Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace - a podcast by Chris, Sean, Jeremy | Force Fed Sci-Fi

Join us as we begin our journey to a galaxy
far, far away and visit Star Wars The Phantom Menace, exploringand debating the questionable choices George Lucas made
as the writer and director of the first prequel film. We'll talk
about The Phantom Menace characters and cast a bit, howThe Phantom Menace ending takes the audience on an emotional
rollercoaster, and as always give our Force Fed Sci-Fi rating.Production and Pre-Production Topics
While George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope and it turned out relatively decent, he came back and decided to write and direct the first of the prequel films. Simply enough, he did not create a good film.He had not directed for quite some time and decided to put his hand on all aspects of the film. Is that such a smart way to do things? We think it would have been better if there was a bit more teamwork involved with the creation of this film and actually considering others'opinions and/or getting second opinions.
Other Directors Were Asked, But Why Didn't They Take on The Phantom Menace?
There were actually a few great directors out there that George Lucas went to in order to ask if they would be willing to direct The Phantom Menace. One of those being long-time collaborator of Lucas, Steven Spielberg. The other two that were approached included Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis. All of them supposedly told Lucas he should direct it. In addition, it did seem the others had other projects on hand. If they did tell Lucas to direct it himself, we wonder if they regret their decision. Would this film had turned out better in the end if somebody else directed it?Filming On Location Versus Using Computer Graphics
One bright spot to note as far as pre-production and production topics go, is the fact that there were some on-location scenes filmed. The Tunisian Desert was used for Tatooine as it was previously in the Star Wars franchise, along with a palace in Italy serving as the Naboo Palace, and finally the forest scenes being filmed at a Cassiobury Park in England.On the other hand, this film was the beginning of the excess use of CGI in the Star Wars prequel films. While the other two seemed to have a lot more CGI than the first, The Phantom Menace still overuses this type of technology.
The Phantom Menace Characters and CastingLiam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn. Liam Neeson and his character were one of the brighter spots in this film we thought. We come to care about him and plays out the role pretty well. However, in regards to the character itself (which isn't Neeson's fault), we think that as the leader in most of the film he doesn't make the wisest of choices. Qui-Gon just believes Watto that he's the only one in town that owns the part their ship needs. In addition, he takes a huge risk betting the Naboo ship in favor of Anakin winning the pod-race.

Despite Qui-Gon's faults, we unfortunately come to care about the character who ends up losing his life at the end. We shouldn't be surprised though, as this is a common theme in all of the first films in each set of the Star Wars trilogies.

Natalie Portman as Queen Padme Amidala. We thought Natalie Portman did a mediocre job with her character considering the dialogue she was given and the dialogue/characters around her. The first scene between Anakin and Padme is ridiculously awkward, but we felt she did try her best to make the most of it and salvage that scene.Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Now Chris and Sean don't touch on Jake Lloyd as Anakin in this week's podcast episode that much. However, I myself have an extremely hard time trying to appreciate and like his acting and character. As we stated before, that first scene of Padme and Anakin is awkward.

How cheesy is it that his first words to her are"Are you and Angel?"and later we get"My name is Anakin and I'm a person!"We think these written lines were atrocious and I really did not believe the performance of Lloyd,

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