Basically, George Lucas doesn't know what he's doing. He's just not... a good filmmaker. Most of the good parts of the original trilogy weren't his ideas. For example, when Princess Leia says "I love you!" to Han Solo while he's getting frozen in carbonite, and Solo says "I know." That was Harrison Ford's idea. Darth Vader's super-iconic heavy breathing? That was James Earl Jones's idea. Most of the other good parts were lucky accidents due to the lack of a budget. AND A GREAT TEAM THAT HE LISTENED TO.
Nowadays, George Lucas has money to do whatever he wants. He never has to brainstorm and find creative solutions to financial problems. He never has to rely on his team for good ideas. He can just film in front of a greenscreen and have 100% control over the stupid aliens that they CGI in there.
Lucas also ruins ALL his classics, not just Star Wars. Look at Indy 4. Look at E.T.! In the DVD he went back and changed the guns to walkie talkies! Why? That actually RUINS the suspense! "Oh no these guards with walkie talkies are chasing me down!" He wanted to make it less scary, ya know, for kids. He completely destroyed his greatest movie, THX-1138. That film was almost all white, on purpose. It was minimal beautiful arty sci-fi madness (the lack of a budget forced him to be super-creative and badass). For the DVD he added a bunch of digital robots, huge crowds of people (ruining the claustrophobic isolation of the original's atmosphere), aliens, tons of terminals and random sci-fi tech gear for no reason, and even weird monsters in the parking lot. None of that was in the original!
One of the film professors at USC (I forget her name at the moment) taught George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola. She watched all three of them grow and mature as cinematic artists. In her words: all three are amazing editors and filmmakers. All three are just phenomenal at putting together a scene, masters of pacing, editing, atmosphere, and putting it all together. But only Coppola knows how to tell a story. BOOM!
You sounds like an elitist that just don't like star wars.
If Lucas is a bad film maker than all the blockbusters can be thrown in the toilet.
The prequels are great movies, great entertainment and great for true fans of Star Wars.
I think A New Hope was an amazing fantasy movie and a special effects revolution that changed cinema. I think Empire Strikes back is even better, but that wasn't directed by Lucas. (At first he asked David Lynch to direct it, and got denied, lulz.)
The original trilogy had a beginning, middle, and end, with logical reasons to connect all the scenes. We have Luke Skywalker as a boring sissy for us all to relate to, and he slowly transforms into a badass superhero. We watch him grow and become a jedi master, and we root for him.
The prequels don't have protagonists. Who is the star of The Phantom Menace? A kid who's only in half the movie? There's nobody to relate to, nobody to care about, and no logic connecting the scenes. If the whole movie's about an armada surrounding Naboo, why does it disappear halfway through the movie with no explanation? They have to sneak down to the planet on an enemy ship, and then escape by busting through the barricade, but when they come back, there isn't a single enemy ship, and no explanation of where all the enemies are. That's supposed to be the primary villain and the primary conflict. It disappears. That is the stupidest mistake you could make, and that script would have been laughed out of film school if he let anybody read it.
Just watch the parts at 1:14 and 4:36.. It actually has footage of the editors and producers trying hard not to cry, and trying not to tell Lucas "Oops we accidentally made the worst movie ever made." Lucas is like, "Hm, yeah those scenes don't connect well at all, and the mood is ruined when we keep jumping around from escape to comedy to 5 minute political discussions to fighting, but it's too late to take any out. Well, I guess we're done!" That's a bad filmmaker right there.
Also, another part of the video has Lucas saying, "If I forget to say action or cut, just step in and say it for me."
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.
