Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

[The Tingler]

Young Indy 9.5/10

I'll let you have the rest of the scores as they're your own opinion and I can't argue, but I don't think the whole of Young Indy can be scored as one. It changes a heck of a lot, as does the plots, feel, direction... it's basically a completely different show every episode!

 

[The Tingler]

Ray Park played the character on screen, but his voice is not very intimidating, so Darth Maul's lines were dubbed by another actor whose voice had more "presence."

Yeah, if you want to hear what Ray Park really sounds like, watch X-Men. It explains a lot.

 

[eroc]

But E.T. and his friends were in The Phantom Menace.

 

[MaxPhactor23]

Maul's voice was super-duper badass!

Sure it was cool...all three lines of it. Boba freaking Fett had more dialogue in the original trilogy. Plus the bulk of his lines are merely just him repetitively saying master. You could argue he only has a single line. How disappointing. Phantom Menace is even my favorite of the prequels. I suppose that's really saying something. Darth Maul was cool when he was there, which wasn't all that often, but ultimately he was obscenely wasted.

 

[kongisking]

Sure it was cool...all three lines of it. Boba freaking Fett had more dialogue in the original trilogy. Plus the bulk of his lines are merely just him repetitively saying master. You could argue he only has a single line. How disappointing. Phantom Menace is even my favorite of the prequels. I suppose that's really saying something. Darth Maul was cool when he was there, which wasn't all that often, but ultimately he was obscenely wasted.

That's why I love him! An enigmatic, mysterious monster with little to zip humanity, making him all the creepier! I love his attitude! Same reason I love Chow Yun-Fat's Sao Feng!!!

 

[Katarn07]

Sure it was cool...all three lines of it. Boba freaking Fett had more dialogue in the original trilogy. Plus the bulk of his lines are merely just him repetitively saying master. You could argue he only has a single line. How disappointing. Phantom Menace is even my favorite of the prequels. I suppose that's really saying something. Darth Maul was cool when he was there, which wasn't all that often, but ultimately he was obscenely wasted.

I just commented in the RotJ topic and you say all these thing made Boba Fett cool. Why doesn't that argument work for Maul, then? I think kongisking is right about the mystery being a big part to his character.

 

[yodazone]

I just commented in the RotJ topic and you say all these thing made Boba Fett cool. Why doesn't that argument work for Maul, then? I think kongisking is right about the mystery being a big part to his character.

Darth Maul would have been even more cooler had he been in Episiode 2 & 3...

...but they sliced him in half instead of Jar Jar!

 

[Katarn07]

Darth Maul would have been even more cooler had he been in Episiode 2 & 3...

...but they sliced him in half instead of Jar Jar!

Nah, Maul served his purpose. Dooku was a better fleshed out villain. If anything, Dooku. should have been in TPM as a Jedi so seeing him in AotC as a villain would be more of a shock.

And I honestly don't get the hate for Jar Jar. I never have and never will hate him. The prequels suffer for many more reasons than this goof-ball character of a character.

 

[The Man]

I didn't see The Phantom Menace until 2001 on VHS, once all the madness died down. Honestly, I really enjoyed it and own all six movies on DVD. Epidode I lets itself down with Jake and Jar-Jar, no defence, but it is a decent movie. It's just become very fashionable to bash it.

 

[Foxy Oxley]

What are you people talking about?

There are 3 Star Wars movies

A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

There were never any other movies made.
Never!
Do you hear me!!??

There were never any prequels made. They don't exist. Its all a bad dream.

*rocks gently back and forth*

 

[MaxPhactor23]

Nah, Maul served his purpose. Dooku was a better fleshed out villain. If anything, Dooku. should have been in TPM as a Jedi so seeing him in AotC as a villain would be more of a shock.

And I honestly don't get the hate for Jar Jar. I never have and never will hate him. The prequels suffer for many more reasons than this goof-ball character of a character.

Because it's very simple. The summer of 1999 had Darth Maul's ugly tattooed mug painted on ever surface imaginable. Everywhere you looked those dreamy sunset yellow eyes were piercing your soul. He was billed as the new Darth Vader, the prequel trilogy villain to end all villains. With this huge emphasis upon his character, it left this impression that he’d be sticking around for a while. That he’d be vital!

Upon walking out of the theater…it’s revealed that Darth Maul doesn’t enter the story until halfway through, he has somewhere around three lines of dialogue, give or take he has about 30 minutes of screen time, and then he’s iced like the expendable disappointment he was. He was almost entirely a walking and (not so much) talking gimmick for fight scenes. A cheap and superficial thrill. His lacking of character was in and of itself his character. I went in thinking this guy would actually be (dare I say) cooler then even Darth Vader himself. I walked out thinking he wasn’t even the same galaxy.

Boba Fett was never intended to be vital to SW. You may argue that changed with AOTC’s, but I’m talking conceptually. He’s there for one basic (but vital) plot point; Take Captain Solo to Jabba the Hutt. His helmet never showered grocery/department store aisles. We already had an established arch nemesis for the story. Boba Fett was a glorified extra, but that’s what gave him his popularity. The prequels would have benefited with quality over quality…but instead we’re given a mass amount of cool-looking yet more-or-less shallow main villains. The prequels deserved an intelligent, in-depth, and fleshed-out major villain.

 

[Shortie]

I don't know the real enemy should be:

 

[Goonie]

I watched Phantom Menace last night, first time in about a year and a half. For a movie that's 9 years old (hard to believe), it's got better CGI in it than Indy IV. I'm starting to wonder if ILM wasn't given enough time on the CGI in Indy.

 

[TheMutt92]

I love each SW movie. Grew up watching the originals on vhs and the prequels in theatres. Personally, I don't see any unnessecary differences between the two trilogies. I think TPM gets bashed because its so radically different from what original audiences saw 16 years earlier. But just think about it: TPM is the beginning, ROTJ is the end. So obviously things are going to have to be different so we can show the progression from film to film, trilogy to trilogy. When you look at the series as a whole (which is how it should be done), it flows along from one change to another pretty evenly.

I watched Phantom Menace last night, first time in about a year and a half. For a movie that's 9 years old (hard to believe), it's got better CGI in it than Indy IV. I'm starting to wonder if ILM wasn't given enough time on the CGI in Indy.

When you think about it, the Indy movies are made in a quick and dirty style... so maybe it was intended?

 

[Violet]

I enjoyed TPM when I saw it in cinema (11 years old at the time) and even saw it twice. The parts that annoyed me was Jar Jar and it's political scenes going forever. I do prefer KOTCS over TPM even with comparing initial impressions from TPM. Darth Maul was a pretty awesome villain and had great presence even if he had such short scenes.

I still enjoy TPM, but out of the new SW movies, I think ROTS is the best.

 

[Michael24]

I don't know the real enemy should be:

That was the only Prequel I came close to liking and even had on DVD for awhile before deciding I could live without it. For me, ROTS is my least-favorite of the Prequels.

 

[DarthMickey]

The movie Phantom Menace is so far away from what Star Wars is and was it can even be compared.It can be hated though! It's crap! Jar Jar, Battle droids, worthless and boring dialog, who cares chracters etc etc,,!

 

[mutt willams]

i love all the star wars movies, i think the prequels rock. the people who grew up with the sequels, like the sequels better, people who grew up with prequels, like them better... thats my theroey.

 

[mutt willams]

in my opinion ROTS is the best star wars movie tied with ROTJ, i am a star wars geek ask me anything about it and i can tell you!

 

[agentsands77]

IMO, all of the prequels are poor, but EPISODE I is actually the one that comes out better than the others. At least it feels mostly real and is mostly harmless.