Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)...25 Years Later Movie Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with another movie discussion/review post for you. This time I'll be taking a look at Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which celebrated its 25th Anniversary last month. I had other posts I wanted to do in May, which is why I didn't get around to rewatching and then writing about the movie until now. I put discussion in the title of this post, because this isn't really a movie review the way I would normally do it. Oh sure, it'll have elements that I include in my movie reviews, but this is going to be more focused on my personal history with the movie, and why I think it's the best movie of the Prequel Trilogy, as well as some of my Episode I merchandise that I had when I was younger.

Originally released on May 19th, 1999, Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars movie that I ever saw in theatres. It's also the first of only two movies I ever saw in theatres more than once. The other being Frozen in late 2013 and early 2014. I had seen the Original Trilogy numerous times on VHS by this point, but I'd missed the releases of the Special Editions in theatres in early 1997, and, obviously the previous theatrical releases/re-releases of the Trilogy happened before I was born or when I was less than a year old.

With it being the first new Star Wars to come out since Return of the Jedi originally came out in 1983, there was massive hype for The Phantom Menace. Even before I saw the movie, the commercials were playing on TV all the time, both the TV spots for the actual movie, as well as the commercials for the toys. I even remember hearing a radio commercial for it during a news break on the MAJIC 100 Morning Show the day the movie came out. It was everywhere.

Yet, I didn't mind because I love Star Wars and my friends and I had discussed the possibilities of the Prequel Trilogy during recesses every day for a week or more. So when I finally did see the movie, I loved it. Both times. Why? Because the movie was made for me. I was twelve years old when The Phantom Menace came out, and George Lucas has always said that he made Star Wars for ten to twelve year olds. Not 35 year olds. Not 50 year olds. Ten to twelve year olds. It was an accident that it appeals to all ages, cultures, and genders. 

And because I was twelve years old when The Phantom Menace came out, I was able to appreciate Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker, as well as the antics of Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar has always been one of my favourite characters, because, well, he's a goofball who was ostracized for being different from the other Gungans. I resonated with that when I was a kid. I still resonate with that now, as an almost 38 year old. 

I loved Anakin, because, even though he becomes Darth Vader, there wasn't any of that in this movie. Anakin was just this kid who was special and it took meeting Qui-Gon for him to fully tap into the thing that made him special. 

I also loved Queen Amidala/Padme Naberrie. The way George did it so that you didn't know they were the same person was incredible. Not to mention sheer luck that he found an actress in Keira Knightley who looked enough like Natalie Portman that you couldn't tell that she was a decoy. Especially in the scenes where Padme and "Amidala" are together.

Also, as soon as I saw Darth Sidious on screen for the first time, I knew that he was Palpatine. Not just because he wore the same robe and hood that the Emperor wore in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but his holographic form didn't quite distort his voice enough to disguise Ian McDiarmid's voice. Not to mention that devious smile and jaw line were clear enough to be recognizable, even though the hood covered his eyes. I know George Lucas wanted to keep it a secret until the reveal in Revenge of the Sith, and maybe some audience members were completely fooled. But, I wasn't.  

My dad bought the movie on VHS eventually, and as soon as he did, I watched it again. I got my own copy in the early 2000s, in a two pack with the VHS for Attack of the Clones and I watched it pretty regularly. Even now, I have a copy of The Phantom Menace on VHS. There's a preview for the Official Star Wars Website at the beginning of the tape, with nothing after the movie. What's interesting is that, the VHS is the only way you can get the original theatrical release of the movie on home media. There isn't a huge difference between the edition of the movie that came out on DVD in 2001 from the theatrical version.

I eventually got the movie on DVD and I still have my original copy in my collection. As I just mentioned there isn't a huge difference between the VHS and the DVD, except that George extended the beginning of the Podrace, by introducing a couple of more characters, and then inserting a shot of Anakin and Jar Jar entering the speeder that would take Amidala and her party to Senator Palpatine's place. The stupid thing is that an even more extended version of the opening of the Podrace is included as a deleted scene on Disc 2 of the DVD, as well as that speeder scene. Neither does anything to further the story, as they don't include any new information, so I have no idea why George even included those scenes in the movie, except that it was basically Star Wars's debut on DVD, as this was the first Star Wars thing to appear on DVD.

I remember when the movie was released to theatres in 3D in 2012, a year after its debut on Blu-ray in the Star Wars: The Complete Saga set. I didn't get to see it in 3D, but I honestly didn't care, because I'm not a fan of 3D. I still thought it was cool that The Phantom Menace was getting a theatrical re-release as theatrical re-releases aren't as common as they were before home media became a thing in the late '70s and early '80s. Disney was the only studio to re-release their movies, especially their older animated movies, in theatres in the '90s and 2000s. It's started to become more of a thing in recent years with anniversary theatrical re-releases, but it's not super common for modern day movies.

I ended up getting the novelization of the movie, which was written by Terry Brooks. I got the Queen Amidala hardcover edition, which had Jar Jar on the back. I don't remember if that was the only edition of the book that was at Chapters that day, but I picked it because I liked Amidala and Jar Jar. Eventually I'd get the Anakin cover, with Watto on the back, but that wasn't until years later. Even then, I kept my Amidala cover edition because it was pretty cool.

I would eventually get two of the junior books too. The main Junior Novelization, and the Queen Amidala Journal book. I'd had the Luke Skywalker Journal from the Original Trilogy, but this was the only one I had for Episode I. Again, I didn't get these until I was an adult.

I also got the Art of and Making of books for the movie. The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was a birthday present for my thirteenth birthday, and it was the original coffee table hardcover edition that I got. The Making of book was one I got second hand as an adult. Long after I'd seen the bonus features on the second disc of the DVD. I still have The Art of Episode I in my book collection and I pull it out every so often to look through.

I also got all four issues of the comic book adaptation of the movie, as well as three of the character one-shot issues that took place either before or during the movie. I got issue #2 of the comic book adaptation first, and didn't get the remaining three issues until a few years later. I got the Amidala one-shot, which takes place just before the Podrace, the same day as the second issue of the adaptation of the movie. I was only missing the Qui-Gon Jinn one-shot, which I have yet to find to this day. I eventually got rid of all seven comics, though I do have the adaptation of the movie in trade paperback form, which is cool.

While I didn't own them, I played Episode I Racer and Episode I: Battle for Naboo on the N64 as we rented both games pretty regularly. The last time I played Racer was at a friend's place after we'd been to the funeral of a mutual friend of ours back in 2007. I enjoyed both games though.

I didn't have very many of the toys though. When the movie came out I got a couple of the KFC and Pizza Hut special toys, and I still have the Queen Amidala/Padme one. We also had two of the Lego sets as well, like Anakin's Podracer, and the Tatooine lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. But, I didn't get any of the Hasbro figures when the movie initially came out. I did get the Mace Windu and Anakin figures second hand sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s, but I don't have them anymore.

The first piece of Phantom Menace memorabilia I ever got though was issue #43 of Star Wars Insider. My mom got me the special Previews edition, which I talked about when I covered this issue on the blog a long time ago. This issue was my first look at the characters of the movie, and was my first good look at all of them, particularly the prequel versions of returning characters from the Original Trilogy, like Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Threepio, Artoo, and Yoda, since none of them appear for very long in the trailers and TV spots. 

John Williams's score for the movie is unique in that, aside from the opening Star Wars theme, none of the music from the Original Trilogy was used here. It's all original, though it's possible there were some cues from the Original Trilogy as part of the score. They aren't prominent like they would be in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. 

Honestly, The Phantom Menace still holds up after 25 years. The thing is, this movie was huge when it came out. To the point where for issue #45 Star Wars Insider left out some of their usual columns in order to cover the movie's premiere. Even now, as an adult, I'm still feeling the movie's hype as I remember it from back then. Leaving that aside, I genuinely enjoyed watching the movie yesterday. To the point where I watched it twice. I watched it on VHS yesterday morning and then sat down and watched it on DVD last night before bed. It was alot of fun to revisit the movie after having not seen it since I reviewed it for The Review Basement back in 2020. 

The reason The Phantom Menace holds up though and is the strongest movie in the Prequel Trilogy, is because George Lucas and his team at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic basically worked on the movie for five and a half years. George announced it in the fall of 1993, but didn't start the writing process until the fall of 1994, a year after the announcement was made. Even then, the movie didn't go into full production, and didn't start filming until 1997, after the Special Editions were finished and in theatres. And because the movie didn't get released until 1999, George was able to make a great movie. In comparison Episode II and Episode III felt rushed because by the time George started working on them in earnest, there was only two years until their respective release dates being that George planned to have them come out in 2002 and 2005 respectively. And as we know a movie that's rushed out into theatres tends to be not as good as a movie that takes many years to come out.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon for more posts throughout the week. So until then, have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.