PT Why does there seem to be a near-consensus that AOTC is worse than TPM?

Do away with Jar Jar and everything he does, and improve the CG of the Gungan's battle against the droid army, and my opinion of the film goes up several notches.

 

I DISLIKE, even hate, ranking movies, but I did notice an enormous increase in quality between TPM and AOTC, in as many aspects as acting, pacing, emotion, characters, actors' performance, world building and pretty much everything else when compared to TPM. TPM was nice and fun, from a certain point of view, but AOTC blew all that out of the water. It was the better movie in every single aspect. Having seen TPM many times, I never found it to be a bad movie. It has lots of strengths and qualities, but AOTC simply tops it by far, while ROTS is to me pretty much the same rank, just more tragic, and of course the finale of the prequels. Still, all that doesn't diminish AOTC's merits. I'd give TPM 7 or 8 stars, while AOTC and ROTS both get 9 or 10, no ranking there.

 

I rewatched AOTC last night and it’s way better than I remember.

 

Time heals all wounds

 

While that would help, a lot of the plot is bogged down in politics and that's not ideal for something marketed primarily at kids. I think everything you mentioned, plus scaling back on the politics and trade agreements, etc would go a long way. There's a good movie in TPM, it's just bogged down by a lot.

 

Please show me the scenes in either TPM or AOTC where the characters laboriously discussed tax code.

 

Anakin is really annoying in both of them, but probably more so in AOTC. He gets a pass for being annoying in TPM because he is just a little kid, and they are generally annoying anyway.

I think that his worst scene, aside from the fireplace scene of course, is when he is whining to Padme about Obi-Wan whilst she is busy trying to pack her suitcases for their holiday.

As soon as he starts with that;

"It's worse! He's overly critical...He....he doesn't understand! It's not fair!"

My reaction is usually to want to do this

 

Knock off the personal attacks. /Guidman

 

If anything, I feel it's the opposite from what Vault said - the whole prequel trilogy shows kids the importance of choosing good and decent people to high office, instead of choosing corrupt and evil ones who are going to manipulate things to take power into their own hands and oppress the people they are supposed to be representing! And it also shows them how greedy and dishonest types will always use trade disputes to try to advance their own greedy goals without regards to the common good, so when bad and corrupt leaders speak of tariffs and trade disputes, it's probably because they're trying to manipulate situations to their advantage and they only seek more money and power for themselves.
Kids can learn important lessons from the PT!

 

Au contraire, I have three kids. A grown up daughter of 21, and two boys, aged 11 and 14. They are annoying. (I still love them though)

They aren't as annoying as Anakin however.

 

It doesn't have to be either/or. Kids are both annoying and a lot of fun, sometimes even simultaneously.

 

I honestly haven't thought of it that way before, but you're absolutely right. That's an extremely important lesson and it's great that Star Wars takes the time to highlight it.

The argument that this would alienate kids loses all credibility when you consider how popular these movies are and what an impact they've had on pop culture.

 

Yep. I think the "nothing happens" idea depends a lot on individual preference, not just for content but style as well. Actually so much happens in TPM and AOTC that I wish as a viewer I could linger in the story and world as told in those films more so than any other point in the saga. Comparatively ESB doesn't feel like it even really starts for me until Cloud City.

 

Apologies, my reply (the part moderated) to @Sith Lord 2015 was tongue in cheek. I didn't take any kind of umbrage from his post to me. It's all good.

 

Sorry if I offended you, not my intention all. Maybe I got carried way with all that Covid-19 talk, so I take back my offense. Fair enough? You have my apologies!

 

You didn't at all, no apology required. It's only interweb forum banter.

 

Eh, I have seen teenagers far more whiny and annoying than Anakin. His complaints were at least justified -- Obi-Wan is overly critical during the speeder chase.

 

We also see Anakin being overly insubordinate to Obi-Wan leading up to the chase. I think Obi-Wan's criticisms of Anakin are justified. We see Obi-Wan put up with and tolerate Anakin's insubordination and backtalk far more than we see him being critical of Anakin, so no, Anakin's complaints were not justified.

 

A pretty bad film, even by SW standards; but I think the Imperial March at the end -the Jedi leading imperial armies being the idea- is effective.

 

I think both films are great in their own ways.

They both have their flaws, too.

I like AOTC better.

That is all.

 

It's not mutually exclusive. Obi-Wan has valid criticisms of Anakin, and Anakin has valid criticisms of Obi-Wan. For example, the lecture about the lightsaber was unnecessary given that Anakin lost it in a fight. It's not like he dropped it due to carelessness.

 

Having valid criticisms does not justify being insubordinate though, and we see it far more than we should. As far as the lightsaber lecture, that's there not to berate Anakin, but more for the viewer to show that Anakin tends to act more carelessly than he should, while at the same time to imply how important their lightsaber is to a Jedi. And considering we also see Anakin's carelessness, both with his lightsaber and his actions, on Geonosis when he rushes headfirst into the droid factory, and ends up having his lightsaber destroyed, I'd say Obi-Wan's criticisms are justified.

 

And Obi-Wan jumps out the window onto the droid, so he's hardly free of recklessness. He also berates Anakin for "going the wrong way", when Anakin's shortcut was in fact correct.

 

I love all 6 Star Wars movies, but AOTC is last on my list mainly because the music is not as epic as the other 5. Also, the CGI has not aged well.