Liked it well enough. Didn’t like Jar-jar, was ambivalent on the podracing (except the 2-headed announcer, whom I loathed), really didn’t like the kid, thought everyone else was good.
Loved the SFX, the costuming, creature designs and the worldbuilding. Since that’s what I watch Star Wars for, not acting or storylines, I was quite content.
I’ve always been a sucker for origin stories. So I liked it.
Origin stories tend to be my favorites of the Marvel movies as well.
After the first twenty minutes or so, I’d started counting the movies Lucas had lifted scenes from: Spartacus, Cleopatra, Ben-Hur… Other than that, there was nothing that held my interest. Oh, and this little kid is going to grow up to be the personification of evil? Yeah, right. Pull the other one.
As far as I’m concerned, the series jumped the shark in Empire when Obi-Wan said “There is … THE OTHER.” That set up the whole incest thing, which ruined the relationship between the three leads. I loathed Return because the story, especially the ending, was so stupid.
I went to see Menace in the hope the series would somehow be redeemed. It wasn’t, and I haven’t been interested in Star Wars since.
I went to see a 1am showing opening night with friends who lived 100 miles away. And I had to be at work at 7am the next morning. I really wanted to see this movie.
In the climatic battle at the end, the dialogue track failed about 10 minutes before the movie ended. We had all the f/x sounds, but couldn’t hear anyone speak.
I hated it so much I don’t think I bothered rewatching it to find out what was said at the end until it came on TV. I’ve watched Red Letter Media’s deconstruction of it more times than I’ve seen the actual movie as it’s so much more entertaining than the damn movie.
I was super pumped. Skipped a day of school to stand in line for 10 hours with a group of friends to buy tickets the week before it was released. I was so excited to see it, there was no possible way I was going to come out thinking it was a stinker. Loved Darth Maul. Was willing to overlook Jar Jar. Was thoroughly confused by midi-chloreans, but also willing to look past that. Eight times I watched the movie while it was in theatres. By the time Attack of the Clones came out, I was able to see that indeed the Phantom Menace was in total a pretty terrible movie. Still like Darth Maul.
Saw it first as a low-quality screener that my brother picked up from some dude near his trucking depot that sold pirated stuff.
Despite the low quality, I was excited – it was Star Wars, after all – only to be disappointed by the abysmal acting, in particular that stupid little kid, followed by the cartoonishness of that damnable Jar-Jar.
I was excited, although not with the twitching and permanent boner that a lot of Star Wars fans of my acquaintance had for months leading up to it.
Once I saw it, I had a mix of satisfaction and disappointment. I wasn’t going in expecting anything mind-blowing out of the first movie in the trilogy, so it was entertaining enough, but it was far more of a kid movie than the first trilogy had been with a lot of stuff that was either trying to tone the violence down and/or make it more kid friendly that they probably should have left out.
I stood up after it ended and exclaimed “Wow! That was garbage!” in no uncertain terms. This was the second time I received applause from a crowd at a movie.
I went to it in the theatre six times.
Disliked Jar-Jar the first time around. HATED Jake Lloyd (“Now THIS is podracing!”, which pales in comparison to “I’ll try spinning, that’s a neat trick!”). Enjoyed the battles, the bits of humour throughout, the duel at the end, and of course the score.
By the sixth go-round, all of the weaknesses were very apparent, which didn’t stop me from buying multiple “special” versions of the home releases.
Compared to the next two movies, though, I would take this one every time.
ETA: The overall effect of the prequel trilogy, however, was that I lost my life-long love of Star Wars, and have not seen any of the movies newer than Revenge of the Sith.
Saw it first day, didn’t have to wait in line (I think we had more theaters back then than we do now, with a lot smaller population). Chuckled at the thought of all those fools who had been waiting in line for a week. They’d have made better use of their time driving to Phoenix.
It sucked from the beginning. Knew the pod race was there just for the follow on video game. What a waste of my money.
And I’ve seen every SW movie since. What can I say?
Both prequel-sequels are terrible in their own ways. They have a few neat moments, but are trash and we would have been better if people who knew what they were doing made them.
Episode VII is a great movie in my opinion. I love it. VIII was a good movie with a script that needed work. I do not like Episode VIII much, to be honest, but it is not the trash that the prequels were. It’s just a movie that I think made bad decisions.
My excitement for TPM was through the roof, I still believe TPM has one of the best trailers ever for a movie.
I went with friends, and I left with kind of a frozen smile/grimace on my face, probably due to shock, as I was still unpacking my bewilderment with what I just saw.
Needless to say, my opinion of it has soured since then. They never should have showed Darth Vader as a young child. NEVER.
My preferred viewing order now is to skip TPM altogether and start at Episode II. You need almost nothing from TPM to understand what’s going on, and it fits the Ben’s description to Luke about his father in ANH much better. No WAY was the original intent that he was a little kid when they first met - they were contemporaries.
TPM would be much different if I were in charge. Anakin would have been at least Luke’s age, with Obi-Wan taking on more of the Qui-Gon role
I had been so keen about its production that I put myself on a complete media blackout and wanted to go in completely unspoiled. I remember not eating lunch with my coworkers because they had Pepsi cans with characters on them. I really wanted it to be 100% fresh. I was going to wait until a visit with my family on the east coast and see it with my brother.
He then betrayed me and saw it without me and emailed me a warning that it wasn’t very good. I trusted and trust his opinion, so I relaxed my spoiler embargo and read a review in my local paper that gave it a C. Finally, my wife and I went to see it, with lowered expectations.
The music started and the STAR WARS script receded into space and I got chills down my spine. The movie started and was interesting enough until they got down to Naboo and met Jar-Jar. It was pretty much downhill from there. I suppose I liked the Darth Maul lightsaber fight, but the time of the final space battle, I was just waiting for it to end.
Upon reflection, I liked the plot machinations of the prequels - the subterfuge and manipulation that Palpatine employs is quite clever. However, the execution is abysmal. I think of them and especially TPM as “A good idea done poorly”.
Like many others in this thread, I was 19 and a huge Star Wars fan, and I was insanely excited about George Lucas returning to the director’s chair. I saw it opening weekend, and walked out dazed. I tried to focus on the positive but after a 2nd viewing realized that it was basically a mess. I think I may have even seen it a 3rd time in theaters just to make sure. For as terrible as the prequels were, I sure did shell out a lot of money to find out.
I’m not going to say it was a great movie – I watched it sometime in the first week or so, and came out feeling pretty meh about it – nor am I going to say that Jake Lloyd is/was a great actor, but you are placing blame incorrectly here. This is the SCRIPT, not the actor. You think a ten year old is adlibbing lines or something? Alec Freaking Guiness couldn’t have made “I’ll try spinning, that’s a neat trick!” into a workable line.
When the movie ended I was so underwhelmed. I had gone in with high hopes and was treated to a story that aside from having a characters named Skywalker and Obi-Wan, had nothing to do with the original trilogy.
I remember literally thinking, ‘yeah, that was a movie’, and not much else.
I loved the first movie. I disliked the second, which was just filler to get me to see the third movie. I thought the third movie was OK but unnecessary - the first movie didn’t need a sequel.
I didn’t camp out to see TPM, but my wife wanted to see it. So we saw it. My hope was that it was the start of something fresh. I decided I am no longer a Star Wars devotee. I have seen most of the subsequent ones, but I doubt if I could name them or describe them. TPM wasn’t any better, or worse, than any of the other prequels/sequels/who cares what they are.
I get it - the studio want that most valuable of all movie properties - a franchise, where they can keep pumping them out and have a built-in audience. I am not part of that audience.
The first movie was a recreation of an innocent movie experience. The rest are just exploitation.
My $.02 worth, and cheap at half the price.
Regards,
Shodan
Waited until it was on TV to see it. Fell asleep.
A couple years ago, my wife and son decided to watch the entire Eps 1-6. I watched with them. I couldn’t stay awake through any of eps 1-3.
And in the above paragraphs, I’m not speaking metaphorically. I literally fell asleep in all four instances.
So I have no strong feelings about the prequel trilogy. It didn’t hold my interest enough for me to have strong feelings about it.
My, my, this here Anakin guy,
may be Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry
Yeah, that was way too much of a stretch.
I didn’t remember when I saw it but it wasn’t opening day. I already knew pretty much everything about it going in so I was aware of the movie’s shortcomings.
You could make a laundry list of things that didn’t work in the movie and it’s been well discussed for the last 20 years. Anakin Skywalker and Jar Jar Binks are easy targets but I really think many of the other movie’s faults could be overlooked if Anakin was a little older and Jar Jar wasn’t such an annoying, immature character.
When Star Wars (no episodes, no New Hope, just Star Wars) came out I was extremely excited. I was the perfect age for it. I saw the commercials on our black and white tv and it still looked incredible. No multiplexs yet so I had to beg my parents to keep trying to take me to the one or two screen movie theaters in the area. It felt like forever before we were able to get to a showing that wasn’t sold out. I loved it so much.
In 1999 I was no longer a little kid. It was a very busy year. Marriage, pregnancy, buying a house, working my ass off… I didn’t have much time to get excited over a movie. I was happy it was being made. I went to see it relatively soon after it was released. I saw the next two in the theater. I don’t hate it. Don’t love it either. Like many others I’m disappointed because the many flaws are apparent and shouldn’t have made it to the screen.