This weekend, The Phantom Menace turns 25—and while we’ve celebrated the ways the film brought so much to Star Wars in the past, for its 25th anniversary we wanted to look back at a few different things, big and small, that make Phantom Menace so great all these years later, whether you caught it on the big screen again this month or are ready to watch it at home to mark the occasion. Every look, a serve. Every change, effortless.
She’s giving Handmaiden, she’s giving Sad Queen, she’s giving Glad Queen, she’s giving woman of the people, she’s giving battle dress, she’s giving “I need to yell about the downfall of democracy, but make it fashion.” She’s giving like 15 other things because Padmé has so many looks in this movie and they’re all incredible. Gowns, beautiful gowns, sincerely.
Clone Wars really did a number on the B-1 Battle Droid’s reputation, transforming the Trade Federation’s robot hordes into effectively goofy comic relief—and even before then, they’re a little silly in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. But in Phantom Menace they really are, for the most part, a captivating, menacing threat. The design is so good, and unlike anything we’d seen from Star Wars droid design before—a really cool example of Lucas wanting to use new technologies to push designs further than what came before.
Star Wars is filled with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it character designs that are on screen for a shot or two, but so immediately co.