Inconceivable though it may seem, one of the worst movies of the 1990s returned this month to cinemas around the world. Yet, should we really be surprised that The Phantom Menace — artistically a scarcely-breathing corpse at the time of its much ballyhooed 1999 release — should now be getting a gala 25th anniversary resuscitation? To be honest it’s a testament to the resilience of the Star Wars mystique. In spite of the unkind things done to it — of which The Phantom Menace is but one lamentable example — it trudges on However, the current reissue is also a testament to Hollywood greed.
The Star Wars franchise has long been a possession of the Disney organization, which is also the industry’s most conspicuous recycling bin. So in the midst of those often mindless and unnecessary galactic spinoffs, why not seek to squeeze some extra dollars out of those diehard fans who have forgotten or — in the case of a younger generation — never known how bad Phantom actually was? In any event, there’s vindication for Disney in the solid box-office figures chalked up on opening weekend. Furthermore, let’s not forget that its original release a quarter of a century ago was a colossal financial success in spite of a distinctly lukewarm critical reception.
After all, fans had been waiting 16 years for filmmaker George Lucas to deliver his promised prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy that had seized the imagination of fans so forcefully back in the 1970s. They were al.
