There is no plot in Phantom Menace. It's a phantom movie.
The amount of hype for it was unbelievable, it's the most hyped movie of all time I think, so it was crushing to see that it was a train wreck. Liam Neeson is in it ... yeah ... but he plays probably the dullest character he's ever played in his acting career, lol.
I remember Neeson saying at one point Qui-Gon puts his arm on Shmi's shoulder, and Lucas didn't like that because it wasn't in the script, but Neeson argued that it was human nature and pushed for Lucas to keep it in. Like Lucas just had no concept of humans relating to each other (lol) by the time the prequels rolled around. It was so robotic and the most jarring thing about it is Star Wars practically invented the "characters with big personality/witty banter/rapid fire arguing" tropes in sci-fi/fantasy movies (which is copied to this day with things like Guardians of the Galaxy).
I just was so stunned that they turned Star Wars into a sterile cartoon. It's a kiddie movie with 30 minutes of rambling on about trade blockades, beaurecrats, Chancellors and other crap and characters just sitting around seated having bland debates. So Last Jedi, while I had my quibbles with it, I can enjoy it more or less. The prequels let me down 1000x worse. Attack of the Clones somehow manages to be even worse without Jar-Jar in it, which is actually an impressive feat.
Last edited by Soundwave - on 04 January 2018
