Why is Star Wars: Episode I Looked Upon With Despise?

[JeanLuc761]

As much as I disliked Jar-Jar Binks and Hayden Christensen's shitty acting, I thought the prequel trilogy was excellent.

Episode 1:
- The podracing stuff was pure epic win
- Liam Neeson is awesome
- Final battle between Gungans and the Federation was great
- Special effects rocked

Episode 2:
- Amazing battle scenes
- Jango Fett
- THE FUCKING CLONE WARS
- Yoda kicking some serious ass

Episode 3:
- Again, amazing battle scenes
- James Earl Jones returns to voice


They weren't Golden Gifts of Glory but then again neither were the original movies (oh my god what shitty acting).

I simply enjoyed the movies for what they were; I couldn't care less about midichlorians, I couldn't care less about the "canon"...I just had a lot of fun.

 

[TotallyFake]

I don't dislike it.

Hell, it's better than the 5th movie.
Second to worst, that one.

First one obviously being the 3rd

The hell? Empire is the BEST one. Phantom Menace is terrible, the plot is simultaneously childish and overcomplicated, half the characters are pointless, three quarters of the plot is pointless in regards to the rest of the series, the effects are over the top, it looks like a fucking cartoon, the final battle scene is a mess, it introduces Jar-Jar.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Within reason. You've crossed the line.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Nah I never watched Star Trek>

Okay in all seriousness, I really don't care. I liked the older ones better but then again I grew up watching the old ones. I didn't really hate the first one--I actually liked Jar-Jar--but I did't love it either.

 

[darth gditch]

Eh, I dunno. I liked the prequel movies. Ironically enough, I really enjoyed Episode III the most, because I liked seeing how Palpatine's plans culminated with Order 66, which was rendered quite nicely. As for Episode I-I think it had potential, but the execution was a resounding "meh." Too many subplots and not enough time to really bond with any of the main characters.

 

[General Vagueness]

Demystified the Force (really draws attention to how silly the whole thing is)

and there it is, just what what's-his-face said recently in that article
it turns out it is silly, all of the movies have some silliness in them (granted episodes 1 and 2 overdid it at times and episode 5 was very serious, but they all have both at different times), and if you couldn't see that, and refused to see it, and are enraged over it being pointed out to you, then that's understandable, but you should've gotten over it years ago and either moved on or embraced the silliness-- and I'd suggest you embrace the silliness, it can be quite fun

 

[ultimateownage]

To quote yahtzee "Fans are annoying complaining dip shits who won't be great-full for anything you give them." It's similar to the new Indiana Jones movie, it isn't like the originals, therefore it is shit.

It isn't like the originals, because it lacked soul, therefore it is shit. Unless you're one of those gelatinous creatures (to quote Yahtzee) that love fake plastic special effects and things going boom that have to go even boomer in the sequel and give fuck-all about character development and suspension of disbelief, the prequels (and Indy 4) were decidedly worse than the old films. Indiana Jones 4 was an even bigger disgrace than the Star Wars prequels, and that's up against some pretty stiff competition. It doesn't have anything to do with fans never being grateful (grate-ful), it has everything to do with the films being big piles of shit.

I don't want to be too hard on Lucas, he's done some great things, but I wonder why people don't challenge him. Does he fire anyone who doesn't agree with him, or something? Why didn't Spielberg fight him on the whole aliens-issue in Indy4? It's clear he hated the idea, why did he give up?

I just try to pretend those new films never happened. Watch the making-of-features of the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. They had as much fun making it as we had watching it. It was real, it felt real. There was emotion behind the scenes and on the screen. The new films are like 70% blue screen and as a result come over very sterile.

I mean, can you go back to that very first moment when you walked into the theatre for Ep1? Wait, how old are you? Anyway, imagine! You've just rewatched the originals, with their silly non-choreographed but very emotional fight-scenes and their banged-up X-Wings, and you're all pumped up and emotional, those great scenes still wizzing through your brain: eg. Luke going all apeshit on Vader and just banging on him with his lightsaber without any grace or finesse, and then you get this emotionally void drivel, with its improbably sleek looking ships and that fight scene that looks more like a ballet excercise than anything else.
The opening space battle in Ep3 looked like a fucking computer game, for christ's sake.

Clingy complaining dipshits? O RLY?

I never said I agreed with yahtzee, but to be fair he has a bit of a point, not has much with this but with a lot of other franchises. By grateful I meant that no matter what you give them they will never be truly satisfied because they will always say it wasn't has amazing has the original, even though no sequel ever is. My point is, if you ignore that they are star wars sequels and just think of them has movies, they aren't all that bad, but when you get the originals into the equation people will have too high expectations and nostalgia for the original and will hate the new one. To be fair though, yahtzee has said they where rubbish himself anyway, and I agree, the movies aren't very good, mediocre at best, and the originals where fine on their own, all the new stuff he is trying to add (Like the clone wars.) is just stupid and I wish he would leave the franchise alone.

 

[Raithnor]

Whats the name of the novel your talking about, that sounds interesting.

It never had a name. It was a project that got bumped due to "Darth Bane: Rule of Two" and then just sort of fell off the map.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[oppp7]

Fanboyism, plain and simple.
I actually enjoyed the second trilogy.

 

[Dark Angel Warlord]

that hidden episode where princes leia had a threesome with chewbacca and Ewoks

 

[Spawndex]

People hate it 'cause it wasn't like the older movies they remember from when they were young.

An 'cause it was over dependant on cgi, and the story made no sense and Anakin was some ugly little brat and not this bad ass dude anymore.

Also, Jar Jar Binks. Good lord on a stick up a hill.

Though, the bit with Darth Maul and the hangar doors is really cool. Shame he died !

 

[Richard Hannay]

Demystified the Force (really draws attention to how silly the whole thing is)

and there it is, just what what's-his-face said recently in that article
it turns out it is silly, all of the movies have some silliness in them (granted episodes 1 and 2 overdid it at times and episode 5 was very serious, but they all have both at different times), and if you couldn't see that, and refused to see it, and are enraged over it being pointed out to you, then that's understandable, but you should've gotten over it years ago and either moved on or embraced the silliness-- and I'd suggest you embrace the silliness, it can be quite fun

Yes, it can. But that doesn't mean it always is. That's where the whole "charm" thing I mentioned in the part of my post you opted not to quote comes in. Episode I didn't have it, and wasn't fun to watch because of it.

To be fair though, I feel that way about large swaths of the original trilogy, too. But at least those had Harrison Ford's charisma on their side.

 

[TotallyFake]

EPIC BLASPHEMY.
Seriously, Nam, you just outdid everyone I've ever seen on any forum.

The hell? Empire is the BEST one. Phantom Menace is terrible, the plot is simultaneously childish and overcomplicated, half the characters are pointless, three quarters of the plot is pointless in regards to the rest of the series, the effects are over the top, it looks like a fucking cartoon, the final battle scene is a mess, it introduces Jar-Jar.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Within reason. You've crossed the line.

The fifth movie sucked.
It was stumped. Hard.

Blah blah blah, it was the middle one, blah blah blah.

At least the second one had a clear opening and ending.

What does stumped even mean? Yes, Empire is very much the middle-child, but the rest of it is awesome. Or are you forgetting "No Luke, I am your father"? Cos that doesn't seem like a line from a crappy film to me. And the clif-hangery very sequel set up-ery ending of V in no way excuses the clusterfuck of I, II, and to some extent III.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[teutonicman]

Please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2FRedLetterMedia%23p%2Fu%2F1%2FFxKtZmQgxrI&feature=player_profilepage

 

[TotallyFake]

What does stumped even mean? Yes, Empire is very much the middle-child, but the rest of it is awesome. Or are you forgetting "No Luke, I am your father"? Cos that doesn't seem like a line from a crappy film to me. And the clif-hangery very sequel set up-ery ending of V in no way excuses the clusterfuck of I, II, and to some extent III.

I'm not disagreeing that as a whole, 4 through 6 is the best trilogy.
But, as a stand alone film, the 5th one sucks.

It has no real beginning, and no real end.
It just.. floats.

The second one had an ending, ergo it is better.

But you can't take V as a standalone, it relies on you having seen IV. But in the same way you can't take II as a standalone, the fact that it "floats" is irrelevant. It's like saying that as a standalone film, 98:34 of IV through to 20:14 of V sucks. You can't break down a continuous story like that.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Brandon237]

Star Wars episode 1 was by far my favourite. After that Ep 4. Personally I agree with you on basically the whole post, I suppose it's like blue cheese. You like it or you criticize it on public television.

Although I think it was the best of the six and had the best characters.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Personally, I liked Episode I. Maybe it's because I went into the movie theater with no preconceived notions on what it would be like.

I don't find Jar Jar Binks to be the abomination everyone says he is. Sure he's annoying at times, but he's SUPPOSED to be. It's not like C-3PO wasn't ever annoying in the original trilogy (to say nothing of his groan-tastic puns in "Attack of the Clones"). Jar Jar's a comic relief character, plain and simple.

While it's true Jake Lloyd's performance was lackluster, I can let it slide. Given that Anakin's a nine year old slave growing up on a lawless, hostile world, it would make sense that his mannerisms might be strange even by a child's standards.

One thing I've never understood is how many Star Wars fans interpret everything literally. After all, didn't Obi-Wan say the truths we cling to depend on our own point of view? For example, I've retconned the whole midichlorian bit away for myself by believing the Jedi got the concept backwards. Midichlorians don't create the Force, the Force creates midichlorians. It's simply a physical by-product. I know Star Wars novels state otherwise, but I don't consider such sources as canonical. The expanded universe has been plagued by poor quality control and contradictory statements for decades now, resulting in incredibly stupid and contrived stories that put the worst moments of the films to shame.

Now "Attack of the Clones..." THAT was a truly abominable movie. The worst by far out of either trilogy. But that's another topic...