Consider this from NPR: NPR

It’s 1999. Fans are lining up around the theaters. The news channels are treating this as a current event.

On May 19, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace released theatrically, the first film in the franchise to be released in over a decade. It promised to tell the origin story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader.

Fans were so excited that some camped out for days, sometimes even weeks, to see the film on opening day.

“The original trilogy was so phenomenal,” said one enthusiastic moviegoer. “People have been waiting for this for about 16 years.” Another went so far as to say: “There are now eight wonders of the world, one of them being this movie.”

When a reporter asked the crowd if there was any concern that the film would be bad, they responded with a resounding “no.” Oh, how wrong they were.

You are reading the Consider This newsletter, which presents major news every day. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox and listen to more from the Consider this podcast.

Consensus ? It was a huge fiasco

NPR sent two reviewers to review the film. Neither had much positive to say.

Here’s how Tom Shales described the film: “The new Star Wars movie Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace is a threat. It’s not about storytelling or people…it’s about effects and technology. It’s a computer movie through and through, made by computers and perhaps for computers.”

NPR’s Bob Mondello took issue with the infamous Jar Jar Binks: “‘What could he have been thinking,’ you say to yourself as (George Lucas) presents a race of idol-worshiping primitives who speak with Caribbean accents and behave like refugees from Amos and Andy“.

The reaction didn’t stop there. People hated nine-year-old Darth Vader. They didn’t like all the talk about taxes and trade embargoes.

To hate The Phantom Menace has become something of a punchline in Star Wars circles, says Erich Schwartzel, who has covered the film industry since The Wall Street Journal and wrote a book about George Lucas and Star Wars.

He told NPR that the hype only amplified the disappointment: “It’s really, looking back, I think, the first example that I have, and maybe the film industry has , of a film almost irrelevant.”

25 years later, nostalgia has given the film new life

Even though the overwhelming consensus was The Phantom Menace It was terrible, only a Sith deals in absolute terms (sorry).

To understand how much popular opinion of the film has changed, Schwartzel cites Jar Jar Binks. Schwartzel said most fans who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy would have been in their late 20s or early 30s when they lined up to watch. The Phantom Menace.

“(Jar Jar) represents the inherently childish nature of Star Wars, and how childish it can be,” Schwartzel said. “I think Jar Jar is a bit of an affront to those fans, kind of reminding them that it’s for kids too.”

Now that these kids, whose introduction to the world of Star Wars was The Phantom Menace, are adults, it’s no surprise that the film is remembered more fondly. The “prequel children,” as Schwartzel puts it, hold The Phantom Menace as dear to them as older fans revere him A new hope.

After a recent anniversary screening of the film in Washington DC, All things Considered Host Scott Detrow sat down with Eleni Salyers, 29, who said she’s been a fan of the prequels since she was a kid: “For me, it’s nostalgic. Growing up, I always preferred the prequels, which is a hot take for many Star Wars fans.

For fans like Salyers, some of the best moments include the lightsaber fights, which, compared to those in the original trilogy, are faster and flashier. The Phantom Menace also introduced fans to poracing, with its now iconic visual and sound effects.

The prequel trilogy played a fundamental role in building the Star Wars franchise into a “multi-generational juggernaut,” Schwartzel said. He notes that if you look at the firehose of Star Wars content that Disney has released over the past decade, you’ll see that a lot of the themes and characters come from the world created by the prequels.

This episode was produced by Marc Rivers. It was edited by Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.