And it’s not nearly as awful as I remember when it first came out. The visuals are stunning, the lightsaber battle is epic...

I mean, sure. Jar jar. But then again, ROTJ had Ewoks. As someone who didn’t enjoy TLJ very much I think it’s allowing me to watch the prequels with a broader mind. Either that or I’ve mellowed with age.

I think TPM is highly underrated.

Best or 2nd best duel, one of the best music scores - with DOTF arguably the greatest track of them all. Also has qui-gon jinn, possibly my favorite character in star wars.

It's my second favorite of the prequel trilogy, and probably my 4th or 5th favorite of all 10 movies.

It is likely my favorite of the prequels. It has its problems definitely but it is mostly enjoyable. The film still makes great use of physical effects, specifically lots of miniatures like the various ships, 3PO and even B1 droid bits, has great music, has a real cool end battle, and the intro is classic fun.

Nostalgia is a powerful drug.

It's enjoyable in places, but even when I was a kid I thought Jar-Jar was a bit much and he stands out more because everyone else is just so dull and boring. Highlights are podracing and space battles. Lowlights are overlong discussions and weak characterization. The lightsaber fights are good but they never grabbed me like the Luke-Vader ones did.

One overlooked thing I really like in The Phantom Menace is the style of the Naboo starship and fighters. They kind of evoke sleek postwar car designs (like the Jaguar E-Type)in a way that I feel the OT craft evoke the muscle car era (maybe I'm reaching- but the Falcon has always reminded me of a primered, hot rodded Chevelle) and that kind of gives a natural progression of style similar to how it happened in the real world.

I tried to have the "Darth Jar-Jar" talk upon leaving the movie. But everyone was just too angry. I caught this first time through.

Glad you enjoyed watching it.

Its probably because you have a young kid now. Heck, I've seen some riveting episodes of Paw Patrol before.

I had a similar experience as @Estarriol back when the film was re-released in 3D some time ago.

Although I didn't watch it with my kid, I think being a parent is probably the biggest factor that helped me appreciate and enjoy TPM. The film wasn't made for me, an adult. It was made for children of course. The expectation that it should cater to people like me was presumptuous. It's funny, it's dumb, it's scary, it's cool, and so was the first movie in the original trilogy--we just took it too seriously as we grew into adults. Seeing my kids laugh at Binks' antics or bury their face in their hands when Maul shows up is pretty cool. Similarly with the new trilogy.

They're having fun with SW and we get to share it together. That's pretty good if you ask me.

It helps that the visuals are actually amazing. It’s so easy to forget everything except Jar Jar, but there’s so much to like if you focus on the things you like rather than the things you don’t.

I think a review I read a while ago said it best. If The Phantom Menace had been the first film we would all rave about how impressive and visionary it had been.

I tried to watch it with my kid. We both couldn't make it to the actual good stuff (the light saber fight at the end).

I was taking about this with a friend. The prequels aged from being meh/bad as a teen/twenty-something, to being an experience I know appreciate more.

basically they aged like a fine wine for me.

Attack of the Clones today. The fight in the Arena was much enjoyed, as was Obi-Wan’s chase of Slave One through the asteroids

6 hours ago, Estarriol said:

Attack of the Clones today. The fight in the Arena was much enjoyed, as was Obi-Wan’s chase of Slave One through the asteroids

It is just a bit of a slog to get there isn't it?

AOTC is my least favorite of the prequels, but I still enjoy it, and there's a lot to love in it.

I'll always remember the gasps I heard in my theater viewings when Anakin was admitting to killing ALL the sand people.

And I still get chills every time mace arrives in the arena, lights up his bad***** purple lightsaber, then all the jedi appear and charge into the battle droids.

10 hours ago, Animewarsdude said:

It is just a bit of a slog to get there isn't it?

Sand....

2 hours ago, Jo Jo said:

Sand....

Everyone keeps bagging on that scene like they were always super smooth with women and never ever said anything that had an audience been present would have had them laughed at.

Anakin in that scene is a seventeen year old boy raised by monks to spurn attachment on a romantic getaway with the girl of his dreams. Dreams he's not supposed to have or act on. Of course it is going to be awkward. It is the first time he likely ever made anything resembling a move on a girl.

I've always felt there was an enormous amount of embarrassed projection and jealousy in bagging on that scene.

Attack of the Clones is done in by the trilogy format. There needed to be another movie in there with more of Anakin as a Padawan and allowing more time to expand or lay groundwork on some of the stuff that gets shorted a bit in Ep. II.

Oh, for sure I have said even dumber **** to a member of the opposite sex. That doesn't mean I would ever like to re-watch or find it entertaining. The fact that he sounds like a bumbling moron and still woos Padme is what sinks the believe-ability in their relationship. They have no onscreen chemistry at all. The age gap is also strange and awkward. Anakin should have been much closer to Padme's age in TPM. It would also help that movie getting an older actor to play Anakin so you could actually see him being somewhat competent in the N-1 and not just being a kid "spinning".

57 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

Oh, for sure I have said even dumber **** to a member of the opposite sex. That doesn't mean I would ever like to re-watch or find it entertaining. The fact that he sounds like a bumbling moron and still woos Padme is what sinks the believe-ability in their relationship. They have no onscreen chemistry at all. The age gap is also strange and awkward. Anakin should have been much closer to Padme's age in TPM. It would also help that movie getting an older actor to play Anakin so you could actually see him being somewhat competent in the N-1 and not just being a kid "spinning".

If folks want to bag on the situation existing at all I have no criticisms of that. I think it is pretty fair. Bagging on Anakin's "moves" is bit cheap.

But what AOC needed then if the age difference was too much was them coming after her again and again on Naboo and Anakin continuously saving her. Then her falling for him is a bit different.

AOC got all messed up when Lucas abandoned Jar Jar as a Sith Lord.

I never understood the age gap issue. He's 20 and she's 24 in AOTC, so it's only a 4 year difference.

Yea it's maybe a tad bigger than most couples in their early 20s, but definetly not abnormal.

I always felt like a bigger deal was made since padme was the older one and not anakin. Since in our culture usually the guy is older than the girl when dating not vice versa.

I think it spurns from the fact Jake Lloyd is a good 9 years younger than Portman. In TPM he is very much a kid while she is very much a young woman. I didn't remember the actual canon age of the characters off the top of my head. They seem much farther apart in age than there suppose to be.

I thought she was sixteen and he was 8. Anyway, Ani’s a monk in primarily male company most of the time (just going by screen cannon here, but women are rather unrepresented on the Jedi Council...), and suddenly he is hanging with a strong, confident, articulate, intelligent and proactive woman who is more than a little bit easy on the eye. It’s easy to understand his side of the relationship. I struggle more with what Padme sees in Ani, mind you. Powerful, brooding, conflicted... but so boring. Apart from pretending to be hurt when he falls off that animal he doesn’t really do anything cute, but I guess it would turn into a teen drama if there was more screen time. I think we just have to accept that most of it happened off camera and move on, or there wouldn’t be time for the spaceships and lightsabers!

36 minutes ago, Estarriol said:

Apart from pretending to be hurt when he falls off that animal he doesn’t really do anything cute,

It isn't cute that is missing. It is being commanding and competent that is missing. The movie needed a scene where he scared off some muggers with just a I-can-cut-all-of-you-in-half-and-be-on-my-way-before-you-hit-the-ground attitude or generally more of Anakin saving Padme from stuff. We don't really see him do something in front of her or for her that makes her see him as other than the little boy on Tatooine. So the whole thing ended up a feeling a bit forced.

That sort of thing would have also allowed us to see it not as little boy (Jake Lloyd) Anakin and young woman Padme. The movie doesn't really get us over the obstacle presented in Phantom Menace. We could forgive her forgiving his being awkward if he was badass in front of her. She puts him down in front of the others and we don't see him recover from that before she confesses her love for him. The plot led things around a bit there.

Didn't he basically do just that when protecting her from Zam Wessell? I may be misremembering the time line of events, though.

according to the weird al song, he's 9 and she's 14.