I approach Star Wars movies in two ways: critically, in terms of narrative and characters etc, and aesthetically. I generally dislike how futuristic, shiny and CGI the settings look in episodes II and III, particularly Coruscant, but with The Phantom Menace it’s totally different. I love the depiction of Coruscant, and I feel overall the film’s aesthetic fits in more with that of the original trilogy.

I’ve never really been able to put my finger on it. Maybe the colours are duller, sometimes more naturalistic, the sets and buildings seem/are practical, something like that. It’s just something I love about TPM and I wondered if any others have the same feeling. Aesthetically, with everything up to the costumes, it genuinely FEELS like a prequel to the original films more than AOTC and ROTS.

This shot in particular from the theatrical cut is a great example of advanced technology combined with ornate and old-fashioned architecture, much like Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept art for Had Abbadon in the early 80s.