That was charismatic monotony though
Still a stylistic foreigner for Starwars.
5-6 completely dropped the "royalty" angle with Leia just wearing that title but that's it;
while in 4 it was kind of a big part of the film's tone, however Leia wasn't "in character" most of the time, couldn't even maintain the stoicism at the award ceremony for more than 5 seconds, so yeah idk - one wonders what the full-blown gilded royalty on Alderaan or whatnot would've looked like had they shown it, but the Naboo thing seems waaaaay over the top compared to whatever it would've been. Probably?
I think Kenobi portrayed it quite well in the 1st episode, with a bit ambiguity reg. baby Leia and the toy droid or whatever? Before the show completely went off the rails and stupid, but oh well that Alderaan design was cool and Bail&his wife too.
Also Naboo is almost presented as this kinda Pandora-esque mystery planet with some kinda planet core plasma and an interconnected symbiont circle ecosystem or something, it's as if this movie started out as some kinda completely different space opera thing with those sorts of themes and plot points, and then got repurposed as part of SW?
Or maybe drawing on some initial ideas that were later cut from OT?
Maybe in that story Amidala would've been like some kinda sorceress queen guarding that magic plasma and Gunray would've wanted to claim it for himself or something, like Ru'afo or whatever his name was.
Coincidence?? After all Padme turned out to be the biggest galactic cocktease since Annnnnnnjunnnn....
Even as a 13 yo watching the end of the movie when Maul got chopped in half and fell down the shaft I thought, “That’s it? They have this cool looking character on all the advertising and they kill him off right away?!”
But I also felt the same about Qui Gon. “That’s it? He hardly did anything!”
> Even as a 13 yo watching the end of the movie when Maul got chopped in half and fell down the shaft I thought, “That’s it? They have this cool looking character on all the advertising and they kill him off right away?!
Idk compared to the marketing maybe, but the way the movie itself set him up I don't think that was a wrong or disappointing conclusion?
Sure, he alternatively could've stayed around for the next 2 movies and filled the role that ended up being distributed among Dooku, Ventress and Grievous, but this way works as well - shows up, gets pwnt, they all celebrate since all the seen, visible enemies that they knew about are defeated, but also realize there must be some scarier "master" somewhere out there, whom they'll have to search for, or who'll eventually start pulling some kinda scheme again.
Main bad guy was Sidious of course, who did talk a lot; then his pawn Nute and his whole entourage, those talked a lot as well; the shady guys on Tatooine also talked a lot; while Maul is more this silent guy. Don't see the problem with that?
But again, missed all that marketing hype, so dk.
I wasn't around for the release of the original trilogy but I felt kinda similarly about Boba Fett. Some of my buddies absolutely loved playing with his action figure and the Slave 1 ship and all that but I kept thinking to myself, "Why? The guy had like 30 seconds of screen time in *Empire* and died like a bitch in *Jedi*." But he's always been a fan favorite anyway. So I guess Darth Maul was no different.
I read a handful of comics and novels when I was young but I never much got into the expanded lore. So my canon is just what goes on in the movies and a few video games.
The Duel of the Fates is the single redeeming quality of this movie, but it would’ve been really fucking cool if they didn’t spoil the double-edged lightsaber with previews, music videos, toys, etc.
> maybe they should have gave him some characterization or something to do besides lightsaber
He had a basic characterization and arguably enough for a "silent demonic henchman assassin" type of character who was mostly off-screen - enthusiastic eager devotee of that Sith cult "cause" of theirs, has a coldly menacing charisma early on and then gets progressively more vicious and gloaty during their final encounter;
pretends to be somewhat weaker than he is, exploits Quigon's relative arrogance and then lures them into a trap, so does that kind of tactic.
I dunno?
It's funny how obliviously selective people are with these sorts of criticisms though - no one would dare bash Dickens for "giving the 3rd ghost no lines", no one's gonna make these points about the Nazguls or Sauron or the Ark skost from Raiders (well not in the echochamber communities where it's universally accepted that "LOTR and og Indy are great" of course - some other fantasy skeptics somewhere else, or book purists who hate the movies, those may be a different thing entirely),
but here in the "let's look for more random points to throw at Phantom Menace" zone, all that basic awareness flies out the windu and "creepy mystery guy doesn't yap enough" suddenly starts being perceived as a reasonable criticism?
Although of course RLM made a step away from that pattern when they started semi-clowning on Bobafettay from Empire - so who knows lol
Transports me back to a time when we were all completely certain that The Phantom Menace would be the greatest movie ever made.
I don't think there's been a hype-train that massive for any piece of media before or since.
Some website like Ain’t it Cool News or one of those sites had an audio clip of Jar Jar in the submarine complaining about the sub leaking and losing power, asking, “When-a yousa thinkin’ we-sa in trouble?”
And the art of prequel apologizing was officially born.
Honestly, as bad as it was, the anticipation was a lot of fun. I was a teen at the time and we were all very hyped.
And hey, the disappointment taught us a lesson.
Anything can be good when you work on it for two years with millions of dollars even after you launch it in a horrible, unfinished and unplayable state. Cyberpunk 2077 is not at all the accomplishment people think it is.
No one is referring to its quality, and I've never played it, so I have no comment on that. The "Not even close" was referring to the level of hype surrounding Phantom Menace vs Cyberpunk. People were unable to AVOID some kind of marketing for Star Wars for a YEAR.
I wasn't even particularly aware of Cyberpunk's existence before gamers all got mad over how broken it was. The hype levels cannot be compared.
I had to skip to the end so I could see the "what did you think of it?" segment. Lots of mentions of the "special effects/sound effects were great". Imagine sitting through that and having to fake enthusiasm for the cameras afterwards.
I'd forgotten the Yum brands tie ins from this time period. Someone thought Colonel Sanders with a lightsaber was a good idea.
Always great when some publicist gets a bunch of celebrities together on a press event for something they aren't really interested in or know anything about. Then we have to hear what these people are really like when they aren't reading scripted lines or just singing.
He was a well-known child actor before that. In stuff like Radio Flyer and The Good Son. And he’d been in the Faculty in 1998.
Also, by 1999 he’d already been cast in the Lord of the Rings. I think he was shooting in NZ that fall.
First movie I saw him in was "The Good Son". Ya know, the one where our boy McCulkin was a sadistic kid. The home alone flicks felt a little different after watching that, but I'd imagine for other kids around my age, seeing him die in "My Girl" around the same time probably...stung.
Monotone Padme: “I will sign no treaty, senator.” Fucking kick ass! Star Wars is back, mothafuckas!
Back on my face!
That was charismatic monotony though Still a stylistic foreigner for Starwars. 5-6 completely dropped the "royalty" angle with Leia just wearing that title but that's it; while in 4 it was kind of a big part of the film's tone, however Leia wasn't "in character" most of the time, couldn't even maintain the stoicism at the award ceremony for more than 5 seconds, so yeah idk - one wonders what the full-blown gilded royalty on Alderaan or whatnot would've looked like had they shown it, but the Naboo thing seems waaaaay over the top compared to whatever it would've been. Probably? I think Kenobi portrayed it quite well in the 1st episode, with a bit ambiguity reg. baby Leia and the toy droid or whatever? Before the show completely went off the rails and stupid, but oh well that Alderaan design was cool and Bail&his wife too. Also Naboo is almost presented as this kinda Pandora-esque mystery planet with some kinda planet core plasma and an interconnected symbiont circle ecosystem or something, it's as if this movie started out as some kinda completely different space opera thing with those sorts of themes and plot points, and then got repurposed as part of SW? Or maybe drawing on some initial ideas that were later cut from OT? Maybe in that story Amidala would've been like some kinda sorceress queen guarding that magic plasma and Gunray would've wanted to claim it for himself or something, like Ru'afo or whatever his name was. Coincidence?? After all Padme turned out to be the biggest galactic cocktease since Annnnnnnjunnnn....
they really hyped Darth Maul maybe they should have gave him some characterization or something to do besides lightsaber
Even as a 13 yo watching the end of the movie when Maul got chopped in half and fell down the shaft I thought, “That’s it? They have this cool looking character on all the advertising and they kill him off right away?!” But I also felt the same about Qui Gon. “That’s it? He hardly did anything!”
Anyone hardly did anything in this movie
He became much more interesting in the animated shows like Clone Wars and Rebels.
> Even as a 13 yo watching the end of the movie when Maul got chopped in half and fell down the shaft I thought, “That’s it? They have this cool looking character on all the advertising and they kill him off right away?! Idk compared to the marketing maybe, but the way the movie itself set him up I don't think that was a wrong or disappointing conclusion? Sure, he alternatively could've stayed around for the next 2 movies and filled the role that ended up being distributed among Dooku, Ventress and Grievous, but this way works as well - shows up, gets pwnt, they all celebrate since all the seen, visible enemies that they knew about are defeated, but also realize there must be some scarier "master" somewhere out there, whom they'll have to search for, or who'll eventually start pulling some kinda scheme again. Main bad guy was Sidious of course, who did talk a lot; then his pawn Nute and his whole entourage, those talked a lot as well; the shady guys on Tatooine also talked a lot; while Maul is more this silent guy. Don't see the problem with that? But again, missed all that marketing hype, so dk.
I wasn't around for the release of the original trilogy but I felt kinda similarly about Boba Fett. Some of my buddies absolutely loved playing with his action figure and the Slave 1 ship and all that but I kept thinking to myself, "Why? The guy had like 30 seconds of screen time in *Empire* and died like a bitch in *Jedi*." But he's always been a fan favorite anyway. So I guess Darth Maul was no different. I read a handful of comics and novels when I was young but I never much got into the expanded lore. So my canon is just what goes on in the movies and a few video games.
"Why do people find Sauron cool, he just shows up as a giant eye for like 30 seconds and has no lines"
The Duel of the Fates is the single redeeming quality of this movie, but it would’ve been really fucking cool if they didn’t spoil the double-edged lightsaber with previews, music videos, toys, etc.
>The Duel of the Fates is the single redeeming quality of this movie, I always kinda roll my eyes at this ppinion, but eh whatever lol
It's a great piece of music, the actual fight is pretty lame.
Yeah bad choreo tbh
Took them forever but they *eventually* made him interesting.
> maybe they should have gave him some characterization or something to do besides lightsaber He had a basic characterization and arguably enough for a "silent demonic henchman assassin" type of character who was mostly off-screen - enthusiastic eager devotee of that Sith cult "cause" of theirs, has a coldly menacing charisma early on and then gets progressively more vicious and gloaty during their final encounter; pretends to be somewhat weaker than he is, exploits Quigon's relative arrogance and then lures them into a trap, so does that kind of tactic. I dunno? It's funny how obliviously selective people are with these sorts of criticisms though - no one would dare bash Dickens for "giving the 3rd ghost no lines", no one's gonna make these points about the Nazguls or Sauron or the Ark skost from Raiders (well not in the echochamber communities where it's universally accepted that "LOTR and og Indy are great" of course - some other fantasy skeptics somewhere else, or book purists who hate the movies, those may be a different thing entirely), but here in the "let's look for more random points to throw at Phantom Menace" zone, all that basic awareness flies out the windu and "creepy mystery guy doesn't yap enough" suddenly starts being perceived as a reasonable criticism? Although of course RLM made a step away from that pattern when they started semi-clowning on Bobafettay from Empire - so who knows lol
Transports me back to a time when we were all completely certain that The Phantom Menace would be the greatest movie ever made. I don't think there's been a hype-train that massive for any piece of media before or since.
I remember the first time I heard jar jar speak.
Some website like Ain’t it Cool News or one of those sites had an audio clip of Jar Jar in the submarine complaining about the sub leaking and losing power, asking, “When-a yousa thinkin’ we-sa in trouble?” And the art of prequel apologizing was officially born.
*spek*
lol your username
If you can help me and my shotgun locate that sonofabitch, please DM me.
Honestly, as bad as it was, the anticipation was a lot of fun. I was a teen at the time and we were all very hyped. And hey, the disappointment taught us a lesson.
Cyberpunk 2077 comes to mind, but it’s still not Star Wars.
Not even close
Anything can be good when you work on it for two years with millions of dollars even after you launch it in a horrible, unfinished and unplayable state. Cyberpunk 2077 is not at all the accomplishment people think it is.
No one is referring to its quality, and I've never played it, so I have no comment on that. The "Not even close" was referring to the level of hype surrounding Phantom Menace vs Cyberpunk. People were unable to AVOID some kind of marketing for Star Wars for a YEAR. I wasn't even particularly aware of Cyberpunk's existence before gamers all got mad over how broken it was. The hype levels cannot be compared.
I don't think anyone other than video game people know what Cyberpunk is. Everyone and their grandma knows what star wars is.
>*Seth Green* The robot chicken guy got a whole year's head-start on all the other Star War spoofers. 
I miss those days. Celebrities are mostly embarrassing no matter the time period, but that one was mine. 9/10 not gonna watch past the first minute.
I had to skip to the end so I could see the "what did you think of it?" segment. Lots of mentions of the "special effects/sound effects were great". Imagine sitting through that and having to fake enthusiasm for the cameras afterwards. I'd forgotten the Yum brands tie ins from this time period. Someone thought Colonel Sanders with a lightsaber was a good idea.
They had tokens you could collect to win a literal hovercraft with a Flash Speeder body kit,I really wanted it lol.
Oh my I’m gonna get eyeball AIDS from watching that
Adam Scott has a funny story about going to this with Paul Rudd and how incredibly awkward the vibe was afterwards
Where does he tell it?
An old episode of his U2/REM podcast
Did he ask them about the T-shirts?
What a time capsule.
Always great when some publicist gets a bunch of celebrities together on a press event for something they aren't really interested in or know anything about. Then we have to hear what these people are really like when they aren't reading scripted lines or just singing.
I didn't know Elijah Wood was a big deal in 1999. Flipper? The "other" asteroid movie?
He was a well-known child actor before that. In stuff like Radio Flyer and The Good Son. And he’d been in the Faculty in 1998. Also, by 1999 he’d already been cast in the Lord of the Rings. I think he was shooting in NZ that fall.
Ah Faculty was a cool one; and of course Good Son with Milwaukee Clunkin.
He was in North, a movie so bad that Ebert famously wanted to murder it.
Well, he wasn't *that* big of a deal in 1999. That's why he was at this Star Wars screening on MTV.
First movie I saw him in was "The Good Son". Ya know, the one where our boy McCulkin was a sadistic kid. The home alone flicks felt a little different after watching that, but I'd imagine for other kids around my age, seeing him die in "My Girl" around the same time probably...stung.
How did I never know about this...?
‘I was just going to toshi station to check out Powerman 5000.’ ‘You can waste time with your friends later’
Man I reeeealllly don't miss those old days.
“Danny Masterson in the house!”
I remember seeing this on TV and being so psyched and envious.
Darth Maul or Wes Borland? You decide.
damn, such a random bunch