[Doctor X]

Reason #11
Jar Jar Louganis
To further test your suspension of disbelief, Jar Jar makes this dive into the water where he jumps about twenty feet in the air and then flips five times before hitting the water. Was that necessary? Instead of letting you forgive him for the six or seven things he'd done in his first minute into the movie they immediately hit you with another reason why he is the worst.

This ties in with my "World Peace Through Unanimous Hatred of Jar Jar" theory. Even GRAVITY hates this little bastard!

Reason #12
The Quickest Route
Boss Nass (who is getting off easy for some reason) tells the Jedi and Jar Jar that the quickest way to reach the Naboo is through the planet's core. Okay. I am by no means a geologist. I can't tell the difference between Igneous or Sedimentary rock. However, one thing I do know is that you can't just traipse through a planet's core... for any reason. Even if it is the quickest route (which I find highly doubtful) I think that the risks (i.e. certain death) are far to great to undertake the voyage.

Won't dispute the science here. I WILL answer your first question, though: Boss Nass gets off light because deep down inside, you know it's Brian Blessed in there, and can't bring yourself to completely hate the leader of the Hawkmen.

Reason #13
A Fish Tries to Eat Them
I'm pretty sure fish don't eat metal.

Have you every been fishing? Do you know what a lure is? Right. It's a bright, shiny metal thing with a wiggly-spinny bit at the end. Just like the ship they take through the Plaaaaaaanet Coooooooore. (Incidentally, that ship is called a "Bongo," the pointing-out of which could have easily taken the place of one of the next two reasons.)

Reason #14
"There's always a bigger fish."
A bigger fish eats the fish that was trying to eat them. Qui-Gon should be wiser than this. Can't he see the fault in his logic? How can there always be a bigger fish?

Because it's Star Wars, and one of the hallmarks of the Star Wars Universe is "bigger is better." Why make the Death Star just plain, ordinary big when it can be the size of a small moon? Why just make Coruscant the capitol of the Republic when you can make the whole planet one big city? So, yes, as long as there's the CGI for it, there's always a bigger fish.

Reason #15
Big Fish

I think I'm gonna lay off the "Big Fish" issue now. You obviously have some issues here. Deep-seated memories of "Jaws?" Particularly traumatic fishing experience in your youth, perhaps? (That WOULD explain your not knowing what a lure is, though.) Let's move on.

Reason #16
Droid Armies

Remember, this is the "Enlightened Age of the Great Republic" that's presently going on. You hire thugs, there's probably a minimum wage, benefits, pensions, 401k, and housing and feeding your thugs. Plus, all that time training them and disciplining them into a fighting force. All manner of overhead as opposed to buying up some droids (And you can bet that with the sheer number they've got, the Trade Federation's getting them wholesale.) and installing Microsoft Soldiering XP on them.

Reason #17
Why even use a lightsaber?
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are quick to whip out lightsabers when things start going bad. One thing that I couldn't help but notice during the course of this movie was that every so often they would do that thing where they extend a hand and the enemy would go flying backwards. That is friggin' cool. Why even use a lightsaber when that Jedi “push” move is so much cooler?

You've got to use the lightsabers to collect the power-ups to do the Push move.

Reason #18
The hyperdrive is leaking
The reason that they have to land on Tatooine is because "the hyperdrive is leaking." Leaking what?

Industrial Light and Magic.

Reason #19
Darth Maul's Introduction
At one point Darth Sidious is speaking with the Viceroy. He then announces his apprentice, Darth Maul. Darth Maul then steps into range of the holographic transmitter to mug for the camera. I must say that as cool as every eight year old thinks Darth Maul is, I find him to be one of the greater flaws of the movie. Where Jar Jar fails in comic entertainment, Darth Maul succeeds. Look at him, he's just a funny looking dude! He looks like he could be a member of KISS. If KISS hadn't stopped wearing the makeup I bet Bruce Kulick would have worn makeup just like this. And by the way, Darth Maul? That's a pathetic name for a Sith. Why did they break the tradition of naming Darth's after words that begin with the letters in? inVader, inSidious. I would be happier if his name were something like Darth Truder, Darth Cendiary or more appropriately Darth Ane.

Most of this one, I'll give you. Darth Maul's evil badassness appears in the form of flashing his pointy teeth and giving us the silent treatment while showing off his cool little Sith toys (The Sithship, the SithCopter and the little Flying X-10s of Evil) until he finally gets around to actually doing something evil (Killing Qui-Gon) and then, drunk off that, gives Obi-Wan time to come up with a plan so bad that he actually just stands there thinking "Man, there are about ten different ways I could stop you doing what you're tryin..ERK!" and just falls down the chute, leaving us feeling ripped off that there's no "Wah-wah-wah-WAHHHH!" noise like at the end of every Sesame Street bit where Cookie Monster finally just goes nuts and eats the cookies. As far as the Sith naming scheme, my little bit of inside info on the next film is that Christopher Lee's character is named Darth Tyrannus, so the Golden Age of In-names is clearly at an end.

Reason #20
R2-D2's Big Day!


I'd like to cover this one in two parts.

The fact that all of these characters just happen to board a ship with R2-D2 is lamer than lame. The fact that R2-D2 saves the day by fixing the shield connection (Again, why do they line these damn ships with the most important components?) is lame.

All right, what the hyperdrive is doing on the outside of the ship is beyond me, but I can answer the shield thing. (Holding the record in X-Wing for taking out more TIE fighters with my front shields than with my guns as I do.) If you go back and look at Episodes IV-VI, shield generators have to be outside the thing they're generating shields for. The shield generator on Hoth and the shield generator on Endor both projected their bubble of shielding from outside the object, making the shield generator a very likely first target in any battle. Let's move on:

You know when you have to answer the question: "What was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?" Well my answer is as follows. In Star Wars: Episode I there is a scene where R2-D2 saves the day. After he saves the day Queen Amidala asks one of her lackeys to read the number off the droid. The man says "R2.. D2, your highness." Then Queen Amidala says and I quote: "Padme, clean this droid up. It deserved our gratitude." I have never been so embarrassed in all my life.

Yeah, you're embarassed, but look at the exp​ression on the Queen's face when she's giving this order. The order is so goofy and she looks so embarassed because it's not the Queen, but the bodyguard, who's basically got to give an order to her boss to keep up the illusion. Of course it's goofy, forced, and embarassed. The bodyguard's got to think about her next review session. ("Oh, yeah, and then there's the little 'Padme, clean this droid up.' episode...")

[Mike Mac from NYU]

"The fact that all of these characters just happen to board a ship with R2-D2 is lamer than lame. The fact that R2-D2 saves the day by fixing the shield connection (Again, why do they line these damn ships with the most important components?) is lame. "

I personally don't think that introducing Artoo this way is such a bad idea. What I question is why a ship would need multiple R2 Units and yet not have backup hyperdrive systems. I actually got excited duringthe scene in which Captain pananka read R2-D2's name to the queen. It was one of a coupl eof scenes in TPM that reminded me of the warmth of th OT.

One of the reasons i like the TPM to some degree {a small degree} is that it had some very warm scenes, that were abscent from ATOC.

BTW - Don't forget to stop by the Bonus trivia question post on this forum.