Movie Defense Force: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

[Jimothy Sterling]

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Star Wars week happened to fall on a week in which Movie Defense Force was not scheduled. May God have mercy on Jim Sterling's soul, for Star Wars fans have none to spare.

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[Vivi22]

Have to agree with everything said here. Especially with regard to set design, the use of CG, and the battle sequences. There may be a lot of things wrong with the movie, but at least it didn't look like complete ass (not actually a fair statement I suppose since the film actually looks quite good), and benefited greatly from having someone on set that knew what they were doing with the lightsaber scenes and choreography.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I will say that this one along with the other prequels could have been brilliant if old Georgie had just accepted some outside input.

 

[Stormtyrant]

Very good video.

Now do Attack of the Clones.

Go on, I dare ya!

 

[Tombsite]

I guess that if you look at the movie in a vacuum then it is not that bad. But it really is very hard to do that. And while Jarjar might have a few redeeming qualities the kid has absolutely none.

 

[Jasper Kazai]

I consider myself a "hardcore" Star Wars fan (except I would never use that title because blech), but I still can enjoy the prequels. Sue me. Yeah, they're not the OG trilogy in any sense, but they can still be fun to watch.

Good MDF, I liked it and agreed with just about everything.

 

[Daft Time]

Yeah, I'll agree on this one - even on the Jar-Jar part. The pod-racing made a half-decent game, the Darth Maul vs Obi Wan and Qui-Gon fight was fantastic and I got to see Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor as Jedi. Unlike the the other two prequels, at least I can sit down with my little cousins and enjoy the movie.

Also; fuck Attack of the Clones but the third one - I even forgot it's name - was worse.

 

[Worgen]

Jar Jar was annoying but the kid was much much worse.

 

[Kinitawowi]

Somehow, Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars film I ever saw. Yes, the whole thing managed to pass me by for the first nineteen years of my life.

Phantom Menace was enough to convince me that I could happily go another nineteen years without ever setting sight on such claptrap. I honestly thought Jim was going to go the whole six minutes without ever mentioning Jar Jar Binks, but dammit there he is. I had no emotional investment in the mythology (obviously I knew about Anakin eventually becoming Vader and the implications of that fact), but Anakin was the Wesley Crusher of this film, the shitty kid hero who pops up to save the day at the very end and UGH the film did not need that. That's the problem with the pod racing; it's supposed to hint at his piloting ability but ends up as just "pay attention, this will be important later" tell-not-show storytelling.

But then it did have Liam Neeson, who is usually awesome.

(Since then I've only watched Star Wars IV, and while I get that it might have been huge had I seen it at the time of release, by the time I was 26 I could only find it boring.)

 

[Jack and Calumon]

I agree with Jim here, the first film is often overblown in how bad it is and it does contain merits that do mean it's not a terrible terrible film, just a very underwhelming one when placed next to the original trilogy.

And Attack of the Clones is very shit. I'm not even going to mention sand.

Now I secretly hope that you might talk about episode 3. I actually kind of like it, and it's not even for a guilty pleasure, I just kind of like it.

Calumon: Don't listen to him! He likes X-men 3 as well! D:

 

[Urh]

Actually, a closer look at the darth maul duel shows that it's well...kinda shit too, and comically so:


And there's also the fact that the entire duel is ruined by Darth Maul, who has just spent several minutes showing how skilled he is at combat, just standing there like a clueless twat at the end. Also, the reason why the lightsaber duels were so memorable in the original trilogy had nothing to do with fight choreography.

 

[The Apple BOOM]

As much as they get flak, I really really love the action scenes in the prequel trilogy. Especially the fight on Mustafar and the 2v1 in this movie.

 

[Panorama]

i saw a fan edited version of this film, about 20-30 minutes was cut out. It made the film so much better, they had none of the underwater scene and a few others it was so much better.

 

[TwiZtah]

I actually enjoy the prequels far more than the first trilogy. Time has not done the first trilogy and good, the acting is bad, the CGI is bad, and most of all, the action scenes are WORTHLESS, especially the lightsaber duels which is just abysmal.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I've always said, that while none of the prequel films are good from any critical standpoint, The Phantom Menace is actually the best of a collectively bad job, by quite a long way actually. I guess TPM gets singled out to be hated on because it was the first one, and when it came out people had their hopes up more than for the other two, but I've always found it fun to watch. Even when its bad I'm enjoying myself, rather than groaning and face-palming like the bad parts of AOTC and ROTS.

The Obi/Qui-Gon vs Darth Maul fight is the best light-saber battle not just in the prequel trilogy, but over all six Star Wars movies (yes, you heard me, even better than Luke vs Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. There, I said it). The battle scenes/pod racing scene are well choreographed and well shot, it's legitimately funny, and it has Liam Neeson as a fucking Jedi!

Also, no matter how annoying kid-Anniken is, I take him over Hayden Christensen every. Fucking. Day.

Finally, and this one may require a volcanic-resistant flame shield, but out of all six movies the only one that I'm pre[ared to call good without any caveats or qualifying statements is The Empire Strikes Back. A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, really aren't all that great.

 

[anthony87]

Jar Jar was annoying but the kid was much much worse.

And his role only got bigger as the trilogy went on.

Thankfully Jake Lloyd only played him for one film. I mean I know he was only a kid back then but still, if Game of Thrones has shown us anything it's that child actors don't have to suck.

[sub][sub]Yea yeah, GoT was over a decade later so it may not be a valid example but shhhhhhhhhhh![/sub][/sub]

 

[Rad Party God]

The movie is shit, EVERYONE and their dog can agree with that, but I totally agree with Jim that out of the prequel trilogy, it's definitely the best, though it's not much saying. I definitely agree that the film is at least very amusing on it's own, the battles are great and the pod racing bit is definitely my favorite bit of the entire movie, heck, I found the pod racing game for the PS2 in a bargain bin and I bought it on a heartbeat, it's not F-Zero GX fast*, but it's a good game on it's own.

[small]*F-Zero GX is IMO the very best racing game ever made.[/small]