The Media Hype for The Phantom Menace

[andrew8798]

Me and friend was talking about this today. any damn store you went to you saw Episode 1 on. it seemed every damn commercial you saw was something for Episode 1. Let it be Lego, Taco Bell, Pepsi. Hell look on youtube you can find a lot. Episode 7 didn't even come close

[badkarma]

That was back when people REALLY loved Star Wars. Before midiclorians, before Jar-Jar, before Disney. You know, the good old days, before Lucas ruined the franchise.

[xCompackx]

I remember a particularly disturbing Jar Jar Binks toy where its tongue extended when you moved the arms. And these cool dome-looking things that had mini versions of scenes from the movie. Yeah, kind of a shame The Force Awakens didn't do stuff like that.

Then again, having a similar merchandise campaign to The Phantom Menace when it already had to assure fans of its quality might not have been the best idea.

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

Jan 8, 2017 1:05:09 GMT -5 badkarma said:

That was back when people REALLY loved Star Wars. Before midiclorians, before Jar-Jar, before Disney. You know, the good old days, before Lucas ruined the franchise.

Lucas did a lot of bad but goddamn I will always give the guy credit for atleast trying to do something weird and different with his multi million dollar franchise. Better than being boring and boardroom.

It failed. Horribly. Because he's not a great writer or director. God those movies suck but man did he try. lol

[andrew8798]

Lucas last thing doe was giving people the Clone Wars show

[andrew8798]

Jan 8, 2017 1:08:55 GMT -5 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger said:

Jan 8, 2017 1:05:09 GMT -5 badkarma said:

That was back when people REALLY loved Star Wars. Before midiclorians, before Jar-Jar, before Disney. You know, the good old days, before Lucas ruined the franchise.

Lucas did a lot of bad but goddamn I will always give the guy credit for atleast trying to do something weird and different with his multi million dollar franchise. Better than being boring and boardroom.

It failed. Horribly. Because he's not a great writer or director. God those movies suck but man did he try. lol

You can see why he liked Rouge One better then episode 7

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

Jan 8, 2017 1:10:51 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

Lucas last thing doe was giving people the Clone Wars show

Which I enjoy more than both Disney Star Wars films. Easily.

Jan 8, 2017 1:11:54 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

Jan 8, 2017 1:08:55 GMT -5 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger said:

Lucas did a lot of bad but goddamn I will always give the guy credit for atleast trying to do something weird and different with his multi million dollar franchise. Better than being boring and boardroom.

It failed. Horribly. Because he's not a great writer or director. God those movies suck but man did he try. lol

You can see why he liked Rouge One better then episode 7

I can understand but Rogue One has similar pitfalls. The embarrassing 3PO and R2 cameo for one.

[andrew8798]

Also if you believe Edwards He did use some of Lucas ideas for RO

And also do wish I had that pic where it show how many people and ideas Lucas influence

[ben:friendship frog]

I loved Phantom Menace and I really loved Jar Jar, but I was the demographic it was aimed at, I was like 10 at the time. That's why I never got too angry at the whole WWE pandering to kids thing (which has significantly improved in the past few years anyway), I might not like it, but I get it.

[andrew8798]

Truth be told I never did get the hate for Star Wars is for Kids thing I always see now. do people forget all the Kenner commercials the 80's. Empire might have been dark but there was a lot of stuff kids could have like

[SmashTV]

When I read about the new characters for The Phantom Menace, the words 'computer animated comic sidekick Jar Jar Binks' instantly filled me with dread. I knew then that I'd not like him, but nothing prepared me for how much I'd despise him.

Then there was the hype for Darth Maul - looked like a badass, had a double sided lightsabre....and was hardly in the film.

The worst marketing flaw, though? Here in the UK, the soundtrack was released before the film. One of the tracks listed was titled 'Qui-Gon's Funeral March', which pretty much lets you know the fate of Liam Neeson. Thanks for that, George.

[andrew8798]

That might have been on John Williams

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Jan 8, 2017 1:31:09 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

Truth be told I never did get the hate for Star Wars is for Kids thing I always see now. do people forget all the Kenner commercials the 80's. Empire might have been dark but there was a lot of stuff kids could have like

I'd say it's a couple of things that tie together.

There's a difference between being "for kids" and childish.

Look at stuff from Pixar, all for kids, but other people can enjoy them, they're well made, smart etc. Then you get stuff like some of the Disney direct to DVD movies, where they use "for kids" to excuse lazy, simple plots, bad writing etc.

Being for kids doesn't mean you can make something crappy and stupid. The originals had issues but they were great films for families. Hell, in A New Hope, you see Luke's aunt and uncles' charred corpses, they were never super kiddie.

[Heartbreaker]

I remember being really young, like four-years old in 1999 and seeing a bunch of promotion for the movie. I had a bag of chips with Natalie Portman's character on it. I mainly remember this because I hurt my mouth with a pointy chip.

[SmashTV]

Jan 8, 2017 3:29:36 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

That might have been on John Williams

Or the marketing team in general - the name of the song wasn't the problem, it was releasing the soundtrack with a spoiler on it before the film. It'd be like a track on the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack called 'Darth is Luke's Father'.

[Deleted]

Jan 8, 2017 1:31:09 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

Truth be told I never did get the hate for Star Wars is for Kids thing I always see now. do people forget all the Kenner commercials the 80's. Empire might have been dark but there was a lot of stuff kids could have like

And even though Emprie is the darkest of the series, it's still not "dark dark". Like, the movie doesn't feature cold blooded murder, prostitution, insanity, or anything like that. It's just not as goofy as the others.

[Hit Girl]

Back then people were caught up in the excitement over the fact it was a new SW movie.


Then they saw it and reality hit hard.

[agent817]

You know, I had a flashback of those Pepsi commercials with this weird alien on a date with a woman, and another one with him saying he wasn't worthy and sat next to Jake Lloyd, who wore a tux.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

The buildup as a kid had me hoping the movie would hit me emotionally the same way the original trilogy did. Specifically I thought to myself, "this movie is going to floor me. Phantom Menace is going to kick my ass!"

To this day I don't think I hate it as much as other fans, but I left the theater thinking "yep, that was a thing." Not angry, but definitely not blown away.

There wasn't that sense of getting off a good roller coaster ride that TFA and Rogue One left me with.

[cabbageboy]

In a weird way I was kind of between the ideal age range for SW. I was a bit too young to really and truly embrace the original series, being about 4 when ROTJ was out. But then I was about 20 when TPM came out, so I was a bit too old for the target audience for that one. I remember not really liking Phantom Menace but for different reasons. Jar Jar sucked of course but I just remember not caring about any of it, mainly because I knew exactly what had to happen since this was a prequel series. We all knew Anakin had to win the pod race to gain his freedom...so who cared? Should I even want him to win?

It's funny how much the prequels on some levels influenced the way I think about this series. I was insanely frustrated with Ep. 7 because I kept trying to figure out the geopolitical situation in this universe, which TFA was not trying to tell. The prequels delve an insane amount into all of this political stuff going on, whereas TFA tells us nothing about who is running anything or what is even going on, haha.