A Love-Hate Relationship With 'The Phantom Menace'

I've been amused by how much our old pal Anakin Skywalker has been in the news this week. In two separate stories, improbably. The first being the right wing memes about how Anakin was a good guy who just got pushed a little bit too far. Then there's the story about how the prequels were beloved when they were released and the critical tide only turned a decade later. This one is especially baffling because, if anything, the opposite is true.

(These are the kind of weeks I don't quite know what to write because, like everyone else, I am/was glued to nonstop election coverage. I met Taylor Swift this past Sunday – a true story, somehow – and I'm still like, "hm, is there anything interesting I could possibly write in a week like this?")

But Anakin's newsworthiness got me to thinking about my first experiences with the prequels. My reaction at the time, like a lot of people's reactions, was complicated and ever evolving to this day. But I do, still, have true nostalgia for the lead-up to The Phantom Menace. It was so exciting. I honestly could not get enough. To this day it's still the most excited I've ever been for a movie.

Then I remembered I wrote about all this back in 2012. And I remember people liking it. Also, checking the math, 2012 was a lot closer to 1999 than we are today in 2026. So I assume this gets closer to my actual feelings that day than what I could write about it right now. This was a piece that is long gone from the internet, but I did find an old copy of it on an older laptop. As we go I'll add some observations in the footnotes from today about how I may differ on some of the opinions I had back then. Here it is:

About The Time That I Loved The Phantom Menace

May 19, 1999, was going to be one of the greatest days of my life – and it was all going to begin at midnight. Yeah, I was that guy. I was the guy who scoured every nook and cranny of the internet in an effort to digest every possible rumor about what I might see in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I was the guy who was camped out for hours in an effort to purchase tickets to see The Phantom Menace.¹ I was the guy who then waited in line for hours to ensure halfway decent seats to "The Phantom Menace." I was the guy who cheered the 20th Century Fox logo. I was the guy who cheered when "STAR WARS" flashed on the screen, accompanied by John Williams' very famous score. And, for a brief moment in time, I was the guy who loved The Phantom Menace.

¹Hello from 2026 again. It's kind of nuts how we had to buy movie tickets back in 1999. Also, I kind of strangely miss this. I think the in-line interactions with people may have actually been important.

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Let me be clear, today,² as I type: I do not love "The Phantom Menace." I'm almost writing this as a bookend to a piece that I'll write on Friday about attending a midnight showing of "The Phantom Menace" in 3D. I assume that it will be nothing like what my experience was in 1999 – an experience that was actually quite remarkable for "Star Wars" fans. An experience that we'll, unfortunately, never have again.³

²It's weird that I seem to be talking directly to myself 14 years in the future. Hello to you, too, 2012 Mike. To be fair I still don't love The Phantom Menace, but I don't mind it either. It has its moments.

³The Force Awakens did wind up coming close. But I think this is still a true statement. I certainly did not feel this for The Mandalorian and Grogu.

To be honest, I'm having trouble putting into words how much of a "thing" the release of The Phantom Menace turned out to be. A week before the film's release, I took the day off of work to get tickets. Of course, fellow Star Wars fans – like my "best Star Wars friend", Jorge⁴ – asked me if I could get tickets for him. But here's what was great: friends of mine that previously had no discernible interest in Star Wars were asking me, too. "Hey, if you're going to be standing in line anyway, can you get me tickets?" The final count was 15 tickets. I was responsible for purchasing 15 tickets to the midnight showing of The Phantom Menace. Even I underestimated how difficult that would be.

⁴This wasn't planned, but I've now written about Jorge twice in the past couple of weeks.

At the time, I lived in the suburbs of St. Louis. On the morning that tickets went on sale – a week before the film was released – my first stop was a movie theater called the West Olive 16. I was there five hours early. There was already a line that wrapped completely around the theater. I kept driving. Theater after theater presented me with an overwhelming sense of doom: I would not be seeing The Phantom Menace on opening night. Finally, I reached a local cineplex in the town of Arnold, Missouri – almost thirty miles from where I started. Yes, there was a line, but it was manageable.

In line, the spirit was quite festive, But in a nerdy way. It was perfect. "What do you think will happen?" was the overwhelming question at hand that day. (Which, considering that this movie is a prequel, seems kind of a silly question now.) The guy behind me had it on good authority⁵ that Boba Fett would appear in The Phantom Menace. He was wrong. Another announced to the entire line that he had it on good authority that Qui-Gon Jin would die at the end of the movie. He was right. (As it turns out, his "good authority" was the track listing "Qui-Gon's Noble End" on the soundtrack. Regardless, that guy is still a jerk.) After over four hours in line, I purchased fifteen tickets. 

⁵I would love to know the rock solid source of the guy behind me in line at a movie theater in Arnold, Missouri.

A week later, in the early morning hours of May 19, I declared my love for The Phantom Menace. I walked out of that movie, looked at my "best Star Wars friend" Jorge, and proclaimed, "That was awesome!" 

In the parking lot, Jorge and I recreated the lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul. As a society, I think we've collectively erased the fact that The Phantom Menace was greeted quite positively in the initial days after its release (for example: Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars). In other words: it took the backlash a few days⁶ to really get going.

⁶Not ten years.

I saw The Phantom Menace four times in theaters on its initial release. Each time, it got worse. Whereas, on its first viewing, I focused on the still glorious final lightsaber duel. The second viewing the next day (yes, the next day) felt like a different movie. Like most people, it became impossible to suppress my feelings toward Jar Jar Binks – who is in that movie a lot. By the time I saw it for a third time, I was bored. Other than for a few scenes, it became a boring movie. It became a movie about the illegal taxation of galactic trade routes. Shortly before it disappeared from theaters, I saw it one last time on a lark. "Hey, it's Star Wars in a movie theater," I thought. That's the viewing that I noticed that one of Anakin's friends had braces. Wait, there are orthodontists on Tatooine? I immediately regretted seeing it that fourth time. 

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the first teaser trailer. I can still watch this trailer today and some sort of primal instinct will engulf my conscious with a desire to see this movie. It's almost like I feel that I never did see the movie that was in this trailer. This trailer is a highlight real for one of the greatest movies ever made. The Phantom Menace and that trailer, as far as I'm concerned, are two completely different things. I'm still waiting for the movie associated with this trailer to be released.

My "best Star Wars friend" Jorge – who in 1999 played the role of Darth Maul in a movie theater parking lot – would unexpectedly pass away in 2001. Though I don't particularly care for the film, I still have very fond memories of the first time I saw The Phantom Menace. It would be the only new Star Wars movie that I would ever see with Jorge. By the time I saw Attack of the Clones, six months after his death, I tried not to think about it, but I knew someone was missing. Watching Star Wars was never the same. So, perhaps this is a selfish: but I miss the version of myself who, for one day, loved The Phantom Menace. I started this piece by declaring that day, "was going to be one of the greatest days of my life." You know, it kind of was...

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