The Phantom Menace (1999) - The one that’s over hated!

Going from receiving critical praise upon it’s release, to being one of the most despised films of all time, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has a very strong legacy behind it, equal to that of the original 1977 film. But does it deserve all the hate? Honestly, I’d say no!

Now while this film does have plenty of problems, I feel the hate is over exaggerated, mainly due to many fans at the time expecting something similar to what they experienced in their childhood, and instead getting... Jar Jar. But for all it’s faults, I do feel George Lucas made incredible strides forwards with the production side of this film. The blend of classic practical work with some revolutionary CG work by ILM is hard to ignore. Was there too much CG? Yes, but everyone knows that by now! And ultimately, for it’s time, the CG was top of it’s game.

I will happily admit that the weakest aspect of this film is an aspect that has always haunted Lucas as a film-maker, the corny dialogue and monotone performances. Star Wars has always had an issue with cheesy dialogue, but the cheesiness goes too far here with a large portion of it sounding like something spoken by an Android, and not an actual person. This isn’t helped by the robotic performances by our cast. I don’t have many problems with Jake Lloyd as young Anakin. As an aspiring actor, he was bound to put a lot of trust in a director like George, and it’s unfortunate that trust didn’t help his performance develop.

I do like the bare bones concept for this script, but sadly it’s overflowing with focus on areas viewers don’t care about. Senate meetings? Trade disputes? No thanks, having this helps build a conflict, but the over abundance of focus on it sadly makes the plot hard to concentrate on until the final showdown between our Jedi leads and the highly entertaining Darth Maul! Many praise the pod racing scene, and while the tension is well built, the cinematography is limited to just POVs and shots taken from the right side of the ships. A bit more variety would’ve been nice!

The biggest positive has to go to John Williams and his tremendous score. While not as memorable as his work on the original trilogy, this soundtrack still pops with energetic and emotional music, with the likes of Duel Of The Fates and Augie’s Great Municipal Band being particular highlights.

So while far from perfect, The Phantom Menace is also far from being the worst film of all time, and is certainly not the worst Star Wars film. It can still entertain with it’s revolutionary effects, energetic score and some really entertaining sequences. As for the worst Star Wars film... well, that’s coming up next time!

SCORES

Story - 2/5

Characters - 2.5/5

Production - 3.5/5

Acting - 1.5/5

Music - 4/5

TOTAL - 4.2/10