Argue Not With Master Obi-Wan, Young Padawan Summary: Ewan McGregor didn’t much like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, said it was flat, and I agree.
Comment: I loved Star Wars. I liked The Empire Strikes Back. I gagged at Return of the Jedi. But Phantom Menace was too much. I thought Tatooine was supposed to the farthest point from a bright spot in the galaxy? Turns out it was quite the center of attention. When Darth Vader turned out to be Luke’s father, that was bad. When he turned out to be Leia’s father also, that was too much. Now he’s C3PO’s dad too? Yikes. Lucas has collapsed what could have been an excellent, galaxy-spanning story into AnakinSkywalker: Most Important Person in the Universe. The name Attack of the Clones is bad enough, but if we find out in the next two movies that Anakin built the Millennium Falcon, introduced Han Solo to Chewbacca, and sketched out the plans for the Death Star on a foe’s back with his light saber during a duel, I’m going to barf.