PT Calling all Phantom fanatics! (Back in theaters May 3rd!)

I put TPM in the same category as ROTJ. Both have epic scenes and had the potential to be the best movie in the saga but some childish silliness and some bad acting ruined it for me for both. That said Duel of the Fates is still my favorite duel in the entire saga.

 

Well, he does and says some things that would probably not be following strict Jedi rules. Like "Greed can be a powerful ally". Or that he tried to force Watto to take currency that had no value. He made the chance dice roll to blue and pick Anakin versus his mother to be freed. Or shutting down Padme with "the queen trusts me judgement, you should too". And, later Obi-Wan mentions that QuiGon woud be on the council if it not for his general behavior. I just find him a tad "rogue" A little bit of a Jedi bad boy if you will. I love it.

 

This is one Star Wars film that has grown on me the most and has got for me personally better each after repeated viewings. When I first I saw for the first time in 99 I was slightly dissapointed perhaps being of the OT generation I was expecting a rehash of SW ESB ROTJ and probably I didnt expect something slightly different to them but I kept going to the cinema for repeated viewings and really like it a lot now.

 

TPM is the best of the trilogy for me. Pod-racing, Coruscant, QGJ, duel of the fates, and the music.

I even get what Lucas was trying to do w Midi-chlorians. Symbiotic relationship needing each other in harmony for survival. The opposite of the parasitic cancerous Sith. Just wish the dialog was better and just kept as a mysterious symbiotic power metric reading and about less cellular organisms. And maybe relate it back to how Anakin is craving power etc. Let us imagine where they live or how they connect.

The only thing I don’t like to this day, is Jar Jar (altho i dig the gunguns) and the virgin birth stuff. I love the idea of a chosen one who is prophesied to eradicate the Sith.., i just don’t think the virgin birth stuff is needed.

 

TPM is my favorite of the prequels. Feels most like the OT to me.

Not that it's bad that AOTC and ROTS have such a different feel and look to it than the OT, as I love those films as well and what they bring to the saga.

The entire world of Naboo, the swim to the underwater city with the music. The stuff on Tatooine. Seeing Coruscant for the first time. That shot where they land to see Chancellor Valorum and Palpatine, with the music and the incredible visual spectacle that is a planetwide city with cars and ships flying around.

The huge final battle on Naboo. Duel of the Fates, both the song and duel are great. The importance of the duel and the effect of losing Qui Gon cannot be overstated.

And finally, the incredible ending parade. The music, the celebration. "Augie's Great Municipal Band" is just an awesome track. A real celebratory sound to it. And that ending shot of the heroes and leaders atop the steps.

TPM is definitely the happiest film of the trilogy. Everything kind of goes down hill in the next two films. The galaxy plunges into war in AOTC and then Anakin's actions in ROTS.

 

In getting ready to watch TPM again, I always do my readings (1990s magazines, novel, SW Insider, these threads) to help prepare for the film. The buildup to the movie must first be stated as it was amazing and never will be seen again. Which brings us to why it was so divisive. Difficult to live up to hype. I loved it even though it ranks at the bottom with TLJ, the sheer scope of it, the sets built the world building was quite grand. The characters were great and I can easily see why George went for a standalone movie, a kid friendly adventure as the next two movies would be darker.
Also stated earlier by Oldstoneface " Anakin "lucking" his way through the end battle. I didn’t care for that. Why not have him actually do it through force usage or at least make it not just so silly? I didn’t mind at first that he was fumbling about but I didn’t like him destroying the control ship like that. It takes away from his character a bit"
I totally agree with this and tone down Jar Jar antics, delete some scenes (poop and farting) (Anakin spinning Starship).
The characters are great, love Qui Gon, seeing Obi Wan as a young Jedi was fantastic, Queen Amidala was strong and beautiful at such a young age and Anakin i thought was portrayed well, just had some corny lines.
The saber fight is arguably the best of the saga, the end battle shows four main scenes going on at once, Maul is scary fun, and we get to finally see the Jedi (the council is mysteriously cool).
I like the story and enjoy how it plays out. My five year old loved it. The end shows us Sidious created Palpatine to an extent, how they could be the same (love Ian). Something I learned that is amazing...☆☆☆Slow down the celebration music as it's the Emperors theme from ROTJ!!

 

Totally love the color palettes in all the three Prequel Movies. I also like the way everything is let, very pulp-ish look at everything. The designs from ships, sets, everything just popped off the screen for me.

 

It was a well shot film. Great film locations.
I disagree with the few who said it reminds them most of the OT. I dont see how a film not showing an older Anakin (AOTC) or the Death Star (ROTS) is closer to the OT? Maybe in the way it was shot on celluloid, but not the tone as compared to the other two PT films which lead into the OT.

 

I am happy that Vader has at least one happy movie in his biography, and, by the way, this movie has the best dialogues in the whole saga.

 

Watched this two nights ago and as usual I love the ride we take with the characters. It flies by. Qui-Gons interference with the pod race never occurred to me before but hes seen with closed eyes several times when they pan back to Padme & Shmi watching on their iPad. . When its revealed that there "was no father" you can ever so slightly see QuiGon's facial expression change. He's all in, right then and there. As if he KNEW Shmi's answer was going to be just as it was: No father. Cant explain it. Awesome stuff. QuiGon's interactions with Obi-Wan are great too. A good deal of respect there between the two. And who doesnt love Qui-Gons "rule-bending"? I sure do. He's not on the council for that very reason. Nice alternative to the "by the book" Monks the rest of them act like, lol.

Pod race, Maul saber fight, killer music, etc. Whats not to like here? TPM = Epic.

 

I think that may be in terms of it's overall tone and style which is an "upper beat" that is more in line with the two movies of the OT that it shares the most with, ANH and ROTJ. Though Lucas environmentally expanded designs it was still desert planet, city planet, jungle/forest planet adding going underwater and palace city.

Structurally it shares various similarities and patterns which comes out of all of them tracing back to The Star Wars script. It also has those classic movie elements harkening back to Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Gunga Din and those kinds of high adventure movies. It's the only one of Lucas' Star Wars movies that is actually well before the galaxy is in anything close to a state of war. By AOTC the galaxy is on edge then it's the Clone Wars in ROTS then the OT.

 

I love how subtle a lot of the interactions between the characters are in TPM. Perhaps this is part of the reason some find the film boring but I think it rewards multiple viewings more than maybe any other SW film.

 

I just rewatched "Discoveries From Inside: Costumes Revealed" and when they got to Trisha Biggar's work, I had this sudden urge to watch TPM just to look at all the costumes! I've never done that before, but I just know it'll be worth it.

 

12. Running the Blockade
13. Tatooine
14. Watto's Shop
15. Fateful Meetings
16. Dinner Conversation
17. Preparing for the Race
18. A Wager with Watto
19. Meet the Podracers
20. "Begin the Race"
21. Lap Two
22. Home Stretch
23. Collecting the Prize
24. Choosing a New Path
25. Darth Maul Attacks
26. The Queen's Worries
27. Arrival on Coruscant
28. The Jedi Council
29. Senate Session
30. Testing Anakin
31. Paltapine's Nomination
32. Anakin's Future
33. The Queen's Gambit

From the moment they land on Tatooine to the moment they return to free Naboo: This sequence of scenes is STAR WARS at its longest run of home runs. Maybe -- just maybe -- my favorite hour in any movie. I love the bitter-sweetness, nostalgia, the ugly, greedy face of the world, the hopefulness, and the menacing, foreboding tone.

Add these 65 minutes with the first 10 minutes and the 5 minutes that is Duel of Fates and you have 80 minutes of perfection.

 

TPM contains a lot of motives from "White Fang" by Jack London. Some of these motives also exist in ROTS.
At all, talking about novels, the main part of TPM is like White Fang, AOTC contains an important theme of Wuthering Heights and ROTS strongly reminds me Crime and Punishment.

 

For some reason, Darth Sidious in TPM is my favorite version of Sidious in the prequels. From the very first holo appearance you immediately sense this dude is not someone you'd want to mess with. Credit to Ian for delivering a subtle, but clear menace despite only showing part of his face. The dialog is pretty good too:

Viceroy, I don’t want this STUNTED SLIME in my sight again!

I wish we saw more of him in both TPM and AOTC.

 

I won’t go so far as to call myself a fanatic, but I’m definitely in the camp of “It’s OK and it gets way too much hatred.” Qui-Gon Jinn is awesome. The final duel between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Maul is pretty awesome. Maul is a really cool henchman. Most of the action set pieces, such as when the Jedi are on the Trade Federation ship and the pod race, are pretty good. It admirably maintains the tone of a Saturday matinee serial.

The storytelling is clunky, the characters are thinly-drawn, some of the acting isn’t very good, and Jar Jar Binks really is one of the more obnoxious excuses for comic relief I’ve ever seen in a movie, but it does action pretty well, it does adventure pretty well, and the production design is pretty awesome. It’s OK.

 

If you cut out the Gungans completely (Lucas would have gotten his epic War and Peace fight with AOTC anyway) and get rid of the medichlorian stuff and you got a movie that's on par with ROTJ, imho.

 

I still think it lacks the heart of that film though. The film’s big problem, in my opinion, is that it’s trying to tell two stories, with two separate sets of stakes, two entirely different villains, etc., and they don’t mesh well together. The two stories of course, are the rise of Darth Sidious to the Chancellorship and the discovery of Anakin Skywalker. Both are OK in their own right, but I do think that having the Anakin story interrupt the invasion of Naboo does grind the Naboo plot to a halt and that it never really recovers momentum once the heroes leave Tatooine.

 

I think a stronger focus on the characters would have resolved this issue. If you've ever seen Terminator 2, once the heroes escape into the desert, the plot is essentially over. The villain is no longer chasing them. Sarah, John, and the Terminator could have theoretically have stayed hidden until Judgement Day occurred. The plot doesn't start up again until Sarah Conner decides to go and blow up Skynet.

And it's odd because in TPM, Maul actually goes to Tatooine and the heroes are in jeopardy. But the narrative isn't focused enough on either characters (Anakin's story) or plot (Sidious' story) so there's no sense of impending doom. Even to the point where the scene that has the heroes finding out that the villain has found them and they have to race back to the ship to escape was cut from the film.

My thing is, you have the Jedi get attacked in space. Then they escape down to the planet. Rescue the Queen by fighting off some droids. Fight through droids to get to the ship. Then blast through the blockade. Your whole first twenty minutes is so action packed that your audience will be wanting to have some character scenes concerning Anakin after that just so they can take a breather. But introducing Jar-Jar and then having to pause the movie so we can meet Gungans (which oddly enough is what happens in ROTJ; the movie gets paused so we can meet the Ewoks) put a giant barrier in the opening. (plus it's convoluted. Why do the droids land on the opposite side of the planet?) The film never feels like it gets going to me.

 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is absolutely one of my favorite films. I think the difference is that, while the middle of that film does drag slightly, the stakes and the threat remain consistent throughout the film. The future of humanity is still at stake here. Skynet remains the threat throughout the entire film. The goal is always to defeat Skynet so humanity can survive. Yes, Sarah Connor decides to go from defense to offense. She does decide that, rather than waiting around for Judgment Day, why not prevent it? But only the strategy changes- not the stakes and not the villain.

In Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the equivalent of what you’re describing would be the Coruscant scenes. When Padmé Amidala decides, “Screw the Senate! I’ll form an alliance with the Gungans to stop this invasion!”, that’s comparable to when Sarah Connor finally decides to play offense and actually prevent the war.

What happens on Tatooine is a rapid gear shift into a completely different story, almost entirely disconnected from the invasion of Naboo. The villain is no longer the Trade Federation, it’s Watto. It’s no longer about the invasion of Naboo, it’s about the manumission of Anakin Skywalker. It’s a completely different movie, and it really doesn’t tie into Naboo at all. And then, once Jinn manumits Ani, it suddenly expects us to care about Naboo again.

I agree.

I actually disagree with this. Yes, Binks is an unbearable irritant, but while the film does hit a snag with his introduction, it quickly recovers when they get to the underwater city (and I really love the production design of the city). That segment is perfectly in keeping with a Saturday matinee serial, so if doesn’t bother me.

Despite my annoyance with Binks, I actually think the film works pretty well until they land on Tatooine. That’s when it starts to derail a bit.

 

I think we both came to the same conclusion, for slightly different reasons.

This is my own opinion, but unlike the Ewoks, which just sort of drag a bit, the entire scenario of the Trade Federation invasion has to become overly contrived in order for the story to be able to introduce these Gungans (set up) just so they can fight in a big CGI war for the finale (pay off).

The Jedi need to time to land on the planet and meet the Gungans. Which means the TF can't just land near the city and roll (hover?) their tanks in. So they land way far away because? There's no logictical reasoning, but the story needs to give some time for the Jedi to meet the Gungans so the TF land on the opposite side of the planet.

Then we get underwater shenanigans, which is literally the same thing happening twice in a row. And then they get to the city to rescue the Queen right as she is being transported... which would have still been the case had the TF landed right outside the city with the Jedi aboard one of their transports, skipping over the Gungan subplot completely. The TF has to act illogical in order for Lucas to get his Gungans introduced, just so he can get a WAR AND PEACE battle at the end, which he would have gotten three years later anyway with Geonosis. It all just seems like a big contrived waste of time, especially since Jar-Jar is so annoying anyway.

 

I LOVE the Phantom Menace. I remember being little and all the industries were pumping out anything and putting a Star Wars character on it. I loved ever minute of it. Coke and Pepsi had the different characters, lays had the mini posters in the bags of chips. Pizza Hut, Burger King, Taco Bell, and MC Donald's all had the different toys.

My birthday always fell on when each movie came out, (Thank you Mr. Lucas). And I had a Star Wars Birthday blow-out. I sometimes wish I had a time machine to relive it.

The movie itself was just as amazing as the build-up. I love Padmé's wardrobe in this movie, (this is my favorite Padmé). The is also my favorite Obi-Wan. Everyone also loves Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. Duel of the Fates was the best song from any of the soundtracks. The fight scenes were perfection. The battle droids were awesome.

Jar-Jar and the Gungans don't bother me, the are they Ewoks of the prequels. The Ewoks didn't ruin the movie either. They just are there, plus he put them in there for the little people.

All in all it is the best of all the prequels.

I will say this I love all 6 movies and I could not live without a single one. However, this movie is my favorite out of the prequels. Which is kinda funny being that my favorite characters of all time are Jango/Boba.

 

It's nice to see the unconditional love for the much-maligned movie.
As an adult, watching the Jedi in their prime and the universe expanded so much was a real treat. I get the argument that it wasn't epic enough but it's just a beginning of the journey, with more things to come.

 

This is what I refer to as “plot logic”, and honestly, I don’t let it get to me that much. Why doesn’t the Empire fire on the escape pod that hosts C-3PO and R2-D2? If Judgment Day is averted at the end of T2 then how is John Connor born? Why does Buzz Lightyear still freeze in the presence of humans if he doesn’t know that he’s a toy?

See, I can pick apart pretty much every film’s plot logic. I like the underwater city and it’s very in keeping with the film’s Saturday matinee serial tone.