I'm surprised at how many people seem to like Watto. I mean, I don't dislike him, but he never stood out to me.

One half of Darth Maul is clearly not a fan.

I'm opening a huge can of worms in my head here, but...

Without a doubt, many of my thoughts & feelings about TPM have changed drastically over the last twelve-or-so years.  How I felt about it in the beginning, (vs a couple of years after its release), was completely different from how I feel about that film now.

For many reasons, I hated it for years.  To be sure, it still has its faults, but now I appreciate & like it on a number of levels much more than I ever thought I would.

(Ironically, the film that I seem to hate, out of all 6, is AotC...)

You are far from alone on those thoughts.

ARParr said:

I'm opening a huge can of worms in my head here, but...

Without a doubt, many of my thoughts & feelings about TPM have changed drastically over the last twelve-or-so years.  How I felt about it in the beginning, (vs a couple of years after its release), was completely different from how I feel about that film now.

For many reasons, I hated it for years.  To be sure, it still has its faults, but now I appreciate & like it on a number of levels much more than I ever thought I would.

(Ironically, the film that I seem to hate, out of all 6, is AotC...)

How did the film that has the most Jar Jar and all of the Jake Lloyd become the good one of the prequels?

Monolithium said:

How did the film that has the most Jar Jar and all of the Jake Lloyd become the good one of the prequels?

Something tells me Lucas and Christensen have something to do with it :)

I'm aware that was a joke but in interviews he comes across as remarkably balanced and intelligent considering all the merry go round of his early life and the crap thrown around his direction during and since.

And let's face it, TPM was in no way his fault. Dude was ten. It's Lucas' job to either direct a good performance out of him, or hire someone better (like either of the other two kids you can see in the TPM DVD doc).

This interview makes me sad. Lloyd speaks bluntly about the shit he's taken from people over the years. Had TPM turned out better in a variety of aspects, this kid could have been on top of the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtkM2JPcHPo&feature=related

Cuchulainn said:

Has anyone seen Jake Lloyd lately?

Serial pervert in the making...

Fixed.

Bingowings said:

One half of Darth Maul is clearly not a fan.

Was he the upper or lower half?

Silly question - you think Maul talks with his legs?

TV's Frink said:

And let's face it, TPM was in no way his fault. Dude was ten. It's Lucas' job to either direct a good performance out of him, or hire someone better

I agree 100%.  The acting in Phantom was laughably bad at times.  The rest of the time it was just plain hard to watch.  However, in a franchise where a single person has total control of every scene, every line, every camera angle - every single aspect , the onus is on that one person to make something worth watching.  In the case of the Star Wars franchise post-Return, that one person is Lucas. To me, he failed miserably.  Jake Lloyd, while being a terrible child actor reading equally terrible dialogue, was the least of the problems with that film.

That's where Lucas got lucky with the OT.  He happened upon three leads who knew what they were doing.  With Lloyd and Portman, he used two people who have zero depth.  They're script readers who, to me, are incapable of emoting depth.

*edit*

I should point out that I've never seen the last two films, so I'm basing my criticisms of Portman on the one film only. 

I've seen plenty of good work by Portman both pre- and post-SW, but we've covered that ground before.

Judging her solely on her TPM performance is like judging me solely on my posts in the Necropost Thread.*