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The Jedi EASILY
take out the robots and free the pilots. They board the queen's
AWESOME looking silver ship and take off to face the barricade. I
never liked this part either, because what exactly was Qui-Gon's
thought process here? “Oh yeah, we'll just fly through the blockade
no sweat!”
There is
absolutely no prep work on his part beforehand. No plotting out a
course, no exploiting the blockade for any weaknesses, no trying to
hijack a Federation ship so they could sneak by, nothing. And no one
even argues against doing this, everyone just goes alon with it! They
just take this gigantic easy to spot ship and fly out into space.
There's not even any kind of bullshit “the Force will guide us to
safety!” line thrown in. What in the world make him think they'd be
able to clear the blockade, other than the fact they're the lead
characters of the movie?
Obi-Wan drops Jar
Jar off in a room full of astromech droids, telling him to stay there
and do nothing. Sadly, he doesn't spend the rest of the movie here.
One of the droids is R2-D2, which got a huge burst of applause in the
theater.
The blockade opens
fire, but fortunately the ship has force fields. Things quickly go
south though as the shield generator gets hit... despite the shields
being up? How could the ship get hit if the- yeah, nevermind. If I
start questioning technical details of this movie this review's going
to be longer than Atlas Shrugged. This causes the droids to be
deployed to repair it, R2 taking the time to “accidentally” bump
into Jar Jar because he's awesome like that.
Jar Jar says “How
wude!”, which is the second time he's said this so I guess it's
supposed to be his catchphrase now. It's so painfully obvious Lucas
thought Jar Jar was going to become the biggest thing in the history
of EVER, and that “how wude!” was going to replace “don't go
there, girlfriend!” or “talk to the hand” as the new
catchphrase of the world. Funny how that all worked out. By
late 1999, any American landfill was an estimated 50% Jar Jar Binks
merchandise.
The blockade
blasts the droids off one by one in what is a really nice shot. This
is one of the more “Star Wars” feeling scenes in the entire
movie. Panaka yells if they can't get the generator fixed they're
done for. This was kind of a stupid plan Qui-Gon.
Taking a page out
of Obi-Wan's book, R2 repairs the entire shield generator by moving
one wire. I'll buy this one though, R2 is BY FAR the smartest
character in this movie and arguably the entire six movie saga. Yoda
takes a major hit thanks to these prequels. With shield generator now
operational, the ship easily flies past the blockade and into deep
space. Well gee, that wasn't very deadly was it? If a non-military
craft was able to pass the blockade with zero issues, WHY THE HELL IS
THIS MOVIE EVEN HAPPENING?! A
TIE Fighter, the Ford Pinto of the Star Wars universe, could have
flown through this damn thing!
Ship's pilot Ric
Ollie tells everyone the ship's hyperdrive was damaged during the
escape and won't have enough power to get them to Coruscant. Obi-Wan
studies a star map and recommends they land on the nearby planet
Tatooine for repairs. Panaka is against this because it's controlled
by the gangster Hutts, but Qui-Gon says it's no less dangerous than
landing on a world controlled by the Federation. What, they control
entire PLANETS now? ...okay.
Gunray
calls Sidious to tell him Queen Monotone has escaped. Sidious summons
his apprentice Darth “Motherfucking” Maul to track her down.
After the call ends, Gunray confides to Rune this is getting out of
hand. Rune agrees, saying they shouldn't have made this bargain.
Aaaaaaaaand there
we have it. One of the biggest issues this entire movie has, which
one could make the case is the biggest . WHAT WAS THE FEDERATION'S
DEAL WITH SIDIOUS? I think it's safe to assume that when Sidious
takes over the Republic he'll give them all kinds of money and
bitchin' tax breaks, but we're never told. It's almost like Lucas
wants US to write the movie ourselves in our heads rather than him
having to deal with minor story details like villain motivation.
Most memorable
villains in movie history have always had a clear goal they're
working towards, and like it or not, the Federation ARE the villains
of this movie. They are risking EVERYTHING for this scheme of theirs,
and we're never told why. It would have been a great idea to include
this stuff, including how they came to meet Sidious and starting
working for him. I always wondered if he was maybe controlling them
with a Sith mind control trick, if such a thing even exists?
On Monotone's
ship, Panaka takes R2 to MEET THE QUEEN so she can congratulate him
for saving their lives. This is so over the top silly and ridiculous,
I don't even know what to say to this. This is fan service taken to
levels of insanity, the only thing missing here is Amidala saying
“Thank you so much-”, and then looking directly at the camera and
dramatically finishing with “-R2-D2!”. Personally, I would have
had her wink as well.
The Queen orders
Padme to go clean R2, as he's somehow gotten quite filthy from when
we saw him atop the ship. Is there dirt in space? Now remember, Sabe
is the queen right now so she just ordered HER BOSS to go do
janitorial work. Isn't that the greatest power trip in the world, or
what? Go scrub this droid clean and then get me a sandwich!
We catch up with
Padme cleaning R2, where she meets Jar Jar. The gungan starts
babbling on about his day, Padme just kind of awkwardly smiling up at
him with this frozen smile on her face. It's a really hilarious
scene, as you KNOW she's just wishing he'd shut the fuck up.
They land on
Tatooine, Obi-Wan telling Qui-Gon they'll need an entirely new
hyperdrive generator. Qui-Gon sighs, as this is one more thing to add
of his list of neverending shit to do. Hey, how come he hasn't called
Valorum yet? You can't tell me a ship as big as Amidala's can't do
interstellar communication. Did Lucas forget all about that
particular plot point? Why yes, yes he did. Calling Valorum is NEVER
brought up again.
Qui-Gon tells
Obi-Wan to be wary, as he senses a disturbance in the Force. He then
leaves, telling Obi-Wan not to the let the Naboo send any
transmissions. Oh, so the ship can call people! I assume he says this
so they can't somehow be traced by the Federation, which ALMOST makes
sense but earlier he said Tatooine is way out of their reach. How
extensively can the Federation monitor communications? More or less
than twelve parsecs? Lucas could have easily thrown a line in here
that their radio was knocked out along with the hyperdrive, but I
guess he thought it was pretty to just ignore it altogether.
Qui-Gon, R2, and
Jar Jar- what?! What would you bring Jar Jar with you? They want to
keep a low profile, so let's bring a walking circus along with us.
Nooooope, no way that'll possibly backfire! Panaka stops them, saying
the queen orders Padme to go with them. Qui-Gon begrudgingly agrees
to take her, but is quick to add it's “not a good idea”. But taking Jar
Jar, now that's a GREAT idea! Qui-Gon just might be the worst idea
haver since someone thought Friday The 13th:
Jason Takes Manhattan was a good idea to
throw money at.
They walk to the
world famous Mos Eisley spaceport, Qui-Gon telling Padme how it's
mostly a bunch of moisture farmers, outcasts, and people who don't
want to be found. This is also home to the infamous Jar Jar steps in
shit scene, which pretty much sums up Jar Jar as a whole. I can just
picture gut laughing with tears in his eyes as he wrote this part.
“They're going to LOVE this!”
As they enter Mos
Eisley, Qui-Gon tells Padme about how the area is mostly a bunch of
moisture farmers, outcasts, and people who don't want to be found.
This is also the infamous jar jar steps in shit scene. You really can
tell Lucas thought Jar Jar was the funniest thing EVER, I can
literally picture him gut laughing as he wrote scenes like this.
They look around,
Qui-Gon saying they'll start with one of the smaller part dealers.
They enter a shop owned by an alien named Watto, whom people say
talked like a Middle Eastern stereotype but I've always felt that
comparison was tenuous at best. Watto tells them he has lots of parts
for their ship, calling out for his slave Anakin to watch the counter
while he helps Qui-Gon.
Watto,
who travels by hovering, flies up some stairs and through a hallway.
Qui-Gon and R2 start following, but the camera cuts away before we
see how in the hell R2 got up the steps! Yes, this bothered me a lot!
I'm one of those people that can't concentrate on what's happening in
a movie if a character doesn't close the door to a room they enter,
it's all I can think about.
When I first saw
this movie, I thought Anakin was worse than Jar Jar and that he did
the most damage to the movie. I blamed the actor Jake Lloyd for not
being able to act. Many years later I saw the famous interview he did
where he talked about how miserable parts of his life were thanks to
asshole fans like myself that constantly made fun of him.
And just like
that, it dawned on me. It was ALL Lucas's fault for horrible
direction, because EVERY actor was terrible in this movie. Samuel L.
Jackson, Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson, and Ewan McGregor are all some
of the greatest actors alive, but you would never guess that from
this movie. Everyone is a monotone coma patient with absolutely no
emotion or range. This is all thanks to their director, who could
care less about what they're saying and how they're saying it as long
as it can carry the movie to the next CGIfest.
Lloyd was pretty
damn good in the movie Jingle All The Way, definitely way better than
your average young child actor. He did the best he could with what he
was given in this movie, so every slam against Anakin from here on
out is against how the character was written and how he was
portrayed, not the actor himself.
This leaves Anakin
and Padme, Anakin dropping the epic “are you an angel line?” on
her. Gotta hand it to the kid, at nine years old he knew what was up.
They talk a bit, Padme learning Anakin and his mother Shmi are slaves
owned by Watto. I never got this, why in a world full of droids that
can do literally everything would you need slaves? Just weird. Once again, the
shooting script's version of this scene was superior:
Anakin sits on
the counter, pretending to clean a part, staring at Padme. She is the
most beautiful creature he has ever seen in his life. Padme is a
little embarrassed by his stare, but she musters up an amused smile.
Finally, he gets the courage to speak.
Anakin : Are
you an angel?
Padme : What?
Anakin : An angel. I've heard the deep
space pilots talk about them. They live on the Moons of Iego I think.
They are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They are good
and kind, and so pretty they make even the most hardened spice pirate
cry.
Padme looks at him, not knowing what to
say.
Padme : I've
never heard of angels.
Anakin : You must be one...maybe you just
don't know it.
Padme : You're a funny little boy. How do
you know so much?
Anakin : Since I was very little, three,
I think. My Mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost
us, betting on the Podraces, to Watto, who's a lot better master than
Gardulla, I think.
Padme : You're...a slave?
Anakin looks
at Padme defiantly.
Anakin : I am
a person! My name is Anakin.
Padme : I'm sorry. I don't fully
understand. (looking around) This is a strange world to me.
Anakin studies
her intently.
Anakin : You
are a strange girl to me.
See? Those little
touches do more for Anakin than damn near any other line he had in
this movie. All of the subtlety of him trying to get the courage to
talk to her or his cut lines instantly make his character more
interesting and insightful. But nope, gotta scratch those for more
Jar Jar WACKY HIJINX!
In the back, Watto
tells Qui-Gon he's the ONLY person in the entire city with a
hyperdrive generator but it's going to cost him. Qui-Gon says he has
20,000 Republic dataries, but Watto says those are no good out here.
Qui-Gon breaks out the mind trick again, but it doesn't work.
Honestly at this point, why didn't he just do that in the first
place? I know he's trying to be honourable and do the right thing,
but isn't trying to get back to Valorum to prevent the deaths of
endless innocent Naboo a little more important?
This is another
huge problem with the story, and feel free to make a drinking game
out of every time I say THAT. There is absolutely no sense or urgency
with what should be a huge ticking clock storyline. “ZOMG the Naboo
are going to get slaughtered, we have to get them help immediately!
...or not, let's just pal around Tatooine at a leisurely pace for the
next week or so.” That was something original trilogy Lucas, or
more likely his editors, did to perfection: you were on the edge of
your seat whenever there was a race against time.
Watto notices
Qui-Gon waving his hand, saying “What you think you're some kinda
Jedi, waving your hand around like that? I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks
don't work on me. Only money. No money, no parts! No deal! And no one
else has a T-14 hyperdrive, I promise you that.” Oh, so they
did explain the hand wave thing for newcomers. Okay, well gotta give
a point to Lucas for that one.
Qui-Gon tells
everyone they're leaving, Padme telling Anakin she's glad to have met
him and he replies the same. This kid's got some moves, although (say
it with me) the shooting script did it better.
Padme gives
Anakin a loving look.
Padme : I'm
glad I met you,....ah...
Anakin : ...Anakin.
Padme : Anakin.
Anakin : Anakin Skywalker.
Padme : Padme Naberrie.
Padme turns,
and Anakin looks sad as he watches her leave.
Anakin : I'm
glad I met you too.
Watto complains to
Anakin about the outlanders and then tells him he can go home. Anakin
responds with a “Yipee!”, which is unfortunately his apparent
catchphrase in this movie. Again, I attribute this to Lucas being
stuck in an era long gone and he genuinely thinks kids talk like
this.
Qui-Gon calls
Obi-Wan to see if there's anything on the ship they can use to barter
for the part, but that's a no go. I'm going to assume Qui-Gon checked
all the other part dealers in town just to make sure Watto wasn't
lying, although we never see any of this. Watto just doesn't seem
that trustworthy, you know? Is this exciting
enough for you? Did you know Obi-Wan was actually having an adventure
during this nonsense? In 2001, LucasArts released a video game called
Star Wars: Obi-Wan
that showed us Obi-Wan's side of events in this movie since he
bafflingly wasn't in a lot of it.
While Qui-Gon was
off wasting our time, Obi-Wan got to go rescue Sabe who kidnapped by
Tusken Raiders. Boy, I SO would rather be watching that instead.
Hell,
I'd rather be PLAYING the damn thing instead, and that game was
WRETCHED.
They walk along,
Jar Jar engaging in some more WACKY HIJINX that run him afoul of an
asshole named Sebulba. It's a really bad movie that make you root for
the stereotypical bully. Anakin happens to wander along, saving Jar
Jar from getting his face smashed in. Way to flush all that goodwill
from flirting with Natalie Portman down the toilet there, Anakin.
Qui-Gon thanks Anakin for the help and his group walks on. We
go back to the ship, where a sandstorm is starting to form. Panaka
gets a call from Naboo. Gripping!
Back in Mos
Eisley, we cut to Qui-Gon looking around confused. Very
appropriate. Wait, they're with Anakin now and he's buying
food? Um, what happened to the whole “we've got to get the ship
fixed” thing? Even Padme, whose only goal in life is to protect her
people, is just standing around watching the kid shop. It
is amazing how little this movie cares about anything. The vendor
tells Anakin the sandstorm is coming and that he'd better get home
quickly. She calls him “Annie”, which is his nickname in these
movies and quite easily the WORST nickname ever. When he's a kid it's
not so bad, but by the time Episode III rolls around it kills a lot
of the drama dead when people are calling him that.
Anakin invites
Qui-Gon and company to come stay with him since they won't be able to
make it to their ship before the storm hits. I really like this as it
shows Anakin is a nice and kind person, which he should be. AND
ALWAYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE WHOLE DAMN TRILOGY. Originally this
scene had Anakin being even kinder to his new friends, especially
Padme:
Anakin: I'll
take four pallies today. (to Padme) You'll like these...
Anakin reaches in his pocket and comes up
with three coins. He drops one.
Anakin:
Whoops, I thought I had more...Make that three, I'm not hungry.
Anakin takes them
home where they meet his mother Shmi Skywalker, who is INCREDIBLY
fine with him bringing home a ragged and bearded creepy old man, a
thirteen year old girl, a frog alien and a tin can droid. Just like
any mother would be.
This scene is
bizarre though. Right after Qui-Gon introduces himself he says
something else but it's muted out, although you can see his mouth
still moving. Then, after Anakin takes Padme to see his room, Qui-Gon
reaches into his poncho to give Shmi something but the scene changes
before we can see what the hell he's doing. Shooting script, a little
help here?
Shmi : Oh,
my!! Annie, what's this?
Anakin : These are my friends, Mom. This
is Padme, and...gee, I don't know any of your names.
Qui-Gon : I'm Qui-Gon Jinn and this is
Jar Jar Binks.
Padme : ...and our droid, R2-D2.
Anakin : I'm building a droid. You wanna
see?
Shmi : Anakin! Why are they here?
Anakin : A sandstorm, Mom. Listen.
The wind HOWLS
outside.
Qui-Gon : Your
son was kind enough to offer us shelter.
Anakin : Come on! Let me show you
Threepio!
Anakin leads
Padme into the other room. R2 follows, beeping all the way. Qui-Gon
takes five small capsules from his utility belt and hands them to
Shmi.
Qui-Gon : I
have enough food for a meal.
Shmi : Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.
I'm sorry if I was abrupt. I'll never get used to Anakin's surprises.
Qui-Gon : He's a very special boy.
Shmi looks at
him as if he's discovered a secret.
Shmi : Yes, I
know.
Well gosh, that
solves something that's been bugging me forever. Why in the hell did
they hack this scene up so badly? If they weren't going to use those
lines they really should have done a reshoot, but since this wasn't
CGI action I'm sure Lucas didn't give a single iota of a damn.
But this had
everything the movie needed: Shmi was actually concerned about Anakin
bringing home strangers, Anakin liking for Padme kept growing, and
why Qui-Gon was reaching into his poncho. We even had more of Padme's
obsession with R2 as she took the time to introduce him. If you can't
tell, I'm really a fan of the Anakin/Padme stuff. In the movie Anakin
barely acknowledges Padme outside of a couple of scenes, in the
script it's a subtle but continuous build that enforces this boy is
very smitten with her. Kind of important stuff for what's to come.
Anakin shows Padme
the droid he's building and BLOODY HELL it's C-3PO. Darth Vader BUILT
C-3PO?! Of every connection the prequels have to the originals, this
is by far the weirdest. I know Lucas had to shoehorn in every
character from the originals he possibly could, but THIS is how we
get C-3PO? I wonder in the originals if Vader ever shares a scene
with his droid? I haven't seen them in nearly a decade, guess I'll
find out when I eventually review them.
Anakin says C-3PO
is a protocol droid he built to help his mother. ...do WHAT exactly?
Protocol droids are programmed for interpretation and etiquette,
which really makes me wonder what the hell the slave Shmi does. Or
why Watto even needs slaves when a droid could just as easily do what
Anakin does at the shop.
Back on the
queen's ship, they watch the message from Naboo. It's Bibble telling
them the death toll is catastrophic and he needs them to call him.
Obi-Wan sees through this, telling them it's a trick and not to
respond. He calls Qui-Gon to update him, Qui-Gon agreeing that it's
bait to try to establish a connection trace to where they are.
Okay, excellent!
Finally some stuff is making sense in this movie! The next scene is
on Coruscant, where Sidious and Maul are talking on a balcony. Maul
tells him that if the trace is correct the queen is on Tatooine.
...insert
record scratch sound effect here.
Wow, the movie is
INCAPABLE of going two minutes without contradicting itself.
It's almost an art form! At the Skywalker residence, everyone
is eating dinner. Shmi tells her visitors all slaves have a device
hidden in their bodies that will detonate if they try to escape. This
causes Jar Jar to drop his “How wude!” catchphrase. Yep,
keep hammering it down our throats Lucas. It's BOUND to catch on
sooner or later, right?
Anakin tells
everyone that he's a pod racer, which Qui-Gon says is very dangerous.
Anakin says he's the only human that can do it, Qui-Gon remarking he
must have Jedi reflexes to do that. This is also the part I mentioned
much earlier about where the movie officially began to lose me as we
get the bit where Qui-Gon grabs Jar Jar's tongue to stop him using it
to grab an apple. 41 minutes in is all it took to wash away the
excitement of YEARS of anticipation and the adrenaline rush I
got from when the movie began. Not bad!
Anakin reveals he
knows Qui-Gon is a Jedi because he saw his “laser sword” earlier.
Qui-Gon suggests maybe he killed a Jedi and took it from him, which
is a pretty fucked up thing to say to a kid right in front of his
mother. At this point Shmi should have kicked this weirdo out.
Anakin doubts this
as no one can kill a Jedi, Qui-Gon sadly wishing that were so because
he read the script and knows what's coming. Anakin says he had a
dream he was a Jedi and freed all the slaves on the planet. He asks
Qui-Gon if he's here to free them, and Qui-Gon replies no. He says
this WAY too casually and is borderline smiling, the horrible
directing of the movie REALLY shines here. This should be a very sad
scene with Qui-Gon mournful he can't help the slaves out because he's
in a hurry to save the Naboo, but nah let's just have him kick back
in his chair eating.
Qui-Gon tells
Anakin about their mission, Anakin saying he can fix their ship for
him. Qui-Gon believes he can, but they still need the parts to repair
it. This leads to Anakin hatching a scheme where he'll race his pod
in the big race (that just happens to be tomorrow!) to win money to
buy the parts. His mother is against this like a real mother would
be, as pod racing is very dangerous indeed, but he's quickly able to
talk her into it.
You know, HERE'S
what I really don't get about all of this. There's a massive urgency
to get to Coruscant, so why doesn't Qui-Gon just hand wave some
non-Toydarian and take THEIR ship? This would give them perfect cover
as the Federation is searching for the queen's ship, not some
completely different ship. Qui-Gon had no issues stealing a ship from
Boss Nass earlier, why is he getting involved in this extremely risky
and likely not going to work scheme?
I know, I know,
because then we wouldn't have a movie and we would have missed out on
the pod race scene. But that's one of this movie's biggest problems,
EVERY major scene is loaded with poor logic that makes you question
everything. A good movie doesn't make you say “Why didn't he
just...” every five minutes. Here it's even worse because it's
already been established Qui-Gon will use his mind trick at the drop
of a hat.
The next day as
they head to Watto's, Padme rightfully calls out Qui-Gon on what I
was just talking about: trusting their entire fate to a boy they
barely know and the queen would not approve. He's all “what the
queen doesn't know won't hurt her”, and Padme sullenly says “well,
I don't approve”.
Anakin tells Watto
that Qui-Gon wants to sponsor him for the race, the two making a
slightly confusing bet that I had to rewatch a couple of times to
sort out cause they talk through this very fast. Watto will front the
entry fee for Anakin, and:
1. If Anakin wins, Watto gets to keep
all the prize money minus the cost of parts for Qui-Gon to fix the
queen's ship.
2. If Anakin loses, Watto gets to have the
queen's ship
Later, Qui-Gon and
Shmi talk about Anakin. She reveals he has no father and she just
magically became pregnant and YE GODS could you hear the groans at
this scene in the theater I was at. Anakin was an Immaculate
Conception, yeah that's a GREAT idea. Lucas tries to justify this
later in the movie, but there's no saving how utterly, completely,
absolutely, mind numbingly STUPID this is. And the funniest/saddest
part? Lucas is going to top this in a few minutes.
Anakin works on
his pod with help from Jar Jar and the droids. This scene is only
notable for more Jar Jar WACKY HIJINX that are so over the top, even
C-3PO himself remarks Jar Jar is a bit too much. That night,
Qui-Gon takes a blood sample from Anakin, sending it to Obi-Wan for a
“midi-chlorian count”. Ah there we go, there it is!
Obi-Wan tells him
the reading is off the chart, over 20,00. Even Yoda doesn't have a
count that high! I've been wondering, what are midi-chlorians? We're
going to have to wait a bit to find out because thank God, Darth Maul
just arrived on Tatooine to try to save the movie. He lands in the
desert accompanied by his ultra bad ass theme music, deploying
hovering spy droids to Mos Eisley.
At the race,
Qui-Gon and Watto talk. Watto believes Sebulba will win and he took
the bet just for the queen's ship, as he's bet all his money on
Sebulba. Qui-Gon bets him Anakin WILL win, putting his body up
against the boy and his mother. Watto says no pod is worth two
slaves, so Qui-Gon offers for just Anakin. Watto rolls a chance cube
to decide, Qui-Gon using the force to make it choose Anakin.
And now onto the Pod Race, kicked off by the
grand marshal Jabba The Hutt. The pod race is perfect, and fully
justifies anyone sitting through this movie to watch it. It's
massively exciting, has great tension even though you know who's
going to win (the mark of any good scene), and STILL has better CGI
effects than pretty every movie that's come out since 1999.
Something
else no one ever seems to talk about, it has AWESOME sound effects
that make it seem all the more real. There's even a cool part where
the assholes of Tatooine, the Tusken Raiders, take shots at the pods
as they drive by because that is so something they'd do. I really
feel Lucas poured his heart and soul into this pat of the movie at
the neglect of EVERYTHING else, because this is as Star Wars as you
get. It
even introduces us to one of my favourite cameo characters, Aurra
Sing. She really needed to be in the other movies akin to Boba Fett.
Sadly the entire movie can't be the pod race,
so it comes to an end with Anakin emerging victorious. Watto says
Qui-Gon swindled him and that he's lost everything, refusing to hand
Anakin over. Qui-Gon threatens to turn the situation over to the
Hutts, Watto backing down. One of Maul's droids is seen in the
background watching this.
Qui-Gon brings the
ship parts to Obi-Wan, saying he has to go back to Mos Eisley for
unfinished business. Obi-Wan quips “why do I sense we've picked up
another pathetic life form?”, a smirk on his face. Oh
Obi-Wan, how I wish you were in this movie more.
There's a deleted
scene that was supposed to go here where back in Mos Eisley Anakin is
fighting an alien called a Rodian with a group of kids watching.
Qui-Gon walks up to them, asking what this is all about. Anakin says
it's because the alien said he cheated, which he didn't. Qui-Gon
tells him since he knows the truth he'll just have to tolerate the
alien's opinion and that fighting won't change anything. They walk
away, one of the other children saying “Be careful who you mess
with, Greedo. You'll come to regret it.”
I would have kept
this scene in for two reasons: we see Anakin getting pretty brutal
with his punches which would hint at an inner darkness inside him and
that he's quick to anger, which is excellent foreshadowing for his
future. Also I actually liked Greedo being in here, but I guess they
decided it was enough that Vader already knew C-3PO from his past and
didn't need any more connections.
At the Skywalkers,
Anakin shows his mother all the money they got from selling his pod.
Now wait a minute, why the hell didn't Qui-Gon take this money to
Watto to buy Shmi?! Watto's broke ass now, he'd probably sell her for
a song and a dance. Especially since Anakin and Shmi's reaction makes
it seem like it's a ton of money.
