This series of videos has made its way around the interwebz today and I couldn’t help but share it with you. I would have written sooner this morning, but I was watching these.
Anyways, this guy does a brutal deconstruction.. nay dare I say a violent raping of.. the Phantom Menace. Its 70 minutes long (broken into 7 Youtube vids) but well worth the watch.
You know those bandwagon nerds who hate on the Star Wars prequels? The ones that you ask why and all they can say is that JarJar was annoying? Yeah? This isn’t that guy.
He sounds like your typical troll spouting brainless trashtalk about the film, but he does offer some deconstruction of the series that does offer some great insight and appreciation.
Now a LOT of it is just over picking apart things that are not even wrong with the movie and he just wants to apply hyperbole to a scene cutting it up for no reason as to cut it up. This is purely for comedic effect in which I think he fails. It takes away from the valid points he does bring up in the movie and discredits him.
There is a lot of valid statements, and a lot of talking out his ass, but its still its worth a watch, so here’s the parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
So while I still love Star Wars, I can admits its faults too. No, I don’t hate the prequels, but they were not without their flaws.
Does he do a similar review for Episodes 2 and 3? If so, does anyone have links?
I’m a bit buffled here, somebody actually liked the prequels? O.o
This comes to me as a total surprise.
I just watched all seven parts of this review, and it is pure genius. Not every joke works, especially the overly long BlairWitchesque tangent in Part 2, but the entire review makes so many good points, many of which I had never even thought of myself — and, I’m one of the most nitpicky people I know.
The only thing I would disagree with is the dislike of multiple battle sequences happening simultaneously. That’s actually one of my favorite aspects of Episode 6 and the closest thing to me liking part of Episode 1. Granted the individual components of the battles at the end of Episode 1 are horrible, but having a lot going on at once is about the only thing that makes Episode 1 feel anywhere close to epic.
I like how the review gets a little less funny and little more deep in the last two parts. Despite the rednecky voice, the humor, and the disturbing tangents, the reviewer seriously pins down the overall problems with the George Lucas and the differences between the original & prequel trilogies.
These were so good, I think I’ll check out reviews they may have of other movies.
I’m a little surprised though that there was no mention of the destruction of the droid control ship at the end. It’s never made sense how destroying the control ship could make a droid’s head spontaneously fall off in the battlefield, like what happens to one of the droids near Jar-Jar. Was the control ship not only giving the droids orders but also somehow keeping the droids’ parts together??? If so, how?
And, if there was a ship controlling the droids, why do the droids have different ranks and the ability to give orders to each other? Couldn’t a single computer mainframe just coordinate the actions of multiple droids the way a WETA special effects computer coordinated the individual actions of *thousands* of Orcs & Elves in the flashback in the first Lord of the Rings movie? If we have that technology, couldn’t the Trade Federation?
Prequels to the Prequels are next on Luca’s list.
in glorious 3-D and more backstory on JAR-JAR!
Hooray!
LOL, “and Kevin Bacon”.
The voice of the guy in the videos is annoying and nerdy as hell.
Still, this thing is still pretty cool and he does indeed bring up some good points and even points out a few things I never realized before.
Wow, people still REALLY hate The Phantom Menace.
But, this guy makes a good point with the “describe the characters” section. Other than that, there’s not much enlightening criticism.
I watched these last week and they are fantastic! 3/4 of the way through part 2 I laugh so hard my stomach hurts.
I came across these when they were first posted on YouTube and I have got to say that this is one of the most entertaining reviews of all time. This man deserves a medal.
I love Star Wars, but here is the one thing that always drove me crazy!
– they knew the initial fear of Anakin was attributed to his mother being gone so, why didn’t they just go rescue his mother??? Honestly…
One more thing… the Phantom Menace was the worst star wars movie…
I figured if there was anywhere on the Internet that would have something against the guy’s case and then begin standing up for TPM for “what it was”, it would be here.
Call it what you want, but the guy bloody destroyed the film in practical ways using small, easy words so fans of the weird bunny can understand.
It goes without saying that I am that small section of folks who actually loved the original trilogy, did not mind the majority of updated scenes (save one or two)…*and* actually thought the prequels were not that bad overall. Or at least I think I am. Who knows, I’ve been surprised before.
As for this nitwit, I don’t find him entertaining. In my view, he’s just another uber fanboy blowing his stacks, nothing more. Enlighten us uneducated, dear sir, we can all learn from a spoiled Padawan.
No one relay see that this guy has an very illogical argument. He just another dumb f*** that says the very things I am demonstrating in my comment here to make himself sound smarter. Just because a film is missing key cinematic elements doesn’t mean it’s total shit. If a movie is to deep in social commentary, political views, or stern religious views, then nobody likes and dubs it boring…yes I agree that the prequels to Star Wars was considerably weaker that the original trilogy and yes that due to the fact that it doesn’t follow an resemble story arch from Greco-Roman Mythology.
Is it really worth comparing brutally honest film criticism with rape? Do you understand the profound impact of such a statement? That’s just poor taste and was done without much thought.
Oh, and for the record – the guy actually backs up everything he says with examples, in case you weren’t paying attention. The humor was there to make it entertaining.
When he is making a valid point he does back it up. Which I did indicate in the post.
But there are some rants in there that are just shooting off and over nitpicking at nothing to make a punchline.
He does have a lot of valid points but they might be better received it he didnt season it with the stupid talk too.
And yes, I do have to equate this with rape. It is precisely what he has done. Violated the film. And tore it apart.
I enjoyed the prequels for what they are.
The next generation of Star Wars fans all grew up watching the prequels, So the fanbase is split on what they like.
My favorite parts were the Pod race and the lightsabre duel
What a kick, this guy is great. Although I have to wonder what kind of life does one live that they would have that much time to disect a movie they didn’t even like? Anyways, he made me realize what I always didn’t like or understand about the movie. I could never figure it out but knew something was wrong, great stuff man!
Its pretty clear he was very much in love with the original trilogy, comparing what it did right compared to what Ep1 did wrong.
This may have fueled his deconstruction. (and might have tipped off some of the mindless rage he directs at it too)
The guy reminds me of Terry Bradshaw. Terry play’s the bumbling idiotic Fox sportscaster but underneath he is as shrewd as a fox.
The guy is right in so many ways, and makes it funny as well.
Is there still some reason to continue the debate over the prequels? They’re bad movies. If you still enjoy them on some level, great. I doubt there will be any swaying of opinion at this point or change in evaluation.
Hahaha, I saw these a while ago, I really like his reviews
I think he really does make good points; It makes you think about certain aspects of the movie
I especially liked when he asked people to describe those characters, I really can’t think of anything to describe Qui-Gon Jin (or however it’s spelled)
I watched this last week and cracked up though I agree with you that some of it is just over zealous nit-picking and made me roll my eyes.
The one thing I took away from his deconstructing is how terribly awful a lot of the dialogue is, yes, I knew it was bad, but wow – not this hilariously bad.
I love this guy. His Star Trek reviews are hilarious.
well I first saw it at ps 177 11 years ago and I hate to admit it but jar jar binks was ireating and
I like darth maul he was cool with the double lightsaber but rots was better