Remembering Star Wars The Phantom Menace

[Bunker]

I was 7 when it came out, so of course I loved it. I think I dragged my dad to see it two more times in theaters. It took a couple years and dozens of viewings on VHS to realize what a ****ing disgrace it was to the Star Wars mythology. I didn't even see AOTC in theaters, but I did get sucked into the hype of ROTS and seeing Vader for the first time like everyone else.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

ROTS was the best and even elevated parts of TPM for me e.g. giving a purpose for those damn midichlorians

Agreed. RotS is easily the best prequel. TPM is mainly dull but feels like Star Wars. AOTC is slightly more lively but doesn't feel Star Warsy. RotS is like Return of the Jedi x 10.

 

[Art_of_Crime]

I was 7 when it came out, so of course I loved it. I think I dragged my dad to see it two more times in theaters. It took a couple years and dozens of viewings on VHS to realize what a ****ing disgrace it was to the Star Wars mythology. I didn't even see AOTC in theaters, but I did get sucked into the hype of ROTS and seeing Vader for the first time like everyone else.

"for the first time for the last time"

 

[Kevin Roegele]

"for the first time for the last time"

That's a great thing about Star Wars, it ended where it started - in the middle.

 

[Octoberist]

Phantom Menace felt like Star Wars..kinda...because it used sets and had some practical means to some of the creature effects.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I was 7 when it first came out. And I saw it twice. Once with my mom and the other with my dad. I loved it of course. Especially the podracing scene and of course the Duel of the Fates. It's very flawed yes, but it's not terrible or disgraceful. Just with some bad decisions, but it's nowhere in the leagues as Catwoman, Armegeddon or TF2. People are exagerating if they think so. Yeah, it had Jar Jar going against it. But I'd rather watch Jar Jar in this movie than two stereotyping robot twins who serve nothing to the story, the terrible and unbearable editing that was in Catwoman, and what Ebert describes as "an assault on the mind, the senses, and the body" for Armegeddon. The movie is better than all of that.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I was 7 when it first came out. And I saw it twice. Once with my mom and the other with my dad. I loved it of course. Especially the podracing scene and of course the Duel of the Fates. It's very flawed yes, but it's not terrible or disgraceful. Just with some bad decisions, but it's nowhere in the leagues as Catwoman, Armegeddon or TF2. People are exagerating if they think so. Yeah, it had Jar Jar going against it. But I'd rather watch Jar Jar in this movie than two stereotyping robot twins who serve nothing to the story, the terrible and unbearable editing that was in Catwoman, and what Ebert describes as "an assault on the mind, the senses, and the body" for Armegeddon. The movie is better than all of that.

The Phantom Menace really needed a different director, and editor.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

God, I think I was 16 at the time it came out and I was so excited to see it, and at the time, I really enjoyed it also, it was only with subsequent viewings that I realised it wasnt a very good movie and barely any feeling in it.

I enjoyed all 3 prequels to be honest, but in the end, they left something to be desired, and definately effected my viewings of the first 3 unfortunately.

 

[DarKJediKnight]

Oh and regarding the "loser" who made the one hour youtube video. I'd like to see you make a 10 minute video defending TPM that is one-tenth as insightful as Mr.Plinkett's video. He hasn't had a worthy rebuttal yet.

And why would anyone do that? With or without a 10-minute video pro-TPM or Mr. Plinkett's review it is generally accepted that 2/3 of the Prequel is flawed. Different people has different reactions to those flaws though. For example if you're a type of that person that has nothing going on with your life then you're probably one of those that obsess over hating a movie you despise rather than choosing to ignore it.

 

[roach]

I prefer to watch the prequels and remember how I was when in 1977 I watched the first one in thearters....I could stress over it and worry about this film...however I am going with my initial instinct on the prequels....they were good but because Star Wars is pretty much a cultural phenomenon the prequels could have been the second coming to film making and they would still be considered subpar.....its 2010 and we are still obsessing about a film made back in 1999....George Lucas isnt so why are we?????

 

[samsnee]

I'm not really much of a SW fan, but remember thinking how cool the teaser trailer was and how it was weird seeing new scenes in this universe. Then I saw the movie and Anakin's little "Yippeeee!" and thought how did they f*** this up so badly?

 

[NY1981]

I was in high school when it was released and I had seen the original trilogy too many times to count. I thought it was entertaining but did have some disappointments. The first one was having Anakin as a little kid, it seemed unnecessary and always pictured it starting off with him as a teenager. I thought the pod racing was pretty cool and enjoyed it. I didn't hate the idea of the midichlorians like some hardcore fans did but felt it wasn't needed and it cheapened the idea of the force by making it biological instead of mystical. Loved the final fight between Maul, Qui Gon, and ObiWan, I was so geeked to see actual fully trained Jedis in their prime fighting instead of what we got in the original trilogy. Its actually my favorite lightsaber dual out of all 6 films. Very disappointed with the space battle between the Naboo fighters and the droid army, the prequels were utter crap when it comes to space fighting. Finally, I was sad to see Maul die so quickly because before I saw TPM I always pictured him being the main Antagonist (outside of Palpatine) for the entire 3 prequels.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I'm not a Star Wars fan so I saw the movie on DVD and I absoluted hated it then and I hate it even more now. I didn't hate it because it ruined my childhood. My childhood revolved around watching Robocop, T2, Darkman and Childsplay. I hated it because it was a terrible movie.

 

[Brother Jack]

Phantom Menace felt like Star Wars..kinda...because it used sets and had some practical means to some of the creature effects.

I've always thought that, including the fact that it was shot on film. It's one of the few things the movie has going for it really, other than John Williams' classic score. Actually of all the people who worked on the film Williams seemed to be the only one who did his best.

I was 8 going on 9 when the movie came out. At that time, Star Wars was most of my life. I remember the endless marketing and anticipation like it was yesterday (especially the Taco Bell campaign). In fact I have more positive recollections of the hype that I do the actual film. I do remember enjoying it when I finally got to see it, but even then I could tell something was off from the way people reacted to it.

And now I see why. It's... it just isn't a good movie. And for me, the fact that it sucks is probably worse than the film itself. There's never been a group of movies that I've wanted to like more than the Prequels, but alas, I cannot. The flaws are just too obvious, maddening, and many.

 

[roach]

I guess everyone missed the point of this thread

 

[redhawk23]

there aren’t many memorable john williams’ themes, .

duel. Of. Fates.

 

[8wid]

After I saw this, I thought the Empire was going to come fro the Republic being conquered by the superior military forces of the Trade Federation, and Sidious would suddenly play a cou and take over.

As you can imagine it does not do well to explain what the Clone Wars were or where the Imperial Senate came from. I didn't pay that much attention back then.

 

[Mace Dolex]

I guess everyone missed the point of this thread

Well it's inevitable aside from remembering the hype that we all remember how bad it was, after all it was the most anticipated movie of that year and talk/news shows would chime in with their two cents on the film.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

me my cousin and our buddy skipped class and waited online to get tickets, long ass line but we got em...

i remember it came out around my birthday, my mom got me the cd and a poster of Darth Maul....I remember my mom bringing me to toys R us at midnight to get the action figures...

Man when i sat down the first thing this random guy in his twenties or older said to me your gonna not like it at first! i just looked at his girlfriend like wtf??

the movie was horrible i stood up and let out a huge FART noise and stuck my thumb down.
the only good thing about that movie is the music, Ray Park and that's it...

 

[Eros]

I Remember thinking how dull the characters were compared to the Big three from the Classic trilogy. If the characters are dull, the movie will suffer greatly.

 

[8wid]

LOOKING BACK TO THE FUTURE OF STAR WARS

This really gives the best insight I've ever read into what Lucas had intended to the prequels to look like in the early 1990s, including how:

Owen is actually Ben's brother

Palpatine seized power by destroying the Jedi first through giving a vengeful Vader a Kaiburr crystal

The High Council of the Republic replaces the Senate

Palpatine creates his own order of Force users in a Sith academy to replace the aging Jedi

OB 1 Kenobi may have originated a clone designation

Luke and Leia's mother is named Lady Arkadia of Alderaan

Anakin is the orphaned son of a Jedi general

Interesting stuff

 

[bullets]

I had gotten to see this on opening day because my friends dad had waited in line to buy the tickets for us. I was 17 at the time and also a big fan of Star Wars so the hype and excitement was there. Also like everyone else I had some ridiclous merchandise from Pizza Hut and still have some of it.
The coolest thing was waiting in line and being part of the initial excitement. We had a guy that looked like Darth Maul in a fan made costume but it's one of the best looking fan costumes I've ever seen. An usher said he had a ticket for all the showings that day. We sat in the upper row and my friend told me we had the imperial seats (it was hilarious to me at the time)
I watched the movie in awe because I thought the effects were excellent . I thought Liam was great as Qui -Gon. Along the way there were some minor things that I didnt like , that mainly everyone complains about(midiclorians , jar jar ,etc)- that are legitiment complaints also . I just didn't like the kid playing Anakin but I didnt want that to ruin the experience. Also I was anticipating the ending because of the duel that was coming. Overall i thought it was fun and the effects were cool at the time.
I was kind of taken out of the movie with the "yippee" and just the audacity of that scene. So there was dissapointment but then I also was thinking that this was just the beggining and things would get better.
Later on that day there was a lightsaber duel that got us kicked out of kaybee toys at the mall..good times.

Looking back on this , I say it's a guilty pleasure. I think the originals are infinately better but i do find the prequels watchable. It's just a take it or leave it kind of thing.

 

[Drizzle]

I was 10 when I first saw "The Phantom Menace". Being part of the target audience, I loved it. If you had asked me when I walked out of that theater what my favorite Star Wars movie was, I probably would have said "Episode I". I am ashamed of how stupid I was back then. I bought into Papa George's marketing blitz. I had the action figures, the video game, the Pepsi cans, everything. Of course, I was already a Star Wars fan, so I was loving all of it. It was only after "Attack of the Clones" came out did I start to realize that while the prequels were okay on their own, they paled in comparison to the original trilogy. Luckily, "Revenge of the Sith" restored Star Wars' good name. I remember that marketing blitz being almost as big as Episode I's. You couldn't go anywhere in 2005 without seeing Darth Vader.

 

[GhostPoet]

Remembering TPM? I'm still trying to FORGET it!!! :/

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Remembering TPM? I'm still trying to FORGET it!!! :/

Daduum-chink