Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Prequels

Thanks to criticisms, and parodies and gags from shows like The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory; over the past eighteen years, the opinion has risen that The Phantom Menace is dominated by politics. And while taxation of trade routes is mentioned in the opening crawl, the impact of politics is smaller than you might expect or remember.

While the film does start out with its conflict being the taxation of trade routes, it’s superseded by the actual invasion of Naboo less than ten minutes in, and only mentioned once after that. Politics are used almost entirely as a MacGuffin to drive the plot. When we actually do get to Coruscant, the political scenes are there to establish that the main characters are going to have liberate Naboo themselves, and set up the final act.

And in terms of screen-time? The scenes on Coruscant are around fifteen minutes in total, and the often-mocked Senate meeting lasts for less than four minutes. Or for all you maths geeks out there: 2.94% of the movie. In terms of how much you see it onscreen, it would be more accurate to say that the movie was dominated by Podracing.

Much like good, liking the political elements of The Phantom Menace is a point of view. But they are much less prominent than is widely believed.