3 reasons why I love Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
From podracing to one of the best lightsaber duels in all of Star Wars, The Phantom Menace is blockbuster filmmaking at its finest
Welcome to ‘I loved that’, a newsletter where I, a film fan who loves pretty much everything, talks about a film, book, game or TV show I loved that maybe didn’t get the appreciation I think it deserved in its time.
I’m in the wonderful position of writing this knowing that Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has undergone a significant reappraisal over the past few years. When it came out, the response was more, uh, complicated. The thing is this is very much my Star Wars. The first film I ever saw in the cinema was Revenge of the Sith. I watched Attack of the Clones on a loop when I got the DVD for Christmas. I had all the podracer Micro Machines and would regularly create tripping hazards in the hallway of my house by trying to recreate the moment Anakin triumphantly beat Sebulba.
I collected the Revenge of the Sith series action figures religiously. All of this is to say that the Prequels were my gateway into a galaxy far, far away. They defined my love of Star Wars in the same way that the Original Trilogy did for generations before me and the Sequel Trilogy is doing for the generations that followed me. I say all this to underline the fact that I am not just coming at this as a late convert to the wonders of The Phantom Menace but as someone for whom Jar Jar, battle droids and Anakin et al are foundational to my understanding of the franchise.
My challenge with this post is to try and narrow down all the reasons why I love this film to just three without, hopefully, using the obvious reasons (Dual of the Fates, podracing etc). Why three? Well, this is Star Wars and Star Wars comes in threes. I want to talk about why it resonated with me as a kid and why it was the fuel that sparked my love of the Star Wars universe today. If this does well I might work through the Prequels (and maybe the Sequels too?) in the same format. Either way, I’m intrigued to hear what everyone else loves about this blockbuster adventure. Anyway, here are three reasons why I love the Phantom Menace…
One: Otoh Gunga, aka Gungan City
To borrow the parlance of the other big ‘Star’ franchise, I want to see strange new worlds in Star Wars. For me, the Star Wars universe is at its best when it’s getting real weird with unique aliens, creatures and locations. The Phantom Menace brought us entirely new environments in Naboo and Coruscant. Beautiful Mediterainian inspired vistas and dense planetary city sprawls.
Even when the film was revisiting worlds we’d seen before like Tatooine, it was showing us new settlements like the podracing arena. But no location stuck with me quite like Jar Jar Binks’ home city of Otoh Gunga. This ethereal underwater world is equal parts mesmerizing and beautiful. From a design perspective, it feels of a piece with the rest of the film while also hinting at the diversity of Naboo in a way that few Star Wars locations had previously. From the huge leviathans at the planets core to the strange Gungan technology, everything felt weird and interesting. If we could get a spin-off film or book set in Otoh Gunga that would be great. Maybe about Gungan police hunting down a mysterious vandal only for it to turn out to be Jar Jar accidentally causing mayhem?
Two: The Beginning: Making Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace
It might seem strange to say that one of my favourite aspects of The Phantom Menace is the making of documentary about the film but, for me, this hour long deep dive into bringing back a galaxy far, far away is as essential to my love of the franchise as Jedi, X-Wings and the Force.
The way the documentary peels back the process from writing, casting, filming on location in Tunisia and the groundbreaking visual effects lit a fire in me as a child. The huge models they made from the ships to the podracing arena inspired me to try and make my own. Watching Ewan McGregor training for the Dual of the Fates made me want to choreograph my own lightsaber duels. It’s name is apt because this documentary was the beginning of my love of film and filmmaking.
Three: The Naboo N1 Starfighter
Spaceships are cool. The Millennium Falcon is cool. Star Destroyers and X-Wings are cool. They’re all really cool but one stands out above the rest for me and that’s the Naboo N1 Starfighter, a sleek hotrod that brings style to the dogfights of Star Wars.
It’s a beautiful design that feels like an extension of the Naboo culture and architecture without compromising on the core philosophy that makes Star Wars design so iconic. I mean just look at Doug Chiang’s artwork for it? Seeing this ship come back in The Mandalorian was exceptionally cool and I can’t wait to see it zipping across the big screen again next year.
So there we have it. Three reasons (out of many) why I love The Phantom Menace. This film is a wonderful celebration of creativity, visual effects, mythological storytelling and blockbuster filmmaking and I’m so grateful that it opened up the wide world of film to me when I first saw it as a kid. Anyway, I’m off to dig out my Star Wars figures. Who am I kidding, there’s no need to dig them out, they’re already on my desk. Stay wizard.