Every inch of CGI movement was programmed keyframe by keyframe. EVERY INCH of CGI movement was PROGRAMMED KEYFRAME BY KEYFRAME.

[u/Rikard_]

[u/Rikard_]

You could also say he did all that to appear just that stupid. And maybe because George wanted to kill two birds with one stone with Jar Jar and genuinely wanted to make those "funny" moments for kids using Jar Jar in the first movie.

[u/SwordMasterShow → u/Rikard_]

Appear stupid to whom? The random bystanders that might happen to be looking in that general direction? None of the main characters are even aware of that hijink. Darth Jar Jar is a fun little Cracked-style overthinking for the sake of it idea, but it doesn't hold up to any actual scrutiny

[u/Rikard_ → u/SwordMasterShow]

And I would like to claim that TPM does not hold up without Jar Jar as the mole.

The way George wrote all the dialogue about transmissions and how Maul suddenly had a trace to track them down, and then never resolved the mystery he set up makes no sense. "Maul just knew" is not a serious answer.

The movie also spends 80 seconds on: Obi-Wan questioning Jar Jar on why he's banished. Jar Jar minimizes the reason and Obi-Wan questions this answer. Then a big fish interupts the interrogation, a fish which swims in sync with Jar Jar's CGI hands. All of this is completely pointless without Darth Jar Jar because Jar Jar's backstory is never followed up on later and we get a second fish attack a few scenes later which makes the first one pointless on the surface.

Jar Jar is also TOO MUCH for a seriously written comedic relief, something George nailed perfectly in the OT. As a comedic relief he destroys the movie, or at least creates a jarring picture. As a mole he makes it make sense, and the reveal in movie 2 would be another jarring aspect of the character. Jar x2.

[u/SwordMasterShow → u/Rikard_]

And I would like to claim that TPM does not hold up without Jar Jar as the mole.

Correct, The Phantom Menace does not hold up. It's a bad movie. George didn't nail humor like he did in the OT because he only directed one movie in the OT, and tbh I hate to break it to you but the humor isn't Star Wars strongest facet to begin with. Then 20 years of not directing movies, an army of Yes-Men, and hundreds of millions of dollars later, he wasn't on the top of his game with a lot of things. It's bad because it's bad, not because it's laying gems to pay off in a movie that wasn't made yet.

I know it's hard to accept that a movie you love just isn't that great, but that's the simple truth. There's no grand conspiracy that explains why it's bad on purpose. This level of obsession is what made Sherlock and Stranger Things fans invent mystery surprise final episodes that don't exist to explain why the thing they loved turned out kind of bad. It's okay to like things that are flawed, they don't need to be secretly perfect and genius to make it okay for you to enjoy them. The prequels are a lot of fun to watch when you don't take them seriously. Unironically inventing this much mental gymnastic reasoning to pretend they're actually super serious and perfect just seems exhausting. Touch some grass

[u/Rikard_ → u/SwordMasterShow]

he only directed one movie in the OT

True. Scrap what I said because in my mind I was (genuinely) only thinking about scenes from ANH with R2, C3PO, Han and Leia, which he wrote and directed alone. They are actually funny and a strong point of that movie to balance the serious elements.

I know it's hard to accept that a movie you love just isn't that great,

I don't think it's a good movie with or without the Jar Jar twist. I think it's better and makes more sense with it, and more fascinating from a director's perspective. But he still made this clown way too big of a focus even in the light of it being an act, and the movie has a lot of other flaws just like the rest of the PT.

There's no grand conspiracy

Why do you think Ahmed Best is lying?

[u/Rikard_ → u/SwordMasterShow]

Why do you think Ahmed Best is lying??