The Phantom Menace (1999) VS. Attack of the Clones (2002)

Touche

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Attack of the Clones is the worst in the series.

I don't even think it's a close race. I never liked it much, but I truly hate it now.

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Letterboxd

Not even close for me. Attack of the Clones, despite setting up some interesting stuff, is a pretty damn boring movie. The Phantom Menace isn't super entertaining, either, but the duel saves it.

yup i do agree aswell on phantom menace duel at the end saves the whole.movie, i didnt like the prequels, and i do takr them with a grain of salt, although i do like the final final film in the prequels, felt a satisfying end.

How does the duel save the whole movie though? It's just one duel, out of a whole movie.

Don't think anyone means that duel makes it a good movie. Just that it's an enjoyable part that elevates it above Attack of the Clones that has less or no enjoyable moments.

well for me phantom menace was enjoyable to watch, while i felt really bored with attack of the clones

I can see what you mean, and that TPM moves along at a better pace with perhaps more enjoyable individual moments, compared to the whole of ATOC. However, in the end, it feels like nothing much really happens that is significant to plot of the trilogy in TPM.

Sure Anakin is found and meets Padme and all, but it feels like it doesn't really add up to a lot, where as the plot in ATOC, has a lot more relevant set up to set up ROTS. ATOC is better in the sense that it feels more relevant, unless I'm wrong?

Pretty much what I was about to write. TPM is pretty bad, but at least it feels like a script was written before they started shooting, AOTC feels like it was done on the fly. I am a big proponent of the Darth Jar Jar theory, that said that Lucas first intended for Jar Jar to be revealed as a Sith Lord rather than Dooku, and it was hastily rewritten to fit the new premise after Jar Jar was proven to be too unpopular to make him the big bad.

The scene in which Obi-Wan meets Dooku is framed like a twist and a terrible betrayal, for example, even though this is the first time the audience meets Dooku and feels absolutely nothing for his reveal as a Sith,

Having said that, the whole plot of TPM could've been summarized on an opening crawl and nothing would've been lost (unless this was supposed to be the intro of Darth Jar Jar and his control over Anakin)

TPM no contest

A question i wanted to ask some time now, why do the fighters looks much more slick than the sequels, wouldn t make more sense that the sequels have slicker and much more modern looking fighters rather than movies where they are telling us the beginning of the story?

Are you referring to the prequels vs the original?

Well, the prequels are the Jedi in their heyday. There are tons of them, peak of their powers, everything looks legit. We are only seeing the beginning of Anakin...not the Jedi.

The original films, there is only Darth Vader...He's part robot now. Luke is still training. Everything is going to be messy. Jedi have been gone for decades. Training is now different.

The newer ones? Jedi are still gone. Rey is learning, Ren is angry. They don't have the 'finesse' of the old.


MY question is why does technology look MORE advanced in the prequels. Cooler looking ships, etc. Empire suppression? Maybe.

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Suspect's Reviews

Yeah at the end of Sith, Palpatine tells his people to shut down all droid units and they then start using the clones full time.

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Why do the fighter planes look slickier in the prequels, phantom menace and attack of the clones etc

Truth is I like this movie (attack of the clones). Some very cool action set peices. The small duel with bobba fet, the asteroid space bombs, the pit full of dynasaurs (lol), then the Jedi stand off in that pit/stadium, padme gets her topped ripped and you see her abs, the floating pear....one of my first dvds. Like it better than the other two prequels to be honest. Padme was hot, but maybe no process leia chained to jabba hot. Almost though.

I think TUS got it right with why the ships and stuff were slick in the prequels.


I heard somewhere, George Lucas saying the Empire's oppression basically causes a halt on new tech being built, and they basically monopolise on the manufacturing of new stuff.
Hence, everyone has old stuff, and the Empire has loads of new large ships and weapons.

Well after watching both again, I think I am leaning more towards ATOC. I guess I am in the minority, but I feel that it had more set up where as a lot that happens in TPM, just feels like it didn't make a lot of difference to the sequels in comparison. Some people criticize ATOC for having an all CGI universe, where as TPM used real sets mixed with CGI. But I think that doing that makes the CGI stick out like a sore thumb though, and by having an all CGI universe, everything blended better, if that makes sense.

It's been said that TPM has a complete story and can stand alone as a movie, which is certainly true. But I just didn't find it very interesting, especially all of the scenes in "parliament." AOTC sets up mysteries and scenarios that are never resolved in it or the next film (They may have been resolved in the Clone Wars series or Star Wars novels but I didn't follow those.), but I still found it more interesting.
One thing about the Star Wars films is they are like an old movie serial with chapters in between left out. That can make them interesting or frustrating.

I liked Attack of the Clones better. I liked the chemistry between Anakin and Padme.