The main problem with The Phantom Menace was that it was a couple steps forward and then a rocket-propelled train-ride backwards for the Universal Balance of Cool. Sure, we got a faster paced lightsaber battle and pretty new explosions, but the most important aspect of the movie,
The Rad Factor, is all but nonexistent in The Phantom Menace.
Since all forms of Radness or saying one movie is "Good" or "Bad" may only ever be demonstrated when compared to other movies, I'm gonna use Star Wars as a reference point, seeing as how the ass who created it claims it's all one cohesive picture (and all the money on those movie tickets and action figures are ending up in the same pit). These are as unbiased examples as you'll ever find.
1. Star Wars had a villain with the ability to crush your trachea
just by thinking about it or using his bare, robotic hands. Kids and adults of all ages may appreciate this ability.
The Phantom Menace had several Frog-like men with Mock Foreign Accents and a guy who with red and black tattoos. In comparison,
none of this is even remotely rad. 2. Star Wars had Chewie, a mobile shag carpet who walked with the perpetual tension that he would rip someone's limbs off. Which is totally awesome.
The Phantom Menace had Jar Jar, a Frog-like man who walked with the perpetual tension of getting into mild trouble and/or falling down. Which is totally un-awesome.
3. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan cuts the arm off a walking walrus and it falls to the ground and
bleeds! Actual, real, authentic fake blood!
In Episode I, Obi-Wan cuts Darth Maul in half and yet there is no blood at all. Cop-outs are most uncool.
4. The good one had a death toll somewhere in the two hundreds on-screen (and a couple billion implied). That's a pretty good deal for a sci-fi movie.
Episode I had about twenty real deaths, and a bunch of droids reduced to scrap. That's a lame deal.
I could go on, but it's plain to see even impartially that the Flanneled One fashioned movies which, when held to the light of the Originals (or hell, most other movies), are not even shallow imitations.
Personally, I found that watching Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace was like having white hot ice picks driven into my eyesockets repeatedly for several hours. And even if it wasn't actually That Bad, people should never watch movies that merely aren't That Bad. Why watch inferior Star Wars Lite when the Concentrated Awesome of the movies that started it all are availible? I don't see the logic of accepting substitutes. Especially when the substitutes send the message that a film featuring not one speck of carnage can still make inordinate amounts of cash. Thanks a lot for killing the massive bloodbaths of the 80s, and reducing the Coolness in the World, George.
So, frankly, yes. It was that bad, and even if it wasn't, life is still too short and too precious to waste time or money watching that film.
QUOTE
The PT is now, and forever more, a seperate piece of work all together. As far as I'm concerned it has nothing to do with Star Wars or the EU. It's a very poor fan film.
Amen to that.