Well I had high hopes for it.Once again Lucas bombs on redoing the francise.When they did do the effect it was good ,real good.The downside.The places they should have used it they did not, the Lightsaber duels and the Gungan Battle..
The previews in 3D put this crap piece of movie to shame.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

My guess is still sucks.

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Meh....

I wasn't expecting much anyway. I'll save my money for a lazy day cheaper matinee day down the road. Thanks for the info and opinion, Chas.

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

Thanks Jeff....

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That's the thing about Phantom Menace. There are parts of it that are fun and take you back to feeling like a kid, like the end light saber battle and the pod race. The rest of it, dribble dialogue and accidental stereotypes by George.

Still gonna go at some point, since I'm that much of a SW nerdorgeek.

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

No suck luck,due to Lucas being a money grubbing whore no matinee prices.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

Judging by my Superbowl squares, I had plenty of "suck luck".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNXEs2JFe-Y

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

yes, leaving the theatre kicking and screaming made me feel like being a kid. absolutely.

i have no sympathy for any of you fanboys who go to this pile of shit and expect anything but to have yourself robbed.

you need to watch red letter media's treatment of this dungheap. it's spot on and it's entertaining (except for the weird character thing...)

I make no excuse for being a Fanboy.I am a sci Fi nerd like the guys on Big Bang.The preview for John Carter looks bad ass and the trailer for Spidy looks good too,even though they are taking it in a totally different direction from the comics.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

Wow Zack....I wish I were the Buzz Killington mult right now. Not saying it's good by any stretch. It's definitely the worst of the bunch. Can you believe that Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs up back in '99 and called it a good movie?

I suppose I am a fanboy about, but not too many things in my life right now give me that much of a good feeling....it's about all I've got right now to make me happy, along with the board of course.....oh, and sometimes porn.....and music....and volcano tacos....I think that's all. I'll come back later if I think of anything else.

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

cheer yourself up by watcing the original unspoiled version of the trilogy, damnit! don't torture yourself with this crap! don't do it to yourself. eat ice cream, not wet cement! live, damnit, live!

It's not the worst of the new trilogy. Zack must have run out painkillers.

Revenge of the Sith is so unintentionally terrible I was laughing hysterically by the time it was over. All 3 times I watched it.

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my leg is healed. no painkillers needed.

"phantom menace" was far more painful to sit through than "sith". "sith" at least kept moving. "phantom menace" was agonizing from start to finish. imagine this. we're going to start an action adventure movie with...a trade embargo! sounds like fun!

quite


I've done that plenty. Just like the theatre experience and was a little excited about how 3-D would look.

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

Let's kill kids and make the most cold-hearted, hated, and evil villain in the history of the universe have emotions! sounds like fun!

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please. he did those padawans a favor. would YOU want to grow up knowing that eventually you'd have to be in the same jedi council as anakin fucking skywalker???

trade embargo still was more painful. and BORING.

Glad your leg is healed, meng.

Often times I just cue it up to the ending saber battle for a fix. (I'm a kid at heart) You're right though, trade embargos and obvious racial stereotypes had me perplexed when I first saw it back in '99. I kept asking myself if I was actually in the right threatre and if this was actually Star Wars.

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

Well, since you put it that way.

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While most (not all) of the prequel bashing is justified, I've never understood how the same people hail the original trilogy as the gold-standard of classics.

Don't like the bad acting of Hayden Christiansen? But Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher should have won Academy Awards?

Don't like the banal dialogue? But lines like "I was going into Tochhee station to pick up some power converters!" are pure gold?

Don't like ridiculously out-of-place characters? But "Chewbacca" is awesome?

I don't get it....


You were 8 when you saw Star Wars. You were 30 when you saw Phantom Menace. That's the difference. Now you know why your parents thought Star Wars was stupid.


No true discerning fan of cinema would find anything redeeming about ANY "Star Wars" movie. Period.


And Chas, I don't mean to be "that guy", but, you yourself chose to spend full price to see a movie you don't like, and that is 13 years old. Don't see how George Lucas is to blame here.



EDIT - The day I officially disassociated myself with Star Wars fandom was May 20(?) 2002. That was the day after Attack Of The Clones was released, and I saw someone on a message board write "Just got back from seeing that horrible movie for the 8th time, and I swear it sucks more every time I see it." I realized at that point that I simply could not relate to that kind of psychosis, and never will, and never want to.

He is to blame for jacking the price up.
I don't mind Phantom Menace.Only a few parts that totally piss me off about it.The only Star Wars movies I think that are really good are Number 3,4 and 6.5 is so so to me except for last 10 min.
In my humble opinion they should not have done prequels but sequels.The Timothy Zhan books would have made spectacular movies and not have pissed off the fan base as much as it had.Noe I admit I love almost everything Star Wars,always have. I think he should have let the past be a memory shrouded in mystery.

Also,redoing the movies as many times as he has done is not endearing to people either.I own The original trilogy on VHS in original form.I got the first remastered in VHS with the infamos Greedo shooting firt scene.
After that not until I buy a Blue ray player.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

But Chas, there's no reason for you or anyone to be pissed off. I like the original Superman and also Superman II. I thought Superman III sucked. Oh well. So I never saw Superman IV. Never saw a reason to get pissed off though. There's better things in life to get pissed off at.

I'm going to do my impression of "Bit" from Tron in regards to my thoughts on this "special movie event"...

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my parents loved "star wars". and it got 2 thumbs up (or yes votes as it were back then).

that's absolutely wrong. "star wars" the original trilogy may have had some cheesiness but it touched on very universal themes and was an absolute blast. then it got better as the story thickened in "empire" and...say what you want about "jedi". still had a good wrap up.

it's not just the mundane things you mention about the prequels. it's the infrastructure of the plot, and the complete waste of characters.

many fans of cinema regard "star wars" highly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F1d3QWsyk0

I might go see it...I know I shouldn't, but I can't help myself.

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@audioidkid

This was my least favorite of the series but I will probably go see it once in 3D. When do the others come out or have the dates been announced?

I saw 4 5 and 6 about a hundred times each and 3 many times but 1 and 2 were blah to me.

I know what you're saying. But I would argue that context matters. Were it the prequels that were released in the 70s, and A New Hope was released in 1999, it would have been laughed at. Nobody would accept Hamill or Fisher, or any of the dialog in that film, or many other elements. The cheese would not be looked upon fondly. Audiences are far, far more cynical now. The original Star Wars takes us back to our innocent childhood. But that doesn't serve us well in forming an objective review. Nor do thumbs-up or thumbs-down's from bandwagon-hopping movie critics.

Think of this - A super-intelligent life form visits Earth, and demands that we provide evidence of our aptitude at artistic expression. Say this being watches Phantom Menace and A New Hope. Would this being walk away saying, wow, one crappy piece of art, and one great one? Or would this being shake its head at the whole thing and wonder, wow, thousands of years, and this is what they come up with?

Here's a few links I just found on Yahoo, from some dude who apparently fancies himself a prequel defender. I found them interesting. I understand the flaws of the films, but I do wish moviegoers and critics would stop sometimes to consider the depth of commentary and illustration that do exist in them. There are "universal themes" in them too, they're just not as easily accessible.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/why-star-w ... 00514.html

I wouldn't have experienced the Episode I 3D thing if I wasn't invited by friends. It was like watching a movie I haven't watched in five years. That's all. I don't blame Lucas one bit for taking advantage of the rabid fan base. I made the experience enjoyable for myself. When Qui-Gon hit the balcony with Anakin's mom, I was able to be an ass.

Is there a Mr. Skywalker, Mrs. Skywalker? Your momma sure does care about your Jedi trainin' son.

It reminded me of a weak Wrestlemania. Much of the card ends up being garbage, but the main event kills. I was really into the heel, if you'll pardon the expression, but I wanted the face to win. Nerds that book wrestling should watch this monthly.

It is what it is. If people keep paying money to watch, the marketing machine will keep pumping out "new" versions. However, Spanky is high. Revenge of the Sith was actually a good movie, even if it didn't have the Star Wars title.

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if the prequels were released first, we would not have "star wars" as we know. but it's not because of the cheesiness or anything. it's because the prequels, for the most part, lacked drama. there was nothing at stake for little anakin in the first one and very little at stake for obi-wan. that was the problem that lucas had...storytelling 101. you have to have a conflict. there was NOTHING going on in that movie. he made a fatal error by starting the story with anakin so young and insisting that anakin was going to be the main character. the main character should have been obi-wan. and he really didn't do anything throughout most of the movies except listening to qui-gon and meekly defying what the jedi council wanted. the "friendship" between he and anakin wasn't developed well so by the time of their lava fight, we don't really see anything but a plot device (albeit well choreographed).

again, this was all handled masterfully by red letter media years ago. it's not rocket surgery as DJ would say. it's very simple: the prequels lacked all of the charm and flavor that the original trilogy had and that's why the original trilogy is classic and these films will hopefully be forgotten about in time.

and i wouldn't say that s&e were ever bandwagon jumpers. they were probably two of the more sincere critics ever.

Agree with all of this. Yes. Oh for a simple script-doctor.




You're right that they do lack charm. Whether they'll be forgotten, I'm not sure. I really believe future generations might view them more kindly, from a different perspective that is void of the high expectations (actually probably going into them with low expectations), and possibly appreciating that fact that they will discover on their own the political and personal commentaries that the previous generations were too dumb to tell them about.



Oh, I meant the cacophony of critics in general, not S&E. I agree S&E were sincere and they were a bit "alternative" for their time, I guess, so I'm not surprised at all that they found value in Star Wars. But if it weren't such a cultural phenomenon, you wouldn't have had every critic in the world falling over themselves to say it's the greatest thing ever put to celluloid. And don't forget, if we're using Ebert as an example, he gave Phantom Menace four stars. True dat!