Originally posted by FantasticMrFox Come on - the pod race? The bigger fishes eating the smaller ones? The Battle of Naboo?
Don't get me wrong, even though George had crapped all over my childhood multiple times, I really
wanted to like Phantom Menace, but I was just plain
bored -until the final lightsaber battle. For me, any scene with Anakin was too long (pod race included), and the battle was ruined by Jar Jar. I was so bored by the point of "bigger fishes" that I have no memory of it except that it was there.
Side thought: The lightsaber fight in Episode IV is probably more inspired by '50s Kurosawa samurai movies, where there is a lot more talking and glaring than acrobatics, and the Ep. I fight is more inspired by Hong Kong martial arts movies, which the US didn't have a lot of exposure to until the 70s and 80s.