen in the cinema. It was great there. Even my wife was like, “it’s not as bad as I was remembering.”
I mean, the CGI looks pretty dated and I don’t like the way Jar Jar talks, but the Podracing is amazing.
I gave the movie 4 stars and the novelization 5 stars.
Not to disparage Jake Lloyd but Anakin being a bit older would have helped, escpecially with the relationship in EP2. The age gap is weird.
Also theres no character growth in it except for maybe Jar Jar.
It’s a mixed bag. I can appreciate the ideas within the movie and Lucas’ imagination is on full display here. The sets, the costumes, the alien designs, it has the most Star Warsy feel out of all the prequels. I think it holds up better in terms of production value than AOTC and ROTS. The latter two feel too computer generated.
The Jar Jar stuff is too much, parts of the movie are just boring and I think it was a mistake to start the prequels not having Anakin already as Obi Wan’s padawan. For the longest time, this was easily my least favorite Star Wars movie.
It could have been better, but it also could have been much worse.
I’m of the opinion that ANY Star Wars is better than no Star Wars, especially since I was there, in the dark times, between ROTJ and TPM. I never thought there would be another Star Wars anything, ever again.