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Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | Full Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2025-05-24 14:00:09
Imported:
2026-08

Content

Jumping into this film right after the original trilogy felt like going back in time to when the galaxy was cleaner, brighter, and maybe even hopeful-er. And seeing young Anakin felt a bit painful knowing how his future turns out. He's so sweet and brave and just wants to help. And yet I couldn't stop thinking about who he becomes. Darth Vader. It makes his scenes so emotional and heavy. I also loved seeing Obi-Wan at the beginning of his path. Young and still learning. It was wild to watch him go from apprentice to someone who's already carrying so much responsibility. This movie felt very different than the original trilogy. Less rebellion, more systems and shadows lurking in plain sight. But I actually liked that. It gave me an eerie feeling that I'm watching a beautiful city right before the final storm hits. Everyone can feel it coming, but nobody knows it's standing in the same room. Can't wait to see you all in Episode II! Thank you for your support on Patreon!Relax and enjoy 🍿🌿LINK: https://youtu.be/Lv3Zlbb4ZoMI watched this on Disney Plus

Files

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Watch Along

Welcome in! 🌿 Grab a drink and get settled in!

Comments

Mitchell Scott

I have not clicked on a notifcation so quickly. This is where the.. next fun begins.

Robert da Spruce

Nice way to start my Saturday! Looking forward to watching your reaction Kali! Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Chris

Glad that you liked it. Know that there are many people who consider themselves Star Wars fans who think that the prequels are... well, terrible. That Lucas's decision to explicitly explain so many things that were formerly mysterious was completely disastrous. I include myself among those people. Completely understand wanting to complete the whole story--but speaking for myself, after the OG trilogy it's pretty thin times until you get to the Gilroy-verse (Rogue One, Andor).

Dude Longcouch

As an older millennial, watching the rehabilitation of the PT has been one of the weirdest pop culture things in my life. Some folks may get mad at me for saying this today, but the truth is that almost nobody liked this movie when it came out. I distinctly remember leaving the theater with my sister, her boyfriend, and a bunch of friends, and we were all just kinda looking around awkwardly like... that kind of sucked, right? Nobody wanted to be the first one to say it, but we all felt it. It was a very strange feeling because it was supposed to be this incredible franchise cornerstone (Star Wars is BACK, baby!), but once we actually got our hands on it, we didn't want it anymore lol. Of course, then people who loved Jar Jar when they were kids grew up with the nostalgia, and the memes became prolific and very culturally ingrained, and slowly the public opinion started shifting again. For my money, I still don't think these movies are very good, but they do have some good qualities you can still enjoy. They're fun to revisit every now and then, in small doses.

Chris

Exactly my experience, too.

Lemurian Jones

Gen X here. Same thing. I remember being pretty non-plussed by it. Still saw it 7 times in the theater though, just to watch the Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul 2 v 1 over and over. 🤣

Dude Longcouch

Yeah, I totally get that. For me, the lightsaber fights are easily the best part of the PT hahah

Dude Longcouch

100% agreed. I think the Star Wars universe itself is way cooler than most of the actual movies, like the movies don't do themselves justice after a certain point. The Gilroy stuff is easily the best that Star Wars has to offer, and it's not really close.

Chris

Yes! I think I saw it 3 times in the theater. At no point did I think it was good, but we were just sooooo thirsty for new Star Wars...

Chris

Yep, exactly. And I think Gilroy's stuff really shows what a missed opportunity it is. I mean, for the last week I think I've spent every bit of extra mental energy I have just like, thinking, about Andor s2.

Dude Longcouch

I still haven't watched 10-12. I don't want it to be over T_T

Wil Castillo

Have you seen Steven Spielberg's 1982 movie "E.T."? Well, I sometimes wondered if E.T. was a Jedi? In the movie, E.T. was able to use mind-powers to move things and the little alien also seemed to recognize Yoda (a kid in a Halloween costume). Anyway, there are 3 E.T.'s who make a 2-second cameo in this movie (Episode 1). You can see them during the committee meeting at approximately 1 hour 29 minutes into the movie. They're on the bottom left of the screen. This was a good movie to watch with you. I'm looking forward to the next 2 episodes.

Lastboyscout73

Yup, Jar Jar still makes me insane. For anyone that loves this movie I mean no offense but that character takes me out of the movie a lot. This is why it's my least favorite. Overall, it's a decent beginning to the Skywalker Saga.

Jairo Barbosa

Great reaction! What do you think of the Queen and Anakin? That final look they shared in the film could certainly provoke some thoughts…

Russell Rutigliano

A really fun game to play on subsequent rewatches is to try and tell when the Queen is Natalie Portman and when it’s Kiera Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean, Pride & Prejudice, etc). I like Phantom Menace more than most and it’s probably cause of Duel of the Fates. It’s the best score John Williams has ever done! As soon as it starts it just gets you hyped! Also another hot take: I don’t hate Jar Jar as much as other Star Wars fans. I’m a millennial, was 12 when Phantom Menace came out and it was one of the best experiences in a movie theater up to that point. I find it hilarious that now you can call him Supreme Chancellor LOL

I.Have.No.Band

krkrkrk, what a strange rewatch, a weird mix of amazement at the pieces falling into place and, I'm sorry to say, cringe..? but then I realized, the first trilogy was certainly not devoid of silly/goofy moments.. So as much as I'm very curious how this story could have been told in a more grounded and emotional way without the whole Binks debacle.. (in other words, I agree I could have done without a looot of it..)I still wonder how much of the actual hate it gets/got is in bad faith and just kinda reactionary/amnesiac in a "it was better before" fashion.. or maybe it just didn't have the excuse of "ohh you know, it was the 70's/80's.." anymore.. * shrugs * there might be some bias in there. I think I didn't remember a lot of the movie, but I remembered the story mostly because I played the video game adaptation QUITE A BIT 😭 I have even less memories of the two following movies except for a few memes.. so, I'm actually hyped to get to it 😵‍💫 I also have ZERO memory of realizing [redacted] and [redacted] were played by the same actor during this movie.. I'll put that on being a young kinda unfocused teen and watching french dubbed versions(actually curious if they kept the same voice actor). This being said, nice catch 🥹

I.Have.No.Band

welp... just checked.. the emperor had one voice actor who passed in 95, and palpatine had TWO different voice actors so.. maybe it was easier to be fooled if you didn't pay attention =|

I.Have.No.Band

I'm also fairly certain the whole midichlorian thing wasn't well received, I guess because it transformed something almost mystical/spiritual into a very scientific/measurable concept and people clinged to the mystery.. I really don't know where I stand on this, I kinda like both for different reasons? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chris

As someone who falls into the hated it camp, I think the general place I come from is that it's fine to take a cool thing and demystify it--but if you do, the explanation needs to really be a good one. So, like, if the explanation HAD been scientific in a fleshed out, interesting way, that might have really worked. The magic system in Rothfuss's Kingkiller series always comes to mind for me as an example of really doing this well. The Matrix series is another interesting example, I think, of trying to do this rigorously... iffy on whether it worked, but I think they had the right idea.

Richard

So a little perspective Kali, if you think YouTube trolls are bad, the poor kid who played Anakin in this movie got bullied mercilessly because people didn't like the way he played it. A kid mind you. People are horrors. One of the many challenges of making "prequels" 16 years after originals is that the visuals, effects, etc look way better than they should if it's technically "in the past". The best example of this by far is how much more advanced the lightsaber battles are. The ones in the OG trilogy just look kinda lame unfortunately after these prequels. I was wondering how you would handle Jar Jar lol. I can picture a very young Kali liking him but the mature version . . . yeah pretty much how we all reacted. Aimed for young kids only. So yes, Natalie Portman and Samuel Jackson have both starred in the 2 biggest movie franchises in history. This 1st prequel definitely focused way too much attention on boring political discussions and no doubt lost a lot of young viewers in the process. The best parts for me were the relationships between Qui-Gonn, Obi-Won, and Yoda. Also Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine) did a great job of playing a younger version of himself despite being much older in real life. Your outro was awesome and insightful as usual, I appreciate how you pointed out that no one starts out evil, they have to deliberately choose it or knowingly come under a bad influence and succumb to it. Also I probably should add you looked stunning as well. Hope Nora had a great fun time today.

rubberkidney

did my gambit to get you to watch these before spaceballs work?!

rubberkidney

he is now forever to be known as the counselor. too late. yea you caught him too counselor not slipping by you.

rubberkidney

caught yourself on 'graphics', very impressive most dont.

Kristoffer

Love this film so much, dont know why it got so much heat back in the day. Qui Gon such an icon.

ButtercupsTrueLove

George has some problems writing stories and screenplays on his own. He often has help, even if it's uncredited. Moviegoers can tell the difference in quality of the character dialogue between "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars" (aka "Episode IV") and the "Star Wars" prequels because I think that George's friends, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, polished those earlier screenplays after George provided a rough draft. For "Empire", George entrusted the screenplay to the excellent writing of Leigh Brackett and Larry Kasdan. In "The Phantom Menace", George had a tendency towards too much much exposition and making things overly complicated. The whole midichlorian thing is gibberish and not really important to the story if it were omitted. All that needed to be said by Qui-Gon is that he could sense that Anakin was very strong with The Force. That said, I accept the "Star Wars" prequels as George intended and they are now canon, even if I have issues with some parts of them. I'm thankful that he created the films and tried to continue their ongoing legacy.

BigBrain69

Duel of the fates is a straight fire soundtrack, watching this again makes me wanna jump back on battlefront 2 to play as Darth Maul

Urfhil

I enjoy this movie for the most part but man, jar jar....

PrincessLayup

You are right this film and the next one are much more aimed at kids. So they have very immature humor at times. That's part of why I like the prequals so much is I grew up with them. Love seeing them through an adults eyes!

Danny

I think "cloying" is the best word for jar jar and a few other aspects of this movie. I kind of see what they were going for but it's just tooooo much.

M1 Maz

I really love this one! All the vibes are great, and the pod racing is so much fun! There's always something magical about stepping into a new Star Wars world. One that feels familiar, yet is so different than everything we saw in the original trilogy. Knowing what we know from the original trilogy, I always love deep-diving Anakin's character every time I watch these. Every little thing he says and does, and what others say to him. It's so interesting Definitely a big step up in the visuals and, at least for me, especially the sound design! The blaster shots pack more punch, and all the ships have so much more depth. And of course, the sound design highlight for me (which I know you called out too) is the pod racing! I love all the various sounds the racers make, and is one of the more memorable things from this movie for me. Anakin's like an F1 racer, Sebulba's like a big ol' truck, and everything in between. Also the sound when those rolling droids start shooting is one of my favorites Also, have to call out how improved the light saber fight choreography is! The Darth Maul fight is just perfection. The music, his twinblade light saber, and the athleticism of the combat, is just sooooo good! Glad you enjoyed this one! I had a great time watching along with you :)

Robert da Spruce

Don’t worry Kali, you had the same reaction to Jar Jar Binks as the rest of us had 😄 I think if it wasn’t for his character, the movie would have been far less silly in tone. I think George tried to make an iconic, lovable character. But turned out to be one of the most annoying characters in the Star Wars universe 😉 Fun fact: One of Queen Amidala’s handmaidens/decoys was played by Keira Knightley Looking forward to the next one!

Christopher I'm A Door

Seeing this movie get soooo much hate to this very day and being considered the "Worst Star Wars" and then Kali coming in with an open mind, actually praising it at the end. It's nice to hear a different perspective with new things to say about Episode 1 instead of the usual "Jar Jar bad" over and over. Don't get me wrong, Jar Jar is definately a low point in this movie but it gets exhausting when every reviewer keeps repeating the same talking point. Barely anything else in the movie gets talked about cause of being overshadowed by Jar Jar hate. Yes, the prequels may not be great movies but there are things and ideas in there that are amazing and I'm glad more people are opening up to that instead of writing off the entire trilogy as sludge. There are nuggets of gold in there if you look and I'm glad Disney is starting to come around on them and sprinkle some prequel references in their shows. The Podrace for example, I like seeing what is basically Star Wars' version of NASCAR. Actually fleshing out this universe with their version of what we have in the real world. And I, for one, agree with Kali that the Midi-Chlorians isn't really a bad thing. Everyone freaked out about how it "ruined the Force" but i like that George Lucas wanted to give a more scientific explanation to the Force. I like that we get to see the Jedi council before Luke was born. Hearing Yoda tell Luke he will be the last Jedi in Episode 6 and now we get to see what the Jedi were like when they were in their prime. In Episode 4 when Luke was talking to Ben (Obi-Wan), he mentioned the Clone Wars. These prequel films, especially Episodes 2 & 3 will dive into that. Another thing I really like in the Prequels is showing the Clone Wars and the conflict with the Droid army. Anakin's descent to the Dark side in the later films, if you thought him leaving his mother was sad, I suggest bringing some tissues. One more thing I'll mention. It's kinda weird coming back to these films after not watching them in a long time. Seeing what Star Wars is now with Disney, it's a weird feeling seeing the different eras these films were made in and how they differ. I wasn't around in the 70s so I wasn't able to experience the Original Trilogy in their hayday. But man, it's just odd comparing what the prequels were like when they came out and the current Star Wars with all the spin-off shows on Disney Plus.

Phil Stubblefield

Kali, I very much enjoyed this reaction! As I always say, your combination of insight and compassion is a joy to watch. Having seen all of the Star Wars films, *we* know what is coming, but it is so fun to watch the wheels turn in your head. And you're usually right on! Plus, I knew Mom Kali was going to emerge when Anakin had to say goodbye to his mother. You made me tear up all over again, though I've seen it many times! 😢 I agree almost completely with your summary. I understand why this film gets so much hate. For some viewers, nothing should ever have touched the sacred Original Trilogy, so they were bound to hate anything else. For others, including me and apparently you, the ridiculously childish behavior of Jar Jar Binks (and Boss Nass, at times) completely take me out of the story. The Ewoks were a *cute* way to appeal to children; Jar Jar Binks was just foolish! OTOH, it was so satisfying to see the early story arcs for Anakin, Obi-Wan, R2-D2, and the other characters with which we were already familiar. You very quickly picked up on the machinations of Senator Palpatine, how he manipulated Queen Amidala into removing the sitting chancellor to make way for Palpatine. In addition, we fans finally got the amazing light saber duels that we had wanted for two decades! The creature design of Darth Maul was fantastic, and his dual light sabre caught us all by surprise. Even though we assumed that Obi-Wan would eventually triumph, it was still so satisfying to see the two halves of Darth Maul plummet down the air shaft! All in all, I still *mostly* enjoy this film, as long as I close my eyes whenever I hear the beginning of the phrase "Meesa..." 😉

KJ

I say this a lot of the Prequel era Star Wars: making a film suitable for children or aimed at children doesn't mean it has to be childish.

Kenny

Great reaction as always. You're right about how silly this movie is; in fact, among Episodes 1 to 6, it's probably THE silliest. But I still enjoy the heck out of it; for me, the podracing and that final lightsaber duel more than make up for Jar Jar's stupidity.😁 Side note, and you may have already learned this: the actress who plays Queen Amidala's decoy is Keira Knightley.

McShades

Yeah, they could have easily removed Jar Jar from this movie, he really had no part and it would be easy to edit him out. A lot of Jar Jar's appeal to Lucas was that he was the first all digital character ever done. Lucas was a sucker for Technology. He had to create Digital Cameras in order to film these 3 prequels as nobody else had made them yet. Lucas definitely pushed the boundaries of digital film making, without him we would be a lot further back tech wise in the film industry.

McShades

Children would have loved it even if Jar Jar wasn't in the movie. I think it was just a misfire by Lucas. I think making a 100% digital character blinded him to how lame Jar Jar actual was. Also I don't think this movie was just a kid's movie, I mean chopping Darth Maul into two pieces is not something 8 years should see IMO or the theme of politics which I'm sure kids had no clue about. Lucas was kind of all over the place as to whether he made this for adults or for kids.

Joe

There was sooo much build up for this one made decades after the original trilogy. I think George Lucas tried to make something for everyone. There was silliness for the kids with Jar Jar and having it centered around a child, there was a guy getting chopped in half with a light saber, there was a LOT of space politics for adults, I guess. But by trying to make something for everyone, I think there was something that turned everyone off too. This was a movie that had the highest of expectations (but also built in good will) and at the time was seen as a disappointment to most. This is especially true because those with built up expectations were adults and there was so much kid focus on this one. Coming back to it with lower expectations, you can have fun with it. I still don't think it is a good movie in terms of storytelling and many of the performances, but it furthers the lore in some interesting ways and was a technological achievement in its time. Great reaction and curious what you think of the rest of this trilogy.

sizesixteens

It's hard to see before you've watched 2 and 3, but even now there are seeds being planted that lead to Anakin's fall. Obi-Wan agrees to train Anakin out of respect for Qui-Gon, not really for Anakin. As for Anakin, he's not so much interested in becoming a powerful Jedi as much as he wants to help people and explore the galaxy. So you have a boy who's about to be trained in a life he doesn't really want by a master who doesn't really want to train him. Not to mention Obi-Wan has up to this point only been an apprentice himself, and his first apprentice is probably the most challenging student any Jedi could possibly have.

kaliwali

I definitely didn't realize! Awesome side note I also agree, the lightsaber duels were amazing and the podracing was great!

kaliwali

That makes sense that he'd try to expand the audience with this one. Glad you enjoyed my reaction! It was still a fun ride!

KJ

It baffles me why he didn't assign a director like he did for Empire and Jedi.

Marty McGee

Coming to this a few days late. Really enjoyed your reaction to this one. Yeah Jar Jar was too over the top, but I still for the most part enjoyed the silliness. And for a child actor in his first huge role, I mean HUGE role, I think Jake Lloyd did great. I never understood all the hate he got from this. Was he perfect? No, but he was 10! I think this movie suffered from all the overhyped expectations on its release. Watching it years later, it's a really good Star Wars movie. Also one of the coolest pieces of advertising for this was a poster of Anakin on Tattooine casting a shadow of Darth Vader. Google it if you get a chance.

kaliwali

Ahh love that poster! Thank you for sharing!! ✨

Paddy

Hey, just joined. I'm getting ads in the watch along?! Did the video get claimed for the short audio? Never had ads in a watch along before, makes the syncing really hard. But no one else seems to mention it here, so is this normal or did it just recently happen?

kaliwali

That's so strange! That channel I upload these through isn't monetized so that shouldn't even be possible! I'll look into it 👀

Paddy

Thank you. I checked with episode II and there was nothing. Seems to only be this one

Michael Tuffin

You should watch Jar Jar is the Sith Lord on You Tube, it's a fan theory postulating that Jar Jar was really the head sith, and sent fanned the flames of Anakin's loins by telling him Padme "it pretty hot" when he was only 10 years old.

Ray

I believe Jar Jar had more screen time than anybody else in episode 1.