My God, I didn't realise it went this HARD, man! I know of a couple of people who were put off by the movie by how "inescapable" the marketing push for the movie was.
Thought they were exaggerating but damn! I was personally never affected by it back then cause I wasn't fan, yet. I hadn't even seen the OG trilogy at that point.
Video by Mr Sunday Movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiGnf77PCZ4
And this film had some of the best looking marketing advertisement for any film ever including the biggest toyline! Haters of this cannot refute this.
We have TPM to thank also for all the upcoming amazing video games it birthed including the city districts of Naboo which was so beautifully done!
The only video game I remember playing (quite a lot) around that period is Shadows of the Empire on the Nintendo 64.
Man, I freaking loved that game!
That one came out in '96, 3 full years before TPM, and on top of that, that was set between EP IV and and EP V, so it has absolutely nothing to do with the prequels at all! I fail to see how it factors into this conversation...
shareThat was the only Star Wars game I played & was exposed to until the PS3 came out in my late teens.
Hmm... as a "hater" I don't refute this fact at all.
But speaking of facts you can't refute, let me give you one myself: a great marketing campaign / toyline does not equal a good movie. Right?
Same for the videogames. I played Battlefront I and Battlefront II (the originals), and I remember having fun in some levels inspired by the prequels. That's good, but again - a good videogame based on a movie does not make the movie itself good.
So yes, you can call me a "hater" - because I'm heavily criticizing the movie itself, see here:
https://moviechat.org/tt0120915/Star-Wars-Episode-I-The-Phantom-Menace/6200fe100d92a97371aff130/Unbelievable-displays-of-carelessness-and-laziness-by-George-Lucas
... but I don't really see the connection between how the movie turned out, and how the marketing campaign / toyline / videogames turned out. Those are completely separate things, different people worked on them, they are emphasizing different aspects of the IP, etc.
Also, I can do the reverse: The 1977 movie was just amazing as we all know. But Kenner really dropped the ball when it came to the toyline - due to acquiring the licence fairly late. So the initial run of SW toys was not too impressive. But does that make the original Star Wars movie worse? Of course it doesn't. Same as a good toyline and a competent marketing campaign cannot save a movie if it is bad. Simple as that :-)
I remember some of all that, I knew a SW obsessed guy who was getting stuff magazines, toys, books, posters etc. I remember trying to download the trailer and hearing about ppl going to Meet Joe Black and The Siege and then leaving after they'd seen TPM trailer (i pretty sure I saw a teaser in front of Star Trek Insurrection and maybe i saw the full trailer before The Matrix) even though I was a big movie buff and casual SW fan I didn't buy much other than the Empire movie magazine (Qui Gonn cover) which i got every month anyway also Total Film, and i also made an impulsive buy on Vanity Fair TPM issue when I saw it in a supermarket (as the movie was a few months away and it had loads of pics, it came out way before Empire i think) didn't bother with the novel or comic like I did for the previous SW films. I think I got the soundtrack CD after the movie was released for some reason (i was buying lots of movie soundtracks back then) and then the vhs and later dvd (both gone now)
shareI was a preteen at the time. I would've probably been the target audience for some of that marketing push if I was a fan at that point.
But back then, I hadn't entered my sci-fi nerd era, yet. Also, I wasn't exposed to any of the SW films yet.
I was just a huge fan action & kung fu movies
I was 16, a huge OT fan, and even in EU this was a huge campaign. Of course we treated it as a cultural event... The buildup indicated that this will be something amazing, but words cannot describe my disappointment when I finally saw it in summer '99 and left the movie really disappointed...
I mainly remember this duality: a great trailer, pictures and articles in magazines, etc., and then... the utter disappointment in how them movie actually turned out.
I tried to collect all my main criticisms here:
https://moviechat.org/tt0120915/Star-Wars-Episode-I-The-Phantom-Menace/6200fe100d92a97371aff130/Unbelievable-displays-of-carelessness-and-laziness-by-George-Lucas
All in all I'm glad I was a part of it, and I remember also the premiere of ROTS, which also had its fair share of flaws, but was a much better movie, so I'm glad I was alive when all this happened :-)
As an OT fan, Do you wish the prequels were never made or are you glad they exist, flaws & all?
shareMore SW content is always a good thing, even if it is bad.
Criticizing the Prequels makes me articulate what is so great about the OT, in a more detailed, better worded fashion. So no, I wouldn't wish for any SW movie / series to not have been made.
Back in the Summer of 1998 or 1999, when they showed the teaser poster for this movie, the world rejoiced at a story about how Darth Vader came to be plus, it was the 1st STAR WARS movie in 16 Years since Return of the Jedi.. I remember going to the theatre to get tickets to see this, only to be handed "Line Tickets" to purchase tickets for this movie!! The Hype was absolutely insane.. The day the tickets went on sale and I show up, the parking lot is packed with the line wrapped around the building and it felt like an Event type of feeling.. It was awesome and feel good.. Then the movie finally comes out, I'm sitting there getting chills over it, at how I'm about to see the 1st STAR WARS movie in 16 Years.. The lights dim, the familiar music and the logo and the crawl: It was all there just like I remembered as a kid/teenager when all of a sudden, I'd say about 5 to 10 minutes into the movie, something felt wrong.. This stunk is what I thought, but I had hyped myself up so much for this, I was in Denial it was THIS bad and mostly because of Jar Jar Binks.. I have to wonder to this day, if George Lucas hadn't have made Jar Jar Binks a prominent character and instead, he was nothing more than an Alien who had a few lines and then moved on and you never saw him again for the entire movie, if the reception would've been better?? That weekend, the movie opened to $105 Million which was believe it or not, a disappointment when they thought it'd clear at least $150 Million and it didn't.. Expectations were simply off the chart and no way could it have lived up to this..
shareHow did the fandom or general audience feel about young/kid anakin?
I mean when the "fever" was still on...
At the time, they felt they could've acquired a better kid actor to play the part, not to mention, the dialogue like Anakin yelling "Yippee" felt forced.. Also, after the movie came out, fans questioned why Lucas didn't get another Director instead of him directing it himself and it showed??
shareI watched a couple of videos of Lucas making the prequel trilogy & there were too many "yes man" there with him.
He needed someone there to say no or that's too much. He had "too much power".
He had I think it was his wife or someone else, director friends or something, helping him during the OG trilogy, right? Or am I misremembering that?
I don't know if it was an article or a video I watched ages ago that said that he almost went overboard even with the OG trilogy but there were people helping him "tone it down".
Well, EMPIRE was Directed by Irvin Kirschner and Return of the Jedi was Directed by Richard Marquand
shareDo you know how much he wrote for those sequels or how much input he had?
shareNo idea. I'm sure he was involved in some capacity
shareHe had to have at least created the story & also responsible for the world building.
But with the prequels, he wanted to do everything himself.
I wonder, do you know or have you heard if he was ever unhappy with the way the original trilogy turned out?