65% -- It's actually okay and sometimes fun if you leave your grudge behind

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2019)

A long time ago in a galaxy we live in, there was an American writer called George Lucas, who conceived the idea of and made true one of the most important fictional galaxies in the history of cinema and science fiction. Everything that was right with what used to be titled simply Star Wars paved an inevitable way to two sequels. The trilogy would go on to form a trinity and inspire others to develop titles (Jedi Knight, X-Wing, the Thrawn trilogy, etc.) that would break equal grounds, all under the guidance of Lucasfilm and LucasArts. After having personally finished Star Wars, Lucas became convinced that a prequel trilogy was to be written, and this is where he, his next film's director, faced challenges with achieving the glories of the trinity trilogy.
1999 saw the release of The Phantom Menace, which would go on to be a huge financial success and sometimes seem to be just as historic as the trinity trilogy, because it's Star Wars. It's from the same people behind the originals; nothing could go too wrong, right? As it turns out, the challenge Lucasfilm faced was not 20th Century Fox's doubts that it would become a blockbuster, like the 1977 film. Rather, it was the intense decisions that George Lucas, the film's director, had to make to ensure that nothing flops. With the film composed of a portfolio of good and bad decisions, here are the highlights that everyone should know about.
We are introduced cinematics that should be instantly recognizable to anyone who has the slightest hint of the franchise, which includes a prelude, an outer space background, and the John Williams theme song. From that point on, you can tell that the technology used to produce this film means enhanced graphics, sound effects, and more control over the aspects of the film. You would think that Lucasfilm would utilize the late-1990s' technology to make the trinity trilogy look like something of the past. In this case, the Force was not quite strong with them. There are occasions where you wonder how experienced Lucasfilm was in working with the late-1990s' tools, as the scenes appear to gradually alternate from dull standstills to adrenaline-packed actions. It's a very awkward pace in my opinion, but I guess it could have been worse, e.g. where the film is all standstills and no action.
Story-wise, The Phantom Menace is arguably innovative in the Star Wars saga (and in retrospect, more so than the Disney sequel trilogy). It introduces ideas and tries to be anything but overly derivative of the trinity trilogy, and to the film's credit, it did lead to works that we did like (e.g. Pandemic's Star Wars Battlefront). However, The Phantom Menace, along with Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, stays interconnected with the trilogy, as it introduces a handful of the same characters such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Palpatine. The prequel trilogy's premise is how Anakin Skywalker, another character introduced, became the villainous Darth Vader, and The Phantom Menace is about Skywalker as a talented boy on Tatooine and his venture to Jedi training.
The plot involves troubled relations between entities that need to be negotiated. Along the way are characters like Qui-Gon Jinn--a wise, humble, charismatic Jedi whose actor is perhaps the most talented in the field of dialogue--and several escape sequences that are eye-candy to watch, in part thanks to the late-1990s' technology Lucasfilm used. It also featured some of the most watchable plot moments involving racing, the acrobatic Darth Maul, and the climax. Needless to say, there are areas that could use major cleanup.
You may know, or at least you may think you know, what I am thinking, but I will try to resort to only rational objections and not clichÃ©s or conspiracy theories that I always see on the Internet. We are given several important plot elements such as politics, Anakin Skywalker, and Jar Jar Binks. When we watch Star Wars, we expect a decent level of action, not extensive or detailed political debates. Government corruption is an acceptable plot point, and that should be it. As for the characters, some of them make us question their actors' ability to star, and to be an excellent star, one must demonstrate passion, creativity, and natural born talent. The actors of Anakin and Binks clearly had some degree of passion, but that's it. For a film about a child protagonist, Jake Lloyd could have been talented and the Macaulay Culkin of Star Wars, and Jar Jar Binks could have actually made a remarkable comic relief character. It is just a shame that Binks is memorable for all the wrong reasons, as he is not comedically witty or cleverly clumsy, just goofy.
In short, I still like to watch The Phantom Menace occasionally, and while the film could definitely be edited to remove the problems (and it may even need a reboot), it would not be fair to say that it has no redeeming qualities. Of the first six films in the saga, the film I would consider the worst is Attack of the Clones, with a thin plot and so little to offer that even though it still is fun to watch, you may very well be okay skipping it and instead watching Revenge of the Sith, clearly the best of the prequels. Still, even for casual TV watchers, it does not hurt to turn the prequels on. The Force hasn't completely neglected them.