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Which film was worse...The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones?

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jett

D-Member
They're both in the same spectrum of awfulness. One has JarJar. The other has Hayden Christensen. I guess I'd say AOTC is worse simply due to the fact that it ruined my image of Darth Vader beyond repair.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
I've only seen each once, but my impression was that Phantom Menace was the closest to being an actual movie out of all of the prequels. I really thought they got worse as they went along.
 

Mahonay

Banned
I've only seen each once, but my impression was that Phantom Menace was the closest to being an actual movie out of all of the prequels. I really thought they got worse as they went along.
For me the third one felt the least shitty when I saw it at the time.
 
Phantom Menace is enjoyable in a dumb action movie capacity, mostly off nostalgia.

Attack of the Clones is nigh unwatchable. NOTHING HAPPENS IN THAT MOVIE. You're either waiting for the awful love scenes to be over or you're waiting for the decent to mediocre action at the end.

Seriously, watch it again, it's aged so poorly, I was amazed.
 

draetenth

Member
Hmm, I think kid Vader and more Jar-Jar means that The Phantom Menace was worse. Not to say that Attack of the Clone was good, but I found it to be a bit more tolerable.
 

Meowster

Member
The Phantom Menace really isn't anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be on here and other websites. Maybe it was something you had to be there for (the people who had been waiting decades for the return of Star Wars or something). It's a complete movie that tells a solid story that kids loved. Decent performances from Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Natalie Portman (before she gave up in Clones). Great score. Great action sets. One of the best lightsaber duels in the saga. Great sense of wonder. Beautiful imagery throughout. It's almost insulting to compare it to Attack of the Clones which is just blah throughout the entire movie (excusing the brief moments at Kamino).
 

JB1981

Member
Are there are people that seriously hate The Force Awakens more than the prequels or would rather watch the prequels over TFA? Just curious because the gap in the quality is simply immense, even if one was disappointed by the movie.

Best wishes.

I can see an argument for preferring Revenge of the Sith to TFA honestly
 

Abounder

Banned
Phantom is worse: child actor, Jar Jar, diet racist aliens, and a podracing scene that lasts way too long. But it does have Duel of the Fates

Clones isn't good and went over the top, and in the end both of them failed to build up their characters and make us care about 'em. It was hard to care about Qui Gon, Maul, or Annie/Anakin
 

necrosis

Member
i have watched both fairly recently and, while both are extremely bad, i think the phantom menace is worse

jar jar binks is unbearable, anakin is annoying (although not nearly as bad as hayden christensen), and the movie itself actually tends to be racist as fuck

the prequels as a whole (rots can stay maybe) need to be removed from the star wars canon
 
Attack of The Clones is not merely the worst Star Wars movie ever made
But it may rank up there with one of the worst movies ever
 

Oynox

Member
I really do not understand why everybody hates jar jar. I always loved him. And his addition was not more comedy than the most recent movie...
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Both brilliant and horrible. I like Phantom cause it looks beautiful. It looks like a FILM. 2 and 3 look like TV Shows.
That's literally true since Phantom was the only one shot on film ;)

But I know what you mean. It's more than the camera used.
 
The prequels deserve crits but I don't think the diner is one of them. This is where Star Wars take place.

GGNByqB.png

But yet the technology seems way more advanced than any of the original 3 films
 

Meowster

Member
I really do not understand why everybody hates jar jar. I always loved him. And his addition was not more comedy than the most recent movie...
Same. Maybe it was because I was a little kid when Menace came out but I've never had a problem with him.
 

sphagnum

Banned
But yet the technology seems way more advanced than any of the original 3 films

It's supposed to be that way. It represents the degradation of society under the Empire.

Stop thinking of things in Star Wars literally and start thinking of them thematically. It's a space opera, not sci fi.
 

Boney

Banned
PM is one of the most boring movies I've ever seen.

Clones is offensive and cringy all the time

It's supposed to be that way. It represents the degradation of society under the Empire.

Stop thinking of things in Star Wars literally and start thinking of them thematically. It's a space opera, not sci fi.

It's bad world building.
 

olympia

Member
attack of the clones. there are some salvageable things about episode one. there's nothing redeemable about episode ii. jango fett dies like a loser. like father like son i guess
 
TFA is a better made movie but I like the plot of RotS better.

I saw RotS seven times in theaters and TFA three. It's just more "enjoyable" to me even if it's not as "good".

I honestly dont understand whypeople love RoTS so much. IMO it ruined anakins character even more. It made him seem like he was tricked into killing children and the jedi he grew with for Padme. I mean... Did he think Padme wouldve just been with him and loved him knowing that he killed children and ultimately destroyed the legacy of the jedi? Also Obiwan in ANH always made it seem like Vader was seduced y the darkside tragically and betrayed the Jedi and the Republic. he didnt say he was tricked into becoming a mass murdering freak.
Also I actually hate that ending fight. there is 0 emotion and drags on for like 10 min. Its just 2 guys flinging lightsabers while explosions and lava go crazy in the background. Dont know why the battle had to be epic beyond belief.

The worst things about the prequels is that I didnt care about anakin at all. I even hated him kindof. I also hated yoda and the emperor having a lightsaber, I hated to overuse of CGI, I hated almost everything
 

DavidDesu

Member
AoTC is fucking awful. Truly horrific. But honestly I find RoTS almost as bad. Wooden acting, nonsensical motivation for Anakin that just makes him seem like a complete idiot, and THEN he goes on to kill a good 20 fucking 4 year olds. Now I know Darth Vader is a baddie, but Star Wars lost its innocence in that terrible scene. I really don't think we needed that at all. You simply can't see Anakin doing that, his turn to the dark side and his acting is so bad it makes no sense.

Basically TPM actually feels like a Star Wars movie these days. Nonsensical plotting with padme and her double, never knew what was up there, she starts with a weird accent then just becomes American..? But it had good action, kind of decent pacing. Had a great look to it that the plasticky CGI riddled next two films couldn't match.. podrace was cool as fuck and still is and Maul V Obi Wan was an epic fast paced duel. AoTC lightsabre battle was awful, ROTS ridiculous.
 
It's supposed to be that way. It represents the degradation of society under the Empire.

Stop thinking of things in Star Wars literally and start thinking of them thematically. It's a space opera, not sci fi.

Well its hard to get used to the completely different look of the prequels when you grew up watching the original movies and falling in love with them. It doesnt really tie together. The weapons are more advanced, the fighters are more advanced, the droid designs are way too advanced. To me it shows that Lucas went to crazy with the CG
 
Sheev spent years trying to overthrow the Republic and Jedi. And did. I can imagine him reshaping things to not remind him of that time as he absolutely loathed it. There's also that apart from Tatooine we saw different planets in the prequels. The new ending to ROTJ also showed Naboo and Coruscant as they were. In the originals we only saw Tatooine which looked the same, Dagobah, Endor, Bespin (which is PT-ish IMO) and Hoth.
 

sphagnum

Banned
Well its hard to get used to the completely different look of the prequels when you grew up watching the original movies and falling in love with them. It doesnt really tie together. The weapons are more advanced, the fighters are more advanced, the droid designs are way too advanced. To me it shows that Lucas went to crazy with the CG

I grew up with the OT and when I saw the prequels (I was 10 when TPM came out), I didn't think "This is so wrong, everything's too shiny and new!", I thought "Wow everything's so shiny and new, because the Empire didn't ruin it yet!"

I mean...it's not really that weird.
 
Phantom Menace didn't work out well, but there was some good things in there.The pod racing scene is one of the best scenes in the prequel trilogy, Darth Maul was cool and any movie with Liam Neeson automatically gets a few bonus points.

Attack of the Clones didn't build on any of this though, and it feels half baked the entire time.
 

Mahonay

Banned
Phantom Menace didn't work out well, but there was some good things in there.The pod racing scene is one of the best scenes in the prequel trilogy, Darth Maul was cool and any movie with Liam Neeson automatically gets a few bonus points.

Attack of the Clones didn't build on any of this though, and it feels half baked the entire time.
Except the part where it's one of Liam Neeson's worst performances.
 

kevin1025

Banned
When I look back on the prequels, I try to look back on their individual moments rather than them as a whole. If you look at them that way, it becomes about their highlights rather than their lower moments, and I would say that Attack of the Clones, for me, would be a better film, because there were individual parts that I liked more in it. The Phantom Menace had the podracing scene and the lightsaber battle at the end; apart from that, it isn't as successful. Attack of the Clones had, as CG-fest as it was, the Clone War battle, Yoda battle, the sonic boom/asteroid chase with Jango and Obi-Wan, and the speeder chase through Coruscant.

But looking at them as full on films, I would say that The Phantom Menace is the better movie. As drab as it is in parts, it is more fun, as others have said.

I should also add that I don't hate any of the prequels, I definitely see their faults and their lower quality, but I actually quite like Revenge of the Sith. So I don't know what that says about my opinion, haha.
 

Cyan

Banned
On a purely subjective level, Phantom Menace was so deeply disappointing that it's hard to pick the Clones over it. Clones didn't feel as bad because it was just more of the same crap.

Phantom Menace had that podracing nonsense that just went on and on for what felt like an hour. Clones had a top-tier dumbness title and Yoda flipping around. I dunno.

The important thing is that we all agree that both movies sucked.
 

Neff

Member
Sheev spent years trying to overthrow the Republic and Jedi. And did. I can imagine him reshaping things to not remind him of that time as he absolutely loathed it.

I don't think he gave a fuck about ideals or principles or even politics honestly. He just wanted to seize ultimate power, and was willing to do anything to get it. It was probably even more important to him than grooming Anakin as his student. He had no love for the Jedi, but they were the perfect scapegoats for his plans.

It was really just that dream of sitting in a chair in a giant metal ball in space which got him out of bed each morning.
 

Xe4

Banned
Clones was the only prequel which I would consider downright awful. Phantom Menace was simply middling, and Revenge of the Sith was alright.
 

Surfinn

Member
The prequels deserve crits but I don't think the diner is one of them. This is where Star Wars take place.

GGNByqB.png

A long time ago, in a 1950's diner far far away..

Right. That's one of the least creative and most immersion breaking scenes in all of SW. There's nothing else from the main films, visually (aside from C3PO bumbling around in the assembly line scene), that removes me from this universe more thoroughly.
 
Criticism..? You just stop by with a pot shot at TFA and leave.

You honestly believe TFA is worse than both AToC and TPM? I just thought you were trying to be cool.

I was mocking your post. Using "edgy" as criticism is dumb.

Yes, I prefer the prequels to TFA, but my comment was not intended as a potshot. I think it is good in the way that a greatest hits album by a cover band can be good.

lol at your concept of me thinking my position on the relative merits of SW films would make me cool.
 
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