Probably the most underrated film ever

Rating: 10/10 (11 May 2005)

In the wait for "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" I'm revisiting my previous looks on Episode I and II. While I thought they were both great pictures, I genuinely feel that "The Phantom Menace" was a higher achievement than "Attack of the Clones". When "The Phantom Menace" opened, I had been counting the days since forever it seemed, and when the lights went down I was amazed to witness this creation that had to be an awesome spectacle. A new SW-world opened as I sat amazed in the darkness. From the opening Jedi swashbuckling to the end fight with Darth Maul (man, did I love that), through the return to Tatooine and the jaw-dropping pod race, I never sunk into any second thoughts. The movie was like a gigantic wave that just threw itself over me and I dug every second of it. I assumed most people felt that way.
It was more or less hated. People aimed at everything that moved in the film and they blasted away big time. I tried to cope with what people was moaning about, but against almost every argument to why this film was such a disaster I could just reply that I didn't mind. I didn't mind the midichlorians, the actors, the special effects, I wasn't ever disturbed by Jar-Jar nor Jake Lloyd. I had great fun watching this film, it was to me as enjoyable as any Star Wars film. And by that time I still really felt as a fulfilled SW-fan. I got the critics. I just couldn't understand how people could get so violently grumpy.
After six years, after Episode II, The Lard Biscuit and the altered DVD-version of the "Old Trilogy", this feeling has not been damped one bit. Instead, after watching Episode I for the oompfth time I just see more and more beauty in it. I won't nag against the critics here, since I still just simply don't agree with them, I'll just explain what I like about it, apart from it being in my eyes an utterly fantastic adventure.
Come to think about it, "The Phantom Menace" is really just one long prologue to the other films. We are introduced to the Star Wars galaxy right before things started to go wrong, fully believable with beautiful, clean-cut planets, eligible Jedi Knights and a political mess with people fumbling to save the peace from it's tremors. The plot in itself is not really that important, it's only significant through the eyes of our characters that, unlike us, have lived there for all of their lives. They care about the worries. We know it's all going to hell. We need to see the story of Naboo though, to understand why things went bad. For instance, you can't tell the story about the Vietnam War without explaining Indo-China. The occupation is nothing but a big scam, where everybody is unable to see through the smoke screens of Darth Sidious, whose vicious plans are proceeding just perfect. Also, the things that will be put in motion in this long intrigue ahead of us, have to be put in their places. We have to get introduced to this boy Anakin, the serious full-hearted Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé, the mother of the heroes that in the end will save the day. And, of course, we have to establish that Palpatine since the beginning has always been the bad guy. Nobody in the film knows yet about their fates.
The biggest difference between the new films and the old is that the old were more campy. While they still fairly includes the same amount of action and symbolism, combined with cheesy light-hearted dialogs, the old films were combined into a distinct plot, while the first installments are wider stories. This is quite natural, since there is a lot of things going on before the empire takes over. The galaxy is big, and there's a lot of people wanting to be heard. Also, there are a lot of characters that are going through different individual journeys and are yet apart from each other, without the same goal. After Palpatine takes a hold, there is not much more of a conflict than The Rebels versus The Empire. Six episodes of simple Sunday Matinée Space-Action would be too much anyway.
The biggest power of Episode I has to be the craftsmanship. I have not seen such a coherent film, made with such a supreme sense of awareness, since... man, I don't know when. Seven Samurai? The Godfather? Schindler's List? George Lucas is in CONTROL of this film, and it makes the film's magnificence glow in the dark. The over-my-head impressive special effects did not feel any more fake than a rubber Jabba or the opening firework effect in Episode IV. The music was in brilliant cope with the action, in addition giving what most be the most original and fresh sounding John Williams score since "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". And, most impressively, the overall LOOK of the film. The art and costume design, the locations and all the other details have been made in such an extreme precision that it mind blowing. Rest to sure, a lot of people have done their best and George Lucas' vision of the Star Wars universe has never been presented in such a crystal clear image as in the bright and brilliant "Phantom Menace".
I have always believed Lucas to be sincere. The assumption that he would be a greedy soulless Jabba is populist and saddening cynicism. I always felt that he knew exactly what he was doing. This was it and he couldn't care less about fans, claiming the series as "their own" when they don't even have the humility to listen to the creator of their beloved saga. "What would you have CHANGED in Episode I" is a common question from fans. My answer is just a laugh. "As if..."