Stephy Watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

 Me, end of September: Oh, October is coming up! Spooky month. I'll do a bunch of spooky posts!

Me, on October 7th: Star Wars is a thing. We should focus on that...

Look how pretty Obi-Wan is

There will probably be spoilers. But... come on. I'm talking about a film from one of the biggest franchises that was released over 20 years ago. If you haven't watched this damn thing yet, you're never going to.

You can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.

- Shmi Skywalker

About/Summary

Released in 1999, The Phantom Menace is both the first and the fourth installment of the Star Wars movies. Look, if you don't know how these movies were released, then what the fuck are you doing here? Do you understand anything I talk about? Star Wars is at least 30% of my personality.

Anyway.

Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, are sent to deal with a Trade Federation blockade of the planet Naboo. That doesn't go well, and after some shit, they end up on Tattooine, where they meet Anakin Skywalker. Things really go downhill after that.

Content/Trigger Warnings

Death

Slavery

Major Character Death

Tropes

Here's the listing of all the tropes according to tvtropes.org. Now for me to pick out some random ones to talk about.

Achievements in Ignorance - I laugh every time Jar Jar gets out of trouble because he's clumsy. Sorry. I like slapstick humor.

Body Double - I really liked the use of body doubles as a security measure for the Queen of Naboo.

Easter Egg - Didja all see the ET aliens?

Characters/Casting 

Ewan McGregor was fantastic as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Love Ewan McGregor... The rest of the casting was pretty good as well. But I've been an Ewan fangirl since I watched Trainspotting in high school so he was my favorite.

Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker, did the best he could with what he was given. I'm not going to say he was the best child actor I have ever seen, but he did a good job.

Casting was really excellent honestly.

Thinking about it, I don't think I really had a favorite character... I mean, Obi-Wan, yeah, but that comes from my love of Ewan McGregor than anything that happened in this movie. Darth Maul was a fantastic villain. I will admit that none of the characters are really fleshed out. A lot of them just seem very flat. Or we get the beginnings of a personality that goes nowhere. Most of my knowledge of characters in this movie do not come from this movie.

Atmosphere/Setting

Naboo was really beautiful.

Tatooine is still a hellscape.

It was fun to finally see some of Coruscant. Been reading about that place for years and I was excited to finally see it.

Writing

It could have been better. But it wasn't the worst written movie I've seen.

Plot

The plot was good. But honestly that whole "Anakin is the child of prophecy. He will bring balance to the force." was stupid. I'm sorry, but when I first watched this movie when it came out and they brought that up I was like "Uh... what? Y'all realize that bringing balance would result in all you Jedi dying cause there's only one sith but a bunch of you?" But... Plot was fine, I guess. It would have sucked if this was a solo movie, but as the beginning of a trilogy, it was fine.

Animation/Special Effects

Ugh. Okay, I know how much green screen shit they used for this movie. And back when it came out, it was noticeable but ignorable. I saw it, I knew it was special effects, and I ignored it. Now... It aged badly. I know they did the best with what was available at the time. But... some of the stuff looks so bad now. But honestly, it's still ignorable for me. My brain will be like "Oh, that looks bad. Anyways... When does Obi-Wan drop those robes?"

Costuming

Queen Amidala's dresses are fucking fantastic. I always loved Padme's look in this movie.

Putting Darth Maul in all black was cliche as hell, but it fucking worked fantastically.

Honestly, I think the costuming of this movie was top-notch.

How diverse is it?

Well... There are a lot of white people. But there are also a few people of color. And I'm not talking about the aliens. The head of the queen's guard is a black man. And Mace Windu, another black man, is a high-ranking Jedi. And... is everyone else white? Fucking white people. Also, is there any sort of racism against aliens of different colors? Like, do people in the Star Wars universe think one color of twi'lek is worse than the others? Do they have phrases like "Well, you know how those green twi'leks are..."?

No discussions of sexuality, by the way so who knows if any of these people are queer or not. Probably not... Though I think Obi-Wan could have made a fantastic bi-icon.

Overall Thoughts

This movie doesn't deserve all the hate it gets. It's not the best Star Wars movie, but it's not that bad. Some parts were a bit ugh-inducing. But overall it was a good movie. It's probably my favorite of the prequels.