In 1999, Star Wars fandom was at a fever pitch. It was a time long before the films divided the fans, and everyone was just pumped to see a new Star Wars movie up on the big screen. The Phantom Menace was released and while there was a saccharine feeling about the movie, more critical eyes tore it to shreds. It was readily apparent that Star Wars fandom had suffered a great schism, not unlike the one between the Jedi and the Sith.
It’s the movie that helped launch the expanded universe of films and without the prequels, we might not have had all of the new movies. Here are 5 Reasons The Phantom Menace Is The Best Star Wars Movie (& 5 Reasons It's Not).
10 Best - The Jedi
A couple of crusty old Jedi and impetuous boy with a lightsaber are all that’s left of the Jedi Order by the time A New Hope rolls around. In The Phantom Menace, we get to see several Jedi in their prime and in action.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan almost immediately show that there is more to the Jedi than just young Luke trying to blindly deflect laser blasts. We also got to meet the Jedi Council, which was certainly a huge hint at things to come - we’d see all of them in action at some point during the prequels.
9 Not - Jar Jar Binks
Say what you will about Jar Jar Binks, but also give credit to Ahmed Best. He was one of the first-ever motion capture actors ever. It’s just too bad that the character he helped bring to life is such a black mark on the Star Wars Saga.
Fans have been fairly divided over the years about Ewoks but just about every single fan tunes out of the movie every time Jar Jar shows up on screen.
8 Best - Podracing
It’s long been known that George Lucas has a love affair with old-school hot rods. He paid homage to them in American Graffiti and its why a lot of the ships in Star Wars move at a breakneck pace. But The Phantom Menace gave birth to Podracing.
Some of the dialogue describing the race itself is a little stilted. But there’s nothing stilted about one of the movie’s major sequences - the Podrace on Tatooine. The sequence also led to several cool video games over the years and helped establish that Anakin was a heluva pilot.
7 Not - Annie
The stories of Obi-Wan, the Clone Wars, and Anakin Skywalker had been building up ever since Obi-Wan first explained to Luke how he knew his father as the best pilot in the galaxy. It was going to be an impossible task when plenty of fans had this notion in their minds that we’d be seeing THAT movie.
Instead, we met a little boy named Annie. The idea of tracing how the sweetest, kindest boy in the galaxy became Darth Vader was a good idea in theory, but in practice, the movie was never going to meet any expectations by going with the story of a ten-year-old boy.
6 Best - Darth Maul
In 1999, who could have held a candle to Darth Vader? Darth Maul could have, or are least that’s what plenty of fans had thought when they first saw Darth Maul and his double-edged lightsaber!
Something brand-new that Star Wars had never seen before. He and his blade might have been sliced in half by the end of the movie, but the universe expanded, he has continued to be one of the most dangerous villains of the Star Wars Saga.
5 Not - Midichlorians
As far as the great divide between Star Wars fans, there is narrowly any positive response to Midichlorians or their explanation. In the original trilogy was explained as some sort of an energy field that binds the universe together. Some believe in it, some don’t. Some can manipulate it, others can’t.
But the idea that The Force was some of cosmic, mystical, ethereal thing was cool. Not some strange biological sci-fi mumbo-jumbo that Qui-Gon tried to explain. It was the first and (hopefully) last time Star Wars tried to use sciencey-sounding jargon that should best be left to the Star Trek franchise.
4 Best - It’s Star Wars!
For the sixteen years since Return Of The Jedi, Star Wars fans had to continue the story with books, comics, and games. Despite the end product and how some fans received it, The Phantom Menace in theaters meant that Star Wars was back where it belonged- on the big screen at the movies.
That only meant one thing - we’d get to see more and more of our favorite characters and planets; and meet a lot more too.
3 Not - The Acting
It’s still wild to think about it, but accomplished actors like Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Natalie Portman were all part of a Star Wars movie! Somehow, all of them stumbled over their words and acted like they were kids playing Star Wars in their backyards.
While McGregor was the best of the bunch, he at least had Alec Guinness’ performance as a reference. The other two merely had George Lucas telling them where to look and how to react since everything except the actors was a green screen. In the early days of green screen work, it was a little rough to act with felt.
2 Best - Palpatine Begins
As much as the prequels are the story of how Anakin went from Annie to Vader (because there’s only so many times that a guy can be called ‘Annie’), they’re also partly how Senator Sheev Palpatine rose to power to become the Emperor of the Galactic Empire.
Ian McDiarmid played the role with a sly and devilish wink to the audience that screamed “you know what I’m up to, but they sure don’t.” The performance is a sight to behold.
1 Not - Political Intrigue
In order for an Empire to rise and suppress any possible rebellion, there needs to be all kinds of political maneuvering behind the scenes.
Those kinds of expository scenes about political backrooms and betrayals can be exciting (re: Scandal, The West Wing), George Lucas just isn’t that kind of writer. The wheeling and dealing that happens during Episode I, and the rest of the prequels is just ridiculous.
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