Actually, arguably the BEST order to watch the Saga before VII (just talking about the originals and the prequels) is called the Machete Order:
IV-V-II-III-VI
So basically, you first watch episode 4 and 5, which started it all. Then, when you get the revelation about Darth Vader, you actually go back in time as an extended Origin story for Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, which is episode 2 and 3. Then you finish with Episode 6 to round out the story.
Notice something missing? You don't watch Episode 1 in this order. It does not add anything to the series as a whole. The best thing to do with this is just leave it out alltogether, or at least watch it AFTER you watched the other 5 episodes. That way, you don't see Darth Vader ruined as a young kid, you don't have most of the politics and you avoid ALL Jar Jar Binks misplaced comedy.
Last edited by mmoc92b33f154f; 2016-01-10 at 02:13 PM.
This is just wrong. There are tons of reasons why TPM is considered one of the worst movies of the franchise.
Imagine any other movie trilogy where they make a prequel trilogy about the origin story of the big bad of that trilogy. However...
- Because of executive meddling, they add a random retarded dude who has no point in the plot apart from being comic relief, while the original trilogy was almost completely serious.
- Instead of talking about their magic and their plans, they have an incessant focus on politics for a significant part of the film, while the original trilogy mentioned politics in maybe 1 or 2 scenes.
- The big bad of the trilogy is shown to be an annoying brat who the heroes meet by accident and does not have any real correlation with his later status as badass.
- They retcon one of the most interesting background elements of the original trilogy by introducing a biological and nonsensical reason for that element to be there, instead of it being a mystical element that suits the genre.
- They have 10 minutes of footage that's basically the intro to That 70s Show with jokes about marine wildlife.
- They have 40 minutes of footage that's basically just a badly edited race of which you know the result beforehand because otherwise the movie would not advance.
- For some reason, the heroes have to take the big brat with them on their final battle, in which the little shit actually manages to have a pivotal role that happens completely by accident, followed by a Bond Oneliner that just does not fit the character.
- The movie does not have a clear antagonist. Are we fighting the Evil Corporation? Are we fighting that guy who attacked our comic relief? Are we fighting against Obstructive Bureaucrats? Are we fighting against the evil dude who ambushed us twice during the movie?
None of the above reasons have any foot to stand on in the original trilogy. There is no comic relief, there are barely any politics, the Big Bad does not show any signs of weakness, the Force is something that actually seems plausible, They don't have misplaced vehicle sections, the final battle is not won because of a preteen boy who they picked up halfway through the movie and shouldn't even be there and the Galactic Empire is one of the most iconic enemies in Sci-Fi. And that's not including the HUGE amount of cliches in TPM. No, Episode One is definitely not a great movie. It's an OK movie at best.
While Jar Jar is annoying and unnecessary, Star Wars has always had comedy. In the original trilogy and TFA the comedy flows naturally withing the story and scenes, fitting the characters (Han shooting the communicator on Death Star in ANH, BB-8's thumbs up in TFA, even the blooper reel worthy "bonk" was left in for laughs) and doesn't seem out of place like Jar Jar's poop jokes.
Background for non-USA: In USA Powerball (a lottery game) is up to like $950 mil or something. Prob more. Still no winner.
Btw if you don't think that gif is godly, we can't be friends. Just FYI.
You keep comparing it to the rest of the franchise, which does make it terrible. But it should be watched in a vacuum. Its like how you should watch a movie adaptation of a book before you read the book, since books tend to be better, the books become improvements to the movie you just watched rather than the movie becoming a disappointment to the book you just read.
While I agree to your book/movie comparison, and when you look at Episode 1 in a vacuum that it's not as bad: I don't feel the two methods are the same, nor should be likened.
Episode 1 is not an adaptation of the original trilogy, it was set to build the groundwork and fill an origin story of sorts. Because it's main premise ties it directly to the original movies - it has been, and will always be compared to it- because it is innately a start of a movie series prequel trilogy of a previous movie series trilogy.
Yes, we can say when taken alone, with no context to the whole, it's not that bad. But, that still just says, as a whole, it is quite a mishap of a movie.
ANYWAYS, ON TO MORE PICTURES: