Star Wars movies tournament: The Phantom Menace

Episode I - The Phantom Menace

1/10 - absolutely terrible movie without any saving grace. Every aspect possible is just bad. There are no qualities in the movie, anything you can think of is subpar or straight up worst ever.

2/10 - extremely terrible, disgusting movie, a complete failure, although minor details can be okay, even if the movie in itself is one of the worst in history.

3/10 - bad movie. It may be very good in terms of technical aspects, the music, the effects, but with plot and writing being so terrible you cringe all the time, with literally nearly nothing making sense, but with visuals that are good to watch. Maybe it's the opposite, and plot is good on paper, but acting looks like done by random normies who never even saw the script. Maybe plot is good, and acting is okay, but terrible camera work make it so painful to watch for the eyes you pass.

4/10 - poor movie, but not tragic. Maybe it's overall subpar, with no real extreme downsides. Maybe it's pretty good in some aspects, but terribly sucks in some crucial thing so much it brings down the rest.

5/10 - as average as it gets.

6/10 - it's okay. Good thing to watch, it's fun, nothing to really recommend to others, but it's a good experience, even if nothing really interesting. As with other scales like that, maybe the story and acting is rather subpar, but epic visuals and music make it a good time to watch it. Maybe it's a good story, but told rather poorly. Maybe the worldbuilding is nice, and plot is just somewhere around.

7/10 - good movie overall. There is not a single thing you can call terrible and bottle-necking the entire movie, even if some aspects can be rather average or even subpar. Pros outweigh the cons by an insane amount though and there is not a moment of doubt it's a nice movie.

8/10 - great movie. Just that, great, great in every regard, the worst aspect of the movie is just above average, or maybe some plot holes or bad premise pull it down, but basically bad things are either just details, or some very basic aspects like the premise itself.

9/10 - fantastic, outstanding movie. It's just nearly perfect. Maybe some themes are not for your taste, some music themes are poor, one or two actors are subpar, but overall, it's insanely great movie nearing perfection.

10/10 - perfection in its genre.

O-Siri wrote:The awkward dialog and romance of the PT really aren't anymore so than most other family entertainment films of the same era. Sam Rami's Spiderman has just as much awkward dialog: compare "are you an angel?" to "Aunt May, Aunt May, is that an angel?". And the romance is just as lame even though they are both likeable as characters. The Harry Potter films likewise are full of awkward lines by modern-day standards and aside from Watson, the child actors are pretty wooden throughout even when they got older. And I'll take Anakin and Padme over Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Harry any day. Even Lord of the Rings has a lot of narmy moments and bad romance.

O-Siri wrote:The awkward dialog and romance of the PT really aren't anymore so than most other family entertainment films of the same era. Sam Rami's Spiderman has just as much awkward dialog: compare "are you an angel?" to "Aunt May, Aunt May, is that an angel?". And the romance is just as lame even though they are both likeable as characters. The Harry Potter films likewise are full of awkward lines by modern-day standards and aside from Watson, the child actors are pretty wooden throughout even when they got older. And I'll take Anakin and Padme over Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Harry any day. Even Lord of the Rings has a lot of narmy moments and bad romance.

SithSauce wrote:

O-Siri wrote:The awkward dialog and romance of the PT really aren't anymore so than most other family entertainment films of the same era. Sam Rami's Spiderman has just as much awkward dialog: compare "are you an angel?" to "Aunt May, Aunt May, is that an angel?". And the romance is just as lame even though they are both likeable as characters. The Harry Potter films likewise are full of awkward lines by modern-day standards and aside from Watson, the child actors are pretty wooden throughout even when they got older. And I'll take Anakin and Padme over Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Harry any day. Even Lord of the Rings has a lot of narmy moments and bad romance.

I think the issue is that Anakin and Padme have like little to no personality. Sure I won't mind the odd cheesy one liner as long as the characters are good and have likable personalities. In a franchise that George Lucas had always intended to be a children's fantasy tale, Anakin sure is lacking in terms of personality. He was basically a psycho throughout the whole of AOTC, which IMO was the wrong approach. He needed to strike that balance in making Anakin a legitimately good person, but also exploiting his inner weaknesses at the same time. I think TCW captured this perfectly.