The Phantom Menace 15th Anniversary

It has been fifteen years to the day the long-awaited prequel to Star Wars was released. I was curious why no one has made this thread, as I assume it's a big deal.

To most of us, it is nothing like the original trilogy and it was not as good, but 15 years ago today it was the biggest thing in the world. I remember being brought to the cinema when I was four to see this exciting new thing, but I was talking so loudly we left the theater right when Jar Jar, Obi and Qui Gon dove into the underwater Gungan city. I was bored. This whole trade and senate thing isn't something a four-year-old would understand. Mind you I was more autistic back then than I am now.

Share your memories.

I saw it six times, including a midnight opening and noon the next day. Even noticing it was a little disappointing in many ways around the third time, I was still having more fun seeing it than any other movie that summer. I still have the VHS I bought of it the day it came out.

I saw it on TV. I think it was the premiere, for whatever that's worth. I recall thinking one thing throughout the entire movie: this isn't Star Wars. Thankfully I didn't know then that TPM would end up being the high point of the trilogy, and that I'd miss Jake Lloyd's nuanced performance (not that it was his fault - I'm truly sorry it ended the way it did for him).

Looking forward to reminiscing about AotC.

sega3dmm said:

I was curious why no one has made this thread

Why would anyone want to relive the nightmare?

I saw it 3-4 times & then got it on VHS.  I was 13 & I tried my damnedest to like it.  Then I realized that I never once watched the VHS.  It just sat there.  I slowly realized how much I was lying to myself and thought maybe the next one would be better, until I heard the title.  

Then I saw Attack of the Clones for the first and last time.  The diner scene, Jango Fett, the Lars backstory, the love sequences, the Yoda lightsaber battle, & then the coup de grace of the twist of Dooku getting the Death Star plans to the separatists.  

Then I saw Revenge of the Sith.  It was out for a few weeks, but I figured I might as well go see it.  That first scene with that battle & then Anakin beheading Dooku was laughable.  Everything about Anakin was laughable.  Ewan McGregor turned in his best performance, although he lost it a couple times.  

I never saw TPM (or any other of the SW movies, for that matter) in the theatre. I first watched it in the Summer of '00 on a tape rented from the local video store. Though I didn't find it equal to any of the OT films, I still liked it (far more than any of the junior novelizations I had read beforehand, all of which I found as exciting as used dishwater). Since I was an early teen at the time, I didn't notice the poor writing/acting.

I got a pirate VHS of it about a week before it came out. A group of us got together and watched it. I remember as clear as day my flat mate saying "turn it off, it going to be good, I don't want to watch it". He meant he wanted to wait for the cinema...

Anyhow, he said it at the beginning, just before they landed on the planet and met Jar Jar. From that point on it got worse and worse. We watched to the end and were all depressed. Even our girlfriends who weren't particularly into Star Wars thought it was crap.

We then thought that maybe the pirate was a rough cut as it seemed unfinished. Very stilted etc. so we went to the cinema one afternoon and paid our money. It was no better.

I still think they're three of the worst films ever made, but in a weird way it's the best of the PT.

dan76 said:

I still think they're three of the worst films ever made, but in a weird way it's the best of the PT.

The beginning of the end is always better than the middle or end of the end. 

It was the best the prequels ever got; at least there was a kid of warped nostalgia about if you were the right age. It's the one prequel I have watched the most out of the PT, but I haven't seen it all the way through for over a decade. I think I kinda knew it sucked all along, but it took me some time to truly realize the level of awfulness we were given. I watched it only twice in the theater. At least we realized the truth of George's lack of talent at the same time.

I've never thought TPM was the best of the three. I always liked ROTS far better. I think that it has to do partly with the fact that there is no nostalgia or fond memories of the anticipation of it that come with the movie for me as there is for many of you. I currently rank it second, after ROTS and before AOTR.

RicOlie_2 said:

I currently rank it second, after ROTS and before AOTR.

 Boooooooo!!!!

dan76 said:

I got a pirate VHS of it about a week before it came out. A group of us got together and watched it. I remember as clear as day my flat mate saying "turn it off, it going to be good, I don't want to watch it". He meant he wanted to wait for the cinema...

Anyhow, he said it at the beginning, just before they landed on the planet and met Jar Jar. From that point on it got worse and worse. We watched to the end and were all depressed. Even our girlfriends who weren't particularly into Star Wars thought it was crap.

We then thought that maybe the pirate was a rough cut as it seemed unfinished. Very stilted etc. so we went to the cinema one afternoon and paid our money. It was no better.

I still think they're three of the worst films ever made, but in a weird way it's the best of the PT.

 Yeah, TPM pissed me off a lot less than the other two.  

I saw The Phantom Menace when I was... wow, only three years old. Almost four, but still three.

I had only learned about the film maybe a couple months before. I was in Walmart with my mom and I came across a toy from the film (when were the first toys released? That was when I learned about it). I was confused. It was an Obi-Wan toy I think. But he was young and didn't look anything like the Ben Kenobi I knew.

See, even at this young age, the OT was my shit. I don't even remember the first time I saw those movies. To my mind, I've known them all my life. I watched them non-stop as a kid. 

When I my mom explained to me that there was a new movie coming out, I was excited, but I didn't understand why it was a prequel. I came to accept that the movie wouldn't feature most of my favorite characters, and would only be tangentially linked to the OT. My expectations were simultaneously high and low.

I saw the film in theaters twice and loved it. It didn't usurp the OT for me, I didn't enjoy it as much, but I still loved it. And there's a part of me today that still does. It's not all that bad.

I've said before regarding the PT quality. TPM is a rip roaring childrens adventure film. For all its weaknesses its better at that than AOTC is as a love story or a mystery, or than ROTS is as a war film or a character drama.

I was in 8th grade when TPM came out and just a couple weeks from turning 14 (way to make me feel old, guys).

TPM was originally scheduled for May 21st (my best friend's birthday), but was bumped up two days when the second trailer hit in March.

What I still remember vividly from the morning of opening day is my French teacher starting off class by saying "Now, we all know what "sequel" means," as she wrote the word on the board. Then she asked "Qu'est-ce que c'est "prequel"?" as she wrote that word as well.

"Wow, my French teacher is bringing this up right at the start of class," I thought. That's when I realized it wasn't just a big deal to me, it was a big deal all over.

It's just dawning on me now, especially thinking back to that "The Beginning" documentary from the dvd, that she'd probably seen a story about it on the news the night before and was wondering what all this "prequel" hubbub was all about.

We explained to her that the originals were IV, V and VI and that this was I.

Later in the day, between classes, I remember overhearing some of the other kids making plans to go see it that night. On a Wednesday. Again, exemplifying just how big a deal this movie was.

I'd told myself I could wait for the weekend, but who the hell was I kidding? This movie I'd awaited fervently since November was finally in theaters and I could go see it right now. All it took was the offer of a drive to the theater from my totally awesome mom to convince me.

Getting out of the car I bumped into a friend from the neighborhood who'd just seen it and said it was pretty good. I bought a ticket for the next late-afternoon show (this was probably around 5:30), surprised it wasn't sold out. Not only was it not sold out, but by the time the movie started the theater wasn't even close to being full.

Anyway, I still remember hearing about how Lucasfilm had limited (ahah!) the number of trailers that could be attached to the movie. I remember them playing the American Pie trailer. The Austin Powers 2 trailer was probably attached to my print as well, I remember seeing it on either Access Hollywood or E.T. in any event. Then of course there was Fox's "a quick look at three films currently in development," which were Fight Club, Anna and the King and Titan A.E.

Then the lights went down and the Loews Cineplex logo played. Then that familiar Fox fanfare started and the logos and titles came up.

"Holy Shit, this is really happening."

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

STAR WARS

There it was, just as we knew it would be:

Episode I

THE PHANTOM MENACE

The crawl continued, looking exactly as it had in the originals but obviously having been accomplished digitally this time around (and for good reason), an intentionally low-fi effect in an otherwise cutting edge movie and something that was a throwback even in 1977. The only thing different was the words.

Then the crawl ended and the camera tilted down to an approaching spaceship, only to pan with the ship and follow it as it flew by.

Weird aliens, a protocol droid, Darth Sidious via hologram, then a laser blast, an explosion and HOLY SHIT, LIGHTSABERS.

I could go on and on, but lemme just say that I'd read the first hundred pages or so of the novelization, stopping right after Qui-Gon asks Obi-Wan for Anakin's midichlorian count. In that respect it was almost like seeing the pages played out on screen beat for beat, knowing what would happen but delighting in not knowing how. Obviously the rest of the movie after that was unknown, but I'd pretty much spoiled for myself stuff like Qui-Gon dying from flipping through the comic book at the store. The action and spectacle, the scope and scale, were entertaining nevertheless.

The lightsaber fight at the end had me still buzzing after the movie had ended.

I remember passing all the people lined up for the evening screening and bumping into my basketball coach (only a few years older than me), who was among them.

My initial overall reaction was "that was the greatest movie ever!" Deep down, I knew better.

I was never hyped for the Prequels (I always wanted the Sequel Trilogy), so I had NO where the expecations many fans did.

I wasn't disappointed, as I thought it was OK.  It was cool that Star Wars was back in the spotlight again and I have to say it was surreal when the Opening Crawl came on screen and I was seeing a SW movie as an adult for the first time. 

The ironic thing is that TPM is probably the most 'Star Wars-Like' movie out of the PT.  AOTC & ROTS take themselves way too seriously where TPM atleast tried to duplicate the spirit of the OT.   Now stuff like Jar Jar, Jake Lloyd, and many needless plots bogged down the movie, but it is interesting to compare it to the other 2 prequels now, and how I actually think it holds up better then them.

Fang Zei said:

I was in 8th grade when TPM came out and just a couple weeks from turning 14 (way to make me feel old, guys).

 Shut up, I was 25.