It's very difficult, when approaching Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to ignore the baggage the mere mention of the film carries with it. The tiniest glance at the Internet and print media will show you the sheer hate this film has garnered in the 14 years since it's first release on May 19, 1999. It is even more difficult to present a defence of this film while being heard over all the negativity (none more so than on YouTube comments, where videos celebrating or promoting the film are flooded with the more generic 'this movie sucks' to 'George Lucas is a money-grabbing c**t who should go die').
Well I say enough is enough. I've taken the ridicule and the hatefulness and the spite directed at this film for almost my whole life. I am here to tell you right here, in complete honesty, without a shred of sarcasm or irony: I love this film. Before you flock to your keyboards to exclaim with scorn
, allow me to explain myself:
My earliest memory, not only of cinema but indeed my whole life, is sitting down in the VUE cinema in Cambridge with my Dad to watch this film. The slimmest vestige of memory I possess is sitting awestruck as Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) flashed across the screen, cutting down battle droids with their lightsabers, John Williams powerful score echoing around the room and the surround sound causing my seat to literally shake. I even remember shouting 'Wow! Wow Daddy, wow!', barely able to contain myself at the sheer scale of what was happening.
Years passed, and I remember seeing the film on video at home, and at playgroup, making loud hushing noises to the other children so I could hear the film through tinny stereo speakers. Then the advent of DVD came and I spent many a Saturday morning sprawled on the floor re-living the film again and again, talking about it and re-enacting it with my friends, not even conceiving that someone couldn't like the film!
Then, around the age of 13/14, when I began getting really interested in films whose titles were not preceded by the words Star Wars, I began researching films online. Eventually I came across page after page of people spouting not just dislike for the film, but actual hatred. My teenage heart was crushed as I saw something nearest and dearest to me take the sort of treatment usually reserved for the lowest dregs of society:
- I watched in horror as one of my heroes, Simon Pegg, ranted and raved about the film, calling it 'the biggest piece of sh*t ever'
- I recoiled in shock as Patton Oswalt declared that his ideal use of a time machine would be to kill George Lucas before the film could be made
- I cringed as actors who appeared in the film became subject to laughter and mockery on talk shows when the film was brought up
The list goes on...
For a while, I thought maybe I'd been stupid for all these years, and that the film really was rubbish. When it was ever brought up by people in conversation (fellow classmates, parents, teachers, anyone) I spouted the status quo lines about how the movie was dreadful, how Jar-Jar was so annoying, how the story didn't make sense. I didn't believe a word of it, I was just afraid to speak out in case of further ridicule.
Then in 2011, I heard that the film was coming back to cinemas in retro-fitted 3D. Outwardly I sighed and moaned along with the rest of the Internet, but inside I was hopeful. By this time I was around 16 and hadn't watched the film in quite a few years, so I popped the DVD into my computer and got comfortable. It wasn't re-assuring. All throughout the film I just couldn't concentrate, my brain was looking for all the problems that people had pointed out, being overly critical and looking for every minute issue with the plot, acting, effects, dialogue, everything that I had read about was unfolding before my eyes and I didn't know what to think anymore, and as I put the disc away later I felt more confused than ever before.When February 2012 came, and the film was a week from release, I decided to just go for it: I could try out 3D for the first time, see a film I'd not seen in the cinema for 13 years and maybe get a little more enjoyment out of it this time. The night before I was to see the film, I approached my Dad and asked him what he thought about the film after all these years. What he said was something like 'I like the film because I remember taking you to see it and seeing how much you enjoyed seeing Star Wars in the cinema for the first time, that on it's own is enough for me'. Twenty-four hours later, I was sat alone in Screen 9 of Cambridge Cineworld, 3D glasses on and feeling very, very nervous. The lights went down, and the film started.
I honestly cannot remember a more enjoyable time in my life. I grinned like a little kid all the way through. For two hours I was a little kid again, transported to far away worlds, experiencing creatures and space-ships and lightsaber duels, all on the biggest screen I could hope for. The 3D was quickly forgotten and I sat back in my seat, gobsmacked at how I could ever have believed the naysayers. I emerged from the cinema into the pouring snow feeling so full of energy I could have run home. Even standing still for twenty minutes waiting for the bus as snow collected on my coat couldn't dampen my spirits. 'How was it?' my Dad asked as I stepped inside the house an hour later, his face alive with anticipation as I littered the hall with snow. I looked right in his face, the smile still not faded from mine, and said:
'It was FUCKING AWESOME!'
Ignoring the disapproving retort from Mum and laughing along with Dad, I hung my coat up and sat at the table. 'What happened to all this 'Phantom Menace is rubbish' lark then?' he asked. I just shook my head, still grinning like an idiot, unable to speak again.
As I lay in bed later, composed and able to think straight, I mulled over why I had enjoyed the film so much, and came up with a list fairly similar to this:
- Star Wars in any form is best seen at the cinema
- The film looks fantastic
- The music is some of John Williams' best work
- I really did care about the characters
- The acting isn't bad, it's just a few lines of awkward dialogue
- Jake Lloyd is a child actor under enormous pressure, I can't fault him for a few bad deliveries
- Jar-Jar is actually occasionally funny, and anyone calling him a racial stereotype is clearly over-reacting
- The costume design is stunning
- The balance of CGI to solid effects is handled very well
- The final duel/space battle/ground battle almost gives Return of the Jedi a run for its money
- The duel itself is worth the price of admission
- The sound design in the podrace sequence is probably the best in any film ever made
- Knowing what happens in future films and the effects of this one scene on the entire story, seeing Anakin leave his mother almost brought me to tears. (Watching on blu-ray last month finally broke me, I'm not ashamed to admit)
There are probably more, but a longer list would take up too much time.
The key to enjoying the film is very simple: it is a film for parents to watch with their children. Children won't be paying attention to the politics or the iffy acting, they'll be too busy having fun with the space battles, podraces, saber duels and sheer spectacle. Let them worry about the 'problems' with the film when they reach adulthood and let them make up their own mind. Please don't with-hold this film from them because of what YOU feel about it.
Seeing their expressions of joy might give you more enjoyment than the film by itself, but that's the point, spend some time with them, sit down together and let them have the time of their lives. But at the same time, remember how you felt watching the original Star Wars films, when the dodgy dialogue or plot holes didn't matter as long as you could see a wondrous new landscape or a thrilling fight between the heroes and villains. There are few things wrong with the original trilogy, but those problems that are there always seem to be given a free pass because they're 'classics' (a statement I won't deny using myself, those films are more important even than most people give them credit for).
The bottom line is this: I have no shame in saying that I love this film, I would go far as to say it is my favourite film, and not just because I have a personal connection with it, but because it is a good film. It's not perfect, very few films are, but to say that it deserves what it's been through is shameful. I ask all you adults who felt so betrayed, disillusioned or disgruntled the first time to please give it another chance, and take a trip back into that galaxy far, far away that you all loved when you were children! It's the same place you left behind after 1983, you just haven't realised it yet.
May the Force be with you...always...
