Tag: The Phantom Menace

WhoDatJedi podcast: How do the prequels enhance the original Star Wars trilogy?

So lots of people complain about the prequels. I get it. But I like them.

Here are some of the ways the prequels enhanced the original movies.

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The Phantom Menace retrospective: Things change

“I don’t want things to change.”

“But you can’t stop the change … anymore than you can stop the suns from setting.”

As I watched “The Phantom Menace” — George Lucas’ fourth entry in his Star Wars saga, an initial prequel tabbed appropriately “Episode I” — for the first time, late in the summer of 1999 (months after a negative backlash had already begun to take hold among some critics and fans), I couldn’t help smiling as I heard these lines of dialogue in my darkened theater.

Ostensibly, they were meant to convey and ease the suffering of one of our protagonists, Anakin Skywalker, as he must prepare to leave his mother to pursue his dreams of becoming a Jedi.

Instead, in that moment, they read as a direct warning to fans who had grown up and away from that childhood sense of wonder that had so taken hold of them as kids.

“You are different. These movies are different. Accept that and you’ll do well.”

Spoiler alert: A lot of people didn’t accept that.

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