Why does The Phantom Menace feel more professional than the other two prequels?

Why does The Phantom Menace feel more professional than the other two prequels?
Not sure how to elaborate, but the movie feels less haphazard than AotC and RotS to me.
At least as competent as Return of The Jedi in my opinion. It's like Lucas just gave up after the lukewarm reaction to the movie.

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It was the last one that was shot using mostly conventional methods.
Obviously there was still lots of CGI, but other than the action scenes and the podracing I believe they did actually build the sets and shit.
I think with the next two movies Lucas just fucked around with CGI for everything and largely went style over substance

A shame about that Yoda puppet though

I believe part of it is because episode 2 was one of the first feature films shot entirely digitally and not film. Something is definitely lost there.

They replaced it though.

I honesly feel that Lucas got disheartened and just phoned the rest of the prequels in from his chair in front of a green screen. because if people are gonna shit on your vision anyways, why bother?

Lucas was working on innovating special effects technologies at the same time, special effects are a great passion of his, and used prequels as his testing ground. Clones for example were the first major movie shot on digital. and so it usually happens to things that pioneer new technologies and approaches, they don't stand the test of time well. but shit Lucas invented while making Clones and RotS unironically changed and redefined Hollywood in terms of technology and special effects, for better or worse

And thank god they did

What's funny is that Lucas wanted to shoot TPM digitally, but Sony didn't have the camera Lucas had the develop ready in time, so only one scene in TPM is digitally shot.

>had the develop
*them

This movie isn't even the worst prequel inn my opinion. I hated AotC more because of the flat acting and lame romance. TPM would be fine if it had less Jar Jar, Anakin, and politics. If you need politics put the same amount that was put in RotS. Politics is a main part of Star Wars but this was too much.

Which scene? Something with the podrace?

Agreed, TPM would be pretty ok if it wasn't for the focus on Little Annie, Jar Jar, and the forced political plot.

AotC is pure garbage with the vibe of Coruscant at the beginning and the asteroid belt battle between Obi Wan and Fett being the only redeeming factors.
The romance is terrible, Hayden Christensen is awful, the plot is all over the place, half the CGI looks like a cartoon video game, the fight scenes are all boring pew pew pew unlike Clash of Fates in TPM which was fairly well choreographed and climactic.

Qui-Gon and Anakin on the balcony the night before the race.

There is literally nothing wrong with Anakin or the politics in TPM.

>literally nothing wrong with Anakin or the politics in TPM.
With Anakin the kid's just genuinely a shit actor. You look at the kids in Stranger Things and they're actually likable and have a a range, whereas Anakin just comes across as a whiny dickbag who is amazing at everything for no particularly good reason other than 'the force'.
It would be fine if he had less screen time but after he's introduced he's in pretty much every scene.

With the politics it's just overly convoluted and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the original trilogy.
Nobody really gives a shit about the trade federation and their motivations or any of that shit with the blockade or anything.
It's just needlessly complicated, not particularly interesting, and just serves as a vessel to set up Palpatine's rise to power. It just didn't need to be such a big focus in the film.

Miniatures were actually used over CGI.
The dated CGI is everywhere in AotC and RotS, and for modern eyes, it looks incredibly cheap.

youtube.com/watch?v=jhpFsO8wUoI

Shot on film. Your eyes can tell the difference. There's some speculation the Australian crew on 2 and 3 weren't as good as the guys in England, but since those movies are mostly in computers it probably didn't have too much of an influence.

>With Anakin the kid's just genuinely a shit actor.
Disagree.
>and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the original trilogy.
Not a criterion for me.

This. Also the fact that digital was an entirely new thing when Lucas decided to use it for episode 2 and it hasn't aged well because of that.

SFDebris has been doing a pretty good series on the creation of the Prequels, worth checking out if you want more information on this.
sfdebris.com/videos/special/hermitsjourney.php

>The first scene digitally shot is the midichlorians scene

I don't know what to think about it.
Poettry, I guess ?

Less green screen syndrome, less of a meme generator.

>At least as competent as Return of The Jedi in my opinion
TPM is literally a lesser RotJ, which all the cons being magnified and the pros lessened. It's scifi for kids, what Lucas wanted from the beginning, needless to say it didn't fly too well with the older fanbase.

>It's like Lucas just gave up after the lukewarm reaction to the movie
Lucas felt incredibly let down by the reception of TPM and the direction for the other prequels clearly reflect some of that bitterness.

AotC is by far the weakest one of the prequels.

>With the politics it's just overly convoluted and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the original trilogy.
>Nobody really gives a shit about the trade federation and their motivations or any of that shit with the blockade or anything.
>It's just needlessly complicated, not particularly interesting, and just serves as a vessel to set up Palpatine's rise to power. It just didn't need to be such a big focus in the film.
I don't really agree. This is the type of thing that pops up a lot when talking about the PT. "I don't like thing so it means the film is structurally flawed because I don't like thing".

>which all the cons being magnified
Jar Jar isn't significantly worse than the Ewoks IMO.
>and the pros lessened
There's nothing quite throne room tier, but the reactor saber fight is something amazing to me, and is becoming underrated as people invent new ways to minimize its power.

>forced political plot
dude, there had to be a political plot, how do you explain war, the rebellion and stuff otherwise
i know political plot isn't the best thing, but it still had to be there in the prequels

>"I don't like thing so it means the film is structurally flawed because I don't like thing".
You can't ever be completely objective with commenting on an art form because at least someone will like it/defend it. You can literally flip your argument on its head and say "I like thing so film is structurally perfect".
Its all just opinion, but personally yes I do feel the film is bloated by the politics which aren't really even necessary in the context of just that film.

No, actually it's the best, but people get too caught up in the romance to see that.

How did A New Hope manage to set up an interstellar war by having about 5 minutes of politics in it then? You can explain half that shit just in the opening crawl without having a plot revolving around convoluted politics

It's because you're spooked by the weight of the cultural narrative.

A New Hope didn't have to set up a trilogy that revolves around political machinations.

Because the film is about a war and the PT is about the build up to that war.

Jesus fucking christ people.

This.
Lucas was a huge proponent for digital, and pushed the limits of what it was capable of in the late 90's. Groundbreaking, but ages poorly.
He also hid a couple of scenes shot on digital and hid them in phantom menace, as proof that it could be as good as film.

I'm rewatching the prequels right now and I unironically want to apologize to Lucas. He had vision.

This is kind of the point though, the prequels are clearly aimed at children more than the OT was.
The politics will go way over the head of a kid and imo the political aspect isn't well written enough to appeal to most adults in that respect.
Personally I feel there were better ways Palpatine could have come to power than copying Hitler's rise and constantly referring to factions we know very little about like the confederation of independent systems, banking clans, techno union...

OT just simplified it as evil empire vs rebels, with just one scene basically justifying why the empire can get away with loads of evil shit without uproar because they dissolved the senate.

I just think there are better ways it could have been handled that were more interesting and less convoluted.

And it's people like you that make films like TFA possible.

>The politics will go way over the head of a kid
No?
Kids can follow intent and mood and reactions very well. I understood what was at stake in TPM and what it was showing us (a crumbling corrupt Rupublic). I didn't to understand what the word "defer" meant.
This is why Mike Stoklasa fails.

Can't wait for the special editions that overdub all the lines and reanimate the entire fucking movies.

>I didn't to
*need to

Are you actually suggesting the political aspects of the prequels were enjoyable?
Regardless of whether you feel they had a place in the movie or not I'd be very surprised it anyone particularly enjoyed watching politics in star wars in a way that barely relates to anything we know about the universe established in the original trilogy.
I don't think anyone really sits down to watch the prequels for their political drama elements supported with some sci fi and action.

I miss the costumes and pomp of it all

>copying Hitler's rise
Was Hitler secretly controlling both sides in WW2?

???????

>Are you actually suggesting the political aspects of the prequels were enjoyable?
Not him, but I am, and do.

Do you have any actual thoughts of your own?

You're an idiot and you clearly don't know your history.
The voting of emergency powers to deal with a partly manufactured crisis was exactly how Hitler came to power.
Maybe stop watching the prequels and watch some documentaries.

Was Hitler secretly controlling both sides in WW2, yes or no?

That's fine but I am genuinely surprised and a little bit amused by that.

Uh?
My entire post?
And other posts?

Yes, obviously. He was the leader of the Illuminati. Appointed by the lizard people from the hollow earth.

I find it odd that this movie got worse reviews than the abomination that was Attack of the Clones. I enjoyed TPM immensely more. RotS>TPM>AotC

The blood test scene stuck out like a sore thumb at my midnight screening.

I literally never said he was, Palpatine's rise to power is pretty much exactly the same and that's what I was talking about.
I never said that they copied every aspect of Palpatine's character from Hitler you sperg.

Why do the new movies never have this kind of focus on environments? It's hard for me to explain but I feel like in the prequels you could feel immersed in the planets and felt like you were absorbing what they looked like, but in the newer movies it never seems to really dwell on the location

>a little bit amused by that.
rude desu

Film vs digital

>techno union...
youtube.com/watch?v=PW4OIHDsWsM

Doubt it. It would have had grain from the dupe process.

He was a good character. Fuck RLM.

Mifune's character in The Hidden Fortress fails the Plinkett test, it's a meaningless metric.

There's still tons of models and miniatures in II/III, but there's something in that early digital that does feel a bit less 'warm', or something, than TPM.

What even was his character though? He's some Jedi on a mission who looks grumpy.

I haven't seen the last jedi, but there really weren't any locations in TFA. Not-Tatooine which was okay, I guess, then it's off to space-applebees, then some woods in Colorado.
Rogue one had the opposite problem and had so many locations that you never have time to appreciate them.
You're on the plant from the opening scene of Prometheus, then a dark conference room, then Not-Tatooine, then a conference room again, then rainy dark planet, then back to a conference room, then to club med in space.

I just rewatched TPM. There is literally nothing wrong with Ani's actor and he was extremely likable. Where does this meme about Ani's bad acting in TPM come from? I bet some shitty e-celeb is responsible for it.

Shot on film while Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were shot in 1080p.

Also Lucas is a hack and didn't want people to notice the difference between TPM and the other two on blu-ray so he absolutely destroyed the transfer by going nuts with the DNR on TPM. It's why everything in the movie looks so plasticy and weird

>Disagree.
YIPPEEEEE

see

Never got the issue.

TLJ had some space Ireland and a salt planet. The huge chunk of time they spend in starships' interiors though.

Then you just have shit taste.

>actually it's the best

Okay? Doesn't change that Qui Gon is a boring character with nothing going for him.

Meh. He didn't give as good performance, but it wasn't jarring or anything. The worst child performance of all time is still the little girl in Pet Semetary to me.

desu modern CGI in dated environments looks infinitely worse than dated CGI in dated environments.

Rant all you want about TPM shortcomings but it is visually as true to the original trilogy as it can hope to be. Which certainly cannot be saif about the other two prequels.

It wouldn't be so bad if Lucas didn't tell his actors to act like mere archetypes, all of them stiff and stoic.

>extremely likable
Nah.
While he wasn't terrible, he was still a generic, cunty, American child actor, and spewed shit like midichlorians, angels, and spinning.

Stoic, wise, philosophical, kind, caring, fatherly, optimistic. Basically the perfect dad. ,_,

why does the ship interiors look so much more boring in the sequels than the OT?

Unironically yes.

This is very enjoyable and informative. Thanks user for the recommendation.

I also feel Liam Neeson looks like he just doesn't want to be there most of the time.
Compared to other roles he plays he has no range in TPM and all his lines just feel kind of half arsed imo

>WW2
Hitler didn't rise during WW2. He used his opponents in Germany to rise, though.

He's a stoic but free-thinking Jedi maverick hippie, resolute yet warm. The best 'pure' cinematic Jedi of all, IMO.

Sorry bro, it looked washed out as fuck. I had read the interview prior to screening where Lucas claimed "no one" would be able to spot it.

I agree with this user. Just look at the blacks in that scene.

But remember - he's playing a philosopher Zen monk who lives a lifestyle of dispassionate, 'in-the-moment' mindfullness and emotional temperance.

Who here prefers puppet Yoda?
youtube.com/watch?v=wxaZxpNTm8A

Why didn't he just wait for Obi-Wan? Or move backwards to meet him.

CGI is much better honestly. For the prequels it works to have this different kind of yoda. I would be fucking pissed if they tried to redo yoda in the originals though.

I understand that foam rubber puppets don't last very long, but couldn't they have used some reference shots from empire and jedi to at least try to get close to what he's supposed to look like?

I still don't understand why CGI Yoda looks nothing like the OT version.

>dat bod

Honestly, it betrays the genuine Muppet roots of the character. The success of Star Wars and Lucas himself is completely intertwined and correlated with that of Henson and Oz's creations.

For me it's because the CGI textures look kind of shiny as opposed to ESB Yoda which just looks wrinkled and... old.

CGI Yoda still had this kind of youthful look to him when in motion, he just looks pretty weathered as opposed to old.

Whats better, episode 1 or 3?

I'll say this, Watto and Sebulba work. They're genuine Star Wars characters that you genuinely beleive exist. The film stock actually helps lend itself to the verisimilitude.

I spose the whole thing is contrived to separate the two.

There were electronic gates flickering on and off. Qui Gon got trapped here ...

OW [ QG ] Maul

3 hands down.
It's just a fairly decent film all round, just the writing is a bit wonky and Hayden Christensen still isn't amazing.

For me it's
3>>>>

Both are good for different reason. Sith is more of a true sequel to Clones than any other two Star Wars movies, and suffers for having to rush through so many important checkboxes. Hell, Dooku doesn't even change his outfit, and he's supposed to be a fallen Jedi who has reclaimed his title and wealth.