KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE #24: Kymm reappraises THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999, wri/dir by George Lucas, USA)

“Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.”

I have a long and storied association with Star Wars, just like everyone else.

Every generation finds Star Wars in their own way, and I can’t even say that my generation was the first one, since I was 12 when it came out and certainly there were younger kids than I that discovered it that first summer, but if you lump all of the ages together, I was part of the original Star Wars generation. I went to opening day in 1977, so, in 1999, when The Phantom Menace came out, I took the day off work to go see it.

Man, if you weren’t there, you cannot imagine the excitement. The cheers that went up in the theatre not only at the crawl, but also, if I am remembering correctly, at the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare, were deafening. So many years had passed since Return of the Jedi, and everyone had given up hope that there would be more movies, so it would have almost been impossible for any film to live up to this level of anticipation.

And it didn’t, famously.

I did see it twice that summer, and there are parts in it that I love, but George Lucas did manage to bungle a lot of it, with some astoundingly poor casting choices to start with. It is NOT little Jake Lloyd’s fault that he was so miscast as Anakin, and absolutely nothing whatever in the script helped him in any way. I mean, I get the tragic/ironic concept of the future Darth Vader being an adorable moppet with a bowl haircut named Ani, but it just landed with a thud. Casting a child who would have been splendid in a Cheerios commercial, or even in a family sitcom was not a good idea, and incredibly unfair to the child.

Another actor I feel sorry for is Ahmed Best who played Jar-Jar Binks. He did everything right, he played the character as written and, I think, was just fine and very funny at times. I mean, can you imagine how exciting it must have been for an unknown actor to get cast in the new Star Wars movie! In this big, showy role, and maybe he’d be the next Anthony Daniels, playing a character beloved by all! And then all you hear is, “Hey, there is a fan edit where they cut out your character and it’s WAY BETTER!”

On the other, other hand, I adore Ray Park as Darth Maul with every fibre of my being. Liam Neeson can do no wrong in my book, and even sells that midi-chlorian idiocy with the gravity and sincerity of his Neesonian line-readings. Ewan McGregor is quite good as Obi-Wan, and I always love Natalie Portman, though that love is tested in Attack of the Clones. Which comes up next, for my sins. (An aside, what is in George Lucas’ head that when he sees a beautiful young woman, all he wants to do is to put her in a god-awful hairstyle? I am perplexed.) The Phantom Menace is not terrible (there’s a pull-quote for the poster: “Not terrible!” – Kymm Zuckert, 365 Films in 365 Days), I hate the pod race, but there is plenty I like. It is not, however, a movie I would ever in one meellion years recommend that anyone start with. You watch this and think, “Wait, there are ten more films, several tv series, and three different rides at Disneyland? Why?” Watch them as the good Lord intended, in release order. Chronological order is only for rewatch purposes, when you know that way better films are just a mere parsec away.

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog