Does anyone actually LIKE The Phantom Menace?

[Shinji]

It seems everywhere I go, when I start up a conversation about TPM, it always gets bashed. My question to you guys is: does anyone here like or love Episode 1? How do you think it compared to Episode II?

[Jeremy]

I liked Episode I when I first saw it. Haven't seen Episode II yet. The dry acting in the trailer of it turned me off.

[ginaman]

I liked the 10% or so of Jedi vs. Sith scenes, and hated the other 90%. So I don't hate it all the way, just most of it.

[station82o]

the only cool parts of episode 1 are the nice looking underwater scenes, the pod racing scence and the fight duels between the jedis and darth maul - other than that the movie was lackluster crap. Episode two had a cool war battle but i still thought that the anakin character was shortchanged by the actors they got to play them. Natalie Portman still tanked.

[cka]

I liked the pod race and the darth maul battles. That's about it, really. Jar Jar makes me hate humanity and Anakin said "YIPPIE!" once too often. I also don't like that piss-poor excuse they give us for the force. Midichlorians? The fuck is that. The Force is supposed to be some mystical psychic ability.

[DarkCrow676]

I think EP 1 is a disgrace to the name Star Wars. Jar Jar should have been killed, I hated the Pod racing, and the Sithe or whatever looked really stupid.

[MechDeus]

I don't like it as a stand-alone movie, but I do like the overall story as it works with the others. It isn't as well written as the original trilogy, but isn't anywhere near as bad as most people give it flak for. I definately thought more of it after Episode II, and might even like it more after Episode III.

Although Lucas really needs to re-learn how to pick actors.

[Freeter]

Fun fact: Jake Lloyd had FOUR acting coaches. And yet he still couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.

Jar Jar was overkill, the Darth Maul battle was all flash, no substance, and the Pod Race owned all.

[Despair]

Well, I hated it back in the day and I still hate it.

Darth Maul was the only good thing about it, and then Lucas killed him in really stupid way.

Jar Jar, and the rest of kungans were annoying. And I hated those stupid ass Federation droids. Whoever came up with idea of using those as soldiers? They were slow, stupid and easy to destroy.

[sleeve]

I enjoyed it, just as I enjoyed the rest of the Star Wars movies.

People who bash the new movies for the "lousy acting" really are watching the wrong movies IMO. Star Wars has never been known for the strength of its actors or scriptwriting. It's all about epic space battles, tragic battles of good vs. evil, that sort of thing. The Phantom Menace delivers where it counts.

"Phantom Menace is an insult to the name Star Wars"? Gimme a fucking break.