Finally! The funny old guy takes on Phantom Menace

[Iasius]

The discussion about fun can boil down to one thing:

Did you find the new Trek movie fun?

Well? Because if I didn't I'd rip the hell out of it. I assume in good faith the people who dislike or hate the film did not enjoy it, because to assert otherwise is illogical.

Well, mostly. Ebert manages to call the film fun and still pan it, and then I'd have to get into a definition of what I mean by fun which might begin to sound tautological ('fun is when you don't dislike it enough to dislike it to... er...') so I'd rather we ignore that review and move on.

For me the STXI was fun. However, this isn't the kind of movie that I'll be watching on DVD much if at all.
I can't really quantify why I thought it was fun, but I do get the many criticisms from others, also those in this thread about the movie. I just didn't really think about them while watching the movie. They do however lessen my interest in watching STXI again.

EDIT: The next Trek film won't be very interesting if they play the same tropes with Kirk again. He's in command, and he better be willing to step up and shoulder some responsibility.

I agree with this. Kirk not growing in Trek '09 was fine, but come 2011, he'd better wise up a little. There's a hint that he might do that in '09, but not much more than that.[/QUOTE]
I agree. I went to the cinema hoping I wouldn't be bored like I was in the last two ST movies and large parts of Enterprise. The next time I'll have higher expectations.


As for the review in question here: I really enjoyed listening to it. He makes excellent points that I can agree with and while I'm not sure I won't get bored by his shtick if I watch more reviews, it was generally funny enough for the approximate hour of this review while not being too distracting.
I had never really thought about why I didn't like TPM much, but whether its a rationalization or not, a lot of his arguments made sense to me. It seems like Lucas had a few scenes in mind that he really wanted to get to and then structured the story to take them there, no matter what.
Those scenes are IMO Palpatine directing the blockade behind the scenes, meeting Anakin on Tatooine, pod race (special effects fun!), senate chamber introduced, big fight (light saber! space battle! droid battle!) at the end.
I have to sort of assume that because I don't really understand why these scenes should follow one another otherwise (or even be there).
His point about the lack of characterization wrt Obi-Wan versus Han Solo, etc is also spot on. I also think that this lack of character made the job of the actors that much harder.

 

[Kegg]

I had never really thought about why I didn't like TPM much, but whether its a rationalization or not, a lot of his arguments made sense to me.

Some of the arguments had occurred to me. I mean, my problem with TPM isn't the much derided boring politics ('the taxation of trade routes are in dispute'), but that the film didn't care and had no interest in making the political conflict amount to any kind of sense.

In part, I can see why. This is after all exactly what Lucas did in the original Star Wars - there's an Empire, there's a Rebellion, let's move on. But that works because the relationship is a manifestly clear division; tyranny and freedom fighters. It's unsurprising that nine billion Star Wars knockoffs have had a merry band of rebels fighting one form of evil empire or another.

But the Trade Federation, who blockade Naboo over tax routes, that's a supposedly intricate situation where the more one thinks about it the less sense it makes. As the reviewer observed, whether or not it makes sense in the EU is quite beside the point (and oh, EU? Good luck making sense of the Trade Federation's role in the Clone Wars episode "Senate Spy", where it's revealed it officially has nothing to do with the Clone Wars and is part of the Republic no really I kid you not).

What are they trading? The spice melange? Why's Naboo important? What exactly does the blockade hope to achieve? Why would a trade federation have a Viceroy? Does that mean the Federation has a King or did Lucas just think that sounded cool?

I mean, I know what the Empire wants to achieve in the opening bit of A New Hope. They want to stop the Rebels from taking the Death Star plans so they can use it to find a weakness. But I have no idea what the Federation wants to achieve in the opening bit of The Phantom Menace.

Other stuff, though, like how the betting with Watto makes no sense and how the fighting choreography is devoid of emotion and how everything regarding the blockade is nonsense plotting, that is stuff I had not considered.

 

[Broccoli]

Apparently this guy didn't like the video, and he took it personally.

 

[Gaith]

fail.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Apparently this guy didn't like the video, and he took it personally.

LOL, that blog entry is hilarious!!! He ends it with this call to action:

Treat the prequels the same way you treat the first three movies!!

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

 

[Kegg]

Apparently this guy didn't like the video, and he took it personally.

LOL, that blog entry is hilarious!!!

Quite. Ridiculing a guy for making a seventy minute video critiquing a ten year old movie (and doing a pretty solid job as far as his complaints go, it should be fairly said) when you're the guy who has run a Prequel Defense blog for over two years...

Well, who's more obsessive here? And I'd rather read a rebuttal from a prequel fan rather than a piquant demand that Lucas blow cash on a PR machine to rehabilitate the movies.

Because if there's one thing we can agree the prequel films did not fairly get, it's good advertising.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

One of the points I like is that Qui Gonn was willing to scam Watto, but didn't try using the Jedi Mind trick to scam someone else in order to get useable currency or something of value to trade Watto for the part he needed. Instead he wastes time on a kid and a pod race.

Or as RedLetterMedia put it, get a new (used) ship.

I never noticed that Watto had a protocol droid sitting around. Maybe Anakin was scamming Watto that way, gradually removing parts and building a "new" droid. Anakin was always playing people. You can see he's a manipulative little fuck. "Are you an angel?" Hmmm...

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

One of the points I like is that Qui Gonn was willing to scam Watto, but didn't try using the Jedi Mind trick to scam someone else in order to get useable currency or something of value to trade Watto for the part he needed. Instead he wastes time on a kid and a pod race.

Or as RedLetterMedia put it, get a new (used) ship.

I never noticed that Watto had a protocol droid sitting around. Maybe Anakin was scamming Watto that way, gradually removing parts and building a "new" droid. Anakin was always playing people. You can see he's a manipulative little fuck. "Are you an angel?" Hmmm...

I also like the idea that Qui-Gon should have just choked Watto out while the others stole the part. Mind control or physical restraint - what's the difference? In the end, Watto's out the part, any profit and forced into the situation by a Jedi.

----

As for the blog post, what exactly was that supposed to accomplish? Does this loser really think Lucas is crying in his jowls about potential future lost viewings of already bought copies of his movies?

Quick, hire a PR firm! Spin! Spin! Some kids who bought three different versions of six movies, two tv series and a bajillion action figures might only watch the films four times a year instead of a full dozen after their balls drop. Oh noes!

Hell, I bet Lucas is watching redlettermedia's stuff right now and laughing at the funny all while warming himself by a fire fueled by one of the numerous piles of money he has lying around.

 

[Trekker4747]

I chuckled when the guy pointed out that Watto used the oldest junk-dealer trick in the book on Qui-gon with the whole "no one else has this part! trust me!"

 

[Gaith]

Best part:

Mace: We will do everything in our power to discover the identity of this potential Sith.

(two scenes later)

Mace: Go to Naboo. Find out the identity of your attacker.

Old Man (as Qui-Gon): Huh? I thought you were going to do that...

 

[The Borg Queen]

I managed to watch about 3 minutes of that drivel before having to turn it off.

That voice fucking pisses me off.

 

[O'Dib]

As entertaining as that was, I hate being reminded of these movies again. It makes me think of the myriad ways in which they could've been better. And the worst part: I can't stop thinking about it! So, I have to vent, here goes:

1. Anakin should've been played by the same (talented) teenage actor throughout the prequels. Set him up as having a dark taint from the very beginning. Maybe he runs a thug gang for Watto, or something. The Han Solo likeable rogue type, Amidala falls for him almost instantly. He is the movie's clear protagonist. The cool things he does are not dumb kid luck.

2. I like the idea of consolidating Qui-Gon with another character. But it should've been Count Dooku. As a jedi secretly helping Sidious, it makes sense he would undertake to train someone so far gone to the dark side. After Qui-Gon is seemingly killed, the council assign him to Obi-Wan on account of their camaraderie, in order to hopefully set him on the right path, as he is already too powerful to roam the galaxy unchecked.

3. The Trade Federation: Why do they have "a battle hardened" robot army? How about a cool enemy, like Mandalorians?

 

[TheBrew]

Just like that guy's schtick, Menace bashing is tired.

 

[Trekker4747]

I managed to watch about 3 minutes of that drivel before having to turn it off.

That voice fucking pisses me off.

I'd reccomend watching the whole thing -though all of the parts makes it over an hour long- as the guy makes some good points, nails the movie where it needs to be nailed and there's a chuckle to-be had here and there.

But, yeah, the "character" doesn't work for me and his voice is a bit hard to listen to.

 

[Kegg]

Just like that guy's schtick, Menace bashing is tired.

True, it's been done many, many times before. It's so severely old hat that he barely mentions Jar-Jar at all, because honestly, what more can one say about this character?

That said, I have yet to see a video review that bashes TPM so well and effectively, including a number of critiques I simply had not heard of before. Now, if you want an example of an excruiatingly inept critique of the film, check out Confused Matthew's take - or better yet, don't.

I managed to watch about 3 minutes of that drivel before having to turn it off.

That voice fucking pisses me off.

I'd reccomend watching the whole thing -though all of the parts makes it over an hour long- as the guy makes some good points, nails the movie where it needs to be nailed and there's a chuckle to-be had here and there.

I'm pretty much with this. Every time I'd seen a video of his prior to this I didn't get past the one minute mark, he looked like a particularly bad and annoying sort of video reviewer. Stick with it, though, and he's one of the better ones.

 

[ancient]

Love the old guys reviews.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

he 's gonna take on Episode 2 and three next!

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

Hell, ya!

 

[Hyperspace05]

he 's gonna take on Episode 2 and three next!

Yes!

 

[Myasishchev]

here

So, this guy also is known for reviewing the last 4 TNG films. His reviews are just awesome. There's no other word for it, aside from funny!

"Fuck you, Rick Berman! You ruined this too?!"

Classic.