PhantomStranger

Yep, the editing in the Phantom Menace is amateurish at best. Cutting up the lightsaber duels with the inane battle footage was sheer folly.

hanshotfirst1138

Probably because at that point there had been so much success that the editor couldn't or wouldn't say "George, this doesn't work."

Timber

It ruins all the tension from what to that point was the best duel in the series. They go from something serious to not one but 2 children centric scenes in the Gungan battle and a 9 year old taking out the entire Trade Federation fleet.

story

This will maybe sound like cynical sour grapes with 15 years worth of hindsight, but I swear it's true. I was so, so excited. And then, there was this exchange...

Captain: "With all due respect, the ambassadors for the Supreme Chancellor wish to board immediately."

Nute Gunray: "Yes, of course. As you know, our blockade is perfectly legal and we'd be happy to receive the ambassadors."

Right there, the fourth and fifth lines of dialogue, mere seconds after the opening crawl, something felt "off." The delivery (so, so wooden, plus the Nute Gunray puppet mouth), the content (exposition much?), the non sequitur (why the demand and the immediate yeah, absolutely). This sounds like such a snarky answer to me, like I'm making it up to sound cool. But seriously, I remember being at that midnight screening, so excited, then that exchange happened, and I remember that I winced.

Watch it and tell me it's not a terrible, forbidding moment of what is to come.

Neil M.

I haven't seen the movie since I saw it in the theater. I remember convincing my dad, who doesn't really like science fiction/fantasy films, into going with me. After the movie, I apologized to him. I think by the end of the pod race, I knew the film wasn't going to get better.

Rob V

Well that and the fact that the motherfucking Korean Alien's name was Nute Gunray. I get that many characters have symbolic names, but those no-name POS's should have been called Braghlchagle #1 and #2. Also, their faces barely moved when they talked. It was as if a high school drama club did the character masks and makeup.

The Infidel

"Yippeeeee!"

Done.

hanshotfirst1138

I'm still inclined to believe that the resolution would've been more satisfying even as one film if Kurtz, Kershner, and Kasdan had been allowed to take the finale in the direction which they'd intended.

dugan

I see a trend.

Ranger

ANyone hate the prequels but liked the ewoks movies?

lattethunder

If you look at that article you'll see that what Kurtz was referring to were the original treatments from the early '70s, the very first ideas. A lot of that had obviously been chucked, as the article states, BEFORE 1980. There's no way most of that would have followed from 'Star Wars' as it was eventually conceived and filmed. Regardless of what the original concept was, no way in hell does the version of 'Star Wars' that was ultimately realized kick off a trilogy in which Han dies, Leia is isolated from everyone else, and Luke goes off on his own. It ain't that kind of movie.

Obi-Wanma

Fixed

Lara Means

Do not let the final light saber duels fool you. Revenge of the Sith is a boring and awful movie along with the other Prequels.

inri222

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stvn1974

I hate the prequels as much as I hate sand. Because it gets everywhere.

dhmac

I agree with Patton Oswalt's view that seeing OT characters as little kids is the last thing anyone wanted to see:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dUWdjVcenKU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Abob Teff

I had a similar experience ... As a child of the 70s I am a member of the "Star Wars generation." My wife has never understood my infatuation with Star Wars. Somehow I managed to convince her to go see TPM with me though.

After the movie she asked me "What the hell was that? What just happened?" I shamefully replied, "I'm not sure. I'm sorry. Just try to pretend you didn't see it and we'll go home to watch the real thing."

Sonic

When all the pretty fantasy CGI bullshit scenes came into play. The whole scuba diving scene, jar jar binks, the political council bullshit.

The only great thing that Episode I had going was Darth Maul. That's it. The rest can be summed up as one big pile of fossilized desert camel shit.

I have not bothered to view Episode III because I got diarrhea from watching Episode II: Attack of The Clones which was another clusterfuck.

Mondo Kane

Damn. Never knew The Phantom Menace was this generation's Birth of a Nation.

cleaver

When jar jars tongue got zapped so he talked like Mushmouth from Fat Albert. Shit was so racist I thought he was going to light up a Newport.

brayzie

I had been a Star Wars fan very briefly in elementary school because of the action figures and later seeing Return of the Jedi. I thought it was awesome. I later caught The Empire Strikes Back on television and didn't it like it very much. It was depressing, not as colorful as ROTJ, no Ewoks, and overall not very fun. It didn't even have a real ending. I then moved onto Marvel comics and forgot about Star Wars.

Episode I came out when I was in high school but couldn't care less about it. Later I heard how bad it was, but didn't rent it till 2006. I didn't think it was so bad. Liam Neeson was great, I thought, as Qui Gon Jinn. Although I thought Darth Maul's design was a little too extreme, he was a cool villain. It wasn't great, but I thought it was entertaining enough.

After that I rewatched the original trilogy and realized that The Empire Strikes Back was the best film in the series and really established the best aspects of the mythos, and that Episode I was a serious step down. Going from Yoda's great speech about the Force being around us, flows through us, luminous beings are we, not this crude matter, to midichlorian counts really sapped the magic from the franchise.

Subsequent viewings of Episode I only made it worse. Rewatching the OT reminded me how mythical and fantastic the world of Star Wars was to my younger self. Yeah, the Ewoks taking down the Empire was stupid though, as well as Leia being his sister. The interactions between the characters in Episode I just weren't very good, and the lightsaber battle in ROTJ, although not as gracefully choreographed, at least looked like both combatants were trying to hurt each other.

But it was at least better than Attack of the Clones, but not as good as ROTS which had some of the best moments in the PT like Order 66 and the Obi-Wan/Anaking battle just prior to the ridiculous lava platforming.

mcnabb

I still say Revenge of the Sith is the worst of the Prequels, simply because THIS had all the plot points that fans had waited for all those years and Lucas dropped the ball on most of them:

-Anakin's turn was horrendous and happened within 3 seconds? He goes from being a good guy to slaughtering all the Jedi at the temple simply because a guy who lied to everyone for 10 years says he MAY know a trick to bring back the dead?

-Padme losing the will to live goes against everything that was said in Return of the Jedi when Leia talks about, "How she died while I was very young." And it also makes Padme look like a jerk for bailing on her 2 kids after they are born!

-The Duel between Anakin/Obiwan was so underwhelming, very few dialogue until the end, and just a blown opportunity by Lucas. The Emperor/Yoda was actually better, IMO.

-Episode I & II storyline should have been Episode I, while Episode III storyline should have been Episode II & III as Revenge of the Sith just looks like rush job of Lucas doing a checklist of all the plot points he could get in. Order 66, check! Birth of Vader, check! Bring Luke to Owen/Beru, check! Start building the deathstar, check!

Michael Corvin

Darth Maul + Duel of the Fates

The only two redeeming things about Episode I.

Oliver Clothesoff

It really was bad... started off OK, but the climbing and surfing on the lava? Good grief. No emotion at all in what was supposed to be a battle between brothers.

mcnabb

I look at the duel in Empire Strikes Back between Vader/Luke and that clearly shows the difference between the Originals and Prequels.

Putting aside the 'I am your father' moment, the whole duel is great because it had great dialogue, great emotion, great drama you really feel for Luke after he pretty much gets his ass kicked by Vader.

The Anakin/Obiwan duel was just alot of action and stunts and then has some dialogue at the end, and then you're pretty much happy after Obiwan cuts up Anakin cause he is so damn annoying throughout the trilogy!