All 11 Star Wars movies ranked from worst to best
By Josh Baggins
10. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
The first movie in the prequel trilogy is the fourth Star Wars adventure. Coming to theaters sixteen years after the original trilogy concluded, The Phantom Menace is easily one of the most anticipated movies in cinematic history. When fans finally saw it, most were simultaneously ecstatic and perplexed. This was Star Wars for sure, however, this Star Wars felt different; the visuals were enhanced yet lacked substance, the political subplots provoked ambivalence, and the expanded presence of several significant Jedi was being saved for upcoming installments.
Perhaps less competently constructed than even Solo – The Phantom Menace surpasses that one-off tale because Lucas’ first Star Wars episode (in continuity) contains several memorable movie moments. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber duel against Darth Maul is still one of the best fight scenes of all time. Anakin’s pod race, on top of being a one-of-a-kind sequence for the franchise, is genuinely exciting.
The climactic space skirmish also does not disappoint, while, on the other hand, the Gungan’s battle against the droid army is underdeveloped. The wide-open landscape that makes up the sequence’s backdrop is oddly vacant, especially in a movie that goes out of its way to feature flashy new visual effects (for the time). The obvious application of a green screen in certain shots could be distracting and distance audiences from the central action.
These days The Phantom Menace has become comfortable viewing. Aside from introducing Ewan McGregor’s young Obi-Wan and Natalie Portman’s Padme, this is the masterful Liam Neeson’s only Star Wars film as the indelible Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn. Then there is also the clumsy Jar Jar Binks, who can be pretty silly but is still amusing at times. If not judged too harshly, there is plenty of entertainment value here, and the same could be said about this next Star Wars film.