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pauraqueAfter rewatching the Original Trilogy, sdk and I allowed our enthusiasm to carry us forward into rewatching the Prequel Trilogy. That was... well, it was certainly a decision that we made.
I saw this movie in the theater and had not seen it since then. I knew it wasn't a cinematic masterpiece, but I did go in with a positive attitude hoping to enjoy some cheesy silliness and at least have fun razzing it. I'm afraid I was not able to maintain that attitude; I actually found the movie unpleasant to watch. So if you love it, maybe skip this post.
- I remembered basically nothing from the first third of the movie. When we started it up I was really questioning reality because I KNEW I had seen it but nothing was familiar at all until they got to Tatooine.sdk said when she saw it in the theater she fell asleep; did this also happen to me??
- Okay. I had not seen this movie in a long time. I consciously attempted to clear my mind of all memes and preconceptions and give it a fair evaluation. Coming from this mindset, I say to you now: Jar Jar Binks is so fucking annoying, he almost wrecks the movie singlehandedly. It's not a meme, he really is that bad. He is not funny. He has no meaningful relationships to anyone. He is not important in any way that couldn't be easily rewritten. There is usually no reason for him to even be present. He only exists to needlessly interrupt scenes where characters we might actually care about are talking.
- On a technical level, Jar Jar is not well-integrated into his scenes. I know this was an early attempt at a CGI character of this sort, but he doesn't have good eye contact with the actors, and when they're not directly interacting with him it doesn't feel like he's even there. This often produces an odd sense that the characters are pointedly ignoring him, which is a headcanon I can accept.
- Ewan McGregor channels Alec Guinness so well that it's a little uncanny. He is working so hard and the movie does not deserve him.
- No wonder Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon was the dominant ship in this era of the fandom. They are the only characters who have a real relationship.
- Jake Lloyd is actually pretty convincing as a young Vader. When somebody is pissing him off, his face absolutely says "I am putting you on my list of people to Force-choke when I grow up."
- Darth Maul is so cool and charismatic and it's a crime that the movie doesn't spend more time on him.
- No complaints about any of the human actors, really. They are all fine. The script lets them down.
- When we got to the podracing I remembered a lot, or very possibly I was remembering things that were in the game. My memory of seeing the movie in the theater was that the podracing was the only time I wasn't bored, but boy does it take a lot of time to get there. Why do we need to sit around introducing all these characters from the podracing circuit who are completely unimportant? Is there nothing else we could have done with this time?
- I do appreciate that an attempt is made to show the political problems with the Republic that lead to its downfall, and a sense of Palpatine's villainy as consisting of concrete actions that harm people rather than just a stereotypically "evil" aesthetic. It's not Andor level or anything, but points for effort.
- I don't think the script works hard enough to justify leaving Anakin's mom behind. All they had to do was bring her with them on the ship when Watto wasn't looking. Once they were off the planet, what the hell was Watto gonna do? He's a dude who runs a junk shop, he doesn't have the resources to go after them! [eta:lightofdaye has reminded me that if she tried to escape her implant would explode. I probably talked over that part while I was complaining about Jar Jar.]
- Why does everything in this movie look so fake? It's not even the CGI creatures, some of which look pretty good for the time, it's the settings that look fake, whether they're CGI, matte paintings, or physically built. During the battle scenes with the Gungans and the droids, why does the grass look like astroturf and the sky look like Windows 95? On Tatooine, why does the town look like a themed area at Disneyland? I saw movies in the '90s, they weren't all like this!
- The key to architecture in the Star Wars universe is to include random giant open areas in every major structure that have hazardous bottomless pits into which people can be thrown during climactic Jedi battles. These areas serve no practical purpose other than to be Drama Arenas. This is totally consistent with the OT so it's not a criticism, merely a comment.
- That said, why do those force fields come down randomly during the climactic Jedi battle? Maybe there was a reason given and I missed it because I was talking and not paying attention.
- In general a problem with the movie's writing is that a lot of time is spent on things that don't matter or are extremely obvious, and not enough time giving the audience new information designed to build our investment and understanding, and to better follow later events. I'm sorry, I know the fact that this movie is poorly written isn't hot news, but it's been a long time and I truly forgot how bad it was.
- There isn't a lot of music in this movie and what is present is very generic. The OT had a great score with memorable themes for the characters, but this one is like... weirdly silent a lot of the time? This is getting nitpicky for a movie that has so many fundamental problems, but it's something I noticed.
- These battle droids are made of plastic and fall apart if you throw a rock at them. They need some of the K-2SO kind.
- It's not well explained why the Jedi Council doesn't want to train Anakin. If he's dangerous, shouldn't they want to keep him around where they can teach him not to be evil and keep an eye on him and stuff?
- Sure, midichlorians are dumb I guess, but that is so far down on the list of problems with this movie. So far down!!
In conclusion, I don't recommend this movie. I do, however, recommend this:
Embedded video: Music video for Weird Al's song "The Saga Begins", which retells the plot of the movie to the tune of "American Pie" by Don McClean.
Nonetheless we plan to persevere with Attack of the Clones, which I think I have seen part of. Maybe it will be better! Let me dream!
sdk and I allowed our enthusiasm to carry us forward into rewatching the Prequel Trilogy. That was... well, it was certainly a decision that we made.I saw this movie in the theater and had not seen it since then. I knew it wasn't a cinematic masterpiece, but I did go in with a positive attitude hoping to enjoy some cheesy silliness and at least have fun razzing it. I'm afraid I was not able to maintain that attitude; I actually found the movie unpleasant to watch. So if you love it, maybe skip this post.
- I remembered basically nothing from the first third of the movie. When we started it up I was really questioning reality because I KNEW I had seen it but nothing was familiar at all until they got to Tatooine.
sdk said when she saw it in the theater she fell asleep; did this also happen to me??- Okay. I had not seen this movie in a long time. I consciously attempted to clear my mind of all memes and preconceptions and give it a fair evaluation. Coming from this mindset, I say to you now: Jar Jar Binks is so fucking annoying, he almost wrecks the movie singlehandedly. It's not a meme, he really is that bad. He is not funny. He has no meaningful relationships to anyone. He is not important in any way that couldn't be easily rewritten. There is usually no reason for him to even be present. He only exists to needlessly interrupt scenes where characters we might actually care about are talking.
- On a technical level, Jar Jar is not well-integrated into his scenes. I know this was an early attempt at a CGI character of this sort, but he doesn't have good eye contact with the actors, and when they're not directly interacting with him it doesn't feel like he's even there. This often produces an odd sense that the characters are pointedly ignoring him, which is a headcanon I can accept.
- Ewan McGregor channels Alec Guinness so well that it's a little uncanny. He is working so hard and the movie does not deserve him.
- No wonder Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon was the dominant ship in this era of the fandom. They are the only characters who have a real relationship.
- Jake Lloyd is actually pretty convincing as a young Vader. When somebody is pissing him off, his face absolutely says "I am putting you on my list of people to Force-choke when I grow up."
- Darth Maul is so cool and charismatic and it's a crime that the movie doesn't spend more time on him.
- No complaints about any of the human actors, really. They are all fine. The script lets them down.
- When we got to the podracing I remembered a lot, or very possibly I was remembering things that were in the game. My memory of seeing the movie in the theater was that the podracing was the only time I wasn't bored, but boy does it take a lot of time to get there. Why do we need to sit around introducing all these characters from the podracing circuit who are completely unimportant? Is there nothing else we could have done with this time?
- I do appreciate that an attempt is made to show the political problems with the Republic that lead to its downfall, and a sense of Palpatine's villainy as consisting of concrete actions that harm people rather than just a stereotypically "evil" aesthetic. It's not Andor level or anything, but points for effort.
- I don't think the script works hard enough to justify leaving Anakin's mom behind. All they had to do was bring her with them on the ship when Watto wasn't looking. Once they were off the planet, what the hell was Watto gonna do? He's a dude who runs a junk shop, he doesn't have the resources to go after them! [eta:
lightofdaye has reminded me that if she tried to escape her implant would explode. I probably talked over that part while I was complaining about Jar Jar.]- Why does everything in this movie look so fake? It's not even the CGI creatures, some of which look pretty good for the time, it's the settings that look fake, whether they're CGI, matte paintings, or physically built. During the battle scenes with the Gungans and the droids, why does the grass look like astroturf and the sky look like Windows 95? On Tatooine, why does the town look like a themed area at Disneyland? I saw movies in the '90s, they weren't all like this!
- The key to architecture in the Star Wars universe is to include random giant open areas in every major structure that have hazardous bottomless pits into which people can be thrown during climactic Jedi battles. These areas serve no practical purpose other than to be Drama Arenas. This is totally consistent with the OT so it's not a criticism, merely a comment.
- That said, why do those force fields come down randomly during the climactic Jedi battle? Maybe there was a reason given and I missed it because I was talking and not paying attention.
- In general a problem with the movie's writing is that a lot of time is spent on things that don't matter or are extremely obvious, and not enough time giving the audience new information designed to build our investment and understanding, and to better follow later events. I'm sorry, I know the fact that this movie is poorly written isn't hot news, but it's been a long time and I truly forgot how bad it was.
- There isn't a lot of music in this movie and what is present is very generic. The OT had a great score with memorable themes for the characters, but this one is like... weirdly silent a lot of the time? This is getting nitpicky for a movie that has so many fundamental problems, but it's something I noticed.
- These battle droids are made of plastic and fall apart if you throw a rock at them. They need some of the K-2SO kind.
- It's not well explained why the Jedi Council doesn't want to train Anakin. If he's dangerous, shouldn't they want to keep him around where they can teach him not to be evil and keep an eye on him and stuff?
- Sure, midichlorians are dumb I guess, but that is so far down on the list of problems with this movie. So far down!!
In conclusion, I don't recommend this movie. I do, however, recommend this:
Embedded video: Music video for Weird Al's song "The Saga Begins", which retells the plot of the movie to the tune of "American Pie" by Don McClean.
Nonetheless we plan to persevere with Attack of the Clones, which I think I have seen part of. Maybe it will be better! Let me dream!
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no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 12:38 pm (UTC)(Except I am glad you like my best buddy Maul, who is also the best part of every animated show he appears in.)
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 12:51 pm (UTC)I was interested you mentioned the politics as an upside. It's traditionally considered one of the issues. I don't remember enjoying them but I don't remember them being a huge drag either. The traditional joke is 'it's all about tax codes' but it's on the level of 'evil corporations don't like the be taxed', not dense financial minutia or anything.
The other issue is forgetting what's in the movie, compared the old EU or even Fanon. As to just carting off Shmi does the film not establish the explosive slave implants that mean they can't run/leave without permission?
As to AotC... enjoy. The only thing I'd say is get comfortable, it's long for a Star Wars movie. (That said I just looked up the times and not so much longer as I recalled. Maybe it just feels it.)
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 01:25 pm (UTC)I think I saw the politics as an upside mostly because I was surprised that the OT says so little about what the Empire has actually done that's so bad. They do bad things during the OT, but that's when the Rebellion is already well established, and we don't know why the Rebellion formed in the first place. At least the PT tries to say, look, this guy is taking advantage of weak leadership in the Republic to gain power for himself at innocent people's expense. It's more clear why people would be motivated to risk their lives opposing him because he actually does things other than swoop around in a dark cloak looking evil.
Now that you say explosive implants, that does sound familiar, but I'm not sure if it's in the movie or not. Admittedly we were talking a lot during that part so we may have missed some things. eta: You are absolutely right, I found it in a script online. My mistake!
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 01:00 pm (UTC)And I'm just so fascinated that Lucas decided to make a movie about tariff policy, it's one of the weirdest and most interesting moves in any Star Wars product. By which I mostly mean I both love and hate the fact that the Phantom Menace is not Maul but Palpatine, the way this movie is giving you a terrible nonsense plot because it's trying to tell a story in foreboding and foreshadowing in the background, the story behind the story. It's so ambitious in a way Lucas absolutely doesn't have the chops to pull off, but I'm always impressed in spite of myself that he tried.
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 02:04 pm (UTC)Jar Jar Binks is so fucking annoying, he almost wrecks the movie singlehandedly.
Sigh...so true.
Thanks for re-watching it so I don't have to. :p
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 02:13 pm (UTC)I truly was ready to realize that Jar Jar wasn't all that bad, and to talk about how people/fandoms wind themselves up with negative memes and fixations on minor issues and so on. But MAN is that not what happened here.
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 02:54 pm (UTC)I do totally regret giving Attack of the Clones the benefit of the doubt and watching it. It was worse enough, I still haven't watched Revenge of the Sith.
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:01 pm (UTC)When I had wanted to watch the Star Wars movies with my friend (her first time), when we got to the prequels, I was like "Let's just start with the second one, I'll fill you in" because The Phantom Menace is such a nothing movie to me. I do like Attack of the Clones though there's so much that treads into "so bad it's funny", but the third one is the best one of the prequels imo.
no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:42 pm (UTC)I stopped after the OT
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:08 pm (UTC)because I was busy doing other more interesting things. Thank you for reminding me that was a good life choice.
But Al! He was a tiny baby and yet he had his excellent skills back then.
Re: I stopped after the OT
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Sep 2025 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Oct 2025 03:06 am (UTC)But I don't even disagree with most of this! (the major difference being that I just. don't particularly mind Jar-Jar, other than recognizing that some aspects of the character are racist on the Doyleist level) Yet, Qui-Gon is possibly my favorite Jedi, for better or worse (though I admit I am not a great one for most Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan fic, and haven't really read Legends content about him), I enjoy having Ian McDiarmid around playing secretly villainous and without the full Villanous-Deformity makeup in the OT... and this movie got me off on the Wrong Foot with Yoda. (one of my perennial emotions about this and the 2010s Wrinkle in Time movie is Why did Yoda not do that spiel more like Mrs. Which?!)
Also, yeah, space-OSHA really needs to look into architectural regulations about hazardous bottomless pits. Why are they so ubiquitous?!
no subject
Date: 1 Oct 2025 04:31 pm (UTC)I wish I didn't mind Jar Jar. I wanted to not mind him! Alas, I was incapable.
no subject
Date: 1 Oct 2025 03:24 am (UTC)Maul was definitely the prequels' Boba Fett. I suppose he had a little more of a role, but definitely that minor character who everyone stans because he's so cool vibe. And like Boba Fett, he's had a much bigger role in later canon because they realized they had a hit character on their hands.
no subject
Date: 1 Oct 2025 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Oct 2025 04:42 pm (UTC)I really liked the sequels. I know a lot of people had issues with them and I don’t disagree with some of the criticisms but I just found them really fun and enjoyable. For me they definitely bright back that nostalgic Star Wars feeling.
And for me, I don’t have a lot of investment in the franchise as a whole even though I am a big fan so I don’t really care if it has plot holes or this or that or contradicts some other lore.
no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Oct 2025 01:52 pm (UTC)I also couldn't understand why Darth Maul was killed off so quickly. He should have been hanging around for a long time, maybe the nemesis of Obi Wan and Qui Gon.
I feel like that is the trouble when you have two excellent actors (MacGregor and Neeson) stuck in a sci fi film that is trying to show off its CGI and other effects. They are in a vacuum and everything else seems empty/ fake. I dunno.
I think the main problem was that Episode I started in a boring way talking about trade disputes between planets and that set a boring tone for the whole thing. Who cares about trade disputes in a sci fi film? No one. Compared to Episode IV which starts with that star destroyer going overhead chasing the little ship, it is the total opposite, it grabs you immediately.
However. One thing I did like about the prequel trilogy was this: It made it absolutely clear that the first 3 films and maybe the first 6 are about Anakin Skywalker. It is not a story about Luke at all. It is the rise and fall of Anakin. Luke is just the catalyst that brings out Anakin's long hidden goodness, in the end.
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Date: 1 Oct 2025 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2025 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2025 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 7 Oct 2025 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8 Oct 2025 07:53 am (UTC)I'm still fairly new at Dreamwidth so I often don't know if someone is replying to me or the OP. There's so much I don't know how to work on here still😣
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Date: 8 Oct 2025 05:59 pm (UTC)If you're not tracking comments on the whole entry, and you receive any notification, then the reply was made directly to a comment you left. It's possible for someone to have made a mistake doing so (to have clicked reply in the wrong spot), but usually it does mean they intended to reply to you.
The wording in email notifications is clearer than it is in the Dreamwidth inbox -- the email subject line says Reply to your comment [pauraque - 280998], the from is kitarella_imagines, and body text says kitarella_imagines replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)". The inbox is much more vague to just say New comment by
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Date: 9 Oct 2025 07:05 am (UTC)No problem, it’s fine 😊
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Date: 1 Oct 2025 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 04:38 pm (UTC)http://siubhan.com/sithacademy/frame.html
no subject
Date: 2 Oct 2025 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Oct 2025 02:04 am (UTC)(I realize the politics and trade did not actually successfully land but it shows an ambition that I appreciate.)
I am however anti midichlorians, anti abandoning Shmi, and, alas, anti podracing. After many years I have forced myself round into a kind of neutrality on Jar Jar.
no subject
Date: 4 Oct 2025 08:59 pm (UTC)When I was looking into the Shmi situation, I saw a lot of people wanted to know why Padme didn't come back to Tatooine after the events of TPM and buy Shmi's freedom. YEAH! Good question! She easily could have done that! As for podracing, I would say it's more fun to do than to watch.
We have now watched Attack of the Clones in which ten years have clearly tempered Jar Jar's love of Antics, and that is a version of his character I can be neutral on.
no subject
Date: 6 Oct 2025 07:45 pm (UTC)Anakin hasn't been raised with that background AND he's unusually force-sensitive (implying a greater degree of ability if trained), so they're hesitant. And obviously it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy because they can't figure out how to just trust and support a comparative 'outsider'. C'est la vie.
The prequels aren't good though 😂 They just aren't. But there is some method hidden amidst the madness.
no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2025 07:19 pm (UTC)boyfriendmaster Qui-Gon's dying wish that Anakin be trained! Oh the angst! But the way it is in the movie, it seems like the council is allowing Obi-Wan to do it all on his own without offering any support and with the full knowledge that Anakin could be dangerous, so Obi-Wan gets screwed coming and going.no subject
Date: 8 Oct 2025 03:22 am (UTC)And like, once Obi-Wan said he'd train Anakin on Qui-Gon's dying wish, they allowed it! He's not exactly without support. Buuut they don't modify their techniques for a special case, and Anakin's further isolated by being a late starter (among kids who were raised together in creches) with a literal prophesy hanging over his head. What advice Obi gets from his elders clearly doesn't cut it - even if it probably still wouldn't have been such a disaster without Palpy's interventions + the onset of galactic war and increasing militarisation of the Jedi. It's not unheard of for Jedi to simply leave the Order without going full Dark Side about it; in another life, maybe that's just how it would have been for Anakin.
no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2025 01:59 am (UTC)(there may have been others, I just don't remember)
no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2025 07:10 pm (UTC)