Obviously he didnt deserve the harassment he got regardless. Like even if he was dogshit he wouldnt have deserved that. But I just rewatched Phantom Menace for the first time in awhile. Young friend of mine are going through the star wars movies because she was a sheltered homeschooled kid and hadnt seen them. Already did the OT, starting on the prequels.
Other than the obvious “oh wow, the racial stereotypes of literally three different alien species in this movie is insane”, the main takeaway my rewatch gave me is “wow ok, Jake LLoyd is average at worst”. He was just like, a regular kid actor? Nothing to write home about like say, young Maise Williams or something. But absolutely fine?
The pod race is genuinely a blast. As are some parts of the final battle. Jar Jar is mostly annoying and definitely a racial stereotype, but some of his lines got a chuckle out of me even today.
The pod race stood out to me too the last time I rewatched this. So much of the film is really bland and flat, but during the race things are set up and paid off, stakes are competently shown to the audience, and there’s the buildup and releases of tension that any action scene wants to have.
I have a theory that the entire Prequel trilogy exists so that George Lucas could shoot the podrace scene. It makes sense, given that we know George really likes drag racing, and in fact there was a deleted scene in A New Hope about Luke racing through Beggar’s Canyon that could be the scene that George had in his head for forty years before he finally got to do it in Phantom Menace.
pod race is the best part of the movie and the only reason any kids enjoyed this film
As a kid it was my favorite part for sure. But I was pretty into the whole thing. I liked a lot of little things like the design of the Naboo starfighters, the stunning ball weapons the Gungans used, I actually did find Jar Jar funny as a kid, Darth Maul as another person mentioned was super cool. Ect.
Naboo starfighters looked amazing. When The Mandalorian got one in a later season it felt like fanservice specifically targeting me.
Yeah I felt the me way when I unlocked one in Star Wars Rogue Leader for the Gamecube.
That’s was such an awesome game! The Naboo starfighter was the best too
I looooove that game. I hate that I dont have a tv I can use my Gamecube on (or one thats not constantly monopolized by my roomate lol). I guess I could figure out the converters necessary to use my Gamecube with my computer monitor. Or emulate it. Because while Rogue Squadron is, Rogue LEader is not on Steam so I dont have it that way.
Because yeahj I really want to replay it because awesome, awesome game.
Rogue Leader works really well for me on Dolphin emulator
Hope you figure out a workaround. I wish i still had it!
Didn’t know Squadron was on Steam. I think I’ll check that out, its been forever since I played that. Squadron is a very good game, but i think Leader was the game everyone who liked Squadron really wanted
You have blocked mentally the 80% of this movie that involves walking down hallways and talking about trade negotiations
I literally just rewatched it lmao thats why I made this thread.
I agree there were a couple interesting parts. I just was struck when I rewatched it how dry and boring the vast majority of the movie is. The cool stuff is in like 20 minutes of the run time
Lucas went so far into demonstrating the banality of evil and how decaying liberal governments slide into fascism that he forgot that the banality of evil is banal and hard to watch for too long.
He also couldn’t commit to an actual political intrigue plot line with specifics for whatever reason, something complex and philosophical that would please the adults at the very least, even if it bored the children. “Boring” politics can be interesting in the right hands, see The Wire or Deadwood.
If you are going to spend 60% of your run time talking about trade agreements and diplomatic treaties and the like, shouldn’t we have some idea of the specifics involved? The separatists and trade federation are so unexplored, we don’t know anything about them except they are bad. Show their economies, their internal politics, their crises that drive them to following the Sith’s leadership, some backstabbing and jockeying, etc.
Instead we don’t know anything about the trade of this confederation! Or the grievances of the separatists. The topic of slavery is shown but never addressed.
No I largely agree.
Heyy lets not forget, kids (me included) loved Darth Maul. People complain about the choreography being “impractical” and “unrealistic” now but the final battle is so damn hype with Duel of the Fates blasting…
Darth Maul looks sick as fuck, but it’s weird how he pops out of nowhere and is basically not a character but a plot device. We don’t know his motivations or story or anything. Pretty weird for the main antagonist of a film to just appear at the end for the final battle without actually doing anything villainous throughout the plot of the film
As a kid I was just pretty confused. Who is this guy? It’d be like if Darth Vader came on screen for the first time in the 6th film right before throwing the emperor down the hole
The mystery around him was pretty intriguing but it never paid off in the movies. We never get any reveal about who he was or his race of people or faction or anything like that. No consequences or plot further on involve Maul. It’s like he came and went without any relation to the overall story. Qui-gon needed to die, and the movie needed an interesting end fight scene so he exists, but for no other reason really.
Oh he’s 100% a wasted character and an underwhelming plot device - wish he had more compelling ties to the story and characters, but purely from an aesthetic and action perspective he’s very well done IMO. Kid me was already on the shit that I currently love doing with fiction: I assumed he was just “some new dark jedi” that surely must have been doing evil somewhere in the huge expansive universe, and that his story had only started intersecting with the main characters’ now. Obviously it didn’t turn out anything like this lol.
On the one hand I love expanding the scope and feel of a setting by making it detailed and fleshed out but having a bit of mystery is key, otherwise you end up like a lot of new star wars, mcu, trek, etc. media that just has to explain every little thing you’ve ever seen on screen