PT The Phantom Menace 20th Anniversary Thread

I was watching the build up to the Duel of Fates with Maul, and it is manifico! The tension, the mystery and then the satisfaction of the duel itself. The duels in AOTC and ROTS felt more contrived and to please action junkies; though I love these duels anyway,m. TPM Duel feels more epic and choreographed. The whole film builds to this duel with Darth Maul. The Duel with Dooku in AOTC is great, but there isn’t a build up, or set up to make the conflict feel important, you spend much of the film’s time with Jango Fett as a main villian. ROTS suffers from duel overload, four total, and the only duel that should have happened was the Battle of Brothers on Mustafar, which has the most emotional depth and impact on characters.

 

HelloGreedo's pretty good reminiscing video:

 

Oops, I didn't see this thread and just posted another separate thread for this video. If a moderator wants to merge my other thread into this one, feel free.

 

These are great ^^^

Thanks for posting!

 

20 Years of TPM. Wow, time has flown by! I'd wish LFL would make more if it then ONE Panel at celebration. Hey this is a Generations introduction into SW and you wouldnt be able to produce more films and stuff if it wouldnt have been for this Generation and this movie.

I LOVE Episode I. I was 12 back then movie hit the Cinema on August 19th in Germany (glady we did get a word wide release for every SW movie since). I was hyped and pumped, had already played the Video game (completly spoilered) and could not wait for it to be released on the big Screen. I was a fan since watching the Ep IV SE in Theater with my grandpa back in january 1997 and I was buzzing with anticipation. I remember seeing the first Trailer on a national TV channel Streaming it in german for the VERY FIRST TIME. I couldnt make any Connections to what I knew of SW back then, only remembered Qui-Gon, the reffering to the prophecy and this Young child who seemed to be important! It was such a big deal for the tv channel to Show this Trailer, it was like an Event.

The film itself is very Close to my heart. I sets up SO many Things. I love the Story, the world Building, the pod race, the duel of the fates. Qui-Gon is a brilliant character (who doesnt get the appreciation he deserves!). I always liked little Anni and his abilities and skills, I thought it was great seeing Vader as a little boys.

I remember asking myself over and over how it continues and what will happen with Anakin and Obi-Wan next. I was so pumped for Ep II from the Moment I got out of the Theater.

So many fond memories and Feelings. I think TPM is the movie which made me a DIE HARD fan. It's a Piece of art and one of Lucas' most honest movies. It's visually mindblowing with great designs and effects, adds so much to the GFFA, makes it bigger, grander. The Story is a great prologue to Ep II and III and sets up everything which happens in those two films. The Music is recocnizable with nice callbacks and great new pieces. The whole time around Ep I was just great. I think even the Hype for TFA didnt match what the Feelings were around 1999 when Ep I was released.

Iam glad that more and more People Show their love for this movie and the PT in General. Its a shame that movies like this get a bad Reputation from some loud noisy buzzing of a small crowd whos expectations and nostalgia wasnt met like they hoped.

 

Every Saga Has A Beginning

 

saw it 10 times in the theater, still have all my ticket stubs. never had seen a movie more than 3 times. I watched it for the 42nd time last friday.
the people that didn't like it wanted a more jaded and dark movie, i needed the opposite at that time of my life and it was perfect to me. it's the most visually creative and beautiful Star Wars film.

 

TPM is my favorite of the prequels. I like Liam Neeson's performance the best. He was my favorite character as s kid. I first saw the film when I was 13. I saw it seven times. (I have a nice dad. He's 80 now.) My Dad liked Anakin. Dad was not critical of Jake Lloyd's performance. I think that Lloyd is blamed for some of Lucas's odd choices. I mean, it's weird that a slave should say, "Yippee!" Watto may not have been the worst master, but he still had explosives in Anakin and Shmi's heads. That's messed up. Darth Maul was terrifying. I didn't realize that he was less powerful than Tyranus and Vader as a kid. But, still, Ray Park was good at portraying Maul almost being content to be a living weapon. I think Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is a good companion for TPM. I like Ian McDiarmid as Sidious Palpatine in this film. He's chilling. Also, I didn't have a problem with Jar Jar as a kid. I do think the aliens in Star Wars are often racist stereotypes. The Hutts are usually corrupt and manipulative, for example. But the Neimoidians actually work as a stereotype in a way that's kinda amusing. I'm sure there was a good Neimodian out there somewhere. The same goes for Kaminoans. There was a Kaminoan Jedi once. I personally believe the old EU story about Ki-Adi-Mundi finding A'Sharad Hett is a better story than TPM. Still, I gotta give TPM props for being visually interesting. ROTS is probably the best prequel, despite its problems with sexism. But, for me, TPM is my favorite.

 

TPM was on yesterday on UK tv watched a bit of it

 

Did you only watch half of Maul's scenes?

 

I wish I could say I saw Darth Maul for a split second, but alas I didn't

 

I saw TPM at the mall.

 

If Maul showed the movie there, he'd only charge half prices.

 

The Phantom Menace was the first time I ever experienced Star Wars. I was 5 years old. As a kid, I enjoyed it. Aspects still hold up. Maul's character design was on point, the pod-racing is a neat little set-piece, and the duel makes the slog of the rest of the film worth it.

 

Good memories. I remember by the 7th or 8th time I saw it just patiently waiting for the end battle with Maul.

 

This is the first film I was able to get in on the hype for, being 6 and all. And honestly, still feels the most potent of a pre-movie buzz I've ever been immersed it if you get what I mean by that strange string of sentences. Lol. Seeing some of these commercials again is really striking a real chord with me! haha

 

Had no idea this great thread existed!- I need to get out of RYL more often

 

40 minutes of thinly-veiled, more or less subtle bashing that pretends to be an unbiased historical analysis.

 

I think bashing is a pretty strong word. It's just one man's take on some of the history and impact of the film, and included what I felt were some interesting pieces of footage and tidbits that some here might appreciate. I'm a much bigger fan of TPM now than I once was, but there's no denying audiences in 1999 were divided about the film. I guess I just see it as a realistic assessment that doesn't attempt to sugar-coat anything.

 

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history

Lucas: “Everybody said, “Oh, well, there was a war between the Jedi and the Sith.” Well, that never happened. That’s just made up by fans or somebody. What really happened is, the Sith ruled the universe for a while, 2,000 years ago. Each Sith has an apprentice, but the problem was, each Sith Lord got to be powerful. And the Sith Lords would try to kill each other because they all wanted to be the most powerful. So in the end they killed each other off, and there wasn’t anything left. So the idea is that when you have a Sith Lord, and he has an apprentice, the apprentice is always trying to recruit somebody to join him — because he’s not strong enough, usually — so that he can kill his master.

That’s why I call it a Rule of Two — there’s only two Sith Lords. There can’t be any more because they kill each other. They’re not smart enough to realize that if they do that, they’re going to wipe themselves out. Which is exactly what they did.”