Editorial: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace - 10 Years Later
By Griffy
May 26, 2009

Standing at the elementary school bus stop with my daughters this morning I noticed two young brothers engaged in the most intense Light-saber duel since Obi-Wan defeated Darth Maul in the power generator silo on Naboo. Writing this now I am compelled to mark the distinction between the actors portraying Obi-Wan (Sir Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor) and that act of clarification makes me pause and ask: Do today’s youth who have grown up with a newer, fancier version of Star Wars truly appreciate the Original trilogy? 

Jake Lloyd, the child actor portraying a youthful Anakin Skywalker, is now twenty years old and close to the legal drinking age. From his latest photo it appears he’s getting a head start on that…..

Princess Leia is 53, Luke Skywalker is 58, and Han Solo is 67. Darth Vader is somewhere between the ages of 74 and 104 depending on which part you are aging; body - David Prowse 74, voice - James Earl Jones 78 or face-Sebastian Shaw 104. This just in: The original cast of Star Wars is now moving to the AARP lecture circuit. If you are one of the lucky ones to have seen Star Wars in a theater during its original theatrical release (not the re-releases in the mid-1990’s) you can’t help but feel old. I know I do.

Hollywood may look at Box office sales* as an indication of success but Star Wars fans have different success criteria. After a 20+ year hiatus Star Wars returned to the big screen in 1999 with the release of The Phantom Menace. I remember people camping out for weeks to be the first to see the premier of the newest installment of the Star Wars franchise. The movie was hyped more than the Y2K nonsense of the same year. After the movie’s release, critics were tough but accepting while the fans of the movie were much harder. Jar Jar Binks was poorly received by the SW fan base and spawned the launch of many hate sites dedicated to the death and destruction of the Gungan from Naboo some fans deemed as an alien Jerry Lewis clone. Some Original Trilogy fans also found the droid dialogue childish and irrelevant, not to mention the dislike of the exuberant “Yippee” and “Oops” often uttered by young Anakin. The Phantom Menace was such a disappointment for many fans of the original trilogy that a new edited version of the film was made and circulated on the internet. The Phantom Edit (also known as Star Wars Episode 1.2) received some critical acclaim and furthered the fan edit movement.

So back to my original question: Do today’s youth who have grown up with a newer, fancier version of Star Wars truly appreciate the Original trilogy?  A hard question to answer and one that may merit further research with the next generation of Star Wars fans. Personally, I have watched the Star Wars movies in Lucas’ intended order starting with The Phantom Menace and ending with Return of the Jedi. To me the original trilogy is always more captivating and I rarely find myself fast-forwarding through scenes (as I do every time I have to sit through the Anakin-Padme love story). I posed this question to a fellow Star Wars fan in my age demographic the other night and used the example of Sid and Marty Krofft's TV show Land of the Lost of the late 1970's. When I was a kid the special effects on that show seemed incredible to me and I became fascinated with Dinosaurs and science fiction in general. The Sci-Fi channel recently had a Land of the Lost marathon and aired all 3 original seasons. Needless to say the effects were not eye-popping and seemed laughable to me now. Could that possibly be how the original trilogy is viewed by today's youth?

I know I am biased though being of the OT generation. There’s something about seeing the Imperial Star Destroyer chasing the Tantive IV in the opening sequence of Star Wars that captivates me like no movie has before or since. The innovation that Lucas brought to the silver screen with the Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) team was revolutionary at the time. There was a depth to the images on screen that, for me, has yet to be replicated with today’s computer generated images. Even though Lucas pushed the boundaries again with the CG in The Phantom Menace it doesn’t seem as eye-popping as the special effects in a movie released over 30 years ago.

The answer to the question posed remains to be seen, and raises even more questions. Will The Phantom Menace have the staying power that A New Hope had with its fan base in 20 more years? Will The Phantom Menace be re-released in theaters 10 or 15 years down the road? Will we see a Special Edition Phantom Menace release with added scenes or new effects? Will the money made from the re-release and subsequent Blu-Ray/DVD/or whatever new technology is available in 20 years be used to make a Sequel Trilogy?  Who knows? Somebody get George on the phone.

Even though The Phantom Menace may have left a bad taste in the mouths of fans of the original trilogy it didn’t stop the creation of a new generation of Star Wars fans. In hindsight, this might mean more to the continuation of the Star Wars universe than any other single thing. In 20 years, when our kids have kids, will they have the luxury and privilege of taking their young ones to see the newest SW film? Only time will tell, but personally I hope they do.

As for the two little boys and the light-saber duel at the bus stop, one of them bumped into me while parrying the pretend saber thrust of his brother. I thought it would be fun to play along so with a smile on my face using my best Star Wars fake British lilt I said, “You just watch yourself. I’m a wanted man. I have the death sentence in twelve systems”. I waited for what felt like an eternity for one of them to reply with the correct line and I could act out the scene and pretend to have my arm cut off. Outside of my own two daughters moving away from me like I had contracted leprosy, the two brothers stared at me blank faced with mouths open. Luckily, the bus showed up and the kids went off to school, saving my daughters from any further embarrassment from their corny old Dad. After the bus left the Father of the two boys turns to me and says “I’ll be careful then”. With a knowing smile on my face I replied with “You’ll be dead!”.

What do kids know anyway?

(*) Box Office Numbers:
Released May 19th, 1999, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is now ten years old. By far the most successful movie of the prequel trilogy, SW:TPM came the closest to knocking off the original Star Wars movie by grossing over $430 million in domestic ticket sales compared to A New Hope’s $460 million. SW:TPM actually grossed more in worldwide ticket sales, reaching #7 on the all-time list with $924 million versus A New Hope’s #19 rank with $775 million. The aforementioned numbers reflect the true box office gross for those movies and does not compensate for inflation. I found an adjusted list on www.boxofficemojo.com that shows the adjusted domestic gross of those films based on estimated 2009 average ticket price of $7.18. Using that adjusted list Star Wars A New Hope comes in #2 with over $1.2 billion in ticket sales while The Phantom Menace placed #19 with $609 million. All three original trilogy movies are in the top 15 all-time (ANH #2, ESB #12, and ROTJ #14) while TPM is the prequel trilogy’s best showing at #19 (you have to scroll way down to find AOTC at #83 and ROTS at #57).