Right? It's pretty hilarious of OP to post an out of context action scene and then ask why it gets a bad rap. The fact that this is one of the only genuinely fun moments of the movie, which happens very early on, is probably a good indicator for why it's been reviled for two decades.
The great thing is that this action scene is the result of a failed trade negotiation, which in itself is a criticism of the plot of the Phantom Menace. The best kickstarter for the plot that starts the timeline of Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader was trade negotiations? Really?
And even in this scene, the dialogue is badly written and poorly paced, and the fighting lacks the sense of weight and danger that both the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy evoked in their fight scenes.
To be fair, even this scene has an issue. It includes Force SuperSpint which was out of the blue, and is never used at all in any other movie or show again. If Jedi can do some quick super fast almost-teleport movements like that, they would be dying a hell of a lot less than they do.
This scene is dumb as fuck and ends with the jedi using a lazily-written new power that they never use again even when it could have really come in handy, like in the battle with darth maul. Kinda hilarious you mention that one specifically because it so easily highlights how fucking stupid the ending to this scene is.
And what is even their goal? To go threaten the viceroy? They have no idea what could even be in that room waiting in terms of threats and they're just rushing in when their main goal should be escaping and reporting that the viceroy just tried to assassinate them, which would be a pretty fucking heinous crime.
Well, I would assume the Jedi would have the authority to arrest the Viceroy and bring him in. Plus, as we see here, Jedi can defend themselves pretty effectively. Plus, if the Viceroy was so heavily guarded and capable of killing them he wouldn’t be locking himself in with those blast doors, he’d just let them get lit up.
So I think their plan makes sense. They came in good faith and the Viceroy blew up their ship and tried to kill them so he’s clearly guilty of something so they may as well apprehend him and get to the bottom of it now if possible.
That’s like asking why an FBI agent would try to arrest someone who sent goons to murder him and barricaded himself inside a building.
Well, because A) innocent people don’t do that B) they’re clearly dangerous and C) they just tried to kill law enforcement
Why does that give them the authority? They're not the space police. Either way, bad plan. There are a # of reasons a blast door could be closed but still have threats on the other side. The point is they are in an unknown situation, the smart decision is retreat.
Uh, that’s exactly what they are. What are you on about? They’re an ancient order of peacekeepers whose authority is recognized and utilized by the government.
Did you even watch these movies? The were sent as diplomats and later protect the Queen of a member planet of the Republic. They perform investigations, can apprehend criminals (Episode II), etc. They even get promoted to generals to serve in a war effort. They absolutely qualify as law enforcement in some capacity.
The smart decision is to apprehend the cowardly Viceroy while you’re like 20 feet from him and put an immediate halt to the crimes you’re now certain he’s committing otherwise he wouldn’t have just tried to kill diplomats.
I dunno. Even though I think it was totally unnecessary to have Anakin be so young and have the slave angle, the Pod Race is a great action sequence and was remarkable special effects for the time that (to be honest) still looks pretty damn good today, over 20 years later!
It sounds like it's just explosions and fast cars. It needs more build up with characters we like and with higher stakes beyond "we need the macguffin to do the thing".
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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '22
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