So, I Rewatched The Phantom Menace Last Week

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'll never warm up to Attack of the Clones though no matter how much time has past. I think I'd watch either of the last two sequel films over sitting through that again, and the only reason it's not the worst film is because the Clone Wars cartoon pilot with Jabba's son Stinky got a theatrical release.

I've not found one person that likes it, but it is my favorite of the trilogy.

I'm mainly invested emotionally in Obi Wan's plot. Every single scene with Ewan McGregor is gold and come fight me. Anakin's plot is not very progressive relationship drama, but it's pretty consistent with the hyperbolic nature of Star Wars introducing an enchanted fairy tale romance in there.

Attack of the Clones is my favorite in the prequel trilogy too. It knows what it wants to be and that's what it gives us.

Revenge of the Sith is the one I can't stand. I've never made it through in a single sitting, it's boring in the way watching someone play a videogame is boring.

Yeah I think it's a very cohesive A/B plot that doesn't wear thin like in Revenge of the Sith.

[Winter]

I'll never warm up to Attack of the Clones though no matter how much time has past. I think I'd watch either of the last two sequel films over sitting through that again, and the only reason it's not the worst film is because the Clone Wars cartoon pilot with Jabba's son Stinky got a theatrical release.

I've not found one person that likes it, but it is my favorite of the trilogy.

I'm mainly invested emotionally in Obi Wan's plot. Every single scene with Ewan McGregor is gold and come fight me. Anakin's plot is not very progressive relationship drama, but it's pretty consistent with the hyperbolic nature of Star Wars introducing an enchanted fairy tale romance in there.

Attack of the Clones is my favorite in the prequel trilogy too. It knows what it wants to be and that's what it gives us.

Revenge of the Sith is the one I can't stand. I've never made it through in a single sitting, it's boring in the way watching someone play a videogame is boring.

Yeah I think it's a very cohesive A/B plot that doesn't wear thin like in Revenge of the Sith.

Revenge of the Sith is honestly my favorite of the Prequel Trilogy, I like that most of the film is slow paced and more focused on the characters and Anakin's final decent into the Dark Side. It reminds me a lot of, and bare with me on this one, Hamlet. Hamlet is a VERY slow paced play, in it's entirety it takes about 4 hours to watch and most film and even TV adaptations cut out a LOT of the original text.

I think I've mentioned this before but George Lucas' greatest weakness as a writer is how he writes dialogue and if the dialogue of the Prequels were better written than the Prequel Trilogy as a whole would be better recieved. And I feel that's no truer in Revenge of the Sith because it is the most dialogue heavy film in the entire series and the one most fans tend to like the best despite that flaw.

I think the best example of this is the scenes between Anakin and Padme, these scenes are some of the most mocked in the entire series and rightly so because the dialogue is SO Bad!!! But then we have moments like when Padme tells Anakin she's pregnant and the scene is fantastic, or look at their relationship in The Clone Wars or literally anywhere else, it's more or less the same story but the dialogue is better written so we see more of what Lucas intended but failed to communicate.

I personally like the story the Prequel Trilogy is telling, but it's HOW it's been told that hurts the films and if Lucas just had someone who could help him better say what he was trying to say it would have helped the films so much.

[stryke]

I do think there's some legit good dialogue in Revenge, and it's easily got the best dialogue of the prequels. I still prefer Phantom Menace as a film as even with the best dialogue that's not saying all that much, even more so with Phantom Menace's setpieces, and would put Revenge in second, then Attack a distant third place.

People meme on it a ton, but I still love the tragedy of Darth Plagueius. It's just brimming with subtext and world building and it's so wonderfully delivered. "So this is how democracy dies, to rapturous applause" is also a banger of a well observed spot on line. Hell I even liked "Only a sith deals in absolutes" which shows the problems with how absolutist that the jedi have also become.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I don’t find the dialog remarkable in revenge, but yes the first two movies dropped the ball on it. Revenge is fine as a drama, I just don’t find it compelling as a fantasy until the final act’s two scenes with ani/obi and palpatine vs Jedi council.

[hammerofglass]

I do like the Palpatine scenes just because Ian McDiarmid is the only person in the movie who seems like he's having fun. That is some good old school traditional ham.

Similarly some of the most fun for me in Phantom Menace is Ewan McGregor just completely failing to keep a straight face and having the time of his life while Liam Neeson is in the same shot treating it absolutely seriously.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I do like the Palpatine scenes just because Ian McDiarmid is the only person in the movie who seems like he's having fun. That is some good old school traditional ham.

Yeah he just gets better and better with each movie.

[McAvoy]

I generally like Episode 1. Jar Jar doesn't particularly bother me but I know that it was a mistake with him going too far with the slap stick comedy/dialogue. Dialogue wasn't that bad in Episode 1, but Episode 2 was. It's general knowledge that Lucas doesn't do well with dialogue. Also it has been pointed out many times that he isn't that type of director that can get as much as he can from actors especially kids.

That being said, I think it was a mistake making Anakin a kid for the first and then older in the other two movies. Creates a bit of a disconnect IMO. How bad would it have been if he had cast a 16 year old for example, showing already hof headedness, and deep seated anger. But only calm around his mother.

That way by the time he becomes Darth Vader you could see the progression better. Prequels doesn't do a good enough job to showcase Anakin progressing to Darth Vader. The Clone Wars does a great a job with that especially in the later seasons.

[stryke]

Similarly some of the most fun for me in Phantom Menace is Ewan McGregor just completely failing to keep a straight face and having the time of his life while Liam Neeson is in the same shot treating it absolutely seriously.

This is very true.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I generally like Episode 1. Jar Jar doesn't particularly bother me but I know that it was a mistake with him going too far with the slap stick comedy/dialogue. Dialogue wasn't that bad in Episode 1, but Episode 2 was. It's general knowledge that Lucas doesn't do well with dialogue. Also it has been pointed out many times that he isn't that type of director that can get as much as he can from actors especially kids.

i think it was mainly a matter of direction, maybe editing. If we didn't spend so much focus on him in a scene it wouldn't be that bad, and his character development would be fine as is.

That being said, I think it was a mistake making Anakin a kid for the first and then older in the other two movies. Creates a bit of a disconnect IMO. How bad would it have been if he had cast a 16 year old for example, showing already hof headedness, and deep seated anger. But only calm around his mother.

I think it should have just been more from a jedi centric perspective. Not just Qui Gon and Obi Wan, but make the discovery of Anakin a whole Council issue rather than them just not really caring.

[McAvoy]

I generally like Episode 1. Jar Jar doesn't particularly bother me but I know that it was a mistake with him going too far with the slap stick comedy/dialogue. Dialogue wasn't that bad in Episode 1, but Episode 2 was. It's general knowledge that Lucas doesn't do well with dialogue. Also it has been pointed out many times that he isn't that type of director that can get as much as he can from actors especially kids.

i think it was mainly a matter of direction, maybe editing. If we didn't spend so much focus on him in a scene it wouldn't be that bad, and his character development would be fine as is.

That being said, I think it was a mistake making Anakin a kid for the first and then older in the other two movies. Creates a bit of a disconnect IMO. How bad would it have been if he had cast a 16 year old for example, showing already hof headedness, and deep seated anger. But only calm around his mother.

I think it should have just been more from a jedi centric perspective. Not just Qui Gon and Obi Wan, but make the discovery of Anakin a whole Council issue rather than them just not really caring.

This is just hindsight 20/20 but I think even back then too since all knew it was going to be a trilogy. But I think the fall of Anakin and rise of Darth Vader should have been more of a well knit story arc over the course of the trilogy. Perhaps if the dialogue and perhaps dirrcting for Anakin was better we would have gotten a better representation of him and his fall. Instead we got Episode 2 Anakin who was just bad as far as being bratty, annoying, whiny etc.

I also just like the idea that Anakin being older as not only would it fit with Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi look, but also could flip it back to Yoda when he said Luke was too old.