Vaderisnothayden said:

xhonzi said:

The Phantom Menace:

A boy born into slavery on a backwater planet meets some strangers who are actually warriors marooned on his planet after a battle in an intergalactic Space War. The boy is intrigued by the strangers and the idea of life away slavery. He helps them repair their damaged spacecraft so they can return to the War. The boy leaves his life of slavery with the warriors and is introduced to the vastness of the galaxy. He joins the War effort and is trained by the warriors.

Well... that's maybe shorter than it needs to be, but that's the kernel of story in Phantom Menace that I do like and think could actually be quite good if executed differently than TPM. Reminds me of the White Mountains of the Tripod Trilogy for those that have read them.

Knock out the "warriors" and make it "warrior". There was no Qui Gon in the original story.

Agreed. (source)

xhonzi said:

We normally blame the acting (which is bad (except for Ewan who was excellent!))

I disagree. He was ok in the first film (in which Liam Neeson was excellent), but in the second film he came off 100% false and in the third film he was just bland. His performances as Kenobi regularly get praised for the simple reason that he didn't fuck up as much as Hayden or as Padme in the later two films. But it's really not so good. He fails to make the sort of connection betwen the audience and the character that there was with the characters in the OT and in the PT Neeson managed a lot more connection and feeling than he did.

I thought he was good in the first and third, but SW:AOTC is a mess in so many ways...