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Waited in a three-hour-ish line for The Phantom Menace. 100 minutes of "I'm sure it will get better" followed by the Naboo duel tricking my fanboy brain into thinking it was a good movie.
I camped out overnight! Met new people, shared stories, and it was like regular camping but in a parking lot and no fire.
The campout was a lot more fun than the movie.
One of my first memories of being disillusioned with media, having my hopes up and being let down was TPM. I went and saw it, kinda convinced myself it was cool...
Then a couple days later, someone was asking me about, and they asked what happened. I took a moment to think and finally had to come back and say 'idk, I guess nothing really'.
I tried so hard, but poor Jake Lloyd was never given anything to work with, and Natalie Portman and Samuel L Jackson and any other actors who were hoping for some competent direction were hung out to dry too. Some of the worst line readings I’ve ever heard from professional actors.
Then there was JarJar… and watto… and the neimoidians… oh, and the utter lack of a compelling story…
Like you, though, I convinced myself that the bones were good, and then also that they were just getting warmed up and episode two would be a banger. Spoiler alert: it was not, though it had a few isolated moments as well.
I mean the Naboo duel is pretty cool though.
But yeah I'd be highly annoyed if I had to wait three hours in line for that movie.
It was so much worse than that. People had been waiting 16 years to see a proper cinematic continuation of Star Wars. There were some pulp novels, a couple of very weak kids cartoons, a pretty decent tabletop RPG with source materials, a few video games, and that was about it. For a franchise that was still iconic and incredibly popular despite lying fallow like that.
We got a more distilled version of George’s vision, and hoo-boy it just simply wasn’t very good. I still saw that movie six fuckin’ times (the last three at the dollar theater), but while there was plenty to digest and feed my nerdery, the story and acting just never got better.
Surely they were just getting warmed up though, and episode two would be better…
That Naboo duel + podracing makes me think that movie is better than it really is.
Similarly, I feel the updated CGI really elevates The Force Awakens, but it’s just such a safe rehash of Star Wars, that I really hated every moment of it.
~~Joss Whedon~~ Abram’s really did a number on the series, or maybe I just dislike that mystery box style of writing so much.
JJ Abrams, but yes. I will give TPM credit for production design and world building and for a few of the veteran actors’ performances.
TFA gave us a cast of characters you could do something with, and apart from sounding a bit too much like a Joss Whedon movie, performances that were at least not delivered by cardboard cutouts. I didn’t completely mind the plot being a rehash, but the contortions they went through to make the state of the galaxy exactly fit a rehash doomed the entire trilogy.
Totally mixed them up. Thanks!