For better AND for worse, TPM is probably the most pure, uncut Lucas out there because no one was telling him no.  I suspect his sequel trilogy would have had similar issues, but it would have been something new and different (again, for better AND for worse).  But it definitely wouldn’t have simply been “more Star…

My friend, I have trouble seeing your perspective on this. I think the film is quite clear in the setup and execution of the climactic final battle. It is symbiosis. The Gungan battle was fought so that the Naboo could infiltrate Theed and launch their starfighters. The Naboo starfighters then had to destroy the…

You forgot the best thing about TPM was the trailer. The movie in that trailer looked amazing.

Time for the Time Paradoxes to begin. Too bad it’s 1998 and not 2018, the X-Men could have learned a thing or two by watching these time traveling buddies:

I disagree with you on both Jedi counts.

Nice to see that this film is now getting it’s due from fans. There are still definitely haters but at this point you’re not going to change anyone’s mind. Phantom Menace was trampled the following year at the academy awards by The Matrix and deservedly so. However what it did take home was sound editing and Williams…

I’ve always maintained that the best thing about Phantom Menace was inspiring the Mr. Plinkett Phantom Menace review. And that’s meant only partially snarky — the YouTube reviewing community still displays the influence of the Red Letter Media magnum opus. I’ve heard “what is wrong with your FACE” in the Plinkett…

Going off on a tangent here, but I do have an anedocte to share about A-Wings (since you seem to have a strong opinion on them):

Aside from the nakedly racist stereotypes (Jarjar: Afro-Carribean, Neimoidians: Japanese), there’s one thing above all that really bothers me about TPM.

George Miller’s entire career laid out honestly sounds like a joke. The man just seems to do whatever the hell he feels like in the moment with zero thought of whether he’s ever done anything like it before, even in comparison to other famous genre-fluid directors like Howard Hawks and George Cukor. And his still…

Very well put!

Compelled to mention the 2020 Darth Vader comic run, that was hellbent on reifying the most ridiculous parts of Episodes 1-3 and 7-9. 

Agreed - there is a lot more that could be told based on the history of the real people the book was based on.

I guess he didn’t have to chase her to the ennnnds of the eaaarrth!

Is that Flash Thompson behind them? Are the other faces in the scene from Spider-Man?

Could’ve fooled me. One of the main points of the prequel trilogy was how flawed the Jedi code was and how it would lead to someone like Anakin falling. That he would have to conceal his love for Padme and be desperate to turn to Sidious manipulations. For all my faults with the prequel trilogy I like it calling out…

I find the location of the photophores intriguing. While some predators like angler fish have tiny bioluminescent points that lure prey, these are huge, and almost look like eyes, and I can’t help but wonder if it startles some prey into swimming up, attempting escape, directing them right into the beak of the squid.

imo a franchise’s canon should be messy and inconsistent. Art/media means different things to different people, and Star Wars especially has a bunch of influences, ideas, and themes with no one really comprising what “makes” Star Wars. Placing that under the purview of one person who’ll then decide what Star Wars “is”…

Any Corman list that doesn’t have Battle Beyond the Stars, featuring the Uterus Ship With Fallopian Tubes, is automatically wrong.  I mean, the special effects in that movie were reused so many times, those ships are almost as iconic as Star Wars ones.

I like this idea. I believe there are a few of Shogun’s characters’ descendants who appear in Gai-Jin, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for there to be a family resemblance. I too would love to see what Yabushiga’s kin are up to a couple of hundred years later.