The TPM that should have been...

youre GL and youre about to sit down and start writing episode I. whats REALLY important?

All of that is done in TPM.

the rise and fall of anakin skywalker. That is what is important, and that is what TPM should have focused on.

While the Emperors political manuverings are important to the galactic evens in the star wars universe, it should come SECONDARY to the development of anakin skywalker in a story about anakin skywalker.

At the end of TPM Anakin has started to become a Jedi, Obi-Wan is a Jedi Master and respected by the Council, Padme has her planet back and none of them have any idea that they've just helped a Sith Lord to become leader of the Republic.

What if Anakin hadn't won the race? Amidala couldn't have gone back to Coruscant to get rid of Valorum. Meaning Palpatine wouldn't have become Chancellor.

The point? - In TPM, the stories of Anakin, Padme and Palpatine are all entwined. This will continue in AOTC and Ep3.

What one of them does, effects the other two. In TPM they don't know that but in the next two episodes they will.

Anakins fall is meant to be a mix of both good and bad things that happen to him.

Padme represents the good.
Palpatine represents the bad.

Anakin is stuck in the middle. Obi-Wan is trying to keep him there.

Yes the SW story is the story of Anakin Skywalker. But Palpatine and Padme are probably the two most important people in his developement and fall to the Dark Side.

Obi-Wan and Yoda will try to keep him on the right side. What happens to his mother starts it all off, but it's Palpatine and Padme who are the important ones.

Falling in love with Padme will mess him up and make him rebel against Obi-Wan.
Palpatine is trying to destroy everything and Anakin will get caught up in it.

So starting off the prequels with the stories if Anakin, Padme and Palpatine is perfect.
It means that in AOTC and Ep3 it can focus on Anakin.
And we won't be asking how Palpatine got where he was, or why Padme is so important because we already know.

Like Ewan McGregor said, TPM set everything up so the next two episodes can get right into the main story. Which is Anakin Skywalker.

The main reason GL put all of that in there is to introduce us to Jar-Jar,

king jedi, youre looking at things from your point of view. im looking at them from mine. im right, youre wrong, end of story. haha j/k.

USH, you really surprised me there. ive gone through the exact same phases as you. for a long time, i was hoping GL would look back at TPM and think he should renumber it (hes set the precedent by putting IV in front of ANH when there was no number before). My idea was that TPM is absolutely GREAT as a sort of precursor to the real story. That maybe TPM could become what "the hobbit" is to LOTR, you know. From what we know of AOTC, it is exactly what i would want EPI to have been. Maybe GL will get to writing EPIII and then realize hes got too much of the story left to tell, and he doesnt want to cram it into one movie, and he'll make the adjustment. I can dream, cant I? :-)

Hmm. This isn't the first time I have opened up a relationship with someone in this forum with blazing rows then found out we have more in common than not... actually, that seems to happen with just about everyone. Hmmm...

I always got the impression, Obi-wan, Yoda, and Anakin are the most important and interesting characters. I mean you don't even see Palpatine in a New hope and barely a glimpse in Empire; Padme isn't even in the OT.

because she probably died

Ush, you and I agree on pretty much everything. Its just the little nitpicky details of stuff that we can disagree on, and were both VERY adamant about the petty things. Most of us all want the same general thing. for AOTC to be ALOT better than TPM.

screw all the anakin crap episode 1 should of started of with shadow hunter. the first scenes in the movie are with the trade federation. YOu dont know how the hell they got there. you dont know about all the people and TWO jedis who died to try and stop the federation blockade. The thing is,is the trade federation blockade just doesnt seem as big as it could have, if the story of how all the crap got started in the first place.

jarjar sucks

This was one of my favourite TPM reveiws (from Empire)-

Be it cheerleaders at "soccer" matches or the popularity of Mariah Carey, the Americans occasionally display a remarkable capacity for getting things wrong. And so it came to pass with US press screenings of Episode I. "Star Bores!" screamed the tabloids: "Lacklustre Lucas!" shrieked the broadsheets. Thumbs down was the cowardly consensus. Yet, by seeking a story rather than reviewing a movie, the Yanks missed the point entirely. For, while never scaling the heights of Episodes IV or V (but definitely besting VI), The Phantom Menace is a much more triumphant movie than any level-headed movie fan had the right to expect.

After the strange sensation of rewatching the same-but-different opening crawl, the early scenes - Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson) and apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor) chaperone Queen Amidala (Portman, effective once you get past her rounded tones) of peaceful planet Naboo from the threat of the avaricious Trade Federation - feel muddled and stilted. Yet, with the discovery of Tatooine slave boy Anakin Skywalker (Lloyd) whom Jinn senses is symbiotically in league with The Force, Lucas hits an impressive groove, adding neat new licks to the familiar milieu. In many ways, Phantom conquers its biggest challenges. Time and again, it renders jaw-dropping effects - droids that unfurl into tanks, the Naboo invasion - at a time when audiences are suffering from digital fatigue, even surpassing the original trilogy in the sense-of-wonder stakes; from the luminous beauty of a subaqua city to the awe-inspiring cityscapes of Coruscant, Lucas' universe has never looked so visually rich and intoxicating.

Easily refuting "Mannequin Skywalker" accusations, Lloyd is fresh and believable and there is even a killer equivalent to Darth Vader - Darth Maul (the astonishingly agile Ray Park), a whirling dervish who, as the muscle for political puppetmaster Darth Sidious, practically devours the screen - disappointing, then, that his black magic is used so rarely. Elsewhere Phantom falters on the seemingly obvious: the overflowing plot sometimes suggests that the storytelling is setting up future episodes rather than concentrating on the present; with Neeson and McGregor inhabiting stolid roles, the film would really benefit from a Han Solo-type to add some cynical fun to the mix, while the Jedi's Gungan sidekick Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) - a triumph of character animation and less irritating than you probably feared - seems to have wandered in from a Disney franchise.

Such minor carping is blown away, however, by the film's centrepiece - the Podrace, a stunning melding of digital dexterity and editing pizzazz that renders The Matrix positively arthritic. Pulled by giant engines, a grid of wonderfully exotic speed demons take on Anakin through the perilous terrain of Tatooine rockery - little in recent cinematic memory has fuelled the blood so furiously. Between the pixels, Lucas juggles strangely moving interludes - Anakin's mother Shmi (Pernilla August) saying goodbye to her son, Amidala giving comfort to Anakin - with epic action building to the three way 'saber standoff between Jinn, Kenobi and Maul where the opera of The Phantom fulfils the mythic stature it always promised.

Ultimately, how much you enjoy Episode I will depend on preconception: if you expect a life-changing, generation-defining experience, you'll be sorely disappointed; if you expect a superbly fashioned blockbuster, then The Phantom Menace delivers. After a 16 year wait, it turns out it is only a movie after all. Just as well it's a bloody good one.

I agree with all of it. TPM was a great movie.

My favorite parts were the opening where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon battled the droids on the Trade Federation Ship, the lightsaber duel, and the space battle. The rest was a little boring.

The podrace would have been a lot better if they were armored and armed. Anakin's pod would have lasers and stuff. That would be cool.

you have a flamethrower on Sebulbas pod

Telling that they cut it though, wasn't it?

It's on the DVD, I think twice... once on the startgrid, once in the race...

I know, but that doesn't really count for much.

It was in the deleted scenes, the Podracer game for N64 and PC, and Anakin mentions it when he's talking about the last Boonta race. "It's not my fault! Sebulba flashed me with his vents!"

My point was that, in the final analysis, the Race was stylisitically NON-weaponry based.

indeed, only the cheater had one thing

lets all blame young anakin
i thought: terrible actor

blame the boy

haha

i mean they searched over 3000 children actors and found him, is he just good at auditions and not at a movie?? was lucas directing him in a wrong way? or was the real problem having to shoot a 10 year old boy for this movie, anaking should´ve started at age 15, then they could´ve found a 14-18 year old actor who worked better.

Remember when he fires of the proton torpedoes in the hangar? "Whoooooaaaaa!" He shakes about like a twig when Luke just let's out a breath because he was nervous. Horrible actor. And when he's crashing into the hangar, his eyes are huge, like it's actually happening to him. "Let's spin, that's a good trick!" It's only good if your a gay-ass kid who doesn't know anything about piloting. I'm glad he's 20 in the next movie.

I thought Jake Lloyd was fine. And the emotional resonance of the whole mother thing would have been ruined if he was older.

I agree with Ush
You don't know everything about the starfighter and about their impact when they fire