Star Wars Day I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Impressions from the first movie. Just in case you’ve managed to not see the movies, here be spoilers:

• Qui-Gon is still one of my very favorite Star Wars characters — if only he could have continued! Luckily another favorite — Obi-Wan — can keep going.
• Same thing on the other score for cool-looking, bad-ass villains in Darth Maul.
• The juxtaposition between the happy-go-lucky Anakin and his future self makes the upcoming transition that much more moving.
• The pod race was still awesome, and reminded me how cool the video game was.
• That awareness of the stories to come is always there in the background, lending a melancholy flavor to everything (in a good way).
• Jar-Jar: the pidgin menace, always doing the exact wrong thing at the exact right time. Whatever the issues surrounding him, the Gungans are great. I always loved their high-tech-yet-organic technology and weapons.
• The phrases that were used in the original trailer still stand out from the rest of the dialogue for me. That experience back in the day kept me from obsessively and repeatedly watching trailers ever again.
• Today’s marathon I thought of doing the very first time I saw this movie in the theater in 1999. Can’t believe that it is finally happening. :)