Ten Things I Like And Hate About Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
 

Automatically generated comment thread for Ten Things I Like And Hate About Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

First! Great article Proto!

I got one, I haven't seen the movie since it first came out on VHS, but the thing I remember that I really hated that was really random was Darth Maul's "theme" music. I really can't remember it, but I do remember it was trash. Seems like there was some sort of whispering or something.

I didn't enjoy George Lucas's merchandising insanity. Anything and everything had the Phantom Menace logo slapped on it, and sadly I fell for most of it. =/

Anyone else here collect the special-edition Star Wars Pepsi Cans? Oh geeze, I'm weak...

I remember liking this movie when it came out in theaters, because I was thirteen and didn't yet appreciate things like "acting" or "dialogue". Then I watched it again when I was 19...

I'll take crappy acting of Jake Lloyd of Episode I over Darth Emo any day, though. The future Dark Lord of The Sith should not have a permanent pout.

But I really did like Episode III, legitamately!

Like you said Proto - negatives are too numerous too list. But I do have to say that sitting in either a crowded theater (best) or even one that's almost empty, there's something fantastically wonderfully goosebump raising about having the Star Wars main theme assault your senses moments after "Once upon a time...." fades out. I'd say that's a positive that all three of the prequels have going for'em. Same goes for the rest of the PM score - most of it sounded right...

You do us all a great service - we are in your debt.

I'm only 15, probably among the youngest of I-mockery readers, but in my young age, I haven't yet come to hate much of anything... I can watch most anything, and still find a way to enjoy it. I mean, i have watched some SERIOUSLY horrible movies, and still liked most of it, even if it was just because of the horrible acting. If you name any bad movie, I could watch it and enjoy to some degree. Is that a bad thing, or am I just too young to know better at this point?

Not after I'm through with it, you won't.

Thing I liked:
Watto not falling for the stupid Jedi mind trick. And Qui-Gon actually has the cojones to try again, like maybe it will work the second time. The look on his face when waving his hand and saying "accept credits you hovering bastard" inexplicably doesn't work is priceless. I imagine that's what it's like whenever a celebrity gets told "no".

Thing I hated:
Why the name all that is fucking holy could Qui-Gon and Obi Won not tell that Padme was the real queen and the queen was her freaking decoy?! These are guys who, when a wookie farts halfway across the galaxy, feel a "great disturbance in the force". They are mindreaders, goddammit! Figure it out!

Burn, I don't collect the cans, but I love the people that do. I got really lucky and found a gold Yoda can and sold it on Ebay for like 400 bucks.

As far as the prequels go. Maybe I am blinded by my love of Star Wars but I still find all three watchable. At the very leasts for the sabre fights.

I don't think the prequels were quite as bad as everyone says they are. (We are talking 20+ years of hype, after all).

They really weren't as good as the original trilogy. Or that good, at all. But, Hollywood has vomited much worse abominations at us.

Also, some of the more thorough "Things Wrong with the Prequels" lists include things only the most devout Star Wars geek would give a ghost of a shit about.

For example, the made-up alien gibberish language in the prequels being different from the made-up alien gibberish language in the originals.

This article, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable and ridiculed true flaws that really deserve it.

I love these articles. I know the prequels are basically crap, but I do salvage some good times from them. They're not unwatchable, in my opinion; just annoying.

My favourite mo in TPM: the parent-and-child Jawas who we see watching the podrace, jumping and whooping as the racers go by. Like the Tusken Snipers, it was a two-second nod to the hardcore fans.

Yet there's so much to hate - least favourite mo would be THAT BLOODY KID. God how I hated him.

Eagerly awaiting the next article.

Time for some Super-Nerdery! It makes sense to me that the Sith would only have two members. The Jedi have been running a holocaust basically on the Sith for fucking millenia. The Sith used to have a massive amount of members, just like the Jedi, but then they pretty much got wiped out. The Sith keep such a low membership so that they can stay under the Jedi radar and run a guerilla campaign against them. If there were a hundred Sith on Coruscant instead of just Palpatine, they'd be found out and destroyed. Remember how Anakin is supposed to "balance the Force"? And then remember how he helps Palpatine kill all the Jedi? After the Jedi cleansing, there are only TWO left; Yoda and Obi-Wan. How many Sith are there? TWO; Vader and Palpatine. Therefore balancing the Force. End my geeky tirade and my horrible grammar.

That spider chair is badass. Apparently it also works as a hologram projector.

its because at the time he finally failed and went feeble minded, i mean looking at his former works and well writtens cripts, i feel his "reworking" of the originals [the ones whe wrote before part 4 and subsequently of the more recent films] to fit what he thought fans wanted, he ruined it.

and with the thing with the jedi having a ton and the sith having ONLY two, it makes sense later on.
there used to be like, equalish amounts until they got wiped out for being kinda evilish.
but then, they got what they had coming and it all got rebalanced.
Pretty much why Obi wan had to die, so that anakin could take HIS place and rebalance it all.

i think.

Yes, but one must be careful not to sit on it while it is projecting a hologram, lest one have a HOLOGRAM WHERE A HOLOGRAM SHOULD NOT BE!

there is only one thing that i hate about the prequels with all my heart...
Jar jar Binks!

When did Phantom come out, '99?
Jar Jar's hijinks and antics delighted me when I saw the film opening weekend. In any case, it's not really that difficult to impress a ten-year-old. =[

....crossing fingers, eyes closed...(please mention how cool Jango Fett's pistols sounded in AToC! please mention how cool Jango Fett's pistols sounded in AToC!)

Are midichlorians an std? Like space-crabs.

I just like to pretend that these prequels don't exsist. I'm happy with the original trilogy.

I wish George Lucas had never made the prequels.

Let me tell you, it actually was a thrill when Phantom Menace came out and my boyfriend and his best friend won tickets for us to go see it at a midnight showing. Watching through it the first time was a trip, although it was possible to see some of the glaring flaws even then (the "accidental" explosion of the control ship, for example), but JarJar didn't get annoying until about the third watch-through (I worked at a store where we could show movies and that was one they found 'acceptable for in-store play.') I'm not raving mad about the prequels (I've never been a die hard Star Wars fan, I just like them.) but I can agree that they don't live up to the originals. Most sequels (heh) never do.

Personally, I found more flaws in the second movie than the first (and I've yet to see the third). I'm curious to see if any of my dislikes make the list.

Thanks for taking one for us again Proto.

Can't we just try to forget about these prequels and pretend they never happened? Ignorance can be bliss sometimes.

Apart from the character-we-do-not-talk-about and Anakin Skywalker - Boy-Idiot-Miracle, I must say...I can enjoy the movie...more or less...still the weakest of the three I´d say...even though I hate Anakin in all three movies...hmm. A well, at least some of the Lightsaber-Duels were nice.

My big bitch was Darth Maul being slashed in half by a frigging apprentice/padawan. Maybe Liam Neeson said he would do this one if they promise to kill him so he would'nt be in the next ones.

I have to object to #1. I don't know if you'll see it but the "Rule of Two" was not a lucas creation and in fact is part of the expanded universe (novels etc.). It was created thousands of years before because the Sith aren't quite as agreeable as the Jedi, so there would be a constant power struggle as to who "led" them. As a result Darth Bane put forth the rule of two, that there'd only be a Master and Apprentice. They could have thousands of lackeys who were Force users (and in fact they often did) but they were not true Sith Lords.

What I don't understand is why everyone says they hate these movies, but I'm pretty sure we all own copies of them. I bought this one the night it came out. It was the collectors VHS pack, because I didn't have a DVD player yet...then I had to buy it on DVD.

So just to add it up I've spent about $60 just to see this polished turd.

I managed to purposely avoid every commercial and piece of promo art for this movie prior to its release. I wanted to go into the theater with a completely blank slate: I didn't know what the characters would look like or what the story would be about (besides it being Anakin's background). When friends brought it up, I excused myself. Man, what a let down. I've never put so much effort into avoiding spoilers since.

"What I don't understand is why everyone says they hate these movies, but I'm pretty sure we all own copies of them. I bought this one the night it came out. It was the collectors VHS pack, because I didn't have a DVD player yet...then I had to buy it on DVD."
Nope, haven't paid a dime to Lucas since he trashed the OT and killed Chewbacca. This from a man who bought every bit of Star Wars junk he could get his hands on prior to that.

If you have BitTorrent, I suggest downloading a copy of "The Phantom Edit" or "The Phantom Re-Edit 1.1" (I prefer the re-edit, it's a little longer and tighter). Some people re-edited the movie so it's a little more palatable: less Jar-Jar! no mention of midichlorians! etc! They're much better movies, but it's still just putting glitter on shit.

http://www.theforce.net/rouser/revie...tomre-edit.asp

http://www.theforce.net/rouser/reviews/phantomedit.asp

I guess that it was ridiculous too when my mom asked me to clean the toaster downstairs... Fortunately there were no bastards wearing orange cloaks around to think I was honoring it.

Man, that spider chair is awesome. Add rocket launchers to it and you got an old school NES boss character. Now, to those that think Lucas got anything from the Expanded Universe, you're dead wrong. Lucas keeps contradicting the stuff from the books and his PR people keep saying that only the movies count as real Star Wars content (so Chewie lives and Boba Fett is as dead as cubism). I guess it makes sense, since he didn't have a hand in making those stories and he does own the I.P. but it's funny to think that they took the concept fanfiction and managed to make a buck off it. Actually, that's brilliant now that I think about it.

You are right on the money when you say Qui-Gon Jinn and the Destroyer Droids were the best parts. But i have too admit, I use to like Jar-Jar!!!! Then I realized he sucked,and began worshiping the best character ever: Kit Fisto!

jonny#5, hate to sound like a freaky fanboy, but actually all the novels are lucas arts licensed and are considered "canon" meaning they are official stories and the information in them is treated as "reality" within the star wars universe. The rule of two was Darth Bane's creation because of all the sith lords fighting amongst each other and undermining the greater goal of the sith.

I did the same thing as argonath to avoid everything I could far all 3 none the less....At least I know I'm not alone in my nerd-dom. I can't wait to tell my girlfriend that I'm not some spaz.

I'll have to give props to rizzo for being of stronger will than I....kudos to you sir.

I see a ton of hate for the "emo Anakin" with people saying, "Darth Vader would never whine like that". I get that you hate him, but ask yourself this; What would the adolescent father of a person who whines about Power Converters from Tashi station, a blast shield over his eyes, and Tatooine being the planet furthest from a bright center of the universe, sound like?

Seems to me "Emo Anakin" makes perfect sense as the apple didn't fall far from the tree :P

"hate to sound like a freaky fanboy, but actually all the novels are lucas arts licensed and are considered "canon" meaning they are official stories and the information in them is treated as "reality" within the star wars universe. The rule of two was Darth Bane's creation because of all the sith lords fighting amongst each other and undermining the greater goal of the sith."

You're wrong and you're right. The EU is official and tightly controlled, but doesn't necessarily apply to the movie universe. For example, almost everything in the PT about the Clone Wars directly contradicts the CW's as described in the EU, yet it still had to be Lucas approved to make it into the EU. That's yet another thing that pissed me off about the PT; the Clone Wars, even just the bits and pieces that were mentioned in the EU, seemed much cooler than they were shown to be in the PT.

Qui-Gon knew- better to boss her around- he even baits her into revealing herself, but she's too stubborn to give up her tatooine adventure.

best deleted scene- tuskens sniping scavenging jawas

THE BEST THING ABOUT JARJAR- ewoks haver never looked cooler.

Lucas is possibly the single greatest money-whore in Hollywoods long existance... First it was the "Star Wars Boxed Set" then the "Star Wars New Previously Unreleased Box Set" then on and on and on ad nauseum to the point now where he's preparing to whore out the Clone Wars as a new and improved series on TV... when will it end? ...the...Horror...the...Horror.....

Fear N Loathing - it'll only end when us saps stop buying every single re-issue that is released...

Now excuse me whilst I head out and buy the latest uber special boxed collectors directors elite limited edition Evil Dead tribute set....again....

Yes, another list. And it's one of the long-awaited Star Wars Prequel ones to boot. Score.

I remember when I saw this back in... whenever it came out ('99, right? Think so, I was 9 at the time), I enjoyed it. It entertained me, I liked most of the battles, and so on and so forth. Of course, I also remember that my knowledge of Star Wars in general was quite limited (sure, I had watched them time and time again, but I didn't really 'get' them. I didn't get into the whole mythology and such), so such enjoyment could be expected.

I also remember that, even as a 9 year old, the Gungangs still bugged the hell out of me. I mean, I'd take another Ewok apperance as opposed to more of those easily-killable frog things (at least the monster fish down in the ocean were really cool).

My biggest problem was Darth Maul.

The whole summer, there was all the hype about Darth Maul being the new bad-ass villain of the Star Wars universe, but in the actual movie, he only appeared for like 2 seconds, and all he did was suck and die!

I gotta say, the insane amount of hype made for a fun summer, this was like the only movie where all the hype and cross-promotions were better than the actual movie.

You gotta love how the decoy pretty much makes Padme her bitch until the "big" reveal.

Why the Ewok hate? I love those little fuckers. I have an Ewok plushy. Though it'll become a Moogle if I can find another Beanie Baby dragon... But come on, those little bear thingys defeated the Empire with ROCKS AND STICKS. If there should be hate directed anywhere, it should be at the dumbass Stormtroopers that got defeated by ROCKS AND STICKS.

Actually, I don't own any of the movies either. Just never been that much into them.

And as for Darth Bane, being a gamer geek, I can't help but giggle every time I hear his name. It just *sounds* fanfictionish, like someone took Vader and the Lord of darkness, evil, etc etc, and threw them together because they were two favorite villains.

PM would of been better if there had been a massacre of gungans.Wish they had killed Wato or how ever you spell it, he was freaking annoying.

I really really liked Sebulba's pod racer.

El Sammo - you answered your own question "Why the Ewok hate?" twice in your own post :P

1) I have an Ewok plushy
2) They defeated the Empire with rocks and sticks

Well the reason why Yoda said no more no less is because, oh christ listen to me I sound like a goddamn fan boy.

Well Ferrit, being a fan of the Empire, I have to give the little things kudos for beating the shit out of the Stormtroopers, as cheaply armoured and shoddily trained they may be.

One thing that could have made Episode 1 900% better:
Cast Sean Connery for the role of Qui-Gon.

I haven't geeked out on the web about this, but did anybody else notice THE glaring inconsistency in this movie? In ESB when Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his training, there's an exchange between Yoda and Obi Wan's "force ghost" to the extent that Obi wan defends Luke at one point by asking Yoda "Was I any different when you trained me?" So...I call gundark crap on Qui Gon even being in the first movie. That and... I have to rescind one criticism I made. I hated the NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO scene...but upon rewatching the original trilogy it's pretty obvious that DV is still ruled by emotion...IE...the dark side!

I like star wars but I thank christ I NEVER saw any part of any of the new movies.. they look so terrible I just hear bad ater bad thing about them.. It seems like lucas destroyed what was good abotu star wars completely

NO inconsistency there: Obi-Wan's training was started by Yoda (like all temple padawans) and wasn't training under Gui-Gon until age 12 (like his 7th year of training if not more). Luke's training under Yoda (like his 2nd year of training at best) is far more basic and generalized- but most compared to Obi-Wan's temple years where he disobeyed Yoda plenty of times [as seen in Jedi Apprentice series by Jude Watson]. Furthermore any senior Jedi, especially the Jedi council, is considered a trainer for any wisdom/advice/discipline passed down. And if the EU dosn't float your boat, there's always the end scenes where Obi-Wan takes little orphan Annie as his padawan regardless of what Yoda thinks, before he knows the council outvoted Yoda over young Skywalker's training. And finally, and most importantly, If you read this whole reply about OT VS PT inconsistency: go outside and get some exercise fanboy

TELL EM STEVE-DAVE! :)

Star Wars 1 stinks

Yeah man

ahh qui-gon, is there nothing he can't do?, any scene with quigon automatically becomes cool.

and the peace bomb: jar jar binks, is he really that stupid? or is it all an act, is he plotting some from of revenge?

Personally I kinda like the idea of "always two there are, no more, no less" because that means that the moment Darth Maul died Palpatine had to quick look around and go "You there, your now a Sith apprentice!" to the best candidate he could see to guarantee that there would be no less then two sith.

I personally believe that there was nothing George Lucas could have done to top 4-6, nothing. He could not meet any of our fanboy expectations to the hilt and I'm sure he knew it. In fact, I bet his sole intentions were to simply entertain, which seemed to work on all of the youngins who didn't see 4-6 in the theaters.

Something I've always hated about Star Wars is how they make action figures of the most one dimensional characters that serve no purpose to the plot. Who the fuck knows of any of those bastards.

My loathing for episodes 1 and 2 knows no bounds. (I nearly walked out of the theater during the whole "Anakin/Padme falling in love" fiasco...) Episode 3 was only slightly better in that I think I only rolled my eyes about 20 times during the movie as opposed to about 50 during the first two. Part of the reason I may have like Episode 3 better may be due to the fact that I knew the torture was finally coming to an end.

George Lucas = WORST DIALOG WRITER EVER.
Combine that with terrible acting (I'm looking at you Hayden C.) and you have a recipe for disaster...

waa waa waa- everyone can make a better prequel than GL. Probally, but it seems like the EU was the big winner of the PT- and at the end of the day, it's still better than any other sci-fi (looking at you Trek).

Hmmm. Yep, I re-read my original post and no where in it did I state that I could make a better prequel than Lucas. I was simply making an observation that any human with about a 6th grade knowledge of modern English can tell that the dialog was awful. It was made even worse because Hayden C. is a terrible actor and Natalie Portman and Ewen McGregor basically mailed it in...

I do, however, agree that it is better than Star Trek.

nuh uh

After waiting all those years, waiting for more Star Wars, SO HYPED after all those years, waiting for the prequel, The only thing I could say after the movie was:
"well, the pod race was cool".

It was like my friends and I had left the funeral of our best friend and we were staring at the ground saying mundane things like:

"the flowers were pretty, there were so many"
"it was a nice service"

UTTERLY DISSAPOINTING

Thank you for re-enduring this movie to entertain us. I agree with the things that you liked about TPM, although they are SO brief within the film.

So... Where can I find the fan-edited version?

In the original trailer for TPM (which we all thought was awesome and promised so much...) the number 1 thing you hate - "Always two there are." - that line was shortened without the "no more, no less" part.

Looking forward to the next two prequel write-ups (though I'm sorry you have to sit through them again).

God, I hate these prequels.

I don't know, honestly i enjoyed the prequels..well this is coming from a fan boy who can't get enough of anything "Star Wars". But to be honest the prequels don't hold a candle to the original trilogy. But overall an enjoyable experience.

One thing that irked the hell out of me was that line about there only ever being two Sith. It was like Lucas just took a giant steaming dump on all of the novels and comics that have kept his series alive over the decades since Jedi was released. Hell, Knights of the Old Republic should have been used as the model for the prequels, or at least a Shadows of the Empire movie.

I would like to see a prequel to the prequels. Something similar to the video games "Knights of the Old Republic." If only we can somehow keep Lucas' hands out of it though and let some new blood take on the task.

Every time I watch these movies, I think to myself that George Lucas takes it upon himself to kill the best two live action characters that appear, and often in a manner that is inappropriate to the awesomeness of the characters involved (Boba Fett being case in point for movies 4-6, showing Lucas' propensity for such behavior).

In this first movie, I agree that Qui Gon Jinn was one of the decent characters, and that his death was a waste because of the loss of potential quality for the later movies...maybe. The second character was Darth Maul. Ray Park (the actor who played Darth Maul, Toad in the first X-Men movie, and Snake Eyes in the upcoming GI Joe movie) has an incredible sense of kinesthetic acting, and I can feel the dark, savage rage that fuels him as he moves, sort of like watching a hungry tiger prowling its cage. When he is allowed to just let go, as he does in the brief fight scene where he first fights Qui Gon Jinn on Tatooine, it is downright frightening to watch, because the speed and ferocity he uses (and the desperation of Qui Gon to escape with his life) is exactly what you would expect in a real fight between a master and a halfway decent amateur.

To me, Darth Maul's death was much the same as the death of Boba Fett (case-in-point) in terms of anticlimax. George Lucas does not believe in letting bad guys die in a dignified manner, and the cooler the bad guys in question, the less dignified the final fate that awaits them.

Funny.
(But Immaculate Conception doesn't mean what you think it means. The Concept of Immaculation is not related to anything biological or babies, so it wouldn't apply here. GIYF.)

Man, when's Protoclown going to do the Episode 3 one?