20th Anniversary of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

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20 years ago today, Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released.

I was on vacation in Orlando with my college roommate Daryl that week. In fact, right about this very moment, exactly 20 years ago, we were just getting out of seeing it at the AMC Theater at what was then called Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs).

At the time I loved it and would see it (if I recall correctly) 3 more times in the theater that spring/summer.

However, time has not been kind to it.

What are your memories of TPM? Did you love it? Hate it? Somewhere in between?

 
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I was a 10 years old kid when Episode I came out. I went to see it with some friends and I loved it. Space battles, fast lightsaber fights, great soundtrack, interesting planets and aliens and epic podracer. I’ve never had seen a Star Wars movie before so everything was new to me. Even the political plot seemed ok. I recall going to video store next weekend to rent the Original Trilogy VHS box and I loved it even more than Episode I. I know the old school fans hated the movie at the time and to be honest the movie don’t hold up very well but It was a great cinematic experience for me.
 
I was an 11 year old kid and even then I thought Jar Jar Binks was terrible.
 
Brazilian_Catholic said:
I was a 10 years old kid when Episode I came out. I went to see it with some friends and I loved it. Space battles, fast lightsaber fights, great soundtrack, interesting planets and aliens and epic podracer. I’ve never had seen a Star Wars movie before so everything was new to me. Even the political plot seemed ok. I recall going to video store next weekend to rent the Original Trilogy VHS box and I loved it even more than Episode I. I know the old school fans hated the movie at the time and to be honest the movie don’t hold up very well but It was a great cinematic experience for me.
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Welcome to CAF!

I am from the “original trilogy” generation - I was in elementary school when the first movie came out.

It seems to me that those for whom TPM was their first experience with Star Wars in a theater, are more forgiving of its flaws.

As the tagline says, “Every generation has a legend…”
 
I didn’t have a car, but I had a roommate with a car.

I suggested we go see it together. She agreed, but never did.

I still haven’t seen the whole thing through… but I ended up avoiding the other two after that, because I never sat down and saw Phantom Menace.

(Should I make time for it? I’m pretty sure it’s on a shelf downstairs…)
 
I liked it as a kid and the pod racing scenes really are awesome. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize the movie’s… flaws.

I really only have an attachment to the original trilogy, but I’m not averse to watching the sequels/prequels. I did really like Rogue One, especially for the nostalgia factor. I hadn’t heard anything about it before seeing it in the theater, so I was pretty stunned when I saw Darth Vader, the Death Star, and Grand Moff Tarkin.
 
I remember seeing it in theaters when it came out. I was maybe 14 and super excited because it was a new Star Wars movie. I think I made it to the pod racing scene before I admitted to myself it was irredeemable garbage.
 
I Thought it was decent. Yeah Jar Jar was annoying but Darth Maul was a really cool villian and Ewan McGregor was an excellent Obi Wan. I’m a fan of McGregor and I would be thrilled if they did an Obi Wan movie with him.
 
The prequels were all terrible.

Just terrible. Terrrrrriiiibbbllleee.
 
This is what happens when you’re so powerful and influential no one can tell you no.
 
I was going to a friend’s wedding in St.Louis when Phantom Menace came out. I don’t recall where I actually saw the movie but I remember being excited about it. It doesn’t seem like that long ago.

I think Phantom Menace is the best of the three prequels; and overall I much prefer the George Lucas Star Wars movies to the recent Disney ones, which ‘borrow’ so much from the original series but don’t have the same heart. Even if the prequels don’t work as well as the original trilogy (largely I think because so much of the emotional heavy lifting has to be performed by the wooden, one-note pair of Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portmann, especially as the trilogy wears on), at least they are trying something new and bringing the audience a spectacle the like of which no one has ever seen. The same can not be said for the Disney movies which are pretty shameful about mining for nostalgia.
 
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Absolutely! Somehow, even though you knew exactly how it was going to end, they made characters that you cared about, that you hoped somehow they would get through alive. In other words, it was a story. The original trilogy had a story. The Phantom Menace was an opportunity to sell action figures.
 
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