Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones? - Page 2

Isn't this sort of like starting a poll on whether you prefer stomach flu or food poisoning?

Honestly, I convinced myself that I liked both films at some point after watching them, but at some point I had to admit that they were complete shit. Best I can say is that i did kind of like all the poltical mumbo jumbo in TPM and I dug the battle scenes in AOTC. That said, I hope I never see another Jar Jar or CGI diner owner again. Don't even get me started on potentially great villians who look cool, yet have two lines and die far too easily after a few minutes on screen. In the end, Lucas made the entire Fett bloodline look like soft bitch meat.

I'm with Carl and Richard Dickson. Its AOTC for me. Naboo and the political stuff really hurt TPM.

"Clones" for me. I like both prequels, but "Phantom" has some terrible pacing problems (the entire second act is basically yakking, except for the pod race). "Clones" has the godawful Padme/Anakin scenes, but also a killer third act.

TPM for me, if only for the lightsaber scenes.

Everything in AOTC looked slow...really slow. Then, Yoda steps in and starts bouncing around so fast it's hard to tell what's going on. Plus, the Jedi should've mopped the floor with that droid army in the colloseum. The Gungans did better throwing their magic kickballs at them.

AOTC did have one great space scene though.

Phantom Menace for two reasons. Whenever I start this movie up I think to myself, "this isn't too bad, in fact its pretty good, why did I dislike it so much?" Then they get to Naboo and I remember.

The second reason is Liam Neeson. He seems to be in a much better film than he actually is throughout the whole movie. His talent makes the whole thing bearable.

The first time I saw Yoda bouncing all over the place at the end of AOTC I was laughing my ass off, but in a good way. I thought it was great. The best part is where he goes back to being a slow, crotchety little green guy afterwards, cane and all. When Yoda came walking in at the beginning of the scene the theater went nuts and when he used the force to pull out his little light saber it got kicked up a few notches.

I always get more of a kick out of rewatching TPM though. The Duel of the Fates scene at the end is one of the coolest things ever. Having actors doing the fighting goes a long way. The duels at the end of AOTC just can't compare. The level of excitement just wasn't there, and it didn't feel as tense. I guess we have to consider the fact that Christopher Lee isn't as spry as Hayden or Ewan. It was stil cool, but it didn't feel epic.

Watching paint dry for two hours, or going to the dentist for a new filling. Choices, choices... PM being the borefest, and AotC being the exciting yet horrible treatment, there really isnt much fun in choosing.

Oh look, I have a jar jar pointed at my head, ok, I choose AotC for being more fast paced and prettier to look at.

Honestly, sometimes I think the only reason the masses watch these films is for the universe they take place in, rather than any interest in the characters or where the story is going, because the characters (except for Palpatine) are boring, and hell, we already know where the story is going anyway. Its all about the lightsabers and space battles.

I think TPM could be fixed by:

A: completely refilming everything but Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neeson's acting.
B: Hiring a more competant director.

I see Greg Proops mentioned in this thread! Heh, they should of got Ryan Stiles instead, would've brought some class to the film.

I think 'x' film could be fixed by:

A: Taking out the bad bits and putting in more good bits.
B: Improving the quality.

If said film has bad bits.

Interesting, AoTC easily wins the poll ... yet most of the comments are from people who don't seem to like the prequel as a whole yet chose TPM for some weird reason ...

The Phantom Menace, without doubt.

For all AOTC's manifest virtues (in comparison to TPM), I find it impossible not to shout “Hoist the Jolly Roger, Arrr!” the moment Shmi's one-legged partner/husband(?) arrives on the scene.

Hmm its kinda rough for me. I honestly tried to watch TPM for the first time with an open mind today. I do now have a new respect for it, as that epic feeling is there that is gone in AOTC and the music is still pretty good. Fighting also great. The hints of Anakin's rage are there, but with the cheesefest of Jake and Jar Jar, its still a bad film.

AOTC has my favorate scenes though. I mean who doesn't love the last 10 min, and when Anakin starts going to town on Tuskin Raiders. While that epic feeling is gone, I can understand that the love story just had to happen eventually, but definetly not Lucas' best times. I miss Liam Neeson's performance here, but Ewan does get a chance to shine, and I love that his transition to Alec Guiness is working so well. Hayden still comes off kinda crappy, and Portman just seems off horribly. She at least seemed to try in the first one. This film is also very pretty.

I like both for different reasons. If ROTS has the stuff some spoilers have been suggesting, then I'm surely gonna get the best of both worlds and then some. Oddly after just watching TPM, I'm not too scared now about George being the only one working on the script. He may have learned something from his co-writer in AOTC, but honestly SW dialouge isn't so great to begin with. It's just delivery. With a dialouge coach in ROTS, I do feel a ton better about that film.

I dunno

Ah man, I just don't know, it's a complete toss up. Or is it? What kills part of AOTC for me is when the Jedi arrive in the studio, I mean the coliseum on Geonosis and they just seem goofy the way they turn on their light sabres and "get into pose." Whoever said that the clone troopers seemed cooler than the Jedi, FUCKIN A. I wanted to see real people, real fights, not people who so obviously looked liked they were in costume. The Jedi are a joke, their execution or realiziation in AOTC is a joke, and I aint laughin one bit. Episode II felt like it was shot on sound stages, everything seemed temporary, low contrast, at the edge of pixelation if that makes any sense.

What I love about AOTC is everything that involved Obi-wan, his confrontation with Dooku, Kamino, Jango, the asteroid pursuit, Anakin searching for mom and not much else. I just don't understand how bad this film is, I mean I do, I just wrote a long essay about my theories but I still don't get. How could you direct such a monumental failure of a film? Does anyone remember what Spielberg said about Lucas in relation to AOTC? Spielberg said, and I quote "I think George has done his best directing with this one." Is he on fucking crack? What does Lucas direct besides "move this eye line here, comp him in there, add carpet there, make the window bigger there." I can't imagine having a legion of so-called-friends, who, all they do is suck your dick all they long, swallow, get you hard again and continue to jerk you off.

TPM, well there's this bitch of a thing called nostalgia when I watch the film and curiously enough I love watching the film. ah, I still don't know. Someone also mentioned that TPM seemed like a misfire where as AOTC was just bad decision after bad decision. So I guess I'll go with TPM, wait, no, I dunno.

J.M. Prater

I agree. The Darth Maul scenes in TPM were the best parts of that movie. The lightsaber duels with Darth Maul were fantastic and original within the Star Wars universe. Overall, I'd have to go with AOTC because I think it is simply more entertaining, although not by much. However, although I think Hayden could use some work, he is much much better than Jake Loyd - who although he is cute, cannot act worth a damn. I find myself actually looking forward to what Hayden can pull off in ep.3. I think he's an ok actor, but it takes a lot of skill to actually shine in a Lucas movie. Only 4 actors have pulled it off in the star wars universe, and they can be considered hollywood legends. (Guiness, Neeson, Ford, and McGreggor). Hopefully Christensen can continue to improve and impress me more in the third ep.

AOTC kicks ass hands down! TPM is just too damn slow for me...it has fun parts though (like the Maul duel, and.....the Maul duel). I now find myself falling asleep when I watch it...it's a good movie to pop in the DVD player when you can't sleep one night because you'll be knocked out in 30 minutes! There are just too many scenes where there is nothing interesting happening...just talking. And I've never liked the Pod Race scene...I always thought it was a waste of time. If there's one moment in the PT that I don't like it's the Pod Racing. I always thought GL could have handled Ani's freedom better...but who am I to judge.

AOTC was paced much better, and we start getting into the real meat of the story. I've always seen TPM as just a prologue to the whole saga. The characters and story in AOTC are much more interesting and/or dark (Dooku, Mace, the start of Anakin's descent, Jango, the Clone conspiracy, Sifo-Dyas). In AOTC you get the feeling there's a shadow government running the show. The Geonosis battle was AWESOM!!!!!! And seeing Mace lop Jango's head off was cool too! Then the ending of AOTC was darker than ever. Remember when Dooku was going back to Corusant after fighting Yoda and you hear that dark music and the high voice in the background as the industrial area comes into view? The voice is what gets me...you hear it again when Dooku is stepping down the ramp and walking towards Sidious....JUST FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!! TPM isn't on AOTC's level! I don't care about the love scenes and cheesy dialogue...the pros far outweigh the cons in this one!

I guess I'll take the second one. It had its faults, to be sure, but overall I lthought it was better than The Phantom Menace, which just didn't really entertain me at all.

I've noticed a few negative comments on the podrace but i thought it was a truly great action sequence and is still brilliant and one of star wars' best scenes.

The best prequel is always the next prequel.

I don't have to watch either movie ever again, and I won't, really, though I seem to like to read about them both, insofar as they relate to ROTS or as parts of debates like this one. I spent hours and hours learning about AOTC prior to its release, reading spoilers and looking at pictures. The online fan community is entertaining, even if the movies are less so.

Totally disagree. I think it's incredibly boring and a complete failure as an action sequence. And I like the prequels. Meh, to each his own.

Oh, and my vote goes to Clones. Some of the meat of the story starts up, and for me, Qui-Gonn=good, Obi-wan=better.

I voted Menace because Qui Gon is pretty much what I pictured the Jedi to be when I was a kid. The first 15 min of that movie turned me into a nine year old again.

I like them both well enough, but love the look of TPM. I consider it to be "The Hobbit" of the Star Wars series ... it's peripherially related to the rest of the series (mostly because it introduces the characters) but doesn't have much to do with the overall storyline. Which I find fascinating choice.

It's not perfect, but what film is? We could tear apart any movie if we wanted to. If you don't this is true, post thename of your favorite film, sit back and watch the vultures attack.

What's up, y'all? Longtime lurker, finally registered and am now able to post.

I voted for TPM because I think its execution is better. AOTC has a more interesting story and more striking thematic elements, but I keep getting hung up on the herky-jerky editing and leaden performance of Natalie Portman. TPM flows more smoothly for me, while AOTC is very stop-start-stop-start up until the final reel. I'm a prequel fan, but I can't help but think that small changes here and there in AOTC would have made the film more effective, whereas I'm pretty satisfied with TPM as is.

I find myself having to vote for TPM. I got the feeling that AOTC really couldnt figure out what kind of movie it wanted to be. The romance felt flat and unrealistic, and the minute Obi Wan walked into the diner I was all ready for his arc to be a total noir-ish detective story, and that is what it started to be- until it didn't...


Anyway- here is my take on the whole star wars thing, OT, PT, whatever. Cuz i know you're dying to read it.

Each movie has betowed at least one major setpiece that nobody has ever seen the likes of before.

TPM - The pod race
AOTC - The Arena. (You know you really wanted to see a full blown lightsaber melee. You got it. now shut up.)
ROTS - Probably the duel. But you already knew that...
ANH - The Cantina scene and the Death Star battle.
ESB - The Hoth Battle
ROTJ - One of the best space combat sequences ever filmed. And the speederbike scene (need proof? Watch The Incredibles)


The biggest saving grace of TPM that trumps ALL of it's other flaws? Watch Qui-Gon carefully whenever JarJar is in the room. He HATES JarJar just as much as you do.