I just watched PM again last night and it brought some questions back into my mind that I forgot about the first time I saw it. Any answers would be spectacular
Why do those droid bots talk to each other? In the far future you would think they would have radio’s in their heads or something like that. I can’t understand why they are saying things like" Yes sir" and “Roger Roger” to each other. I can see why they would need to talk to non droids, but to each other?
Are all “human” looking creatures in the Star Wars universe assumed to be human? The only person I ever heard referred to as human in all the times I watched all the Star Wars movies was in PM when Anakin said that he was the only human who could pod race. I may be way off oon this though, I didnt rewatch the movies and count the humans in them.
Where the heck did Naboo’s army get their training? The whole battle scene where they are to protect the princess she spent more time protecting them! And those hats they wear… JC.
What the hell was with the word “Yippie” in this movie? Anakin says it several times and so does Jar Jar. Its just as annoying in the movies as it is in RL.
And finally (I know this has been done to death, but…) what the hell was GL thinking when he cast Jake Loyd in that movie! His acting was so bad I wouldn’t even expect to see him on some Nickelodean after school special. He is easily the worst child actor I have ever seen on the big screen. If GL couldn’t find anyone to pull off Anakin as an 8 year old he should have just started the story as a 13 year old so Haley Joel Osmith could play him.
Oops, forgot one. Who is Anakins father? I used to think it was Paplatine for some reason. But I heard Qui Gon say something about him being fathered by the Mitocholrians?!? WTF? Can anyone shed light on this matter?
One more. Why was the Federation even attacking Naboo? What was the point? I never gathered it from the story. Could they not trade where they wanted too or something? Too much taxes? Don’t get it.
After seening AOTC I don’t think this movie was all that bad. If it would have had EITHER Jake Loyd or Jar Jar ti would have been ok. But it just couldn’t handle both. It did have the second best Sabre duel of all the SW movies in it though. DM, QG, and OW at the end. That is sweet to hear on a nice system.
But by now we all know that Yoda vs. Dooku is the best…
I second the H.J. Osmet – Maybe it’s not too late, what with all the revisionist film-making.
All Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine’s doing. The Trade Federation had a virtual monopoly on the outer-rim systems, where the Republic had little influence. The Republic didn’t police the systems, but allowed the TF to arm themselves to defend against piracy. With the aid of Sidious, pirates made a number of crippling attacks against Trade Federation interests, which prompted them to press the Senate to allow them to upgrade their armaments for defense. Palpatine convinced Valorum that it was a good idea to allow this in exchange for taxes on the Outer-rim trade routes, with the provisio that a percentage of the taxes would be given over to a fund to help develop the outer-rim planets. “Sidious” convinced the Trade Federation that they could put pressure on the Senate to drop the taxation idea by imposing trade sanctions (enforced with a blockade) against a backwater planet. (Naboo.) He assured them that he had enough influence in the Senate to make it work. Of course, it was all self-interest-- he wanted Valorum’s position as Chancellor- so he arranged for several of Valorum’s business interests in the outer-rim to reap huge profits by inflating the stock with some shady, though untraceable, deals. Not enough to damn him, but enough to weaken his position. (The “baseless accusations of corruption” that Palpatine referred to.) This set the stage for Amidala’s vote of no-confidence, at Palpatine’s suggestion.
All the players were acting on the advice of a “friend in high places” – the pirates, the Trade Federation, Amidala – none of them suspecting that the same friend was also advising their adversaries, to his advantage.
He had everyone battling a “Phantom Menace” – simply to advance his own political career, and to justify limitations on liberties that would otherwise never be tolerated.
1: Just a WAG, but maybe that’s a default setting for when the driods are under the command of a non-robotic, uh, commander.
2: Yes.
3: From the same people who trained the Stormtroopers, the Nazis, and the ensigns in the Federation, apparently.
4: Well, the obvious answer is that George Lucas simply has no ear for dialogue. But I suspect this question was largely rhetorical.
5: This isn’t really a question, but I certainly agree with it.
6: Virgin birth. :rolleyes:
7: Ever notice how most brutal, dictatorial regimes have names like, “The Peoples Liberal Democratic Party,” despite the fact that they are neither liberal, democractic, interested in the welfare of the people, or particularly party-like? I think the “Trade Federation” is like that. They were just flat-out conquering Naboo, and don’t really care one way or the other about mercantilism.
BTW, you probably shoudl have warned people about that GIGANTIC SPOILER you had at the end of your post for a movie that only came out two days ago.
The Trade Federation was extremely paranoid, and didn’t want to give their soldiers too much self control (that’s why they built a droid army instead of using real people… that’s also why they centralized the droid control on their ship). By keeping the droids from silently communicating with each other, they can moniter their army and keep them under control. SW electronics are typically so sophisticated that random eruption of sentience can happen (hey, that’s how IG-88 came into being).
Yup. They identify themselves with their system of origin - i.e. Corellians, Alderaanians, etc. - but they’re human.
McDonald’s, probably. TPM was one of the worst abusers of “character shields” (a sort of invincibility that main characters have) of any sci-fi movie or series I’ve seen.
Character shields. Yep. A big offending scene is the last one where the princess is fighting WITH the guards who are protecting her and she is just kinda standing around taking potshots at her lesiure.
Those droids “armor” wasn’t very strong either. One little blast from a handblaster was enough to take one down. Didnt even really matter where it hit them either.