'The Phantom Menace' Was Always George Lucas' Vision For Star Wars

Jul 23, 2023

The Star Wars prequels have become more appreciated over time, but 'The Phantom Menace' still deserves more love.

Perhaps no film ever was met with the overwhelming anticipation that faced Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace in 1999. In fact, reports in 1998 of theater screenings of films such as The Waterboy and Meet Joe Black claimed that patrons purchased tickets to these respective movies to merely watch a preview of The Phantom Menace. So when George Lucas' return to the Star Wars franchise failed to reach the audience's lofty expectations in terms of quality, a sense of disturbance in the force was felt by all fans. On top of that, the sequels only poured salt into the wound, sending the rabid fanbase into flux as a result of a prequel trilogy that not only paled in comparison to the original trilogy, but also undermined the power of the films of the '70s and '80s for some. As it goes with most art, time has been kind to the historically reviled prequel trilogy, with a wave of critical reclamation swooping in as of late to defend these movies. While, even at the moment of its release, Revenge of the Sith is viewed as the Holy Grail of the trilogy, The Phantom Menace shares the closest resemblance to Lucas' overarching vision, and ultimately, operates as the most purely cinematic.

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At the time leading up to the filming of The Phantom Menace, Lucas was less of a filmmaker and more of a conductor of groundbreaking special effects. He was at the helm of his own visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. His fixation on special effects is well documented at this point, as two years before the release of The Phantom Menace, the original trilogy was re-released into theaters with updated digital effects. Along with various other superfluous adjustments to what many already considered a perfect trilogy, Lucas' habit of routinely adding new aliens in the background of scenes or having Greedo shoot first became a running joke in the film community. The director, who at one point in time wrote and directed a grounded human drama about the fears of coming-of-age in American Graffiti, let his fascination with special effects cloud his judgment when writing natural dialogue and directing captivating performances for Episode II and III. When he returned to the director's chair for Episode I after a 22-year hiatus, the remnants of his filmmaking prowess were alive.

The Phantom Menace looks aesthetically sharper than its successors. To the delight of cinephiles, this is because the 1999 film was indeed shot on film. In the last decade, digital cinematography has become the norm for mainstream blockbusters, but there is no denying the enhanced visual quality that film can create regarding image depth and color contrast when executed properly. Lucas recaptured the beauty of the Tatooine desert and for a brief moment reincorporated the magic of A New Hope. Humans and inanimate objects blend in smoother with the artificial CGI beings due to the range and focus of film photography. Attack of the Clones and Sith were already at a disadvantage in their efforts to rebound from the perceived disappointment of Menace due to their respective muddy and flat aesthetic caused by digital photography. Of course, there are plenty of films shot with digital cameras that look great — just ask David Fincher or Michael Mann. But when the frame is riddled with overbearing CGI characters and settings, digital looks especially pitiful.

Complementing the beauty of film photography, The Phantom Menace relied on more real locations and practical effects. In addition to shooting in a desert in Tunisia, Queen Amidala's palace in Naboo is a real building in Italy and a strikingly majestic setting to hold the climactic battle accompanied by the lauded John Williams composition, "Duel of the Fates." In its sequels, the frequent deployment of green screens in place of shooting on location is evident. In scenes involving the Jedi counsel or senators talking in a room, any viewer paying an ounce of attention could recognize that the actors are not actually sharing space. None of these distractions linger over The Phantom Menace. One would never know if they were watching the film on Disney Plus, but Yoda was miraculously constructed as a puppet in its original release until Lucas revised the Jedi master to match his CGI form of the sequels after the fact. Nonetheless, CG effects are integral to the makeup of The Phantom Menace, as it is responsible for creating the array of droids and the infamous Jar Jar Binks. Where the latter of the two prequels often operate as glorified tech demos, the first film utilizes digital effects in the most worthwhile ways. The thrilling pod race sequence, for example, is a moment of refreshing cinematic bliss, and it came to fruition thanks to well-orchestrated effects.

The fundamental plot machinations of The Phantom Menace may be dull, as no one was expecting the anticipated return of Star Wars on the big screen to be concerned with taxes and a trade federation, but the film tracks a palatable cinematic story arc that is lost upon its sequels. Two Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) protecting the Queen (Natalie Portman) against forces of evil is classic Star Wars storytelling. When their journey takes a detour on Tatooine and encounters a young boy with The Force, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the film finally carries a galactic weight, supported by the biblical implications of Anakin's birth and his subsequent escape from slave captivity. Lucas, rather than engineering a conscripted plot point, uses the device of fate to mold the story together. Qui-Gon's mentorship of Obi-Wan and Anakin outlines clear character motivations that are lacking in future installments. For an unforsaken reason, the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan in the following movies is barely existent, while Menace shows Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as a convincing master-apprentice dynamic. The unflappable presence of Neeson alone adds credibility to the film whenever it is hindered by choppy acting and Lucas' insular examination of his universe. The most frequent target of animosity throughout the trilogy, Hayden Christensen, fails to carry this kind of sturdiness that Neeson brought to the screen in the following prequels.

The immense anticipation that preceded the release of The Phantom Menace was too overpowering to comprehend for anyone who did not live through it. Citizen Kane could not have met the towering expectations upon release. Regardless, audience disenchantment with the 1999 film must have left an impact on Lucas, who was now put in a position to win back the mass approval of his fanbase. With his prequel trilogy, Lucas sought to invert the thematic ideology of Star Wars and reconsider the heroic figures of the original series. At the heart of the three films is the tragic rise and fall of Anakin, and how simmering rage and alienation shaped him into Darth Vader. The arch of this narrative began graciously in The Phantom Menace, but in light of the vitriol the first film received, he was forced to rush the Anakin saga instead of patiently developing the character. Not to mention, as the trilogy progressed, Lucas was more pigeonholed to satisfying the canon and lore of the preexisting Star Wars franchise. Suddenly, as The Phantom Menace valiantly tried to stand on its own, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith had to mimic the favorable elements of the original films. For eager moviegoers in 1999, it was presumably jarring for a new Star Wars film to operate on its own wavelength to the degree that the film did. The first film is the closest to capturing the wondrous magic of world creation that the original 1977 film struck. More than anything, George Lucas is an artist powered by an eternal imagination, and The Phantom Menace was the last instance of true originality and cinematic storytelling in the entire series.