PT What didn't you like about the phantom menace?

I think it works. We see Anakin at his most innocent, before that starts to erode.

 

There's really nothing I dislike about it. I wish more SW material tried to capture the tone and spirit of TPM. Such a unique work.

 

Being my lowest graded Star Wars film such as TPM, is really saying the cherry is okay on top of the eleven layer movie cake with whip and ice cream.
I enjoy watching this movie and especially with my six year old which we just did last week (on my PT preparation for Kenobi).

What I didn't care for can be seen in many threads (PT rewrite for one)
•Jar Jar and all the slapstick humor
• Senate scenes a little much
•not enough Obi Wan and Anakin relationship
•more older Anakin puppy love w/Padme
•no Count Dooku or Sifo Dyas (I know they weren't thought of yet)
• Anakin should have been young at first when found by Qui Gon then flash to Jedi days with Obi Wan
•Maul should've killed Jedi at beginning
•Maybe Sidious should've been the apprentice to Plageuis?!
•Not enough exposition on the Chosen one
• more of the space battle!

 

Really, my only big complaint is that Qui-Gon shouldn't have explained Midi-Chlorians to Anakin. That scene was too much exposition. They could have just left Midi-Chlorian counts unexplained from that little bit of dialog earlier after the blood test.

 

Huttese: I'll do you one better. Never bring up midichlorians at all. The Force doesn't need a biological explanation.

1. Anakin should have been an adult. Luke, Han, and Leia were all adults. So were Padme and Obi-Wan, and that allowed for consistent casting in all those roles. It also would have made Anakin and Padme's relationship more believable. Episode I can't do anything with them when they're on opposite sides of puberty. A Han Solo smirk is just wrong from a 9 year old.

2. Obi-Wan can be a Jedi apprentice, but he shouldn't be sidelined for the other characters.

3. I agree more of the space battle. An older Anakin would have been more believable there too. 4 battles is too many for one climax. They each have a parallel with Return of the Jedi, but Jedi had the storming of the Imperial base lead to the Ewok battle, not run them simultaneously.

 

I hate this about the SW fandom myself some are incredibly ungrateful more so than just simply critical.

The Prequels were fantastic just not on OT levels obviously but many don't use the middle ground as a way to judge it's black and white to them.

 

There really is only 2 things:

Jar Jar Binks should have never ever been a thing.

Anakin should have been around 18 yo and played by the same actor through out ala Padme.

oh yeah and the title should have been "The Chosen One".

 

The only thing I don't like about the movie is that the pod race is too long. Otherwise, it's a visual feast. Love the music and the story. I actually prefer to watch Episodes I through VI in this order: ANH, TESB, TPM, AOTC, ROTS, R1, and ROTJ. I did so because our roommate had never seen the films before and we didn't want to spoil her about Vader's identity. But if one did watch them in chronological order, TPM is a good way to dive into Star Wars.

 

i like everything about it. why ? because its made to be a kid movie with stuff only adults can understand. and i saw it as a kid.
as a kid i completely missed the politics because of great fight scenes and explosions. as an adult, i enjoy the politics part and how it works with episode 2 and 3.

beginning ? star wars has possibly the biggest toxic fan base of them all since the 70s.

you actually made a mistake. watching from episode 1-6 is the correct way to view it.

but its better not to get into it.

 

If I may add my two cents, I like the prequels a lot. Maybe because I grew up with this. One thing I really disliked about that movie, that also disturbs me in other movies where kids are involved, is the precocious behavior of Anakin. Yes, he is different from other kids and yes he have a high midi-chlorian value, but he was nine years old then. Some can say that authentic kids would be boring for a movie, but I think Lucasfilms esaggerated it with Anakin. Maybe they should have made him older so his lines are a little more realistic. I listended to the novelized version of Episode I cupple weeks ago and Anakin asked Padmé to marry him. He had strong feelings for her as he saw her the first time. That is pretty unrealistic. Boys in his age mostly aren't interested in stuff like love or girls. They don't have a look for beautiful girls. The rest was very cool.

 

I don’t like Jar Jar, I don’t like Jake Lloyd’s acting, and I think the story is a little confusing. Beyond that, I like the movie.

 

What I don’t like about it is the fact that it’s not a story that really adds to the overall narrative of the saga. We don’t really need to see how Anakin and Obi-Wan meet or how Anakin was found by the Jedi. That’s pretty much the point of the movie. Episode 1 should’ve been AOTC. Having said that I do have some love for TPM. It came out around the time I first became a SW fan as a kid, it has Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, pod racing and Dual of the Fates.

 

I don't know what the rest of Devon's or Jake's audition were like, but I think I get why Lucas went with Jake. While Devon's great on his delivery, I get a different personality vibe from Jake. With him, I get the impression that here's a mostly cheerful kid who's nonetheless capable of getting mad and holding grudges.

 

I can see that perspective as well. If someone would prefer the more dramatic version, I think that's their God given free will to want that, but it's not something I have such an issue with like that. Devon, to me, was playing it more intensely.

 

1) The intergalactic, economic politics in the story - while I understood it was to setup the reality of what Jedi's dealt with in their role, and how the Sith used these issues as cover, it seemed a bit heavy handed and boring. The pacing could have been a little quicker in this regard.

2) Jar Jar Binks - Instead of this character earning it's role as a comedic foil, he was presented in a way that demanded we like him. The whole vibe screamed "look at me I'm funny, no I'm really funny, oh I'm S-O-O-O funny. ...please clap." That just rubbed me the wrong way.

 

I think the boring political aspects were needed to show what life was like in those times in contrast to the iron grip of the Empire, rather than just showing what the Jedi had to deal with. The immersion of the way things used to be is one of the biggest achievements of the prequel era. It makes me disappointed that the New Republic hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet in the new canon.

 

I never had a problem with the politics in TPM , there isn't much of it anyway.

 

I’m amazed how much CGI Yoda helped The Phantom Menace for me. I guess the original puppet didn’t emote the full range emotions for me the way the animated update does.

Yoda seems much more concerned for Anakin. It creates a better dynamic in contrast with Mace Windu, which helps soften Mace’s character a bit.

And Yoda’s talk with Obi-Wan about training Anakin is so much more emotional and personally heartfelt.

 

Since the 70s, really?

 

The invasion of Naboo. We see the ships rolling in, but there's no fight. There's no depiction of the struggle. Later on in the movie, Amidala says, "My people are suffering, dying" but we are never shown this. The rule in movies is show don't tell. I think The Phantom Menace is a weaker movie for not showing the plight of the Naboo.

I really like the movie though. I even like Jar Jar.

 

Not a good rule IMO. May work for some movies in some situations, but not all. Cliegg telling Anakin about how he went after the Tusken works pretty well without showing anything. Again, Anakin telling Padmé what he did to punish the Tusken is very effective as well. It may not have been this good if everything that happened at the Tusken camp where shown instead of just hinted at.
Why is Alien so effective? The creature isn't shown so much. What we know about it is mostly by second-hand accounts, by eyewitnesses and Ash telling the rest of the crew some details. Aliens continued that tradition with Ripley telling the Marines what she knew about the species, before they actually met them.
Quint's "Indianapolis Story" in Jaws? Very intense! Would it have worked so well with actual flashbacks? I doubt it. I think Robert Shaw did a great job narrating it in a creepy and suspenseful way.

 

Cartoon Yoda didn't look enough like Yoda did in the OT.

 

Nothing. It's one of my favorite films and I would have loved a whole trilogy set in the time period.

 

The Title.

The Phantom Menace title kept invoking images of the Mask of the Phantasm: