Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, George Lucas’ polarizing 1999 prequel that introduced audiences to a 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker, double-bladed lightsabers, and Jar Jar Binks, is returning to cinemas on May 3 as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, Lucasfilm has announced. A new poster that artist Matt Ferguson created to coincide with the re-release can be found below.
StarWars.com on The Phantom Menace:
The Phantom Menace, Episode I of the Star Wars saga and the first film in the prequel trilogy, originally arrived in cinemas on May 19, 1999, following tremendous hype. Written and directed by George Lucas, it introduced the world to young Anakin Skywalker, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Padmé Amidala, and the evil Sith duo, Darth Sidious and Darth Maul. The Phantom Menace would be a landmark in the development of visual effects and become one of the highest grossing movies of all time. For more, check out StarWars.com’s in-depth oral history of the film, which features interviews with Lucas, John Knoll, Doug Chiang, Ahmed Best, and more.
Prequel numbers (worldwide):
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace: $1,027,082,707
- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones: $653,779,970
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith: $868,390,560
Ferguson’s new poster:
Memorable quotes from The Phantom Menace:
- “A communications disruption could mean only one thing. Invasion.” – Sio Bibble
- “My Lord, is that legal?” … “I will make it legal.” – Nute Gunray and Darth Sidious
- “There’s always a bigger fish.” – Qui-Gon Jinn
- “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda
- “Are you an angel?” – Anakin Skywalker
- “Now this is podracing!” – Anakin Skywalker
Discussion (11 replies)
Join Discussion →Screw you... 25 freaking years. That's... that's.. not fathomable.
At the end of the day, I think the only thing I liked about Phantom Menace was the music. I bought the soundtrack on the way out of the cinema. Which kind of shows how much things have changed since then. Not just that there was a dedicated records shop in the mall, but that it was open at 9:30pm.
What is this thing called a mall?
We've had several go under in our little are of Dallas Fort Worth.
meesa defintely not wasting more time and money on this!
Very few are left in the area. Town East Mall somehow survives, but I suspect its because its location attracts people from areas where there isn't much at all. Places like Talty etc.
Agreed, Dual of the Fates made this movie. The rest is.... meh. The Auralnauts parody version is much better.
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I was reading a click bait article on the weekend that said Topher Grace evidently did a good 85-minute edit of this trilogy. Based on what I read I'm actually curious to see it.
At its core there are some solid parts to phantom menace. The light saber fights were very very good compared to the original trilogy, and a number of scenes were just too long, not specifically bad. Not surprised that it could be turned into a good 75 minute movie
The only two things I liked from this movie are the pod-racing and lightsaber fights (mainly the one at the end).
I've still got the DVD of this for that reason. The movie itself has an extended version and there's an even more extended version of the pod race on the bonus disk.
Hahahaha I too got the DVD and would use it just to watch the parts I liked. It was cool that they had an extended version of the pod race in the movie, but I didn't know about the "even more extended version" until I saw it on YT many years later. I don't even recall seeing a bonus disc with the DVD copy. That was many years ago though, back when I still had a dedicated, standalone DVD player in my entertainment center. Cuz after those days I stuck to DVD rips.
I also spent a lot of time with the pod-racing video game on N64, and then later on Dreamcast. A fun but brutally difficulty game.