Taking the boys to Phantom Menace tonight

[Hobbes]

Title. 

I am excited to see how my boys (6 and 7) like the movie.  They have seen parts here and there and know the kid becomes Darth Vader, but have never seen the full movie.

As I was typing this, I just remembered that when I heard the prequels were being made (circa 1996) I assumed I would have a child that would be old enough to take to see at least the third movie in the theaters--which was almost a full decade away.  So here my prophecy is being fulfilled, at age 44 not 25.   

[Metropolis]

If they released this in Dolby Cinema i would have gone to see it again. Hope you guys have fun 

[Hobbes]

It was pretty awesome and the boys had a great time. 

It was interested to see how they liked it as they were much closer to Lucas's target audience.

On the drive home I was trying to have a very serious conversation on their opinions of different parts and characters but everything kept going back to Jar Jar getting kicked in the nuts by that droid.  What your favorite part "when jar jar got picked in the nuts".  Who was your favorite character, "The droid that kicked Jar Jar in the nuts". 

Once we got home and had a much more serious discussion I learned...

Favorite characters were Anakin (6 yo) and Obiwan (7 yo).  Both loved Anakin was a kid.  My youngest loved that Anakin blew up the droid control ship.  I asked about Jar Jar, both didn't really have much of an opinion but they both laughed at his tongue getting shocked (and getting kicked in the nuts).  I was a bit worried that at 2 and a half hours it was the longest movie they had seen in a theater.  They were really into it except the 45 minutes they were on Coruscant in between the pod race and the final battle scenes on Naboo.

Also, Disney was never mentioned.  No Disney movies in the previews and I thought they would have had the Disney opener...but no...it was all OG 20th Century Fox.

 

[Mike_Droideka]

I saw TPM twice last week; once on Thursday night then again on Sunday. I saw it at this old art deco theatre, built in 1937. The place has a lot of that old world charm. Few people turned up in costume. Many wearing SW themed T-Shirts.

This was available at the bar, but I really don't drink much these days.

Before the movies began, they screened about 4 old Star Wars TV commercials; the Artoo/Threepio smoking commercial, the Kenner Yoda ad, the ROTS M&Ms ad and the 1999 Pepsi commercial with Jake Lloyd. The lights went down and that glorious 20th Century Fox fanfare played right before the main theme. Absolutely no Disney bullshit in sight. It was fantastic and a reminder to what was once a great franchise. 

[Tank]

I'm just going to say this one thing and then peace out of this thread-- but it was a shit movie then, and it's a shit movie now. I remember everyone coming at me 20 years ago saying the OT was just as "bad" and that nostalgia was the only reason I liked it. Well guess what-- nostalgia is all that's making people run back to see ab objectively bad movie.

Also, I saw a TikTok yesterday of some kid who used AI to make TPM a vertical movie to fit on a phone screen and literally every comment loved it. 

I WEEP FOR THE FUTURE. GET OF MY LAWN!

But if you like it, have fun!

[Odine]

I was in highschool when I first saw it. First thought during the screening was, huh these trade federation guys seems kinda racist, then hrmm the pacing seems kinda of weird, then ooofff not a fan of the dialogue, then sayyy Natalie Portman is quite hot, then WHO THE FUCK IS THIS JAR JAR CUNT, then hrmm.. weird mexican/hebrew Fly character also seems pretty racist but im not sure against who, then god this slapstick humor sucks, wait the little kid is blowing up the space station on accident? This movie sucks ass. 

 

[Rogue 3]

It wasn’t the film I wanted back in ‘99 after waiting so long since watching ROTJ at the cinema in ‘83. Still went to the cinema several times to see it though! 

Having said that, I like it a lot more these days. Nothing beats having my 5 year old daughter asking me on a Saturday morning to watch “a Darth Vader film”! And this one makes her laugh a lot, so that’s magic. 
Plus I think TCW animated series helped enhance the PT a lot for me, and the awful ST gave me more appreciation for it as well. It’s not that bad. If only Anakin had been older.

[Hobbes]

On 5/13/2024 at 6:44 PM, Tank said:

I'm just going to say this one thing and then peace out of this thread-- but it was a shit movie then, and it's a shit movie now. I remember everyone coming at me 20 years ago saying the OT was just as "bad" and that nostalgia was the only reason I liked it. Well guess what-- nostalgia is all that's making people run back to see ab objectively bad movie.

Also, I saw a TikTok yesterday of some kid who used AI to make TPM a vertical movie to fit on a phone screen and literally every comment loved it. 

I WEEP FOR THE FUTURE. GET OF MY LAWN!

But if you like it, have fun!

You forgot to also call the movie woke.

[Tank]

Hahahahaha WELL THERE IS A WOMAN IN IT

[Lord Darth Hunter]

TPM is the most anti-woke film out there! All the good guys are white. All the bad guys are foreign. There’s a Karen giving attitude and telling everyone what to do. The good guy planet of white people keeps the non-whites away from their beautiful lands and cities and forces them to live in the swamps. Even the good guys who are not white (like Panaka and the Jedi Council) are constantly questioned and dismissed even though they are right. 

[Zathras]

On 5/15/2024 at 7:54 AM, Hobbes said:

You forgot to also call the movie woke.

This engine is woke!  HAHA! 

[Lord Darth Hunter]

Not to rehash all this again, but all this week they’ve been running The Terminator franchise on one of the networks. I caught T2 a few times and left it on while I did whatever I was doing. I couldn’t help but think how underrated Edward Furlong’s performance as John Connor was. That's the Anakin we should’ve gotten. If you are going to revolve a major franchise around a kid character, James Cameron showed how to do it. Yes it’s two very different storylines with one being R rated. But in the wrong hands T2’s John Connor could’ve gone a similar route as Anakin in TPM. 

[Tank]

100000000000%

[The Choc]

I don't think its a fair comparison for many reasons. Furlong was about 4 years older than Lloyd when making the movies. Which when the difference is between 13 and 9 while filming is a huge difference. If you wanna say Anakin should have been older in TPM then fine, but thats your issue. The difference between building the movie around a teenager and a little boy. 

[Lord Darth Hunter]

But that’s just it. Connor was supposed to be 10 in T2. He wasn’t playing a teenager. He was playing basically the same age as Anakin given a year or so. Yeah that’s one of the few flaws in the film because there’s no way that’s a 10-year-old kid doing all the things Connor did. He seemed more like 12 at least. But still, if Furlong was older playing younger it still worked. There was no reason the same couldn’t have been done for Anakin. I prefer having that being a “flaw” of the film than the flaw we got with kid Ani.

The real kicker is Lucas set Anakin at such a young age because he didn’t think an older kid would be believable as someone who was heartbroken to leave his mother. But THAT’S EXACTLY how “a few years older” Connor was played in T2. It’s not like he stopped missing Sara Connor just because he turned 10 or 11. The character hinged on wanting to salvage his relationship with her. James Cameron just knew how to get that out of his young thespian and write the story around it. 

[The Choc]

I had no idea how old he was supposed to be but just from watching the movie there is no way he felt like a 10 year old boy to me. If anything he felt older than the 13 years Furlong was. 

[Darth Krawlie]

We watched part of it this morning. When the T-1000 enters John Conner's name into the police computer, it lists his birthday as 1985. T2 was released in 1991--obviously John isn't supposed to be six, but with Judgment Day happening in 1997, the oldest he could be is 11-12.

EDIT: google says T2 takes place in 1995, but who knows if that's right or not

[Lord Darth Hunter]

The Terminator films give exact dates for their timelines. In the first film Kyle Reese and the T-800 were sent back to May 12, 1984. Then in T2 when the T-1000 searches the police records for John Connor, it shows his birthday is February 28, 1985, which fits in with Sara’s pregnancy timeline. The report also says he is currently 10 years old.