Well, I just watched Star Wars Episodes I and IV back-to-back. With them together like that, I could see even more the suckiness of The Phantom Menace’s characters. Let’s do a rundown of the characters from each film:

  • Luke Skywalker - naive and kinda whiny, but brave as hell and full of excitement
  • Han Solo - brash, reckless, smart, and kinda charming in his own little Han way
  • Princess Leia - all the grace and elegance of a ruler, but with a real gung ho attitude and a smartass mouth to boot </ul> And...
    • Qui-Gon Jinn - always calm and serious, only deviation seems to be when he's macking it on Anakin's mom
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi - always calm and serious, only deviation seems to be when Qui-Gon gets killed and he kicks some ass
    • Queen Amidala - always calm and serious (and hot as hell), only deviation seems to be when this 10-year old boy turns her on and makes her giggle
    • Anakin Skywalker - obnoxious little boy that tries to lower his voice and sound all calm and serious. You haven't reached puberty yet, kid. Quit trying to act like you have. </ul> Jar Jar, Palpatine, and Yoda are the only interesting characters in the damn movie. And we all want to shoot Jar Jar. If only they'd deleted the Jar Jar scenes and added some **gasp** character development. My fingers are crossed that Anakin/Amidala in Episode II will have a fraction of the chemistry that Han/Leia did in the first three...
      Oh, next time you watch A New Hope, look out for the scene where the stormtroopers enter the little control room by the Death Star docking bay where R2 and C3PO have been hiding out. The rightmost trooper bonks his head on the door. It's classic.
      MP3 of the day: Fuel - Hemorrhage