The Phantom Menace: 25 years on and still terrible

Are you an angel? The Phantom Menace is celebrating its 25th Anniversary! Released to much hype and very nearly equal disappointment turning rapidly to derision, The Phantom Menace saw the return of George Lucas to the directors chair and introduced generations of new fans to Memes. Lots of Memes.
Some people have said the film has aged like fine wine. It hasn't. Some people have said that the existence of the Disney trilogy makes the film better. It doesn't.
The Phantom Menace remains a poor movie.

[@Henez89]

John Williams delivered pure gold for this entire trilogy. They didn't deserve him.

[@RunOfTheHind]

They're Jedi KNIGHTS, not Jedi MONKS. That would've been the 1st thing I would've changed. Basically special forces with supernatural abilities; not weird space hippies. Come in with Anakin and Obi Wan already in the ranks as young rookies, just finishing their training, initially being rivals but, through getting sent on a special mission together, obvs becoming fast friends by the end of the film, ready for the proper war film that part 2 should've been.

[@tartrazine5]

Like the original awesome Clone Wars cartoon.

[@werideatdusk]

Yeah we never needed to see Anakin as a child this young. They could have started with him as a teenager and both he and Obi Wan are being trained by Qui Gon. In a new hope Obi Wan referred to Anakin as a good friend... not as a protégé who became a psychopath..

[@smileydog5941]

I used to hold the same opinion after I watched RLM but then I came to the realization that they needed to show Anakin getting ripped away from his mother as a young boy and a young, complaining Obi-Wan suddenly being responsible for this child. “From my point of view the Jedi are evil” - Anakin Skywalker

[@tonywords6713]

Thanks for pointing out new flaws a lot of people just rehash redlettermedias criticisms

[@kenward1310]

The loss of Gary Kurtz is what killed Star Wars.

[@jekw23]

I still remember the excitement in 18 years old me. Not as much as i remember it draining away across the first 20 minutes. I don’t think I’ve actually seen this in full since 1999. Bits and pieces only.

[@WatchMaga]

Download the HAL 9000 edits. I actually....kind-of enjoyed them!

[@shrimboi8909]

George Lucas ain shit without his ex-wife Marsha who knows how to edit his junks to make it watchable. Now we know...

[@davidmr11able]

😂😂😂

[@19jez89]

This is largely a myth. At the very least, it is vastly over-exaggerated. Whilst Marsha was indeed one of the editors on Star Wars, there were two others, as well as George himself. It was a collaborative effort. Most of your favourite films will have been edited by someone other than the director. It's barely worth noting that Star Wars was no different. If you think the scenes directed by Lucas in the original Star Wars, taken in isolation, are junk and are only watchable because of how they were edited together I don't know what to tell you. And that's without even mentioning the story and the script. The idea that Lucas "ain't shit" when he is the one who birthed the original film in to existence is preposterous. And yes, the prequels are by and large pretty poor. Lucas was surrounded by yes men and his filmmaking had become complacent. He wasn't the same guy that made the original film and it shows.

[@angryjoe98]

I feel like people forget how much this movie damaged the star wars brand and how fans hated George Lucas up until Disney bought the franchise. Nowthey say this movie is perfect better than any show or movie Disney has made and and George Lucas is a saint who should be directing and writing every Star Wars movie again. The reality is that Star Wars fans just hate what’s new. They learn to love the old stuff eventually.

[@MrSando75]

Well, not me. I really liked TPM. Always did. No matter what anyone says it still felt like Star Wars. Cannot stand what Disney has done though. They have destroyed the brand beyond repair. Star Wars will never be good again.

[@thewitcherking937]

It damaged nothing. It expanded the franchise. Fans over reacted to it and became. Toxic.

[@tartrazine5]

No, there's a difference. George Lucas was incompetent at making the prequels, while Kathleen Kennedy was outright hateful against men in the sequel trilogy. George would never have had the head pilot being treated as sexist for asking the all-female command staff what the hell the plan was to keep everyone from getting killed.

[@TemplarOnHigh]

The entire prequel trilogy except for a fraction of RoTS is trash. Young me wanted to see these movies because I knew what they could be. Old me wishes I could go back to imagining the volcano light saber fight with sticks in the back yard without the film.

[@Feesh322]

I was very frustrated with the Prequels, but I did appreciate that they added context to the OT that made the overarching moments I loved from the OT more special. I never wanted to see the Prequels again until the Sequel Trilogy debacle and my discovery of the fan editing community. Some good fan edits can make the Prequels watchable and even enjoyable.

[@jdraven0890]

I tried to watch The Phantom Edit version while working, and even then couldn't get past the first 30 minutes. There are some amazing scenes later in the film and certainly some good ideas overall, but as you noted the pacing is terrible and the dialogue and delivery is generally bad throughout.

[@werideatdusk]

There were no real stakes here, hard to understand the "conflict" that was driving the story. The thread of Qui Gon trying to free Anakin was more compelling I guess, but having Anakin be an obnoxious child made it hard to care much. I think the RLM critique of no clear protagonist is a big part of the puzzle of why this film falls so flat. It's not really told from the perspective of the person driving the action. There's no momentum or emotional investment as a result. It plays more like a series of cutscenes from a video game.

[@smileydog5941]

I wouldn’t say there is zero emotional investment. The part that always hit me the most as a kid was the scene when Anakin basically gets ripped away from his mother’s arms by the Jedi. This crescendos into the second film when Anakin finally gets time away from Obi-Wan, the first thing he does is go back to Tatooine for her and she freaking dies in his arms. “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil” - Anakin Skywalker Another part is when Obi-Wan’s master Qui-Gon dies. The whole movie Obi-Wan’s complaining like a bratty teenager, a far cry from old Ben-Kenobi. Yoda doesn’t even want him to become a Jedi knight yet. But when Qui-Gon dies, he suddenly has the responsibility of taking care of this weird Omen child that scares the council. Something he ultimately fails to do. The problem, is that they made Anakin too inconsequential to the plot of Phantom Menace as a stand alone film. Obi-Wan didn’t get enough screen time to show how immature he was, he himself could’ve been unruly like an older Anakin which would set up why they would see each other as brothers. And they shoulda made Qui-Gon this wise, righteous man like Mufasa from lion king so it’s even more tragic when he dies. Basically, the characters are very flat, but they do have important roles and emotional set backs that set the story in motion

[@flippert0]

Jar Jar is still as aweful as he always was. But we need to give him some knee-jerk recognition as the first fully realized CG-only character (before Gollum/LotR).

[@judsongaiden9878]

13:02 I was 19 in 1999. I actually like Jar Jar. 😅

[@SeagullsGather]

None of my friends liked him but I think it was mostly film critics who fixated on Jar Jar as the big problem which is surprising given the film has so many more fundamental issues that they, if anyone, ought to have addressed. Jar Jar is mildly annoying but mostly because the scenes he is in are far too long/slow which means there is too much of him. There could have been more of an effort to make him sympathetic. Demonstrating the sort of character flaw that led to him being banished and then showing him overcome it would have been a good start.

[@moshambles]

The scary thing is, it might be the best of the 3

[@TheChadTI]

1:56 Until this video I had no idea they were making them wait to begin with.😂

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

This was the final film I saw with my school friends before we went off to college in 1999. The conversation after in the pizza restaurant was somewhere between fury and hatred for the movie. And I would still rather watch it over the Disney sequels.

[@WatchMaga]

I can't recommend highly enough the HAL 9000 edits of the prequels. These movies will never be great but HAL made them watchable---dare I say, enjoyable.

[@What_do_I_Think]

The Phantom Menace was bad, yes, but still far better than the sequels. When I saw the Menace, I thought it can not get worse, but JJ showed me otherwise.

[@philippschwarz4539]

To be fair to George Lucas, he did try to get someone else to direct, but no one wanted to.

[@SunderShould-Be-King]

There's no utterly excuse for this mess; not just The Phantom Menace, but the whole prequel trilogy. Lucas had all the money & access to excellent talent & a motivated braintrust to make an absolute masterpiece & had well over a decade prep-time to achieve it & he fell flat on his face. Stop making excuses, justifications, & rationalizations for his failure.

[@voljohe]

I agree on this analysis and it breaks my heart but that being said clone wars actually made this bearable. Anyway I’ll never watch these prequels ever so.

[@bgordon647]

While rewatching Ep 1 this weekend (really for the first time since it came out) the editing and pacing really seemed terrible. But the scene that took the cake was when Anakin is packing to leave with Qui-Gon. There is this bizarre shot from C3P0’s POV. High angle, hand held and sweeping back and forth. Absolutely jarring.

[@flippert0]

I remember going into PM being mildy interested and going out being severly underwelmed. Nevertheless I went to go on watching AotC and RotS some years later. Little did I know that PM was actually the high point of the prequels and it was all downhill from that (small) mole of film making. Nevertheless there were some stunning visuals and scenes to admire (Amidalas costumes, the sound Boba's bombs make in space and Darth Maul of course). Worth the admission? Not quite. Never went back to anything Star Wars except for the Clone Wars animated series, because my then eight years old son was so fond of it.

[@gator7082]

I watched movies 25 years ago I didn’t like. I didn’t watch them again, nor concern myself with them. Funny how that works.

[@SeagullsGather]

I don't concern myself with youtube videos with subject matter I obviously won't like. Funny how that works.

[@geraintthatcher3076]

You should review Attack the Clones and Revenge of the Sith too

[@NPClownumber81googolplex]

People complaining about the prequels is why we have the sequels 💀

[@patrickleahy7854]

The sequels being a mess doesn’t excuse the prequels. That’s like saying people complaining about Halloween 6 being bad is why we have Halloween Ends. Maybe it’s fair to admit both are trash.

[@Henez89]

Nah. Lucas made bad films. Then he sold to Disney. And then they made bad films too.

[@What_do_I_Think]

@@Henez89 I see it differently, the sequels where made, that we see the prequels in a better light. The prequels at least cared about some things, like e.g. the sword fights or some logic -- in the sequels they showed, how trash without care would be.

[@4541studios]

Im an OT geek. Was 13 in 1977 n saw star was multiple times that summer. The prequels are garbage. A story that didn't need told, and told so badly. George was deeply delusional by this time believing his own hype. Just a long disjointed meandering mess. Disney Star wars is insulting unwatchable gibberish, the prequels aren't insulting per se. But evry bit as much unwatchable gibberish as well.

[@dalechalfont112]

There are s bunch of new star star wats lego sets out and some youtuber was saying that general grevious' lego ship was the best selling set. I couldn't fathom that out there in the world there are people who think that a chatacter from the prequels was memorabke in every way. Even as a star wars die hard when the prequels came out...they were something that had to be endured....not enjoyed.

[@smileydog5941]

I think that’s just kids buying stuff they grew up with.

[@DerrickMims]

Excellent video! I went to see the re-release this weekend thinking it might be a kind of fun bit of nostalgia on the big screen. Nope. It was terrible, and I almost got up and walked out halfway through.

[@kevincol808]

Your CUT version at 5:57 is worse than the original. Way too fast and at that speed the pilot wouldn't even be able to finish "Captain look."

[@SeagullsGather]

good. because the point is that in the footage that they shot the pilots do not react (beyond shouting lines) when they have plenty of time to. The purpose of the cut is to make it fast enough to hide the incongruous nature of that performance. Probably it would have been better to cut him out and use the captains line 'shields up'.

[@thewitcherking937]

Yeah no. It's not Terrible.

[@davidmr11able]

😂😂😂

[@mattx449]

Terrible but still the best of the prequels 😂

[@werideatdusk]

Maybe on a visual level.

[@gallery7596]

Like many at the time of it's release, I had serious issues with "Phantom Menace." However, they don't in 2024 prevent me from enjoying the best aspects of this film (like the two sides of Padme; the outdoor scenes clearly influenced by "Spartacus"; Darth Maul; the excellence of the light sabre battles; Kwai's shocking death). Plus, I think the more you watch it, the easier it becomes to understand Jar Jar. Honestly, I was as captivated by Leia in her slave girl outfit as any other young guy was in 1983, and Jabba sure made a fine, disgusting villain. Still, all things considered, I think "Phantom Menace" is more fun than "The Return Of The Jedi." Sorry.

[@3dartistguy]

I cant believe they acctually rereleased this disaster of a movie into theaters again.