Were Mike & Kevin Too Harsh?

[Sharktopus]

sometimes it's better to just squash a turd rather than try to dissect it.

An excellent point and a disturbing metaphor that I'm going to have to borrow.

[fishbulb]

Of course they weren't too harsh!
If this steaming pile of crap didn't have "Star Wars" in its title, no one would be talking about it today.

Lucas made a couple of fun Saturday afternoon popcorn movies a quarter century ago - then, when he decided to continue the series, instead of making more Saturday afternoon popcorn movies, he tries to be Shakespeare.  He deserves every possible bit of ridicule.

When your movie starring Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, and Samuel L. Jackson turns out to be one of the worst-acted movies ever, it begins to seem likely that the actors aren't to blame.

[Avindair]

If anything they were too kind.

Dennis: The Phantom Menace is an unfathomably terrible movie.  Poorly conceived, badly writtten, and directed with all the finese of a barfly fumbling for their first happy hour drink, it's an utter disaster.

Gods, I hate this movie.

Best riffs for me:

• "Ana you get da soup with the buffet!"
• "We also have this heroic copier..."
• "Look, go to hell!"
• "If Michael Bay made a live action version of the Banana Splits it wouldn't be this goofy!"

[Nunyerbiz]

Like somebody said a page or two back... I do think they maybe went a little too harsh at the cost of some funny, but overall this was spot on. Back in '99, I walked out of TPM just dumbfounded. I didn't hate it but I knew it wasn't good. This marked the first time I'd seen it the whole way through since then. Wow... just wow... for the first time with Rifftrax, I can honestly say that I will never, ever watch this movie again without the commentary. It has been completely and utterly destroyed.

There were times I was cringing at the more 'venomous' comments but it was oddly refreshing to see them truly express their rage at the screen. Sure, they got a little worked up now and again on MST3k, but nothing like this. This isn't the funniest rifftrax, but I don't know if it was really meant to be. I think once they started writing it they just said "WTF... let's just do a hatchet job on this pile of shit!"

[Pak-Man]

I guess my only problem is that it was treated more harshly than Crossroads. I mean I know it wasn't as great as other SW offerings, but it deserves better than Crossroads, at least.

[Nunyerbiz]

Crossroads was a cash-in opportunity for a pop singer. It wasn't the opening chapter from the most popular movie series in the history of ever. If you had anything approaching even mediocre expectations for Crossroads then just maybe I'd agree with you. As it stands, I knew Crossroads was going to suck and I wasn't terribly broken up about it. The completely wasted promise that the "beginning" of the Star Wars story had is a far bigger travesty than a pointless road trip movie from Ms.Spears.

[mydrumsaresick]

I dont think so. they brought up so many things that I never took in to consideration. how they couldn't "Jedi" that fact that she was the queen. I was rolling. what I like about them is they are harsh. they pull no punches and have fun with the movie. they leave no race, creed, or color out. I love it.

[Johnny_Short_Torso]

There is NO such thing as too harsh with The Phantom Menace. The movie is a travashamockery. There is at least one thing wrong with every single aspect of that movie, logic holes everywhere, bad script, bad dialogue, bad plot, bad characters, bad directing, bad camera moves, ugly special effects, not to mention overuse of fart and feces jokes. This movie was more like Fart Wars, or Bodily stenches wars, or something.

[Teaflax]

Actually, there is one thing I will give Ep 1: production design. Most of it is excellent, if occasionally overblown. But that's it. It's getting cut no more slack than that.

[Ranika]

I can't imagine being too harsh with the movie itself. Maybe with Jake Lloyd, he's only a boy, but, still, he sucked bad. If any of the other performances had been remotely decent (I'll forgive Liam on the sole basis that he had such awful material to work with), it might have helped him seem less awful. The movie as a whole is just shit though, and the hype for it made it all the worse, as has been a thousand times or more.

[Slublog]

The answer to the original question - not at all.  Their rage was hysterical.

My favorite parts of the track are when Jar Jar says hello to someone and Mike's response is "Oh, get bent!" and the scene where they are planning the battle and both riffers admit that they have no idea what is going on.

Watching this film with the riffers made me realize just how awful it really was.  And now I hear that Lucas and Speilberg are going forward with Indiana Jones IV.  Suggested subtitle - "As If You Didn't Hate Lucas Enough."

[Minnesota]

As an answer to the original question; no.

[Nunyerbiz]

I rewatched TPM last night for the sole purpose of making another reply to the "Were they too harsh thread?"

Like I said in my original reply a page or two back, I definitely thought they sacrificed some funny in exchange for just lashing out at the movie. I can't really say I blame them, as I'm sure a few days of nothing but watching this turd over and over is going to grind on anybody. They have no real requirement to reign themselves in like they might have faced within the MST3K confines.

That said, I really do think this rifftrax would have benfitted from a "less is more approach" in regards to some of the venom. The movie is what, seven or eight years old now? Unless you're breaking some new ground or skiing over virgin powder, you're just not gonna have much impact.... it's gonna get real tired, real fast.

The only real big offense in this regard is the Jar Jar stuff. On this repeat viewing, some of the Rifftrax content actually bothered me more than what was going on with the film itself. I'll put it this way, if I found 20 seconds of vomit impersonations amusing I would have thought Jar Jar was effective comic relief to begin with. I'll give them some credit with the "Jar Jar annoys your soul" bit, while the delivery was forced and it wasn't really funny... it was at least a bit clever. Of course, there's also the suicide reference... which was so far below the level that Mike and Kevin usually operate at, I cringed... cringed worse than anything presented that was penned by ol' George. Speaking of George, he's childish and has the intelligence of plant life. Again, just so far below what these guys are capable of. Say what you will about this shitfest, but that man was responsible for two of the greatest action/adventure trilogies of all time. It pains me to say that he didn't deserve that riff, but he didn't. As much as I despise everything that has been done to the Star Wars franchise since the Special Editions/prequels came out... the originals were not put together by a moron. Like Kevin so expertly put it, he just went "pants crappingly insane".

Don't get me wrong... I'm not decrying their overall attack on the movie. Most of it hit the mark perfectly... it's just that less would have been more in my opinion and the rifftrack suffers a bit as a result.

[BBQ Platypus]

I don't really get the whole "harshness" thing.  As long as it's funny, I don't care WHAT they're saying about the movie.  And I found it to be funny.  Personally, I think they were being nice.  This movie destroyed any dignity Lucas might have deserved for making the original trilogy.  If I'm not making myself clear enough, I'll put it to you this way: on a karmic level, this movie cancels out The Empire Strikes Back.  Hell, it would cancel out a million of them.

[LadyKenobi]

I'll put it this way, if I found 20 seconds of vomit impersonations amusing I would have thought Jar Jar was effective comic relief to begin with.

I think this is really insightful-- perhaps that's why this Rifftrax just didn't sit quite right with me.