Has anyone noticed that Star Wars: the Phantom Menace doesn't actually make sense?

[smurasaki]

I haven't seen Phantom Menace that many times, since I don't like it (or the other prequels) very well, but I saw it again today and realized that most of it makes very little sense at all.  I'm actually beginning to think that the vast majority of fiction doesn't make sense, it's just that much of it is entertaining enough that one misses the plot

Comments

[baeraad]

I think a lot of people have noticed that it makes no sense. In fact, I understand that claiming to like the prequel movies in front of Star Wars fans is a good way to become tarred and feathered... ;)

Seriously, hmm... from what I understand, the Trade Federation is your basic evil megacorporation type thing. They are not technically supposed to have an army, but they have built their warships to resemble transport ships, and that is apparently enough to fool the Republic, because (as we see again and again) the Republic couldn't find its ass using both hands.

As for all your other questions? BEATS ME. I checked the Star Wars wiki, but it doesn't make sense there either. I think George Lucas has a sort of vague idea what a political thriller looks like, but no clue why it looks like that or how all the intrigue actually works beyond the superficial drama.

[smurasaki]

Yeah, I -think- the Trade Federation is supposed to be a megacorp, or something along those lines, but, really, you'd think Lucas could've worked in a line or two of dialogue explaining what they are, what they want (possibly even more important), and what their relationship to the Republic is. Also, why Naboo is important. These are not things the audience should be guessing about. (Unless figuring out why and what and such -is- the plot of the movie.)

The sad thing is, if Lucas had just handed the basic idea off to someone who knew what they were doing, the movie would have been fine. I'd just never realized how little sense the whole thing makes before.

[kadymae]

PM makes no sense. Attack of the Clones makes just as much no sense. This is a big part of why they are both such flaming pieces of glop.

[smurasaki]

I think I'd had the vague idea that it was terrible, terrible execution. But, no. It's terrible, terrible everything.

[matt_doyle]

Wow. I mean, I've had my own laundry list of complaints for years, but this brings up even more plot holes I can't believe I never noticed. I think my brain just shut down and stopped trying to understand when even the more superficial levels didn't make sense, long before I considered basic premises.

[smurasaki]

It is entirely possible that the movie is more hole than plot, which really shouldn't be possible.

I can't help thinking that - somewhere, lost in the mess - is a decent story. It's just that Lucas is not good at telling stories and, for reasons unfathomable, didn't hire someone who is to tell it. Then again, I could just be giving it too much credit even then because it's Star Wars.

[matt_doyle]

I've seen various thoughtful reviews that suggested ways to bring out the story pretty well... but none of them addressed the fundamental question of what this nonsense the Trade Federation is pulling is.

[smurasaki]

Oh, I think even that's fixable. Probably. But fixing what the Trade Federation is up to would almost certainly result in a movie that's vastly different. As far as I (and commenters here and on Dreamwidth) can come up with, the Trade Federation is meant to be something akin to the East India Company... except Lucas didn't realize that by having the Trade Federation blockade and invade a Republic planet (as opposed to an unaligned one), he'd broken his analogy from the get go. Never mind having failed to explain why anyone cared about Naboo in the first place (okay, yes, it fit Palpatine's plans, but what was the Trade Federation doing being ordered about by a mysterious guy in a hood anyway. What did they get out of it?).

Of course, everything in the movie is so very broken that rebuilding it from the ground up could only be a good thing.