Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (September 26, 2011)
From one point of view, 1999’s The Phantom Menace was the ultimate “can’t-miss” proposition. 22 years after Star Wars erupted onto movie screens, the series remained enormously popular, and the 16 year wait for a fourth entry to finally emerge created an incredible appetite for a new entry. As such, Menace enjoyed a huge built-in audience that almost guaranteed its huge success.
However, with that anticipation came severe expectations, and from a number of perspectives. Financially, Menace needed to earn an incredible amount of money to be considered a hit. Hollywood likes to pretend that $100 million is the benchmark for a success, but that figure became woefully inadequate by the turn of the millennium. During 2000, 22 movies attained that goal, while 21 made it in 1999. By 2010, a full 30 movies had hit the $100 million level.
The situation seemed particularly harsh for Menace because of the pre-sold audience. Happily for its crew, not many really expected it to compete with the all-time best box office gross of 1997’s Titanic. A year earlier, some had touted Godzilla as a potential champion, but I think that flick’s relative failure financially - it ended up with $136 million and ninth place for 1998 - chastened many similar ideas about Menace. Nonetheless, expectations remained sky-high, and it seemed clear that the film needed to make a huge amount of money to be seen as a true hit.
Personally, I felt that Menace had to take in at least $300 million in the US before it could be considered an actual success. To be sure, less money would have still left it profitable, especially when foreign markets and video sales are considered, but I thought that less than $300 million domestically would have be a relatively weak showing. Any figure lower than $200 million would have been a total disaster. Godzilla was seen as a flop with its $136 million; how bad would the carnage have been if Menace earned a similar figure?
All of this became a moot point since Menace eventually grabbed $431 million domestically and passed the $900 million mark worldwide. That left it with almost exactly half of Titanic’s take, and it barely nudged out 1993’s Jurassic Park for the second spot on the worldwide chart; it was close, as Menace snagged $922 million compared to Jurassic’s $920 million. Even for me, this was enough to consider the film a genuine hit financially.
In other ways, however, Menace ran into trouble. Sure, hoards of people flocked to theaters, but how many of them actually liked the thing? Over time, a myth grew that states Titanic succeeded due to hype. That’s totally incorrect. Yes, we were inundated with Titanic media once the movie became it hit, but it made its box office money on its own. The pre-release publicity was pretty subdued for a major studio effort - especially one that cost so much to make - and expectations for it seemed rather low. Titanic became a success because a lot of people loved it. It went to another level partially due to curiosity - latecomers wanted to see what the fuss was about - but it had already proved itself by that point.
Menace, on the other hand, offered a completely presold phenomenon. Media attention was intense, as the film generated a level of advance interest virtually unseen. I remember some comments along the lines of “Menace is the most eagerly anticipated film since The Godfather Part III” or some other flick. Technically this was correct, but the truth was that Menace was the most excitedly awaited movie ever. Never had so many looked forward to one film.
And I was among the fervent faithful. When Star Wars hit in 1977, I was 10, which placed me smack-dab in the middle of the movie’s main demographic: dorky young boys. Along with all my friends, we embraced Star Wars as the greatest thing ever, and I maintained that affection pretty much forever after that. Oh, I went through my geek-denial stage in the early Eighties when I tried to pretend I was too cool for silly sci-fi flicks. It didn’t take, as my inherent nerdiness rose to the surface.
Long ago I ceased to fight this attitude, and I embraced my affection for all things Star Wars with fervor. When Kenner created a new line of action figures in 1995, I leapt to purchase them, and I continued to collect them for years. (Until Kenner’s greed burned out my interest, but that’s a different story.) I purchased more reissues of the first three films on laserdisc and DVD than I care to admit; each allegedly offered something I needed to possess, so I did so gladly.
Frighteningly, by the time Menace hit screens in 1999, I’d waited literally half of my life to see it. I was 16 when its predecessor, 1983’s Return of the Jedi, appeared, and I was 32 when Menace emerged. That’s a looong time between movies, and though the public’s appetite for Star Wars diminished for a period in the early Nineties, by 1999 the series clearly had regained its prominence.
That occurred largely due to the reissue of the first three films in 1997. Packaged as updated “special editions”, those flicks performed shockingly well at the box office. The first two sequels in the saga - 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back and Jedi - did nicely for reissues, as they grabbed $67 million and $45 million respectively. However, the original Star Wars really brought home the bacon, as the SE nabbed an amazing $138 million. That meant it actually placed eighth in the year’s top-grossing film chart, an absolutely unprecedented accomplishment.
Would the mania for Menace have reached the same heights without the success of the SEs? Perhaps, but I doubt it. They made the Star Wars saga vital for an entirely new generation, and it became a hit with kids who otherwise might never have encountered it to such a degree. To be sure, any Star Wars sequel created in the late Nineties would have done spectacularly well, but I feel the SEs helped generate a new allegiance.
In any case, geeky aging fanboys like myself would have attended nonetheless, and I greeted the May 1999 release of Menace with fervor. I actually did my best to screen out any information about the film prior to my first screening, which was awfully tough. Still, I did well, and almost all of what I saw was new to me.
Really, all I knew about Menace before that showing came from some negative critical notices. Early reviews absolutely panned the film, so while I wasn’t aware of the specifics, I was informed that it inspired a lot of unfavorable opinions.
Those thoughts continued well after the movie’s release. Frankly, I have no idea what the general public consensus is, but among the fanboy faithful, the reaction wasn’t good. Personally, I felt Menace wasn’t a great film, but I thought it had enough going for it to keep my attention and entertain me, which was all I really expected of a Star Wars flick.
Also known as “Episode I”, Menace falls as the first segment in a six-part saga; Star Wars, Empire and Jedi create the fourth, fifth and sixth installments of the series, respectively, while 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith act as Episodes II and III.
Menace sets up the story of little Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the boy who eventually becomes Darth Vader. We see his involvement in Jedi training by master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his wary pupil Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). We also meet Amidala (Natalie Portman), the lovely young queen of a planet called Naboo, and that planet’s representative at the Galactic Council, Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
The plot of Menace seems almost inconsequential, as it exists mainly to introduce all of these characters to us and to each other. Menace strongly echoes Star Wars itself, as some similar challenges and situations crop up along the way. It’s not a carbon copy of the first movie, but the connections clearly seem intentional.
One could argue that Menace was doomed to be a disappointment of sorts due to its inherent purpose. It stands as the most expositional of the six films. Star Wars really should take that honor, but because it was the only one that really was meant to stand on its own, it was made in a much more concise manner. Sure, Lucas may have desired to create a longer saga after Star Wars, but he didn’t know if this would be possible, so the first film exists as a stand-alone entity in ways the others don’t.
Although Menace relates to worlds and characters with which we’re already familiar, there’s enough new to make this movie largely a piece of exposition. Due to that factor, it can be slow-paced and clumsy at times. Much of the second act - in which we meet Anakin - moves at a turgid rate, especially because this part of the flick offers the most background information. A fun podrace sequence enlivens this area, but it remains the movie’s biggest weakness.
Otherwise, the first and third acts work pretty well. The opening period suffers somewhat from vagueness and a tentative quality, but it includes some solid action scenes and gets the ball rolling fairly effectively. As for the film’s conclusion, it also provides some scattered focus, especially during a four-pronged climax. However, that area includes the movie’s best work, which appeared during a fantastic lightsaber battle. I’ve seen Menace many times now, but that part of the film never fails to give me goosebumps; even if the rest of the flick totally stunk, I’d still endorse it just for that sequence.
The remainder of Menace doesn’t stink, but it remains a bit flat and lackluster. I must admit that the film hasn’t endured repeated viewings especially well. I still enjoy it, but the flaws come through more clearly each time I watch it. I just can’t get into it to the degree that the “original trilogy” films involve me.
Ultimately that may be the greatest sin committed by The Phantom Menace: it’s not one of the first three films. In its own right, I think it’s a fairly entertaining and enjoyable film. The movie seems very erratic, but most of it works reasonably well. Is “reasonably well” good enough for a Star Wars film? Perhaps not, but I continue to find it to offer a fun and engaging experience for the most part.
A few quick comments before I move on to a discussion of the Blu-ray itself: 1) I don’t mind Jar-Jar; 2) Jake Lloyd was atrocious as Anakin. While the former received the bulk of the film’s criticism, I thought the latter deserved more. Lloyd was the gaping hole at the heart of Menace, as his thick, ham-fisted performance was painful to watch at times. The boy couldn’t act, and he made the film falter consistently.
Despite her longer résumé, Portman wasn’t a great deal better than Lloyd. Actually, that’s too harsh, but Portman seemed very flat and listless. Perhaps this occurred because so many of her scenes came opposite Lloyd.
Of the remaining actors, both McGregor and Neeson were good but not special. I think Ewan suffered because he didn’t have much to do; in Menace, he functioned as little more than Qui-Gon’s errand boy. When provoked in Menace - such as during the climax - McGregor came to life.
The only actors I felt distinguished themselves in Menace were McDiarmid and Pernilla August. The latter played Anakin’s mother and she brought a wonderful depth and sense of pain to the role; she created an emotional core than her son lacked. As for McDiarmid, those familiar with his role know where he’ll end up eventually, and he did a great job of playing with that future. He embodied the slick politician and clearly had fun in the part.
By the way, The Phantom Menace goes by a slew of different names. Some call it Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, some refer to it as Star Wars: Episode I, some say it’s Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, while some just name it Episode I. Why do I choose The Phantom Menace? Because that’s consistent with the common terminology for the first two sequels. No one refers to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back or Episode VI. They’re The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and that’s that.
As for the first flick, it’s Star Wars, not A New Hope or Episode IV. Yes, I realize that this insistence on calling it Star Wars seems inconsistent alongside my other attitudes, but when it first came out, there was none of this A New Hope or Episode IV nonsense - it was just Star Wars, and I refuse to call it anything else.
One more note: the Blu-ray doesn’t offer the theatrical cut of the film. For the 2001 DVD, Lucas reinserted some shots left out of the release version. These included some additional introductions prior to the pod race, a little footage during the competition, and an “air taxi” ride when our heroes made it to Coruscant. The Blu-ray also offers a computer-generated Yoda instead of the original movie’s puppet. I don’t think the Blu-ray makes any other alterations.
