When it was announced that one of the greatest sci-fi fantasy trilogies of all time, Star Wars, was going to return in 1999 with a brand-new trilogy set before the time of the original set, featuring more Jedi’s, different worlds and the origin story of everyone’s favorite space villain, Darth Vader, the reactions were extreme, and the hype was monumental. It was either received with immense joy or immense fear as no-one knew what to feel about Star Wars returning to the big screen, since the first three are considered to be like sacred material to fans and despite this still being under the thumb of creator George Lucas, it seemed that fans were not entirely sure what to expect with this new trilogy. Regardless of the response, it was almost guaranteed that people would go and see, just to witness anything new related to their favorite franchise. Unfortunately, even the mass public was left baffled at the results that they saw when they finally saw the first film in this trilogy, which also technically stands as the first film in the franchise: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Set in a time where the Jedi was a leading force or a somewhat offensive force for the galaxies governing powers, old Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (played by Liam Neeson) and his young padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Ewan McGregor) are tasked with securing the safety of the elected Queen of the planet Naboo, Queen Amidala (played by Natalie Portman) after she is attacked  by a group of shifty traders who want to use her power with the senate to allow their blockade to be legal. After being forced with a creature known as Jar Jar Binks (voiced by Ahmed Best), the team come across a young slave boy named Anakin Skywalker (played by Jake Lloyd) who seems to have a strong connection to the force and is brought into the Jedi temple to be a new pupil, despite this never being done with someone who has already passed a certain age. Together, they all must save the queen from the wrath of the hidden Sith lord and his apprentice, Darth Maul (played by Ray Park). It’s almost pointless to go over all the awful things in this movie as the internet and the world has already expunged every glaring issues this film and by extension this trilogy suffers from. Whether it be the boring, confusing, and overly simplistic story, the bland/annoying characters, the childish writing, the overuse of CG, the lack of action, it all comes crashing down and starts this new trilogy off in a bad light. While it was still available to rake in over $1 billion at the box office (because of course it would) and in the realms of this trifecta’s quality, this film isn’t the lowest and at least has a few aspects of quality, you can’t ignore how much this movie just doesn’t work.

George Lucas, as a person, seems to be a truly wonderful person considering the amount of money he has gifted to charities and other donations which came from his earnings on the franchise (and even most of the total he earned when he sold the rights to Disney). He seems to really like the product he’s made and shows real passion talking about his ideas, always having a strong eye and mind for great concepts. This becomes even more tragic as from a purely concept basis, this trilogy also has a lot of decent ideas and even progressive one given the tone, genre, and subject matter. Other creatives and storytellers would come into this period of the Star Wars and add to Lucas’ original intent but showcases a twist on the ”chosen one” narrative, as well as the basic ”good vs evil” narrative except this time under the backdrop of a war-front and highlight oppressive totalitarian governmental figures against extremist freedom fighters labelled as insurgents is very compelling material. The issue in conveying these ideas comes from his style of directing and writing, which does such damage to this movie and even this idea in general that almost nothing can be spared. The scenes have no flow or rhythm, the actors are all incredibly wooden and stiff, the story has no clear structure or focus point that isn’t doesn’t feature a ton of overly complicated and uninteresting elements, the world building is hollow and so unengaging, and it leaves the whole experience feeling confused and dissatisfied. With previous examples, others were able to bring their spark to the picture, but after being called a sci-fi genius and given tones of money to direct his own product, it’s no surprise he went for it, it just a shame how much it fell. This movie barley feels like a Star Wars product, directing the story into something more akin to a space political drama (what Star Trek is more akin to) with the constant talks of political machinations and adult-oriented conflicts that not only fails to match the original trilogy’s incredibly quick to grasp objective, characters and world, but also isn’t effective because the world isn’t fleshed out enough, therefore the rules have no backing and therefore no cares are given. The lack of anything mystical and epic in this movie is a huge disappointment when most of the original movie’s more beloved elements are either needlessly changed, made even more ridiculous to the point of feeling talked down too (mainly a virgin birth metaphor) or given a poor beginning that wasn’t necessary and doesn’t even provide that much interesting perspective or context. It’s impossible to explain this story to someone in a short fashion, as it’s overwhelmed with political intrigue and extremely complication manoeuvres, which aren’t handled in a way that would engage adults and especially kids.

While the story is completely unfocused and lacks anything that’s worth gravitating towards, some movies are capable of holding themselves up if they have a good cast of characters that the audience can latch onto. That would be great if any of the characters in this movie were the least bit interesting, which tragically they aren’t. The original trilogy didn’t have the most established or interesting roles, but they were likeable, identifiable and despite having storytelling that were clearly rewritten along the way, still reached a conclusion that was satisfactory enough for everybody. In this film, they either range from incredibly generic but inoffensive, to unimaginably unbearable, and none have that certain simplistic charm that the original cast did, where they managed to work around their archetypal bases and become something of their own eventually. It’s already well known that Jar Jar is much like a living definition of a disease with how insufferable and borderline offensive he is. His voice is grating, his speech pattern is unbearable, his design is hideous, he only produces massive groans, and his only purpose of the film seems to be to scream, get saved and then get a position of power for no reason, one of the worst contribution to Star Wars ever. It’s also a clear bad sign that he is a forceful comic relief injected into the film because everybody else in this film is so dry and lacking in personality that no one else can provide anything outside of slightly concerned indifference. Qui-Gon isn’t interesting (despite Neeson having a voice that do work in this environment), Obi-Wan doesn’t do much in the grand scheme of things, and a young Anakin is open to potential, but is written with nothing special in mind. Most of the actors are completely devoid of life and show no emotion throughout. While Jake Lloyd may be the worst actor in the movie, it can’t all fall on a 10-year-old for failing when the adult actors are directed just as horribly. While people like Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmid as ”chancellor” Palpatine (seeing him as a seemingly nice political figure who slowly devolves into an obvious decrepit monster is again, good in idea but bad in execution) handle the material surprisingly well, almost everyone else, particularly Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson as another Jedi character, Mace Windu, are completely flat and terrible.

Since the movie came out at the time of the CGI boom, it was obvious that the movie was going to take advantage of this and feature of lot of new technology in the new franchise. While this movie surprisingly doesn’t have as much as the later ones would have as there is at least some on-screen shooting and some facial make-up to offset most of the CG characters and landscapes, you can still feel the difference between the look of this trilogy to the other one. To the film’s credit, the movie does create a lot of environments and worlds that can be elaborated and viewed more cinematically because the budget allows more interesting shots and creative visuals. While it is all CG, they are remarkably nice looking and are at least creative enough to appreciate even if what’s included in them is weightless. Most of the fully CG characters can sometimes look nice enough, even though occasionally a design can go too childish and look like a cereal mascot rather than an alien creature, but even though it’s a component that is trashed on a lot, its ironically one of the lesser problems of this film. In regard to the action, the film is severely lacking any until the climax, with most of the shenanigans featured before just featuring generic unfunny slapstick that feels like it’s trying desperately to appeal to children on a degrading level. Thankfully, the climax is one of the best that Star Wars had produced up to that point, which is remarkable considering how weightless it is from a storytelling perspective (Maul has no personality, presence, identity or even story relevance at all in this film, yet he’s considered the main bad guy?). The speed behind each blow, the impressive stunts by Ray Park himself, the change in locations to keep the fight fresh and an amazing score by legendary Star Wars composer, John Williams, backing it up the whole time, a great climax even if it’s juxtaposed with an unbelievably stupid space fight that again borders on irritatingly childish. The concept of pod racing, which takes up a good chunk of the film’s middle section, starts off pretty good with a nice change of pace and some decent effects, but it goes on for way too long and the lack of music is strange to say the least. The humor is abundantly childish ranging from any racial stereotype audiences can think of, to any typical humor connected to poo, it’s clearly meant for children but with no respect or attempt to be smart and work for adults.

The Phantom Menace is seen as the holy grail of badness for anything Star Wars related, even still to this day. Instead of furthering upon the world and characters in an interesting way that worked for both kids and adults, it simultaneously simplified and complicated its premises to a unbearable and unfollowable way, instead of simple characters that people can attach themselves to, they are gifted with forgettable stick figures that have zero charisma or charm, and while the film has some nice visuals and an amazing closing fight, the lack of care behind the story and characters makes the full product feel like a garbage bag with spots of cuisine food sticking out. While it may hold a place in the heart of children who grew up with it, and it’s not even the worst of the prequels (that honor is left for its sequel), this supposed first chapter in the story of Star Wars may have killed the franchise if it actually started here. It’s clear to see that even though it’s unclear in the film, there’s nothing phantom about what the menace is about this film.

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