10th Anni of Phantom Menace

[Hector]

Like Hector, I initially had a strong reaction to the accents of the Gungan's and Nemoidian's dialogue, feeling that they were somewhat inappropriate for STAR WARS and "borderline racist".

Notice them in the last flick of the new trilogy...they no longer speak with the "yellow peril" accents.

[Hector]

it might not be what you guys expected but it didn't suck.Did you see any walk out? or did you walk out? When a movie sucks you walk out

I didn't walk out because I went with a bunch of friends...and we were going to get pizza and beer afterwards.

[Hector]

Yes...it sucked major donkey testicles.

[Gorn Captain]

OK, OK!!
I admit it, I saw it twice. But can we agree that Jar-jar sucked?

In a couple of hundred years, Jar Jar will get the appreciation he so justly deserves.......
Meesa sure of that.....

[Hector]

Amen, brother.

I'll even go one step further:

I always ask folks who hate Episode I to tell me how many theatrical viewings of the film they attended.

They virtually always admit to attending more than one viewing. Occasionally, they even admit to attending more than two or three viewings!

And then, taking things yet aother step further, when you ask them if they own the film on DVD home video, a surprisingly high percentage of these folks actually do !

I'd say that's not too shabby for a movie that everyone hates.

I've only seen it once in its entirety...although I admit...I seen the Darth Maul/Qui Gon/Obi Wan lightsaber duel on cable a few times (the ONLY scene worth a damn)...although I truly HATE the back and forth editing during the duel. The other useless scenes during the duel are just plain annoying...stupid Padame compound shoot out, stupid Anakin kid vs Trade Federation station shootout, and stupid Jar Jars vs Droids shootouts, good grief, can't watch this stuff without getting irritated.

I wish Lucas would've just done a stand alone duel...with absolutely NO switching back and forth to the other annoying scenes. Just the duel, Lucas...just the duel....like this...

YouTube - Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn vs Darth Maul

See...as a stand alone scene...it flows beautifully.

Damn you, Lucas, damn you...

[Gorn Captain]

I wish Lucas would've just done a stand alone duel...with absolutely NO switching back and forth to the other annoying scenes. Just the duel, Lucas...just the duel.

Perhaps you can edit the duel on a DVD-R?
And just watch that bit?

[Hector]

Perhaps you can edit the duel on a DVD-R?
And just watch that bit?

See link above (I added a few more things...read again).

[darklord1967]

See link above (I added a few more things...read again).

Hmm... To me, the edit transitions in that link are very jarring. A kinetic, high-energy scene like that should NOT use dissolves as scene transitions. They should be straight cuts.

[toystalker]

yeah i saw the film 3 times in the cinema... in one day lol

i was on local radio for doing that, when i came out from the 3rd screening the local radio station was there to interview me

worse part about my whole experience was the 1st showing... the showing that had caused so much anticipation and wait for broke down half way through, we had a 15 min blackout... the managers gave us all 2 free tickets so i stayed in another 2 sittings

i had sore bum i can tell you

the film did not get any better and yes the flaws and story line errors got clearer but i still enjoyed every in a galaxy far far away minute of it

[toys2cool]

Yes...it sucked major donkey testicles.

lol! ok

[Hector]

Hmm... To me, the edit transitions in that link are very jarring. A kinetic, high-energy scene like that should NOT use dissolves as scene transitions. They should be straight cuts.

I'm not talking about that youtube fan edited link (that was just posted as an example of a stand alone scene)...I'm talking about taking out the other annoying scenes...nothing but poo-poo soiling the great lightsaber duel.

[VintageMike]

Being a huge Star Wars fan this was one of the few times I did the midnight showing thing. Of course I regretted it! But despite everything wrong it was cool to see the opening, lightsabers and things like that on the big screen again.

[mego73]

My feelings about Phantom Menace is it basically was the only prequel movie that emulated the spirit of the original Star Wars (though it's not better than Star Wars, of course). It was innocent fun, showing us remarkably imagined worlds and taking us for a good ride. Jar Jar was a bit annoying, but he didn't spoil the movie for me.

The die hards, the fans that have been there since 1977 or at least decades have built (with the help of Lucas and 2 followup movies, comics, books, etc) a monumental lore (just like Star Trek) on top of what was, in the beginning, simply one of the best, escapist, popcorn movies ever made. Adults could enjoy it but it *really* spoke to children. It grabbed on to the children's imagination and didn't let go.

Those children are the die hard fans of today and they wanted from the prequels something that satisfied all the lore they generated from the Star Wars universe. Lore that goes way beyond the capabilities of even the original movie.

But when Lucas made The Phantom Menace, he wanted to make a movie that did the same thing that the original did. He wanted to make a monumental, iconic film that spawned a loyal following in the younger generation first and foremost. He knew it was a losing proposition to try to make the movies to satisfy the diehards primarily. For many of them, the combination of lore, adult action embellishments and other expectations he had to satisfy them with would be a very hard equation to find.

He knew that trying to get a die hard to feel the same way they felt when they saw Star Wars at 10 years old, only it now has to be done through the sensibilities of someone 20 years older was a no win proposition, unless the die hard could remember to look at his movie through 10 year old eyes.

So, he made these movies to give the 90's kid generation an experience like the 1970's kid generation had when they saw Star Wars.

Did he succeed?

If Star Wars is still talked about 20 years from now by 20-30 somethings, you will know the prequels did their job.

I really liked TPM myself because I knew what spirit to watch it in. I liked it in my own way but what I liked more is looking around to all the preteens and almost teens in the audience and they seem to dig it.

[darklord1967]

Well said, buddy. Well said!

[Brue]

it might not be what you guys expected but it didn't suck.Did you see any walk out? or did you walk out? When a movie sucks you walk out

I stayed til the end because I so wanted it not to suck. i shoulda walked out. I wasted time as well as my money.

many point to jar jar as teh culprit. he is merely the tip of the ice berg.

bad, overused cgi
a plot about tax evasion
jake loyd
dialogue
script
immaculate conception
the force is a virus?
shimi
the robot bad guys
just about everything was bad about this movie

the worst part was that it trashed the story that we loved. It basically ignored the story of Star Wars and created a lees imaginitive back story.