Multimedia > The Prequel Trilogy

The Phantom Menace: Was it That Bad?

<< < (2/12) > >>

JediTray:
Whenever I pop in TPM, which is practically never, I just look at the podrace and the "Duel Of The Fates".

I just see this film as a trailer for better things to come.  I select the podrace and watch it, then the duel and watch it, then put it away.

 :)

ruiner:
Right on. 

The movie is good until were are introduced to Jar Jar.  Then I fast forward to the pod race and finally the duel between Maul, Ginn, and Obi Wan.

Is the movie as bad as everyone says it is? 

In a nutshell, yes.

The acting (outside of Ewan and Liam) was horrendous.  Jake Lloyd was NOT the right child for the part (take a look at the "Making of" doc on the DVD to see the right choice).

And yes, there is Jar Jar who is unforgivable as a character.

I always thought the prequels would touch on the Jedi more - kicking ass and taking names later - restoring peace to the galaxy.  Never really happened IMO.

GL had a lot of time to work on it and he delivered a POS - granted, expectations were high but that's true with a lot of fan driven movies (see Spider-Man, that delivered as did X-Men).

Hindsight being 20/20, GL should've handed the reigns over to a younger more agressive director to give the entire PT a new feel/look.

Although I will say the movies got better as they came out.  TPM sucked, AOTC was tolerable and ROTS rocked.

Ben:
After seeing ROTS, TPM was elevated in my eyes. Not much, but some. It's still hard to fathom that the little towheaded bastard is Darth Vader. It makes it a little more tragic- what if Qui-Gon hadn't walked into Watto's shop? What if Anakin had already gone home that day and didn't set eyes on Padme? If that had happened, we wouldn't have a saga, but it's just a wonder I have.

The only thing that bugs me about TPM anymore is Jar Jar's too-big role. I understand why a little "comic" relief was needed, with that backdrop of political manuvering throughout the film, but he wasn't funny, at all. If GL ever decides to do an SE of TPM, I really hope most of his role is trimmed down.

I think the reason most people didn't like it was because it was so different from the SW movies we knew. No Empire, no Rebellion, no Stormtroopers/dudes in white armor, no Darth Vader. At least it had plenty of aliens and some Jedi at the top of their game. Plus I love the ship designs and costumes in this movie.

Matt_Fury:
I liked all three prequel movies, although they were not as good as they could've been.

I think the biggest problem with all three movies was that George Lucas directed them.  Although I think he came up with a fantastic story arc, he had some tremendous actin talent in all three movies and a more competant director could've produced better performances out of them.

Now some TPM specific gripes:

-Jar Jar's character should've been scaled way back.  I understand having him as an unlikely hero towards the end of the movie, but we didn't need in in virtually every frame of the freakin' film!  He wore thin on me very quickly and it's quite obvious that I'm not alone on that one.

-I really don't think that we needed a scientific explaination of the force.  The whole midi-chlorian idea was just unnecessary.  Anakin's immaculate conception could've jus been "the will of the Frce" and the Force could've been unusually strong in him wihout it being confirmed by a midi-chlorian count of his blood.

One other thing I think made people have a bad reaction to this movie was that it was there just to establish the setting and introduce us to the players where the the story was truly to be moved along in Episodes II and III.  When George Lucas made Star Wars, he never thought it would've been such a culture changing success that it was, hence he tried to sum it all up in one movie.  20+ years later when George Lucas makes The Phantom Menace, he knows he's going to make two more movies, and that's going to change how you write a screenplay...no matter who you are.

Sorry if this was a bit long winded, and thanks for reading this far.  ;D

Artoo:
I like it more than AOTC,the first part is less boring than AOTC's first part.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page