George Lucas’ Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is coming back to UK cinemas for its 25th birthday.
It seems that of all the films that came out in 1999, one that’s being chosen for a 25th birthday celebration is the infamous Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. A film that if it didn’t have Star Wars in the title, we’d likely have mostly forgotten about by now.
Still: appreciating that there are fans out there of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, it’s now been confirmed that Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace will be returning to UK cinemas for its second full re-release since it launched (the first re-release was when it was converted to 3D just over a decade ago).
Disney is going for it too by the looks of things, with what’s likely to be a wide release for the film. It’s being released in UK cinemas on Friday 3rd May, a 25th anniversary release that slightly overlooks the fact that we had to wait a few weeks between the US and the UK release of the film. Imagine that.
We suspect that Disney won’t miss an opportunity to re-release Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith in three and six years respectively. For now thought, the birthday party is strictly for the first of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which also happened to be the first film that George Lucas had directed himself in over 20 years. He’d only direct a further two after The Phantom Menace as well.
Anyway, I never hated The Phantom Menace really, thought it had some decent moments, an absolutely glorious score, and regard it as a fairly solid blockbuster movie. Just not anything particularly special. I’m just the kind of fun person to ask along for a 25th anniversary rewatch…
