You’ll remember a week or so ago, I mentioned I was embarking on an adventure to watch the Star Wars films with someone who had never seen them before. You can read my initial thoughts about that here.
Earlier in the week we had the opportunity to watch the first two episodes of the saga.
Watching Star Wars with someone who has never seen it really did make me sensitive to the flaws of the film, and though I love Phantom Menace with all of my heart, there is no hook at the end of the film to make someone who has never seen it keep going.
The girl I watched it with wanted to continue, but she neither loved nor hated Phantom Menace. “It is so not as bad as everyone makes it out to be,” she told me. She rated it down the middle, 2.5 out of 5.
Jar Jar didn’t seem so grating to her at all, in fact she found Yoda much more obnoxious. It’s so fun watching the gears turn in her head about what’s coming and what’s not coming.
One of my favorite exchanges involved Senator Palpatine. “What… Is he the bad guy?”
“He’s a politician and they’re not to be trusted, to quote Obi-Wan.”
“Oh. Well, that’s not a no.”
But the differences Phantom Menace and the rest of the saga become much more apparent when you watch it through those new eyes and immediately before watching Attack of the Clones. I may have been more pumped to watch Clones after Episode I, but she was much more easily convinced when she realized Hayden Christensen was stepping in to play Anakin. She was a big fan of his work in Life as a House (which is a great, underrated movie, by the way.)
Attack of the Clones started and I could tell it blew her hair back a lot more than Phantom Menace. It has much more kinetic energy and a relentless pace that simply doesn’t let up. It kept a little bit more ahead of her than The Phantom Menace and she seemed every bit as taken by the love story in the film as I always have been.
Then we talked about the movies for another hour after Attack of the Clones ended.
She was excited to find out what happens next and we instantly began planning Revenge of the Sith. Out of five, she rated Attack of the Clones a 3. “It’s still Star Wars, but I’m still warming up to it.”
If she feels like Clones is a 3, my guess is The Empire Strikes Back will make her head explode.
Afterwards, she wrote thusly on her blog:
We watched Episode 1 and 2, because I demanded I watch them in order and he’s the first person who’s agreed with me on that. They were actually good! I don’t know why everyone hates on the prequels, but I’ve never seen any of them so I guess I have no comparison. They’re not my favorite movies or anything, but I definitely enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. They’ll still never live up to Trek or Firefly, but still. We’re continuing the saga over the next couple of weeks. I’m actually kind of excited to watch them all, which is amazing if you know me. I am the anti-Star-Wars girl, but he broke me down. Everyone give Bryan a round of applause!
Are there any questions you want me to ask her as soon as we’re done with the prequels, is there anything you want me to ask her before we start the classic trilogy?