You are as bad as the drunk hobo of your youtube link.

The movie does not have a main protagonist? He does not have the standard sissy turning into a badass after a learning time? But who care? You want movie to just be copy of another copy of another copy.

I am sorry but there are not a checking list to respect when you are making an action movie. The main character of Phantom menace is Anakin, like in all the prequels. The rest is a back story. Your are missing the point completely. The prequels are there to tell the story of Anakin and for this reason mainly.

The film was great, it was an action packed movie, with the introduction of Anakin, a well made planet and civilization (under the sea), an good battle and everything we needed to start this trilogy.

You can't have a protagonist that doesn't make the decisions that move the plot forward, unless it's something like Mr. Magoo where he bumbles around for laughs.  It's not about action movies or even movies.  It's about storytelling in any medium.  What's weird is that Lucas KNOWS this, and he studied all sorts of hero myths from around the world when he created the original trilogy.  Yet for some reason he threw his whole education out the window for the prequels.  For a quick buck.

It's not a checklist of things you do.  It's a checklist of mistakes to avoid, and Lucas made every one on the list in The Phantom Menace.  He established a universe where jedis are peaceful benevolent arbiters of justice, and then he made a movie where the jedis just run around blowing shit up for no reason, and constantly send innocent people into horribly dangerous situations.  Toxic gas pours into the room, and they can smell it, but they don't die?  "Hm, this smells like poison that would kill us instantly, we better hold our breath and wait for the bad guys to show up."  They already smelled it.  They should be dead!  That whole scene can be scrapped, and they can just walk out of the room and fight the bad guys.  Also, nobody in the film notices that they've been exploding bad guys everywhere?  They're the worst spies in the history of cinema, but the worst villains in the history of cinema don't even notice.  Qui-Gon Jinn would have been put in jail by Yoda for all the stupid shit he does in this movie.  Ya know, if the scenes had anything to do with each other, and weren't just supposed to be easy on the eyes and lead up to a sequel.

The protagonist doesn't have to be a sissy.  I was just explaining why Luke was such a great protagonist for A New Hope and the original trilogy.  The sissy transformation character arc is very popular because it helps the audience actually give a shit.  It's just one of many ways to get the audience to give a shit.  The Phantom Menace skipped all of them.

Who said you can't? You and that drunk guy only. There is not law that forbib that. You are really bitching because the movie is not following the same model than most of the other movies? But seriously, who care? I liked this movie a lot, it was entertaining and introduced everything we needed.

Some things were not needed like your gas scene or were easily given like Palpatine overthrowing the boss of the galaxy so easily but that's in all movies. Why Yoda would have put Qui Gon in jail? For protecting himself from peoplke trying to kill them at the trade federation? From defending himself against Darth Maul?

They were sent there to try to confirm what they thought and got it. That's all. There is nothing bad about it.

The only one I dont like is episode 2, kinda a dissapointment. I don't know why people hate episode 1 we got this from it. :)

I didn't realise he did that. I finally get why that happens in South Park. I was thinking, OK, they're making fun of something here but I clearly missed the ball.

THe phantom menace wasnt a bad movie, just a boring one. beside the fight and podrace everything was boring. Ironically the most hated SW film has the best fight scene.  Ep. 2 would have been perfect if the whole romance thing was done better. Hayden and Nat Portman are not bad actors they were just given bad direction. The last half hour was great.  Ep. 3 was fine, they could have added a little more oomph to the Anakin betrayal thing. All in all I think they just needed a better direction. Im a huge SW fan so I read some of the novels and they do a good job of filling in the blanks of the movies, especially the prequel ones. Maybe its because I have a better understanding of that universe than your average viewer I could appreciate it more

In my opinion the first trilogy had heart and spirit. The prequels lacked it. It felt fake for the most part - from characters, their "fights", and to actual backgrounds.

If it hadn't been star wars, i would have thought it to be bad movies. Which i find sad.

I like the Star Wars prequels. But I can't stand the fourth Indiana Jones movie. The originals are a part of my childhood loving memories, but the recent one is a total boredom fest.

The main character doesn't have to be a sissy. He can be made into a strong character in any number of ways. Tarantino does it by making all of his main characters badasses throughout the entire movie. What character in the prequel trilogy could possibly be described as a badass? Certainly not Anakin, who starts off as a small annoying child, becomes a soppy annoying teenager and finally turns into a cringing, depressed young man. Even as Darth Vader in Episode III, he seems incredibly insecure. Compare the man who said "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" (somehow managing to sound completely emotionless and inhuman) with the man who said "No, Luke. I am your father". The same character? Really?

Anakin was just about the worst part of the prequel trilogy, barring only Jar Jar Binks and maybe Padme. But neither of those two had any significant role. I don't hate the prequels as much as most fans of the original trilogy. And believe me, I am a fan of the original trilogy, and I don't believe that the prequels come anywhere near the originals in terms of writing, story, acting, character development, engagement of the audience, empathy, or really anything that makes a good movie other than quality of special effects. The only reason Revenge of the Sith was less terrible than Episodes One and Two was that George Lucas didn't even pretend he had decent characters or a believable story, and just directed two hours of explosions and general pewpew.

Rubang and "the drunk guy" are bitching because it's a terrible movie, and suggesting just a few of hundreds or perhaps thousands of ways in which it could have been good. It's hard to imagine Phantom Menace being very much worse than it is now.

Granted, all movies have inconsistencies, most probably including the original trilogy. But in very few movies are they this commonplace, and generally, if the movie itself is entertaining, nobody bothers to look for them.

On the sending of the Jedi specifically:

• Why would the Republic send ancient mystical warriors with no formal allegiance to the Senate, in place of actual diplomats?
• If they wanted to spy, couldn't they have used their untold trillions of credits to train a few people in actual espionage and have them join the Federation? Why didn't they do this to begin with?
• Why would the Trade Federation try to kill said ancient mystical warriors?
• What, exactly, did Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan hope to achieve? Did they really expect that a race of green aliens with an enormous army would sit down and have a calm conversation about taxes with some "midichlorian"-infested maverick and his unusually mature and sensible sidekick?