We Watched *STAR WARS* For The First Time 

Hey Rangers, we really Enjoyed watching The Phantom Menace! We have ALL Episode 1-9 already up on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/ThePerfectMix

The fight with Darth Maul is still my favourite fight. Not only does it have great choreography but it’s the most important fight in the franchise. Qui Gon was the teacher and father that Anakin needed; someone who didn’t follow the strict Jedi teachings and who understood the living force more than any other Jedi. Someone who wouldn’t make Anakin hide his feelings. Qui Gon vs Maul was literally a fight for Anakin’s soul and Maul won.

I met Ray Park (Darth Maul) at a couple of Star Wars conventions, and he was super nice. We had been waiting in line to get his autograph for quite awhile, and right before we got up to him, the staff told him that he needed to get his line moving much faster, so he wasn’t supposed to talk too much, or take pictures with us. He saw that my son had his face painted like Darth Maul, and he sat there and talked to my son and I for quite some time, took pictures, and then signed multiple things for us. He was incredibly nice, and definitely showed that he appreciated his fans.

It may be flawed, but it does what’s most important - it looks, sounds, and feels like a Star Wars picture.

That short bit of choreography where Obi Wan attacks Darth Maul after the fall of his master is the best bit of choreography in all of Star Wars. It was so aggressive and controlled and it was less about defense and flashy moves and more about a man determined to get his revenge. Maul is one of the coolest villains in cinematic history also. I wish they dragged out his character for a couple movies instead of ending him there.

Prequel lightsaber fights slaps so hard, glad you guys enjoyed this! I grew up with this Star Wars so it’s awesome to see it get some love

This movie literally saved my friend's life, he worked at Blockbuster video on the premier date he switched shifts with a co-worker to see it, the store was robbed later that night and the employees who worked were shot execution style, if this hadn't come out that night and he had worked his regular shift he would have been there.

26:45 Couldn't have said it better myself, Vince. Great reaction, you two. Keep it up.

So Qui-gon kneeling mid fight was him doing a Jedi Battle Meditation. He was getting himself more mentally prepared/calm for the fight, as well as more in tune with the Force to temporarily enhance his combat abilities

The hype for this movie is massive back in the summer of 1999. The theatrical experience for this movie was so great. At the time, so many people were just riding the wave and enjoying it. At wasn't till a few years later that everyone began to dog this movie. Every movie has some flaws, but the biggest one with fans of the OG trilogy was the tone, due to the overly comedic Jar Jar. I've made my piece with all that, though. The OG trilogy was meant for kids, too. And by the time these came out, they had grown up and felt bitter and jaded because it didn't feel like the 80s Star Wars. I was 15 when this came out, and I loved the first three films. I knew this felt different, but it also felt right for it's time, as it's predecessors felt right for their time. I love the first 6 films.

The main "double" for Natalie Portman as Padme was Kiera Knightly, they look so much alike its crazy!

The prequels are amazing. They are my favorite out of all the star wars movies, specifically ROTS. So glad y’all are finally watching them.

I was four years old when this movie came out in theatres and I basically grew up with the prequels. And my favourite moments from this movie is the pod race and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon facing off against Darth Maul with the music Duel of the Fates playing throughout the fight.

The Podrace Sequence and The Lightsaber Battle with John Williams' Duel Of The Fates playing in the background are the best parts of the movie.

YES!!! I've been looking forward to you two getting to this one. 😊 It's "Star Wars" prequel trilogy time! In preparation for this reaction, I actually spent part of yesterday re-watching the reactions for the original trilogy. Loved those ones. And I already know that I'm going to enjoy the prequel trilogy reactions. I really enjoyed this first prequel movie. All of the actors were perfectly casted. Absolutely love Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor as the younger Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jake Lloyd did a great job as young Anakin Skywalker. And Natalie Portman does a great job as Queen Padmè Amidala. Ahmed Best the stand in for Jar Jar Binks(who, I will admit, is still a fun character to me after all these years. Even though he's on the silly side) The final lightsaber fight between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul while the "Duel of the Fates" piece of music plays is one of the best lightsaber duels in all of "Star Wars". Already looking forward to "Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones" next. Looking forward to the next reaction. 😊

"Phantom of THE Menace" made me chuckle. I was already in my early 20's when Episode I came out and I enjoyed the hell out of the prequel trilogy where I know that quite a few people my age didn't. I thought Jar Jar was a little on the annoying side with his goofiness, but overall I'm OK with the goofiness. Though no one deserves the kind of hate and death threats that Ahmed Best got for playing the character. He had even contemplated suicide at one point.

The prequels were, for the most part, panned upon release, but for people of a certain age this trilogy is THEIR Star Wars, not the original trilogy. Ewan McGregor has said that he always thought that his Star Wars trilogy was a failure, but now that those kids who watched it have grown up, they are constantly telling him how much they loved them. I'm an ol' fart so for me, it's all about the original trilogy, but I understand how the generation after me genuinely loves these films

Another cool detail about Anakin winning that race is that it inspired the locals and slaves who were watching the whole thing because Anakin originally was a slave himself, meaning that Anakin with his status was the first to win anything which is huge Also another detail about Yoda saying a key factor that would turn someone to the darkside is 'fear' but the only reason why the Jedi Council didn't want to train Anakin is because of their fear of little Ani's power (His just a kid too)

The podrace scene where anakin siphones power from one engine to another is a foreshadowing/callback to how he was prophesied to "bring balance to the force"

I love the little detail that Obi wan knew that shield was going down milliseconds before maul knew. He was that tuned into the fight

28:22 that was my dad’s favorite Sith warrior.

That pod race scene is one of the most exciting sequences in all of SW. Episode one has its flaws, but it’s definitely a fun movie

Your enjoyment of the movie was infectious. The prequels have their issues but damn theyre interesting. Excited to see if you guys watch the rest of the movies, and gonna have to go back and check out the videos on the original trilogy. Good shit! Ope yeah already on patreon, sick sick

The bad thing about this movie is what happened (and happens till today sadly) with Jake Lloyd in real life. Since i read about it just a few years ago (i had no clue about it) is something that goes in my mind everytime i watch something related to this movie. Hard to see him as Anakin knowing what is coming for him after this.

The decoy who's name is Sabé is played by Keira Knightley. It gets confusing cause they look so alike. But Keira appears only in two dresses, The black dress with feather head cowl as they leave Naboo to go to Tatooine. And the Battle dress when they go back to Naboo at the end.

The way Palpatine played everyone in this movie was just unbelievable

You guys might also want to see the clone wars series. It tells you everything that's happened in between episode two and three Fun fact: the voice of Jar Jar Binks actually was in an anime movie called Armitage… I forgot which one but it's the one for 2002 I think Fun fact: it was a video game for the pod races, both in arcades and on Consoles

Saw ep IV at 15, but I agree with the title of this reaction. It is weak-minded, imo, to hate on Jar-Jar for his silliness. Loved the FX of the prequels, pod racing rocks!

So cool to see the perspective of young people. I saw most of the original movies in the theatre (I was a little too young to see Ep IV in 1977-I was just a baby), and you guys probably were being born when the prequels came out! I like that you didn't bust on Jar Jar or Anakin too

Still have my ticket from the midight showing way back in 99. Man, i was so young. I barely remember thinking how significant it all was, but i have STILL never heard an audience cheer as load as when the Lucasfilm logo came up. I was with my older brother and a group of people. I remember looking around the theater at people in utter enjoyment.

The difference in fighting ability was the fact that, as was mentioned elsewhere, the training schools were intact, and Jedi were trained from a young age in all aspects of the Force - Maul getting equal or better training from Darth Sidious, knowing he would be fighting Jedi Knights and Masters. Old Ben Kenobi was long past his prime ("Your powers are weak, old man"), and knew all he had to do was distract Vader until the others escaped - ultimately, also being Vader's plan to track them to the Rebel Base ("She may be of some use to us."). Their duel was just gestures and stances, in a more controlled defensive fighting style (ok, Sir Alec Guiness was way too old to fight like Robin Hood). Luke had minimal training from Ben with remotes in lightsaber fighting, plus whatever he was able to continue on his own, then as much ability with the Force (and gymnastics) as Yoda could impart on him. Luke's first duel with Vader reflected his own inexperience fighting another person, and Vader's own impairment after losing half of his body to cybernetics. Vader's experience was still more than enough to beat Luke, though as we saw he didn't really want to kill him, and so didn't cut loose with all of his powers. The second duel in Return of the Jedi was more evenly matched, though now neither wanted to kill the other and held back - until Vader learned Leia's secret, and got Luke to cut loose with his anger. Plus, there was twenty years of incorporating Hong Kong martial arts movie choreography into Hollywood to tap into to make the Jedi look really cool. :)

Don't let anyone any spoil episodes 2 and 3. It's best when you don't know what is coming.

1. Of the prequels I like this one the best mostly for the POD race and the underwater sequences, 2. Jar Jar is mostly comic relief since we don't have C3PO 3. Liam Neeson was very busy with various productions at the time and was in huge demand and agreed to do this episode because Qui-Gon Jinn dies, and he won't be held to do more. 4. Devine intervention? 5. It's easy to know why this one didn't start the series because of the lack of CGI back in 1977.

I thoroughly enjoyed your reactions! Back in 1999, I camped out for tickets to see the movie and I was even interviewed on a local news channel. There are simply no words to describe the excitement in the theatre on opening night and I fondly remember the enthusiastic cheering when "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." appeared on the silver screen. Totally off topic: Shoshana, I know there's a saying that everyone has a twin, but if you were a blond, you would be my niece Delanie's lookalike. Exact same face and expressions. Quite extraordinary!

I was born like 7 months after this movie came out. Besides the Raimi Spider-Man movies, I definitely felt the hype of the prequels, especially episode 3.

I felt that scream at 26:46. Hurts every time.

I see that you've already watched all the episodes so I can say this in a non-spoilery way, yes, yer absolutely right about how this ending is similar to the ending of Ep4, with the grand celebrations and awards being given. Lucas often talked about the power of two's, and said he deliberately had the ending echo each other respectively. Not so much with the 3rd and 6th episodes (although I could see it being done), but definitely 1st Ep and 4th, and 2nd with the 5th are the same shot, Padme+Anakin with the two droids repeated but with Luke and Leia and the droids.

The clone is lowkey important has some crazy things in it one like Anakin having a student but way more so yea it is important

I prefer star wars prequels more than the originals because i grew up with the prequels plus the world seems more lively where as the originals feels empty and especially how there isnt many jedi.

Thank you guys for liking it. Star wars fans are hard on this film and others in the franchise. I love them all!!!

26:45 LMAAAOOO!!!!! He let out that loud ass "F*CK!!!" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

what Qui-Gon said about the podracers is true...no ordinary human could race in those things...they are lethally fast and the races are incredibly dangerous...in fact they got outlawed by the Empire in later years

Duel of the Fates is still an awesome and badass theme.

I was probably 6 years old when I saw this, it was my first introduction to Star Wars, and one of the only vhs tapes we had so I can’t tell you how many times I rewound that thing. For that it’ll always be my favorite. This whole era was so much fun to have going on as a kid.

8:28 It must’ve been crazy seeing that in the theater for the first time knowing that that’s Darth Vader.

You both smile so much in this reaction, and that made me smile. May the Force be with you.

fun fact et is in the senate council meetings theres 3 of em in one of the disc things also theres an amazing animated show called star wars clone wars set between ep 2 and 3 but its 7 seasons long so idk if you'd wanna react to it or not but i highly recommend it

It's nice to see people appreciate star wars without any preconceived ideas or outside influence.

I was 9 when this came out. I can still vividly remember my little league baseball team all going to see it in theaters on a Saturday after one of our games. It's such a memorable movie for me. Loved the reaction. There's a book called Master and Apprentice and it's about Qui Gon and Obi Wan in the years leading up to this and it's so good. The Maul, Obi Wan and Qui Gon duel is the best in all of Star Wars IMO.

Vince yelling when Qui Gon got stabbed is so legit how I felt when I first saw this. 😂

Man I’m glad you guys have started watching the first 3 movies of this 6 movie series.

You know legend has it that Maul actually survived his injuries and that fall and is secretly plotting his revenge to return and destroy Obi-Wan!!!!!!

Warms my heart to see y’all enjoying Epsiode one. I grew up on the old trilogy and enjoyed the prequels upon release as well. 👽

grew up watching it and love it and may the force be with you always

So I will explain one thing in this episode, the prophecy says the Anakin will bring balance to the force, destroying the Sith, which he did by killing Palpatine, and saving Luke in episode six, and turning back to the light side, in becoming a Jedi once more before he died, the Anakin is the chosen one. He ended up being the good guy at the end.

Had Qui-Gon lived, I believe Anakin would never turn and would never go down the path he does. Then again.. There would be no original trilogy without it!

I grew up with these prequel films, and despite its flaws, I absolutely adore this film. Some of my favourite characters are actually important for a setup

They fight different, because they walked away from the original vision of Lucas. The Jedi were supposed to be essentially high tech samurai. They were supposed to wield the light saber like it was a Samurai sword, with two hands. Samurai don't whip swords around like a pair of nunchuckas. This would be a lot of wasted movement and energy. There's an old expression that goes, "fatigue makes cowards of us all." The first change in light saber technique came in episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas was pissed, because the director allowed Luke and Vader wield their light sabers with one hand. Hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube once it's out.

So the braid is a symbol of being a Youngling/Padawan. Once a person becomes a Jedi, they loose the braid.

26:45 i felt that FUU-

I remember playing the pod racing game on the N64 when I was a little kid, and it was SO hard for me.

the one in the queen outfit was actually Keira Knightly lol, they were cast together because they looked so similar

I’m Irish myself and I think he’s the best

Two of my favorite Qui-Gon Jinn lines in this movie are: "The ability to speak does not make one intelligent" (So useable for so many people in real life) "There's always a bigger fish"

The woman who was pretending to be the Queen was actually Kiera Knightley from Pirates of the Caribbean.

@18:05 my favorite part of the movie because at this point Maul doesn't know who Anakin is. But he sees a little boy running in the desert and casually decides to try and run him over LMAO!

The short scene with padme and her dress with the light up orbs on it, you can see the power cord for it along the wall.

Just a reminder some awesome super hero movies that you would love to put in your patreon polls: The Crow, Blade, Kick Ass!, Unbreakable, and The Incredibles. =)

AAAAA i’m so excited that you’re getting into the prequel trilogy! i grew up with this trilogy so it has a huge spot in my heart

The fight between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul is very important. The music cue over the fight is called "Duel Of The Fates". It is a duel for Anakin. Qui-Gonn is the light side of the Force and a strong paternal figure. Obi-Wan is also light, but he is young and is more of an older brother. Maul is the dark side incarnate. Had Qui-Gon won and not died, Anakin's fate as his Padawan would have had a vastly different outcome. Qui-Gon understood what was at stake with Anakin and trained him. Obi-Wan, to fulfill a promise, takes on a job he's not really ready for. The Queen and her handmaiden are quite funny actually. Natalie Portman plays Padme Amidala, the Queen, and her handmaiden Sabe is played by Keira Knightley in her film debut. Off-screen, when the two young ladies were in full make-up and costume, no one, not even their loved ones, could tell the difference between the two. Star Wars has always been about family...but the offstage family connection between the Prequels and the Original Trilogy is pretty amazing. Ewan McGregor is the nephew of Dennis Lawson, who played X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles in IV, V, & VI...helping to destroy two Death Stars and a couple of AT-ATs on Hoth. What is even funnier now is Ewan's real-life wife is also playing a character in Star Wars...Mary Elizabeth Winstead is playing General Hera Syndulla on the Disney Plus series Ahsoka. In the Senate scene, there is a shot where you can see representatives from the planet 'ET - The Extraterrestrial' during the Vote of No Confidence reacting to the news.

People born after 1990 Prequel and sequel fights are the best looks so cool People born before 1990 Original fights have depth and character development and reason behind the battles they don't just fight to make flashy moves with lightsabers

“The core issue, ultimately, is greed, possessiveness - the inability to let go. Not only to hold on to material things, which is greed, but to hold on to life, to the people you love - to not accept the reality of life’s passages and changes, which is to say things come, things go. Everything changes. Anakin becomes emotionally attached to things, his mother, his wife. That’s why he falls - because he does not have the ability to let go. “No human can let go. It’s very hard. Ultimately, we do let go because it’s inevitable; you do die, and you do lose your loved ones. But while you’re alive, you can’t be obsessed with holding on. As Yoda says in this one, [The scene in which Anakin seeks Yoda’s counsel] You must learn to let go of everything you’re afraid to let go of.’ Because holding on is in the same category and the precursor to greed. And that’s what a Sith is. A Sith is somebody that is absolutely obsessed with gaining more and more power - but for what? Nothing, except that it becomes an obsession to get more. The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth, they’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So, what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith, 2005 “The thing with Anakin is that he started out a great kid he was very compassionate, so the issue was how did he turn bad. How did he go to the Dark Side? He went to the Dark Side, Jedi aren’t supposed to have attachments. They can love people, they can do that, but they can’t attach, that’s the problem in the world of fear. Once you are attached to something then you become afraid of losing it. And when you become afraid of losing it, than you turn to the Dark Side, and you want to hold onto it, and that was Anakin’s issue ultimately, that he wanted to hold onto his wife who he knew, he had a premonition that she was going to die, he didn’t know how to stop it, so he went to the Dark Side to find, in mythology you do to Hades, and you talk to the devil, and the devil says ‘this is what you do’ and basically you sell your soul to the devil. When you do that, and you’re afraid and you’re on the Dark Side and you fall off the golden path of compassion because you are greedy, you want to hold on to something that you love and he didn’t do the right thing and as a result he turned bad.” --George Lucas, Mellody Hobson George Lucas - Virtual Speaker Interview, 2021 “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that [Anakin] cannot hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first years and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them. “But he become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate. “He’s greedy in that he wants to keep his mother around, he’s greedy in that he wants to become more powerful in order to control things in order to keep the things around that he wants. There’s a lot of connections here with the beginning of him sliding into the Dark Side. [....] “Because of that, and because he was unwilling to let go of his mother, because he was so attached to her, he committed this terrible revenge on the tusked raiders.” --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary

The original 6 made by George himself man. I will always love these. I really don't like Disney's take on the new ones they don't captured the feel of star wars

The most tragic part of star wars is just how good of a person little anakin was.

28:23 -- he's fine. He'll walk it off.

Imagine having the opportunity to watch a brand new Star Wars film in theaters years and years after the original trilogy and this time with the power of modern technology...In this was the film that you got. I'm not saying Phantom Menace is a bad film, I don't think it is, but it definitely has a lot of weak points and I can't say that I'll never understand the feeling of disappointment that people had back in 99 because I had pretty much the same feeling with The Last Jedi. BUT it has an amazing soundtrack and one of the greatest lightsaber duels in the franchise

This is where the fun begins

I still have the memory card for the pod racer I built on my N64. That game was so much fun and the race-sequence in the movie is one of my favorite parts as well.

It is an awesome movie and trilogy! It was simply amazing to watch in the theaters when it first came out. I think many Star Wars fans have a new appreciation for it these days.

Saw this at the theater as a kid

The Gungans and the droids battle took place in the Microsoft Windows 7 wallpaper 😂

28:23 he survives that, hes in rebels animated series what follows clone wars series and clone wars series is events that happen between the trilogy movies, i think he was even in clone wars series

Coruscant is a crazy place in concept. There are actualyl thosuands of layers to planet-wide city, constantly building more onto of the old layers. Each layer goes around the entire planet and each one has people living on it. There are legit nightmare monsters down in the lower levels.

When Thanos’ army attacked Wakanda, the Wakanda shields reminded me of what the Gungans used.

So the music that plays during the Darth Maul fight is called the Duel of Fates. Its a fight over the fate of Anakin Skywalker. If Qui Gon Jin lived Anakin would grow to become the most powerful jedi to ever live.

I really enjoy watching your guys reaction videos. I advice that you guys watch the clone wars movie and show. If you guys want to more of what goes on after episode 2

There’s a show called clones wars that takes place after the next movie

The only thing the Sequel Trilogy is good for is reminding us just how underrated the Prequal Trilogy is.

Decoy queen was played by Kiera Knightly! Tough to admit for most, perhaps: but of all 3 "prequels," Episode I is the best, I think, because it's the one that *most* retains that sense of awe & wonder the very first movie has. That exhilaration at seeing new worlds, the confusing sweep of a galactic-level political crisis, the down-to-earth love between a mother & a son, mystery, faith, wise men, strong women...And for sheer *cinema* in the '90s, there had been NOTHING like experiencing the pod race sequence in theaters. (Also: I never understood the Jar Jar hate! He's 1000% more effective for the fight in a single film than 3PO is in EIGHT movies.)

Anakin is 9 in Episode one and Padme is 14

Your reactions were very entertaining. Glad your getting into the prequel trilogy

In the prequels my favorite thing is we are at the height of the Jedi they aren’t just swinging the sabers they have forms and techniques they have trained for decades along with their powers as far as the movies go

Tattooine is outside the jurisdiction of the Republic, but still, it is telling that freeing the slaves wasn't more of a priority of Qui-Gonn and Obi Wan. It shows that the Jedi had become more about protecting the status quo than caring about justice. Explanation: the Jawas and Sand People are the only indigenous sentient species on Tattoine. They remember when their planet was lush and green, and they blame all outsiders for the fact that it's all desert now.

The TV show Clone Wars takes place between episodes 2 & 3. It is worth watching because it fills in a lot of gaps and covers up a lot of plot holes.

I feel like something that flies over most peoples heads (myself included) is that Anakin was a virgin birth. The movie is very vague about the “there was no father” thing, probably intentionally to get people thinking about it. But ya, he was space Jesus

You should really watch the clone wars cartoon. It really dives deep into the clone wars and the impact that it had not only on Anakin but on the jedi order. Also you will meet Ashoka

Important detail about Ep1 is that, due to this being pre-Clone Wars, most planets don't have anything like a standing military. Sure, they have law enforcements and some soldiers for self defense against priates and other things, but a place like Naboo isn't expecting an actual war. Not to mention, the Naboo are famous for their love of diplomacy and poltiics. Seriously, the people there have politics in their genes. The Queen was the Princess(mayor, kind of) of the capital city before being elected Queen.

at 17:11 the person seen in the lower left of the screen is Warwick Davis who played Wicket W Warrick in Return of the Jedi. There was a video game planned called Obi-Wan that was supposed to follow him in the parts where he was off screen during this movie. Unfortunately it was canceled. Natalie Portman had to keep her role in this movie a secret from her friends in School, she was 14 when she signed the contract to play Padme.

“Phantom of the Menace” had my laughing so hard

Man, I still get goosebumps when the Maul vs Obi-wan/Qui-Gonn fight pops off.