As Disney’s influence over Star Wars grows, the fan base gets increasingly split. There’s a general love of Rogue One, but some fans claim that The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope, and the fallout of The Last Jedi caught mainstream media headlines for its divisiveness. The Last Jedi is noted as the catalyst to the next Star Wars movie, Solo, flopping at the box office, and has led to many fans being left in dismay. So, not wanting to give up on the incredible universe created by George Lucas, some fans have decided to give the once-most-despised part of the saga, The Phantom Menace, another chance.
Opting to focus on the parts that bring fans the most joy has resulted in Episode I and its fellow prequel movies being seen in a better light by many, with those who grew up with and were enchanted by the prequels now having a voice. It was declared by Screen Rant that the Star Wars fandom has finally got over the prequels, so we’ve decided to delve back to Episode I to examine its redeeming factors in the current landscape of Star Wars.
Demonstrating the majesty of a lightsaber
Not just seen as one of the best moments of The Phantom Menace, but of the whole saga, the meeting between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Duel of Fates is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The scene builds up with a powerful score and everyone without a lightsaber clearing the room. Next comes the lightsaber duel that everyone in the cinema had craved, with George Lucas showcasing how incredible it is to see a powerful sith warrior come up against a Jedi master and their padawan. The choreography is exciting, but the best moment is when it all comes to a halt.
Darth Maul spends much of the time trying to separate the Jedis, and when he succeeds to hone in on the mighty Qui-Gon Jinn, the energy gates descend to stop the combat in its tracks. Obi-Wan is forced to spectate from the other end of the corridor, Qui-Gon meditates, and Maul paces like a hungry tiger. It’s a powerful scene that is integral to building up suspense before even more lightsaber action leads to two huge deaths.
The lightsaber work showcased in The Phantom Menace set a new standard which demonstrated the skill and beauty involved in wielding the weapon of the Jedi. They were perfectly introduced in Episode I, with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan gracefully cutting through droids and nearly some blast doors to get to some cowering Neimoidians. The University of Leicester worked out that Qui-Gon’s lightsaber must have had a power output of 6.96MW, which is only two orders of the magnitude produced by small nuclear generators. It took what was shown in the original trilogy up another gear, with the prequels going on to further set the highest standard.
As noted by some fans, lightsabers have been reduced to being called “laser swords” in the sequels and lost meaning from anyone being able to use one skilfully as well as the weapons no-longer being deadly, dismembering weapons. For the greatest display of lightsabers, it has to be the prequels, with The Duel of Fate being the most iconic scene from the three movies.
High stakes in the pod racing
Sitting in the cinema and listening to the bellowing engines of the pod racers whizz around the corners and through the tunnels of the Mos Espa raceway was incredible, and it still holds up on Blu-ray today. While a spectacle doesn’t necessarily have to have meaning within the plot of a film, the pod race was pivotal to the story, made even tenser by Qui-Gon’s decision to gamble with Watto on the result of the race.
Instead of making a relatively low-stake bet with the Toydarian on the pod race for fun, Qui-Gon decides to go big and bet his starship against the cost of the ship parts that the Jedi needed and the freedom of Anakin, with Watto also getting remaining race winnings if Qui-Gon wins the bet. With Qui-Gon refusing to use the force – with the exception of the dice roll – to influence the race, the stakes are incredibly high for the Jedi. The dual-layer of the betting with the action in the dangerous pod race makes it a very tense affair that’s made spectacular by the race scenes themselves.
Disney has decided to revisit the gambling scenes a couple of times in the sequel trilogies, as well as license EA to include gambling mechanics in its Star Wars games. In The Phantom Menace, the scene was used to add another level of meaning and raise the stakes to the thrilling race, whereas in The Last Jedi the big casino in Canto Bight was a rather ham-fisted way of showing the darker side of what appeared to be a glitzy city.
Through the use of an exposition dump from Rose and some very ugly-looking aliens acting like fools, The Last Jedi gave the audience a representation of a dark place that doesn’t particularly resonate with how people in the modern-day play casino online, where reputable casino sites are committed to responsible gaming. The scene thus was neither relatable nor meant anything in regards to the greater story, so it came off as unnecessary. On the other hand, in Solo, the card game of sabacc becomes very important to the lore of the saga, finally revealing – outside of the Expanded Universe – how Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian.
People who grew up with the prequels have a general nostalgic love of the movies, and The Phantom Menace certainly had some bright spots which showed George Lucas expanding the massive Star Wars universe before our very eyes. There are some other notable parts of Episode I which hold up, but the lightsaber work and building of the pod race are certainly the most redeeming factors of the movie.
