Escape to the Movies: The Phantom Menace 13 Years Later

[Mr.Pandah]

The fact that you whined more about the people whining about it rather than reviewing the movie other than "It's technically proficient/has good camera work/shitty comic relief" annoys the hell out of me. You stopped us at the beginning and told us to just go watch another video if we wanted to essentially hear what we wanted to hear from you. I don't care how much people whine because I'm not the one whining. Saying a movie is "Not that bad" doesn't really give me much.

I don't know why I bother watching this series anymore. It seems like Zero Punctuation is the only series that's worth watching anymore because at least he bitches about the game he reviews, you ***** about people non-stop.

^^Hypocrisy as well, me bitching about Bob bitching, heh.

 

[Kingjackl]

I'd like to contribute to some sort of debate here, but all I can say is: absolutely 100% spot on, Bob!

 

[TWEWER]

I just got back from the theater. There were three people there, me and two friends. It was so much fun. It was incredibly nostalgic for us.

 

[tehweave]

It's reviews like this that make me think that comment sections on videos should be taken out completely. I'm dead serious. Even what I'm writing right now should be as well.

This is the third article/video I've seen this week that inadvertently attacks those who will be inevitably commenting on how wrong said author is. I actually could not post any other comment besides what I'm writing at this very second, and honestly there's no point to anything I'm saying.

Other than "Good review, enjoyed it," I can't think of anything to say. So there.

Good review. Enjoyed it.

 

[VonBrewskie]

That was great man. I didn't even realize I was still holding onto some of my old hate for this movie until you started praising it a bit. I had tried to distance myself from the film, as you said. I see now that what I thought of as distance was actually just me burying my emotions. Wow. You are right about the "never being able to go home" part. In 1999 my life was falling down around me. At the time, PM was like a familiar hand reaching out to me from better times to protect me from the strife of my existence. I really put a huge amount of unrealistic expectation behind that movie. Oh well. I liked the third one and I'll always have Yavin.

 

[Worgen]

I don't get the hate for the phantom menace when we have the revenge of the sith to hate on since its a much much worse movie, at least the phantom menace had the possibility of good movies following it, regenge of the sith was just shit.

 

[Littaly]

You know what, I had three whole paragraphs of text about my feelings for the prequels and how they are super important to me despite sucking, and how I have a right to like sh*tty movies and how Star Wars fandom has become more nasty to be a part of than it is.. and blah, blah, blah. But for once I'm just going to stick to what I've promised myself: to just not post about it on the Internet anymore. It's not making me any wiser, not even in the nerdiest of senses, and I need to stop wasting brain power on things like that.

I'll just comment on the video. Pretty nice, videos (especially somewhat aggressive videos on somewhat controversial topics) tend to come off as better when you agree with them, but still, well said... even if you led me in on a trail of thought I would rather never stray in on again. Also, you are aware that you are setting yourself up for just as big of a disappointment with The Avengers as the rest of the Internet is for The Dark Knight Rises right? Good, just checking.

 

[LazyAza]

I absolutely love the Plinkett reviews but I never agreed that the prequels were the worst films ever made. SW fans alongside StarTrek fans and comic fans have always struck me as some of the most insane and obsessive among all nerd fanbases. People need to just chill out and move on with their lives. Michael Bay utterly raped my biggest nerd interest in to the fucking ground but I don't care because they're just dumb movies.

 

[Yugeky20]

I personally believe that Episode I wasn't as bad as itis refered to(except Jar Jar) but Lucashas almost milked this series out of its finally $.

 

[El Dwarfio]

Oh MovieBob you know the entire cinema going public so well. I'm so glad we have you here, in your infinite wisdom, to tell us all how we should think and act, we'd be nothing without you.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Look I hated the canon parts of Phantom Menace. But the scenery, the cinematography and the CGI sequences at the time. The real reason to watch EP1 was the fight scenes. Plus considering the wait we all had to watch the Episodes Lost (1-3) of course we'd be mad and hate on George Lucas. The real problem I ever had with him was messing with the Mona Lisa's that were 4-6 (Ok they weren't Mona Lisa's but they were great movies) and of course we were disappointed.
I agree with you Bob, Ep2 and Ep3 were worse. Which is why I don't watch them.
I read the EU books (the good ones that Lucas didn't try to alter...)

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Phantom Menace was the only Star Wars I've seen in theaters so my view on it is a bit in its favor already. I'll probably see Chronical before Phantom Menace and even then I'll likely seek out a theater showing it in 2D because I live on Kill-joy Island.

 

[Diane Miller]

Bravissimo! +2 for offhand reference to the Worm Ouroboros.

 

[protogenxl]

Tim Bisley dealt with it properly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmdOuXyTJIk&t=2m35s

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Well spoken. People fail to remember that in the time the originals came out sci-fi was not even taken seriously as an adult genre.

That's right, your holy grail (and mine I must confess) was aimed at early teen audiences at the very most. Don't whine and cry because the beginning of a second such trilogy was aimed at the same general demographic instead of the far, FAR more critical grown-up OT audience, trying to be more light-hearted and taking advantage of the fact that things won't get really bad until the third act. As Bob just said, the one aimed at said grown-up audience actually ended up worse off.

When it came out I was 12, and I enjoyed it despite having watched the OT long before, too young to spot all the ethnic stereotypes or care that they were there.

Anyways, at least one amazing thing came from the Prequel Trilogy that was worth it- Matthew Stover's Episode III novelization.

 

[tautologico]

My only main beef with the prequel trilogy was that they went almost exclusively for big ticket names to star in it and you can practically see the egos rise up throughout the movies. The only real exception to this (in my eyes at least) being Samuel L. Jackson who actually gave a solid performance. The rest though? Practically calling it in and dull as dishwater.

Compare this to the original trilogy where nearly everyone was an unknown and the trilogy gave them their big ticket start off. You saw determination to give a good performance there because their livelihood relied on it.

It's probably not fair to immediately blame the actors for this, though. There are many issues here: almost all sets are virtual, and so are a lot of the creatures and characters. The actors had to interact with invisible people in walls covered in blue (or green). Not very helpful for actors to get in the mood. Also, George Lucas is not considered to be a great director for actors. A more skillful director in this particular skill may get good performances even from mediocre actors (and yes, the original trilogy has its fair share of bad acting too, but Lucas only directed Ep. IV, which may explain why the acting is somewhat better in the original trilogy). Not least, there's the terrible dialog he writes. You can find interviews with the actors in the original trilogy complaining about the badness of the dialog (especially Carry Fisher). Note also that in the original trilogy Lucas collaborated with some other people on the screenplays, whereas in the prequel trilogy he wrote it all by himself.

I really don't think the bad acting is the actors' fault, especially considering most of them did very well in other films.

 

[Snotnarok]

I don't get the obsessive rage (nor have I met anyone who did so) they're just movies, crappy little movies where the only time where I got angry was Episode 3 where they opened to this big space battle (which I love) and it was looking to be really fun and amazing annnnnd it focused on 2 ships with a dumb problem. But that's my inner space battle lover.

 

[kingmob]

What can i say besides I do not agree? I think you are projecting your own reaction upon evryone else. i had already overgrown star wars by the time the movies came out, but I was still of course really excited. I was not even expecting anything mind-blowing, really, I wasn't. i remember trying realy hard to like it even.
However, the utter dissapointment of where the story was taking us, combined with the faults you pointed out, were just that, really dissapointing. it is impossible to seperate this from the old star wars and I think it will be impossible for me to ever forget this feeling of dissapointment.

This comes from someone who has read loads of crappy star wars novels and enjoyed them! Not because of the quality, but simply because they were star wars. I think you are doing people who still vocally hate the prequels a disservice. Ok, there's no reason to be a cry-baby, but this was much worse than just an average sci-fi movie blockbuster. This was watching star-wars being destroyed by its creator. like it or not, there is a big difference and that difference will never dissapear for anyone who grew up with the originals.