By Joshua Cornelius

Read Part 2 Here!

Introduction

Despite the heavy title, this article is not an attempt to declare either Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace or The Matrix as being a “better” film.  Honestly that kind of discussion has no place on this site, and I might argue, in this decade.  The real purpose of this article is to simply examine the public and critical reception of the film, then and now, by placing the film in the context of the 90s.  The story of the debut of the two films in 1999 is relatively well known, but for the sake of making a completely and (hopefully) valid examination of the subject matter, I’ll recount a bit of the lead-up to the two films releases.

In the early 90s, rumors began to swirl more viciously than ever before that George Lucas might be interested in filming his prequel films for the Star Wars trilogy.  When the news was officially announced, it came at a time when it seemed the marketing life of the original trilogy (O.T.) had met its end.  The legacy of the O.T. had been beaten to death by more than a decade of endless novels, toys and video games that explored and exploited the names, races and origins of every background character to appear in even a single frame of the films.  When that source of revenue seemed exhausted, alternate  plot-lines and stories were concocted, featuring characters who would interact with O.T. characters like Han Solo between, before, after or even during the open gaps of time in the films continuity.

Eventually this prompted the “Thrawn Trilogy” written by Timothy Zahn and promoted as a written sequel trilogy to the O.T.  This series of novels introduced a successor to Darth Vader in the form of an overtly militarized, blue-skinned and red-eyed character named Grand Admiral Thrawn who rises to become the new “Heir to the Empire”.  (Lest you think I’m not a Star Wars fan from the tone of this article, know that Grand Admiral Thrawn was my BBS handle in the mid 90s.  Given this fact, I am continually surprised that women allow me to talk to them.)

It’s been stated that Lucas was prompted by the success of these novels to write the Prequel Trilogy (P.T.), simply because he suddenly understood that there would be an audience for the films.  My own reading of Lucas decision to film the P.T. was that he wanted to reclaim some ownership of his legacy, which was slowly being diluted through a decade of what amounts to commercial fan fiction.  Of course there would be an audience for the P.T.  There is also the notion that, by creating a new set of films with new characters, Lucas would have the opportunity to make new toys and novels, and inspire another decade or so of new content to contribute to the Lucasfilm merchandising machine.

On the other hand, the story of The Matrix seems relatively short.  The Wachowskis pitched mega-producer Joel Silver the idea of making an action/sci-fi film.  To sell Mr. Silver on the “look” of the film, they showed him the Japanese anime film, Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii.  The script to The Matrix allegedly took another large part of its inspiration from a 1981 science-fiction short story called “The Third Eye” by an African-American writer named Sophia Stewart, who claims the story also informed the plot of The Terminator franchise of films.

Despite the fact that The Wachowskis only previous directorial effort, Bound, had been budgeted at just $4,000,000, The Matrix was green-lighted by Silver and produced for an alleged budget of $63,000,000.  While sporting this relatively large budget, the film was kept under wraps until a short teaser trailer debuted during the Super Bowl in 1999.

While anticipation only grew for The Phantom Menace through high profile coverage in magazines and newspapers, Silver’s film was marketed by teasing audiences with the question, “What is The Matrix?”  The film was quietly positioned for release on the 31st of March, only a month and a half before The Phantom Menace‘s May 19th release.

The Aftermath

While The Phantom Menace handily won the year in terms of box office, word of mouth surrounding the film was poison.  It seemed that many people just didn’t get what they expected from a new Star Wars film.  By contrast, The Matrix was a critical and financial darling, and as of this writing, still ranks with an 8.7 out of 10 rating on IMDB.  While The Matrix didn’t have The Phantom Menace‘s built in audience, it did seem to have fulfilled some unknown need in our collective, cinema-going conscious.

Although The Matrix, like the original Star Wars film, serves perfectly well as a stand-alone entity, two sequels were quickly given the greenlight.  Being part of a trilogy, The Phantom Menace was guaranteed at least two sequels from the start.  These sequel films seemed to illicit the same general skepticism, but for different reasons. How could they possibly top the original Matrix? Or conversely, how much worse could the follow-up to The Phantom Menace be?

The rest is history.  General consensus seems to rate The Phantom Menace sequels as only marginally better, and The Matrix sequels as an incoherent, bloated cinematic mess that left audiences shrugging.  Since these sequels didn’t come out in the 90s, this article will not comment further on the trilogies as a whole.  Instead, let’s turn our attention to deciphering just how or why The Matrix was received favorably while The Phantom Menace received a decidedly less favorable reception.

Continued in Part 2 – The Phantom Menace Vs. The Matrix