Why The Phantom Menace sucks

[thatguy]

A 7 part video review on youtube, 10 minutes each. I'm only on part 2, but these are pretty funny:

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--tg

[thatguy]

Here's more criticism from Patton Oswalt:

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--tg

[thatguy]

Why Episode 3 sucks...do you have over an hour to watch Revenge of the Sith get picked to shreds?

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--tg

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

No?

[Drunk Monk]

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

After our visit to Galaxy’s Edge, Ive embarked on a mission to rewatch all the live action Star Wars movies in their chronological story order. 

We are all of the original generation. We got to experience the birth of the franchise and got to see Empire before ‘spoilers’ was even in the vernacular. It’s become clear to me that despite our attachment to that ultimate ‘I’m your father’ reveal, that’s not how it plays out over the generations. Tara is of the 2nd trilogy gen. Even though she saw them in the release order, her gen views the overarching tale in its chronological order. Seeing Galaxy’s Edge, it’s designed for the new gen - those who are growing up with trilogy 3. It’s set on Batuu, Rey’s world. Perhaps it’s a side effect of parenthood but seeing generational distinctions fascinates me more than ever now.

Just like I’m adjusting to a generation of deadheads who never saw Jerry, I’m seeing this new gen of fans who are raised on this last trilogy. And in all fairness, I never saw Pigpen with the dead.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the original trilogy. I’ve seen the prequel trilogy a few times in spurts and bits. I’ve only seen the third trilogy once or twice. We’ll see how it plays out in chronological order. Disney+ has it set up nicely already in their Star Wars channel.

Time has softened my view of E1. The cgi is more acceptable because it’s all cgi now. It was groundbreaking when it came out but I remember longing for the muppet Yoda and the in-camera effects of the original. It just felt more solid.

Qui-gon is so flawed. He’s kind of a prick. It’s all really his fault. He should’ve listened to Yoda. Liam has a great voice and was awesome for a while until he fell into this post-Taken action rut.

Padme remains captivating. The handmaiden swap is well done. Star Wars has a tradition of great female leads so at least the prequels got that right - and Natalie has gone on to show us what a talent she is. 

In contrast, Jake (Ani) had a psychotic break irl. Ani and Jar Jar still don’t work for me. The whole Gungan thing remains unacceptable, even in the wake of Lego Bombad Bounty. The Gungan subtitles are amusing because they spell out the patois and all this time I didn’t realize it’s actually ‘How wude’. It also references Bombad.

I didn’t buy Ewan as Obi-wan for years. Hard to follow Alec. But the series was good and having seen him speak in person, his take on Kenobi has grown on me.

And then there’s Darth Maul, who is barely in the film - like less than 15 mins of screen time - and he kicks ass. That lightsaber fight is great.

Overall, the good parts shine more now for me and the bad parts just dangle but don’t seem nearly as annoying as they once were.

[thatguy]

Have you tried "Machete Order"

https://time.com/3817072/star-wars-downl...ete-order/

This Is the Best Way to Watch Star Wars This Weekend

April 10, 2015 9:27 AM EDT

All six Star Wars feature films are being made available for digital download Friday, meaning lots of people will be sitting down and enjoying some of the best movies of all-time this weekend — some for the first time.

But one of the most common problems when running a Star Wars marathon is: Which order do you watch the movies in? Do you go with the order of release: Episodes IV, V, VI, then I, II, III? Or do you see the story “in order,” doing I -> II -> III -> IV -> V -> VI?

This is no small question, especially for first-time viewers. The original trilogy (IV-VI) gives the impression the main character in the Star Wars films is Luke Skywalker, while the new trilogy (I-III) are all about his pop Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side.

But here’s a little Star Wars secret: Neither of those orders is the best.

The best way to watch Star Wars is something called “Machete Order,” detailed here by computer software blogger Rod Hilton in 2011. Machete order works like this: IV, V, II, III, VI, skipping I entirely because the only good things about Episode I were the pod race scene and the Darth Maul lightsaber duel, please never, ever mention midi-chlorians, thanks.

Machete Order has lots of benefits: Most notably, a whole lot less Jar Jar Binks and super-whiny Boy Anakin. But it also makes the entire experience of the Star Wars saga more rewarding.
Here’s Hilton:

As I mentioned, this creates a lot of tension after the cliffhanger ending of Episode V. It also uses the original trilogy as a framing device for the prequel trilogy. Vader drops this huge bomb that he’s Luke’s father, then we spend two movies proving he’s telling the truth, then we see how it gets resolved. The Star Wars watching experience gets to start with the film that does the best job of establishing the Star Wars universe, Episode IV, and it ends with the most satisfying ending, Episode VI.

If you’ve never tried Machete Order before, there’s no better time than now, thanks to the Star Wars movies finally being available for legal download online.

Where should Star Wars: The Force Awakens fit into Machete Order? As it stands, the logical place is to add it to the end. But there must be plenty of people for whom Awakenswas their first entry into the Star Wars universe, putting it at the beginning by default. While I haven’t tried that yet, I’d like to give it a shot and see how it goes.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Not this time obvs

[Drunk Monk]

Have you tried "Machete Order"

https://time.com/3817072/star-wars-downl...ete-order/

--tg

RE: Machete Order. Note the intro to my July+August 2016 cover story on Ray Park, photos by Greg.

The film was so disdained that the Machete Order arose, the “proper” way to watch the Star Wars saga because, with the second trilogy being prequels, the order of release is at odds with the timeline of the story. Named after a fan blog called No Machete Juggling, the Machete Order completely omits The Phantom Menace.