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[biggersmaller]

This trend of growing appreciation for the prequels gives nostalgia a bad name. I was in high school when released and my nostalgia is for mercilessly mocking the movie at Perkins with my friends. I fondly remember bewailing how 70% of the movie was spent preparing for an alien hotrod race.

In '99 I literally called it Days of Thunder: For Kids: IN SPACE!

 

[Imperfected]

Nothing wrong with liking something bad as long as you know it's bad, OP.

Hell, half the people in this thread have probably watched and enjoyed shonen anime. We all love a little bad now and then, we just can't all admit the fact to ourselves.

 

[Ushojax]

It's a movie where a bunch of boring things happen, running out the clock until Obi-Wan takes Anakin as his apprentice and the credits roll. Everyone is utterly humourless throughout and the stakes are never properly expressed. We are told that Padme's home planet is being brutally oppressed but that is never shown on screen. We are told that Anakin is a slave but it's glossed over completely as he lives a happy life racing cars with his friends. We are told that there is some ancient prophecy but it's origin and meaning are never explained.

Everything feels utterly arbitrary, summed up by the moment Padme reveals her true identity. Are we supposed to care? Padme is the same bland character whether she is in the Queen's robe or not.

 

[Majine]

The music is unironically great in TPM, even the sound design in the podracing bit was thrilling.

 

[Ushojax]

The music is unironically great in TPM, even the sound design in the podracing bit was thrilling.

Unlike George, John Williams and Ben Burtt knew what they were doing.

 

[liquidtmd]

I should rewatch them all again as an adult to reassess.

Edit: and I just ordered myself a copy of the prequels on blu ray 😬

 

[GaimeGuy]

Jesus Christ, no.

There is nothing daring, nor brave, nor deep about a movie starring two planks of wood, an annoying little boy, a monotone girl, and a cartoon rabbit with a head injury fighting to end a trade dispute that we have little explanation for and have zero investment in.

The story is shit. Qui-Gon Jinn (Obi Wan's master, which completely borks Obi's line in Empire about Yoda being his teacher) is sent with Kenobi to settle a trade dispute. But Palpatine is actually hoping for them to report back that the Trade Federation is up to no good so he can get a vote of no confidence in the Senate.

But then he opts to have the Jedi killed instead, which is asinine because it risks the investigation into their deaths turning up evidence of his own involvement (since the hooded figure ordering the murder of those two Jedi looks and sounds an awful lot like Chancellor Palpatine. And we know they have the ability to record and play back holograms, because it's done in Episode III).

But going back to the blockade: Why is it put in place? What did Naboo do? What does Naboo have that the Federation wants to gain from their blockade? It must be something massive to have the freaking massive Trade Federation come to block all access to your planet. Were they building their own Death Star? For a story this "deep," it's sure missing a lot of key elements.

Another thing it's missing is logic. Jinn and Kenobi hop on Federation ships that are invading Naboo in order to inform that people of Naboo that they're being invaded. What? That would be like tying a note to one of the bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor that warns of the (currently underway) attack.

For their attack, the Trade Federation decides to land their ships on the other side of the planet and walk to the capital. Because why not? It's not as if war is already costly enough in terms of fuel and other necessary supplies. Just fuck it, we'll walk.

I could go on and on. Obviously a lot of this is covered in the Plinkett reviews, but these are glaring issues that I (and many others) have had with the film (and its sequels) since release.

The movie is trash tier. Better than AOTC, but just barely.

The plan was to invade Naboo from the beginning, for its natural resources (Plasma). Darth Plagueus actually originally recruited Palpatine/Sidious through his plasma mining company on Naboo. The blockade was only an excuse to bring the federation's battleships to Naboo, and by the time the senate could response to the subsequent invasion, the planet would be under federation control, and the senate would have no choice but to try to salvage the situation with a peace treaty. The idea was that Senator Palpatine would then leverage the crisis into a vote of no confidence and become chancellor.


Basically: the entire crisis was manufactured by Palpatine (Naboo's senator) in order to show how ineffective the senate was, and to usurp the chancellorship in the political fallout.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I always liked Young Anakin >_>

I mean I absolutely despise his character in the other two Prequel movies... but he was a cool kid in Phantom.

Check out the audition reel sometime. There were a few very good potential actors who nailed a sense of subtle malice.

 

[Loris146]

TPM is and has always been a good movie.

Nope. You can like it but it's not a good movie at all.

 

[grayfoxx881]

I was around 20 years old when it came out. Expected Original Trilogy quality. I went back 4 more times hoping I had missed something. Trash film with great prod value.

I did this exact same thing. I remember standing in the parking lot after the midnight showing thinking if what I had just seen was really that bad. 2 was even worse. 3 was okay.

 

[Dehnus]

Star Wars is not a children's film, it's aimed at anyone and everyone old enough. Phantom Menace however suffers because large chunks of it are aimed at children and no one else. Hence we get such a huge contrast in the visuals, which is part of the strange divide between OT and PT.

Weirdly then other chunks of the movie are above children's heads (politics).

CHildren films have such things in them, including skeletons. It is part of the adventure. I know you don't want to hear that, just as Electronic Gamers have serious issues in hearing they play with toys (far worse than Board gamers do), but it doesn't make it less so.

I know you want to protect yourself against people that go "OMG such violence in videogames/movies!", with age ratings and being all deep about things. But it pretty much is a childrens movie. Most people that love StarWars saw it as kids or preteens at some point. That doesn't make it unwatchable for adults, heck they can even love it. But please stop being so hard on "JarJar" or child Anakin... as THEY are aimed at the younger audience.. just as R2D2, C3PO and Chewbacca were.

For goodness sake I saw the Tempel of Doom when I was 7, yes it was scary as heck, but I was screaming the Indiana Jones tune for weeks on end after that. And no, I didn't mind Oddjob, he was entertaining for 7 year old me. Just as JarJar is Entertaining for 7 year olds today.

Stop reading "deep politics" and heavy things in entertaining movies, yes it can be there .. for the older audience and no Kid will take that line of thought or inspiration away from you. However many adults do wish to take things like OddJob, JarJar and Anakin made C3PO away from them! And frankly that reminds me of being a bully. Pick on someone your own size .. or go shout at some cloud about "how the new Ghostbusters sucked due to.. feminists!".

Sorry for my rant, but I just get a bit fed up with all the shit from people that want to make everything Grimdark due to them growing up and not seeing that it was just as "bad" the first time..just themselves being younger. My goodness most Aliens are muppets in those movies!

PS: what cut were those skeletons from, and was it a remaster, as I don't remember it being as clear like that when I saw it as a kid. Is it some kind of new cut, as I do remember a burned village with corpses but not that it was so sharp. But mind you we were late with getting an HDTV... so it could very well be that.

 

[Straight Edge]

For goodness sake I saw the Tempel of Doom when I was 7, yes it was scary as heck, but I was screaming the Indiana Jones tune for weeks on end after that. And no, I didn't mind Oddjob, he was entertaining for 7 year old me. Just as JarJar is Entertaining for 7 year olds today.

Stop reading "deep politics" and heavy things in entertaining movies, yes it can be there .. for the older audience and no Kid will take that line of thought or inspiration away from you. However many adults do wish to take things like OddJob, JarJar and Anakin made C3PO away from them! And frankly that reminds me of being a bully. Pick on someone your own size .. or go shout at some cloud about "how the new Ghostbusters sucked due to.. feminists!".

Lol are you referring to Short Round as Oddjob?

 

[Syder]

"DEY GON UP DEH VENTILATION SHAFT!"

 

[ascii42]

Midichlorians, immaculate conception, young Anakin, Jar Jar.

These were the things I hated to much that I questioned whether I was a fan of the franchise anymore.

Immaculate conception != virgin conception. Immaculate conception refers to Mary's conception, not Jesus's. Midi-chlorians never bothered me, though they do make me wonder if Anakin's strength with the force diminished as he lost limbs.

I like it too.

Sebulba is cool. I like Watto and Boss Nass and the rest of the gungans too. Podracing is a fun time. Qui Gon Jinn is pretty cool too. Oh and can't forget Queen Amidala and how extensively she is made up in this.

I'm forever wondering what became of those like Sebulba, Watto and Boss Nass. Hope we see them again somewhere or the same species (same with Gungans).

Watto's scene in Attack of the Clones amuses me.

 

[Geist-]

I hate the prequels, but the first is the best of the prequels for me partly because of nostalgia and the fact that the Darth Maul end fight is the best lightsaber duel of all the movies.

 

[SaviourMK2]

Plot wise it's a mess, but it's still... i dunno, watchable

 

[TheDinoman]

"DEY GON UP DEH VENTILATION SHAFT!"

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR FACE?!

 

[Roders5]

You could easily show a picture of an Ewok and Qui-Gon's funeral to make the reverse point.

I don't necessarily think that's true.

The visual contrast is more because in the PT, everything looks so clean, modern and sterile.

It's not so much what's in the images, it's the aesthetics of it all, the bright colours, it looks goofy and completely removed from the OT. Regarding the ROTS image, I'm talking about TPM.

CHildren films have such things in them, including skeletons. It is part of the adventure. I know you don't want to hear that, just as Electronic Gamers have serious issues in hearing they play with toys (far worse than Board gamers do), but it doesn't make it less so.

I know you want to protect yourself against people that go "OMG such violence in videogames/movies!", with age ratings and being all deep about things. But it pretty much is a childrens movie. Most people that love StarWars saw it as kids or preteens at some point. That doesn't make it unwatchable for adults, heck they can even love it. But please stop being so hard on "JarJar" or child Anakin... as THEY are aimed at the younger audience.. just as R2D2, C3PO and Chewbacca were.

For goodness sake I saw the Tempel of Doom when I was 7, yes it was scary as heck, but I was screaming the Indiana Jones tune for weeks on end after that. And no, I didn't mind Oddjob, he was entertaining for 7 year old me. Just as JarJar is Entertaining for 7 year olds today.

Stop reading "deep politics" and heavy things in entertaining movies, yes it can be there .. for the older audience and no Kid will take that line of thought or inspiration away from you. However many adults do wish to take things like OddJob, JarJar and Anakin made C3PO away from them! And frankly that reminds me of being a bully. Pick on someone your own size .. or go shout at some cloud about "how the new Ghostbusters sucked due to.. feminists!".

Sorry for my rant, but I just get a bit fed up with all the shit from people that want to make everything Grimdark due to them growing up and not seeing that it was just as "bad" the first time..just themselves being younger. My goodness most Aliens are muppets in those movies!

PS: what cut were those skeletons from, and was it a remaster, as I don't remember it being as clear like that when I saw it as a kid. Is it some kind of new cut, as I do remember a burned village with corpses but not that it was so sharp. But mind you we were late with getting an HDTV... so it could very well be that.

I got a bit lost during this, but I stand by my point. Those things you loved as a kid weren't aimed solely at children, but you loved them because they could be loved by anyone, of any age. They were brilliant like that. TPM however had so much nonsense included that was purely for little children. Fart jokes and poop jokes and characters doing 'funny' things. It was unnecessary and just doesn't gel with the OT very well.

 

[jstripes]

It's not so much what's in the images, it's the aesthetics of it all, the bright colours, it looks goofy and completely removed from the OT.

That's actually one of the biggest things preventing me from enjoying the PT.

Every location in the OT had atmosphere. It felt lived in, like a real place. The PT, due to everything being CG, lacked that. Even the locations that were real felt sterile. Luckily TFA reversed course on that, and it feels more real again.

 

[Lotto]

me too bro, sebulba is my favorite character but midichlorians were a mistake

 

[TI82]

Ugh my roommate loves this movie and I'm like... Why

 

[jstripes]

Ugh my roommate loves this movie and I'm like... Why

Time to find a new roommate.

 

[Princess Magnificent]

I like the Phantom Menace the most of all the prequel movies. That still means I dislike it. I just dislike it LESS than either Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith.

I actually hate RotS the most of the three. Yes, more than AotC's romance! I think it's mostly the evil pneumonia droid that turned me against RotS.

 

[TI82]

Time to find a new roommate.

He's lucky he's my best friend or I'd have to abandon him for the shit he's said about civil war Spider-Man, rogue one, always Sunny, trailer park boys, etc

He's a loose cannon for stupid popculture opinions

 

[Justin Bailey]

finally a thread about star wars

If Donald Trump ever tweets about Star Wars this place would implode.

 

[Run-M-Run]

Pod Racing sound design was the best thing about it for sure.

 

[Monocle]

TPM is definitely the best of the Prequels, but that's not saying much because they're all very bad movies with bad pacing, horrendous writing, and mostly poor performances.

TPM's main strengths are:

1) The exceptional score (John Williams' best work in the Prequel Trilogy)

2) The exceptional art design (even if almost nothing about it looks like Star Wars)

3) Darth Maul (not a good villain, but he has a striking design, and works on a conceptual level as Palpatine's brute force apprentice)

 

[Spinluck]

I saw it as a kid and liked it. Watched it again as an adult and thought it was a massive piece of shit.


Attack of The Clones sucked too (some fans consider it worse, but I guage them at the same level of shit tier).

Admittedly, I kind of enjoyed Episode 3. It's a turd too but it's the most watchable of the 3.

 

[leroidys]

It's by far the best prequel movie, but still maybe a C at best.

 

[funkystudent]

The art design is so good and since they didnt go overboard with CG sets for 90% of the movie like the rest of the prequels it still looks good today.

Thats about the only positive thing I can say about it.

 

[Bucket Mouse]

TPM is definitely the best of the Prequels, but that's not saying much because they're all very bad movies with bad pacing, horrendous writing, and mostly poor performances.

TMP's main strengths are:

1) The exceptional score (John Williams' best work in the Prequel Trilogy)

2) The exceptional art design (even if almost nothing about it looks like Star Wars)

3) Darth Maul (not a good villain, but he has a striking design, and works on a conceptual level as Palpatine's brute force apprentice)

4) Shot on film and features more visible practical creatures, model work and sets than the other two films.

 

[kunonabi]

I really enjoy Phantom Menace and always have. It still ranks fairly low on my list of SW movies but I'd still rather watch it over Rogue One and TFA any day of the week. I saw it opening night when I was sixteen and it was one of favorite cinema experiences. Seeing that podrace on the big screen for the first time was something else.

Pod Racing sound design was the best thing about it for sure.

Sound design was always excellent in the prequels. The Jango Fett chase in the asteroid field was another highlight.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Its the best of the prequels in retrospect, though thats not saying much. I don't find many redeemable points about either of its sequels, but TPM always has the podrace and the duel at the end to look forward to.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

The main problems with TPM was the comic relief (Jar Jar) was way too much and not remotely funny and they killed off the best villain in the prequel trilogy, Darth Maul.

I often think about how the trilogy would have been if Darth Maul was the villain in Attack of the Clones and the first half of Revenge of the Sith too.

They could have got rid of the useless Count Dooku and General Grievous, who did nothing of relevance in the trilogy and trimmed some of the pointless plot in the process, instead sticking with Maul, the badass Sith apprentice who killed a Jedi master and was awesome with a Lightsaber.

 

[Reagan's BR]

All of the marketing leading up to the movie was unreal.

 

[UtterlyPerplexed]

It's ultimately a pointless film in the grand scheme of things, especially when Anakin's character is rebooted anyway come the next film. It also makes vital missteps such as the premature disposal of Darth Maul (I do agree that Maul should have been expanded upon and properly utilised for the rest of the trilogy, just so we can have an organically built-up villain whom the heroes have some kind of connection and personal beef with) and setting the Obi-Wan-Anakin relationship up as one bored Jedi knight who is only training this kid not because he has this rebellious streak and genuine desire to do so, but only because his mentor has asked him to. Obi-Wan taking Anakin on from the start should not have felt like some obligation. Oh, and the whole Midichlorian rubbish and this crap about the Jedi sensing great danger in the kid only to permit for his training anyway.

But because it's so largely superfluous in the end, I kind of just pretend TPM is some weird, one-off film in the Star Wars universe, unconnected from everything else. I can probably enjoy it if I start boozing to boost my tolerance levels for Jar-Jar and some amazing lines such as "are you an angel?". It's certainly not the worst of the prequels by far. No, that honour probably goes to Attack of the Clones, which I dare someone to tell me that they think it's a good film for unironic reasons.

 

[kunonabi]

It's ultimately a pointless film in the grand scheme of things, especially when Anakin's character is rebooted anyway come the next film. It also makes vital missteps such as the premature disposal of Darth Maul (I do agree that Maul should have been expanded upon and properly utilised for the rest of the trilogy, just so we can have an organically built-up villain whom the heroes have some kind of connection and personal beef with) and setting the Obi-Wan-Anakin relationship up as one bored Jedi knight who is only training this kid not because he has this rebellious streak and genuine desire to do so, but only because his mentor has asked him to. Obi-Wan taking Anakin on from the start should not have felt like some obligation. Oh, and the whole Midichlorian rubbish and this crap about the Jedi sensing great danger in the kid only to permit for his training anyway.

But because it's so largely superfluous in the end, I kind of just pretend TPM is some weird, one-off film in the Star Wars universe, unconnected from everything else. I can probably enjoy it if I start boozing to boost my tolerance levels for Jar-Jar and some amazing lines such as "are you an angel?". It's certainly not the worst of the prequels by far. No, that honour probably goes to Attack of the Clones, which I dare someone to tell me that they think it's a good film for unironic reasons.

Attack of the Clones is honestly my favorite Star Wars film despite its issues.

 

[M0nochromatic]

The music, the art, the cinematography, and the fights were all great.

It was a pretty fun movie overall thinking back on it. I never really lived and breathed Star Wars so it was easy for me not to take the stupid parts as personally as others have.

 

[Wolfe]

You know how I know that Jar Jar is a great character? People can't freakin' shut up about him 20 years later. Haha.

Just because people remember something doesn't necessarily make it great. Jar Jar is an awful character that brought nothing of actual substance to the movies.

Only reason I like Episode I is beacuse of this fight:

One of the best lightsaber duels ever.

I didn't mind it when I saw it in the theater, hell I even enjoyed it, but the fight is downright un-impactful compared to the Vader vs Luke fights in ESB and ROTJ. It's all flash and little substance and comes off just looking like a choreographed dance scene. It doesn't feel like they're fighting to me so much as going through the moves, takes me out of the film.

I think it's valid to criticise the fight for looking overly choreographed and having no emotion behind it, thus making it boring. But I agree that that video is stupid and shouldn't be used as a valid critique.

Exactly.

Check out the audition reel sometime. There were a few very good potential actors who nailed a sense of subtle malice.

Yeah Jake Lloyd (I believe that's his name) should never have been cast in that role imo. It's unfortunate how it affected his life in the end as well.

Also I can't find any info on this now (of course), which means I prolly made it up in my head, but I swear I read something about Lloyd being the nephew of one of the people working on the film with Lucas, which makes it sound like it was more of an in due to connections than actually being picked based on him being the best in the role.


Edit: I still enjoy all 3 PT films, but they're not held in anywhere near the same regard I have for the OT.

Also I don't understand people being so into QuiGon, dude was one of the most boring Jedi I'd seen (even if I enjoyed his characters viewpoints).

 

[ClosingADoor]

It's an OK film. Best of the prequels for me. The world building is nice with Naboo and Coruscant. And Darth Maul was the best. Still don't get why they needed to kill him off to replace with... new bad guys every damn movie.

Should have done the final fight, killed Qui-Qon, get away, give Obi-Wan and Anakin a reason to get mad and have him fall to the dark side through there.

 

[jstripes]

Yeah Jake Lloyd (I believe that's his name) should never have been cast in that role imo. It's unfortunate how it affected his life in the end as well.

Anakin really should have come into the picture as a teen or young adult. Ideally, he'd already be a Jedi trainee. That would have have bonus of eliminating Qui Gon and midichlorians.

 

[Bitch Pudding]

I hatet the movie as soon as I heard (!) JarJar for the first time. He and his species use some kind of baby language in the German version, and the ones from the Trade Federation use a fucken french accent. This killed the entire movie for me.

 

[kunonabi]

It's an OK film. Best of the prequels for me. The world building is nice with Naboo and Coruscant. And Darth Maul was the best. Still don't get why they needed to kill him off to replace with... new bad guys every damn movie.

Should have done the final fight, killed Qui-Qon, get away, give Obi-Wan and Anakin a reason to get mad and have him fall to the dark side through there.

eh, that would have been much more generic and wouldn't have played as well into Obi-Wan and Yoda's fears of Luke going astray in the OT.

 

[Toparaman]

"DEY GON UP DEH VENTILATION SHAFT!"

"Is that...legal?"

"I will make it legal."

 

[JB1981]

"Is that...legal?"

"I will make it legal."

Lol

 

[JB1981]

Anyone who says this movie is better than ROTS is full of shit and can't be taken seriously

 

[Starsunder]

It's well choreographed, I'll grant you that, but actually silly once you start looking into it. Duel of the Fates track on the other hand is a legitimately great piece of music and the absolute best thing to come out of the prequels, Republic Commando being second.

i hate when people post this fucking video.

guess what? fights in the original trilogy dont fare any better when slowed down (even more than they already are) and analyzed.

 

[Fj0823]

It's ultimately a pointless film in the grand scheme of things, especially when Anakin's character is rebooted anyway come the next film. It also makes vital missteps such as the premature disposal of Darth Maul (I do agree that Maul should have been expanded upon and properly utilised for the rest of the trilogy, just so we can have an organically built-up villain whom the heroes have some kind of connection and personal beef with) and setting the Obi-Wan-Anakin relationship up as one bored Jedi knight who is only training this kid not because he has this rebellious streak and genuine desire to do so, but only because his mentor has asked him to. Obi-Wan taking Anakin on from the start should not have felt like some obligation. Oh, and the whole Midichlorian rubbish and this crap about the Jedi sensing great danger in the kid only to permit for his training anyway.

But because it's so largely superfluous in the end, I kind of just pretend TPM is some weird, one-off film in the Star Wars universe, unconnected from everything else. I can probably enjoy it if I start boozing to boost my tolerance levels for Jar-Jar and some amazing lines such as "are you an angel?". It's certainly not the worst of the prequels by far. No, that honour probably goes to Attack of the Clones, which I dare someone to tell me that they think it's a good film for unironic reasons.

I'd say Clones is half a good film.

Obi Wan's detective adventure was cool.

Everything Anakin sucked, except when he finds his mother.

Still, I rate it as the worst Star Wars movie too.

 

[Wolfe]

i hate when people post this fucking video.

guess what? fights in the original trilogy dont fare any better when slowed down (even more than they already are) and analyzed.

The point being you don't need to slow it down to see how much weaker it is compared to the saber fights in ESB and ROTJ.

It's like the definition of form over function.

Edit: I totally get that Lucas was going for a "jedi order in it's prime" type of thing but it really killed a lot of the impact the duels had for me given the final outcome.

 

[Fj0823]

The point being you don't need to slow it down to see how much weaker it is compared to the saber fights in ESB and ROTJ.

It's like the definition of form over function.

Edit: I totally get that Lucas was going for a "jedi order in it's prime" type of thing but it really killed a lot of the impact the duels had for me given the final outcome.

Not all battles must be emotional struggles. I think it was cool to see how Jedi's normally countered threats

For Luke his battle was a battle against everything he's come to hate and blame.

It was Tuesday afternoon for Qui-Gon. Just Jedi business.

Both scenarios work for me in the cool scale.