A new, amazing, thorough and hilarious critique of The Phantom Menace - Page 8

Yes, because big fans of TPM should always be taken seriously

Did I say I was a "big fan" of TPM? No, so quit putting words in my mouth and trying to act like you're an authority on everything. Spoiler alert: you're not. I'm done going around in circles with you because it leads nowhere and we're never going to agree on anything.  

I guess we have reached the "I know you are but what am I" impasse.

No, we've just reached the point where I don't want to talk to you anymore because it's completely and utterly pointless. Take the hint. 

As someone who loved TPM after seeing it multiple times in the theater, I have to admit that my opinion of this film has changed quite drastically over the years. Almost everything that Carlo and RobertR opined about are the way I feel, but didn't feel years ago. It's funny -- I've stayed away from anything Star Wars related for years but recently have found myself watching TPM again, finding the reviews on YouTube and now discussing the film again on the HTF.

The biggest complaint I have is that we keep hearing how powerful Anakin is/was, but we never see and yes, that was a lame attempt to quantify Anakin's ability with the use of Midichlorians. Lucas boxed himself into too many corners by starting the story with Anakin being 9 years old. TPM really did nothing for Anakin other than to show us that he was taken from his mother at a very young age and at an age when he was actually too old to be trained as a Jedi. So basically, the rest of TPM was fluff and didn't really show us anything. Did we really need to see the (confusing) way that Darth Sidious came to power? That is something that could have been done much better and just as effective had Lucas started the story when Anakin was 19 or 20. I really believe that Luca should have scrapped the idea of making a trilogy that mirrors Luke's journey. By the time we get to ROTS (which is the film I enjoy the most of the PT) we get a rushed story in which Anakin barely has time to agonize over a decision to join the dark side of the force. His decision to join the dark side should have been made through moments of times where Anakin called upon the dark side to get him out of tight situations and THEN he could have been pushed completely to the other side by Sidious giving that final nudge.

And really what it all comes down to for me is that some things are better left to the imaganiation. Lucas really should have done sequels rather than prequels. Everything I imagined over the years (I'm 36 years old) is way better than what showed up on the screen in the form of the PT.

The AOTC version is up.  Just as good (or bad, depending on your perspective) as his TPM review.

www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/6/CfBhi6qqFLA

 Just as good!

This guy makes some insightful observations about these films, but the serial killer schtick destroys the pacing and makes a person take his opinions less seriously. He complains about Lucas losing focus and then commits the same error sticking that serial killer shit right in the middle of his commentary. Frankly, I just want to hear what the guy has to say about the film(s), so maybe he should take some of the advice that he is ladling out to Lucas and get rid of amateur theatrics that do nothing to add to the commentary.

I can also do without the serial killer shtick, but his insights into why the movie is so bad are spot on:

- The large number of plot components that make no sense.

- The "show vs. tell" problem-telling us things that should be shown, and not bothering to tell us things we should know about.

- The godawful "love" story--maybe the worst ever put on film.

- Overuse of light sabers--a "peaceful" jedi believes his weapon is his "life"?

- Turning wise old Yoda into a video pinball who shouldn't really use a light saber.

etc.

The Yoda montage at the end (from ESB) spliced with scenes from AOTC and TPM is extremely potent.

I don't love the schtick either, but it's a way to recognize the silliness of dissecting a decade old series.  The analysis, though, is quite good.

And there were quite a few elements not even touched on.  My favorite bit was Maul opening the door to 6 Jedi's and Star Wars kid.  The comments were hysterical.

 
The points about the lack of tension, a "fish out of water" protagonist, the non-sensical "cloners" plot, the terrible romance are as expected ... bang on. 

I could do without the serial killer schtick too, but he gets the story structure stuff right. 

I think he actually went a little soft on a lot of the dialogue (specifically Anakin's stuff). 

This guy's developed quite a following on the internet too it seems, lol. 

The thing I love about this guy is he sounds like he's piss drunk and just doesn't give a rats ass about anything in this weary old world and he's two steps away from ending it all lol.

This was brilliance, he could probably read the phone book and make it funny, the entire part where he talked about everything Anakin was doing wrong with Padme' and why Sam Jackson shouldn't be in these movies could, in theory, kill someone with laughter.

I must say, though, as stupendously funny as he is, he finds faults sometimes where there really is none and also tends to point out things that he says were left out but actually weren't, he just chose to overlook them or he missed them completely because he didn't care enough.

I cannot wait for his Ep III review!

Not a fan of the serial killer/pizza roll shtick either, but at least he tried taking it in a different direction, and the resolution was mildly amusing (at least compared to the alternately tedious/cringe worthy set-up).

I think the TPM one was stronger/funnier, although he still gets in some substantive criticisms. My impression was the editing was cleaner and crisper in the previous one as well, despite good sequences like the ticking off of all the creepy/inappropriate moves AS makes (which makes Padme's subsequent attraction to him laughable and ridiculous), as well as the aforementioned Yoda sequence. Though for the gold standards of Jedi-inconsistency nonsense, nothing surpasses the double shot of Jedi and Sith for me.
Also enjoyed the visual  video game metaphor accompanying the big duel sequence.

Looking forward to the review for Sith, as that's actually the one prequel that really chaffed me. I wasn't expecting anything but crap for these first two, but I figured there might have been a chance to save it at the end since all the meat was left, and with two films under his belt he would have had a map of where he went wrong. Very surprised to find that Sith played the worst out of all of them to me.
I know a lot of fans still hold this one in some regard so it will be interesting to see the reaction to it.

It would also be fun to see him go back and illustrate the many ways ROTJ fails miserably as a third act (which I realize will remain a minority opinion among OT fans...until someone comes along and visually illustrate the many substantive reasons why this is so).

I would pay real money to listen to him rip apart the Twilight movies, mainly because I cannot stand them lol.

 These things are a parody of the Star Wars-obsessed fanboy as much as they are about the movies, so I think the serial killer stuff should stay.

Agreed.

However, I don't see why he even needs to be a serial killer, he seems to have a pretty good grasp of how Women think.

B-b-but Return Of The Jedi is part of the original trilogy so there's no flaws in it at all. It's only the prequels that aren't good.

 "However, I don't see why he even needs to be a serial killer, he seems to have a pretty good grasp of how Women think."

I had the same thought.  The scene where he's rambling off a woman's questions to his one (Is she hot?) is hysterical.

 I think it's kinda funny he gave Lucas a bit of a pass on the whole Sido-Dyas/Sifo-Dyas business which never really was resolved or went anywhere (unless you're counting the EU, and even then it got pretty ridiculous). 

Seriously, Bro, how hot is she?

I think he gave the film several passes.  He hardly went after every vulnerable element of AOTC.  Just hit the highlights to be honest.

There's another film reviewer on YouTube called "Confused Matthew" who criticized Attack of the Clones pretty thoroughly, particularly the problems with the plot.  He's not as good as Plinkett, but he's pretty good.  I think Plinkett deliberately avoided repeating Confused Matthew's complaints.

 "Seriously, Bro, how hot is she?"

Natalie Portman is mucho hot!

I can't believe this thread is still going. 

Came on here for the sole purpose of posting that the AOTC review is up, but glad to see it's already been posted. As great as his TPM one. =)

LOVED The AOTC and Avatar reviews.

I wish he had more reviews because I really enjoy them.
Edited by JonZ - 4/8/10 at 11:59am

It's a chance for people to nitpick Star Wars and Lucas....you shouldn't be surprised one bit.

Even though TPM was released 11 years ago and the damage has long since been done and discussed to death, I suppose you're right. Too bad the forum doesn't have a "beating-dead-horse" graphic.