You beat me to it. This guy is great, I enjoy his reviews more than the films.
Casting Ewan McGregor was a great move; while he had nothing to do in Episode I, in the second and third films he was sensational, even though his character wasn’t especially well written. “You were my brother!” was pretty much the only moment in ANY of the three films that had any emotional resonance.
And the music was great.
Other than that the movies were just terrible. I disagree with the comment sentiment that Revenge of the Sith was any good; it wasn’t. GargoyleWB is absolutely correct; the prequels are every bit as terrible as Uwe Boll’s awful shit, except the production values are more in line with a real Hollywood movie rather than a Boll shitfest.
I disagree in a small way. Not about McGregor’s performance, but that there was no other emotional resonance. He did a lot with a little in both 2 & 3. I have the distinct feeling that Obi-Wan knew in his gut that he was no longer on the side of the angels, because there were no longer angels to support.
I thought at the time that this is one of greatest missed opportunities I have ever seen in a movie. Lucas had the chance to turn all of our expectations on their heads, and add some complexity that the prequels sorely lacked.
Agreed. The utter bewilderment on their faces as their clones mow them down one by one is fantastic.
I also quite like how Lucas not only abandons the character of Jar Jar, but makes him indirectly responsible for the creation of the Empire when he chaired the motion to grant Palpatine extended war-time powers.
Well, no. He even screwed that up. Instead of simply calling the fourth movie “Star Wars:The Phantom Menace”, he called it “Episode I”, as if we couldn’t figure out it was a prequel. He then changed the original Star Wars to Episode IV.
Now when someone comments on the fourth movie you have to ask “Episode IV or the fourth episode?”
Watching Yoda do the light sabre thing
Mr One-Hour-TPM-review-guy has some interesting thoughts on why this was an incredibly bad idea. Along the lines of weakening the dignity of the character.
They said the same thing about the Pope.
He addresses all of the points in the OP. Everyone who hasn’t seen them should stop what they are doing right now and watch all 8+ hours of his reviews. They are hilarious, thorough, and unbelievably insightful. It’s the final word on the subject.
Just watched half of the Phantom Menace review, it’s pretty good,. Though the guy feels the need to throw rather lame black humour jokes every five minutes, that sucks a bit.
I tried, i couldn’t stand them.
I wanted to but I can’t listen to his voice. I don’t know if that’s how he really sounds or he’s just putting it on, but I can’t listen to it.
To each his own. For a while now it’s been my new favorite voice after the “ASIA” voice from SNL celeb jeopardy, and the “EXTRA BIG ASS FRIES” voice from idiocracy.
You do know that “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added to Star Wars in like 1980, right?
My mistake, 1981:
yes, he said way back that the first movie was actually episode 4. He also said he was going to do 9 movies total but then he later denied ever saying there would be 9 - the other 3 movies would be episodes 7,8 and 9.
There are books that cover events after episode 6, just no movies.
The visuals in the prequels were excellent. The sets and props. And Palpatine was oozingly evil.
I didn’t know it was that early, but I knew it wasn’t released as Episode IV. The point still stands though, adding the episode number just confuses the matter.
I agree that this is a minor nit to pick, but if I get started on all the real stuff I didn’t like about Episodes I-III, I would be here all day.
I had/have a huge problem with the prequels that I’ve actually never seen covered. I’m sure it has been, but I personally have never seen or heard anyone talk about this, maybe because I can’t wade through all the gnashing over Jar Jar and such to get to it. But the problem is . . . there is NOTHING at stake. We already know how everything turns out. We know Anakin’s story the very first time we see him on screen as a little kid-- we know he becomes a great pilot, and then a dark lord, and we know exactly how he dies; we’ve seen it. And it’s really just not that interesting to watch unfold from that standpoint. It’s like watching a week-old sporting event on your buddy’s DVR when you already know the results. Guarantee most people can’t get through it.
He should’ve made 7, 8, and 9 and left the first 3 up to our imaginations.