Start here https://youtu.be/FxKtZmQgxrI

The above link is to part 1 in a 7-part critique of The Phantom Menace, which will lay a solid foundation for his follow up 3-part critique of Attack of the Clones.

You may have to put in some work to get past presenter's odd sense of humor, but, if you do, you'll be rewarded with a ton of literary insight and movie-making theory that will support the general disdain for the prequel trilogy.

If you are the reading type, you can also look for Michael Kaminski's The Secret History of Star Wars (disclaimer, I am mentioned in the intro of that book!) which will provide further insider insight into the story of how the original trilogy took shape.

At any rate, if you at least get through the video critiques, I hope you'll circle back here and update us with your thoughts.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

Start here https://youtu.be/FxKtZmQgxrI

The above link is to part 1 in a 7-part critique of The Phantom Menace, which will lay a solid foundation for his follow up 3-part critique of Attack of the Clones.

You may have to put in some work to get past presenter's odd sense of humor, but, if you do, you'll be rewarded with a ton of literary insight and movie-making theory that will support the general disdain for the prequel trilogy.

If you are the reading type, you can also look for Michael Kaminski's The Secret History of Star Wars (disclaimer, I am mentioned in the intro of that book!) which will provide further insider insight into the story of how the original trilogy took shape.

At any rate, if you at least get through the video critiques, I hope you'll circle back here and update us with your thoughts.

Yep, I've seen the Plinkett reviews and very valid points are made, no question. But I still feel the judgement on them is still too harsh especially compared to the newer trilogy. It's like fate said, "Oh, you thought those were bad? Check this out!" . 😁

@movie_nazi said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

Start here https://youtu.be/FxKtZmQgxrI

The above link is to part 1 in a 7-part critique of The Phantom Menace, which will lay a solid foundation for his follow up 3-part critique of Attack of the Clones.

You may have to put in some work to get past presenter's odd sense of humor, but, if you do, you'll be rewarded with a ton of literary insight and movie-making theory that will support the general disdain for the prequel trilogy.

If you are the reading type, you can also look for Michael Kaminski's The Secret History of Star Wars (disclaimer, I am mentioned in the intro of that book!) which will provide further insider insight into the story of how the original trilogy took shape.

At any rate, if you at least get through the video critiques, I hope you'll circle back here and update us with your thoughts.

Yep, I've seen the Plinkett reviews and very valid points are made, no question. But I still feel the judgement on them is still too harsh especially compared to the newer trilogy. It's like fate said, "Oh you thought those were bad? Check this out!" . 😁

Okay, well, hey, you are entitled to your opinion, as are we all. If you like AotC, great, you don't owe anyone an explanation for that.

But, if you're asking "why the bad rap", I'll add my 2 cents.

I'm a big OT fan, I saw all of them in theatre as a kid. I also rushed to see TPM when it came out and remember leaving the theatre thinking "WTF was that?" With online having become a thing, engaging wider conversation helped me quantify my misgivings about it, learning from others all the issues with it. So, for me, I hated it before I could articulate why, and others helped me to explore that.

So, there's lots of reasons why the PT got a bad rap. You are free to dismiss them or decide for yourself that the issues don't deserve the weight they have, that's fine. But, clearly, the very premise of your question is a concession that it does have a bad rap, which means the reasons it does are embraced by enough people that it has the bad tap at all.

It is what it is!

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@movie_nazi said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

Start here https://youtu.be/FxKtZmQgxrI

The above link is to part 1 in a 7-part critique of The Phantom Menace, which will lay a solid foundation for his follow up 3-part critique of Attack of the Clones.

You may have to put in some work to get past presenter's odd sense of humor, but, if you do, you'll be rewarded with a ton of literary insight and movie-making theory that will support the general disdain for the prequel trilogy.

If you are the reading type, you can also look for Michael Kaminski's The Secret History of Star Wars (disclaimer, I am mentioned in the intro of that book!) which will provide further insider insight into the story of how the original trilogy took shape.

At any rate, if you at least get through the video critiques, I hope you'll circle back here and update us with your thoughts.

Yep, I've seen the Plinkett reviews and very valid points are made, no question. But I still feel the judgement on them is still too harsh especially compared to the newer trilogy. It's like fate said, "Oh you thought those were bad? Check this out!" . 😁

Okay, well, hey, you are entitled to your opinion, as are we all. If you like AotC, great, you don't owe anyone an explanation for that.

But, if you're asking "why the bad rap", I'll add my 2 cents.

I'm a big OT fan, I saw all of them in theatre as a kid. I also rushed to see TPM when it came out and remember leaving the theatre thinking "WTF was that?" With online having become a thing, engaging wider conversation helped me quantify my misgivings about it, learning from others all the issues with it. So, for me, I hated it before I could articulate why, and others helped me to explore that.

So, there's lots of reasons why the PT got a bad rap. You are free to dismiss them or decide for yourself that the issues don't deserve the weight they have, that's fine. But, clearly, the very premise of your question is a concession that it does have a bad rap, which means the reasons it does are embraced by enough people that it has the bad tap at all.

It is what it is!

The Phantom Menace deserves all of the ire it gets and some. I hated it when I first saw it in the theater and I have probably seen it only one more time since it came out 20 years ago. Attack of the Clones for all its misgivings, terrible lines, clunky romance, and overall messy plot, it did have some pretty fun action moments which is mostly why we go to see these films anyways. We got to see Dracula and Yoda duke it out in a lightsaber duel! Com'on! Good stuff! Boba Fett, arguably one of the most popular "villains" watches his pop get decapitated? Oh, so that's why he's such an asshole. Got it!

As far as Mike Stoklasa's movie opinion's are concerned, I've watched a lot of Half in the Bag and I tend to agree with Jay's takes much more than Mike's which is probably why I think the Plinkett reviews are bit too harsh. They are funny as shit though. 😁

In fairness I'd say Aotc was the best of the prequels. I did quite enjoy it at the time, whether or not that's just because it was a huuuge step up from TPM, I don't know. It was still tactless noise devoid of style that I mostly forgot about soon after but it held my attention while watching it.

@JustinJackFlash said:

In fairness I'd say Aotc was the best of the prequels.

I may have to subject myself to sitting through them again but, as far as I want to conjure memories, it was RotS that has most of the scenes I vaguely remember (the emergence of Sidious, the fall of Anakin, the fate of Windu, order 66, Kenobi vs. Grievous).

I did quite enjoy it at the time, whether or not that's just because it was a huuuge step up from TPM, I don't know.

TPM was such a disillusioning experience, I figured it had to be a mistake. I was determined to give AotC a chance on the hopes that TPM was just a bad trip.

It was still tactless noise devoid of style

One of the key knocks on the PT. So noisy (primarily visually) that it's hard to actually recall the "story" in each installment. The thing here is, I saw all the OT installments in theatres as a kid and followed them; watching the PT as an adult, it hardly made sense and that skyrocketing of confusion baffles me.

that I mostly forgot about soon after

Rightly so!

@DRDMovieMusings said:

I may have to subject myself to sitting through them again but, as far as I want to conjure memories, it was RotS that has most of the scenes I vaguely remember (the emergence of Sidious, the fall of Anakin, the fate of Windu, order 66, Kenobi vs. Grievous).

I enjoyed the second half of TotS when all the important stuff started happening. The first half felt like filler to me, I was pretty bored. It felt like empty, irrelevant noise used to pad the film out before we got to the stuff people came to see. I found the second half of RotS was more engaging than anything in AotC but I was engaged in AotC throughout. So that's why I prefer AotC slightly.

One of the key knocks on the PT. So noisy (primarily visually) that it's hard to actually recall the "story" in each installment.

Yeah, I'd say that's exactly how I think of them. They all kind of blend together. They're so much that they end up being nothing. Lucas fills the screen up with so much information that you don't really take anything in.