The great parts of "Phantom Menace" (which I watched in
the same theater that I first saw Star Wars in) were so great
that they cancelled out the really awful parts, in the sense that
they made it worth the $6.50 and two hours to see. The pod race,
the final battle between QueQueeg and Obi-Wan and that devil guy,
and (especially) the classical style battle between those horse-frog
guys and those robots were great and I probably will pony up to
see them again.
But you gotta say that a lot of the movie was just incompetent (e.g.
the underwater scenes where the true scariness of the monsters
underscored the awful timing of the direction; give it up George,
you suck). Then, the end when Darth Jr. acthidentawy geth in the
thpacethip and acthidentawy thoots the bad guyz was too awful for
words. It may have been the worst moment I have paid to see in
any movie. In a sense, some movies are bad, but not bad enough to
be camp. Then, other movies are so joyfully bad, that they become
humorous entertainment. I think the finale of Phantom Menace
explored a new territory of badness: beyond camp; i.e. so
humorously bad, that it was no longer funny, no longer even
bearable really
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