Jake Lloyd, who ten years ago rocked the sci fi press after being cast as Anakin Skywalker, spoke pretty candidly about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
In a lot of ways, this is kind of a living example of how damaging this movie was. (Don’t get mad at me if you a Phantom Menace fan, just look at this guy! He couldn’t escape the shadow of this franchise if he tried!) Topless Robot, who I found this link from, makes a crack about how “he just keeps rocking slowly back and forth, like a bomb victim,” but at the same time, I gotta give the guy credit for trying to maintain some sense of his own destiny, after being probably the most public and powerless victim in all this.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Wooooooooow!
July 29th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Wow, he’s maladjusted and sarcastic, just like a regular person!
July 29th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Enough. Just enough with the mindless prequel hate. Every flaw the prequels have is easily found in the original trilogy. Bad dialogue? Check. Wooden acting? Check. Plot holes big enough to drive an 18-wheeler through? Check. George Lucas didn’t rape your childhood, asswipes. Move on to another tired subject…..
July 29th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Victim?
July 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Seems like a cool guy, I’d hang out with him.
July 29th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
He’s just like every other guy. Not sure how he is ‘maintaining his own sense of destiny’ because I don’t think he has or even believes he has this great destiny ahead. He is quite realistic when he says he just wants a job after film school.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I agree he seems like a cool guy, pretty well adjusted considering the grief I am sure he has gotten over the years, all of which I would say is unwarranted. Sure his performance in the film was bad, but the blame for that lies at the feet of Lucas. He (Lucas) has elicited bad performances out of Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, and Sam Jackson – that kid could have been the ten year old reincarnation of Marlon Brando and he still wouldn’t have stood a chance.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Wow, is your bias toward Episode 1 totally showing, or what? He seems like a completely normal, emotional young man to me. I imagine I would’ve said things very similar in tone to what he said, at that age, and I wasn’t in any George Lucas film 10 years before that. As for the rocking back and forth, I do that whenever possible and always have (loved having a desk chair at work all those years that rocked, no matter how many comments my perpetual motion drew from co-workers).
I don’t think there was anything damaging about The Phantom Menace except in regards to fans whose perspective on the original 3 films never matured along with them. All 6 of the movies were about equal in my mind (I like The Empire Strikes Back best, I suppose, but the rest are all about the same) and those who see big differences between them need to lose the rose-coloured glasses from their childhood. They’re all just popcorn movies that entertain you for 2 hours, and nothing more.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
@Matt Spatola: That’s what I meant — he’s doing whatever HE wants to do, and trying his best to live independently of the franchise. We’re both saying the same thing here.
@Kimota94: You’re a better fan than I, if all six Star Wars films look equal to you!
But what I meant was the fact that he seemed, well, unhappy, and he seems to cite a lot of that to Star Wars. Had the film been received better, I don’t know if he would have gotten that sort of grief, y’know?
July 29th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
how is he a victim…i don’t understand…there are worse things that can happen to a person.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Uh yeah that’s a poor choice of use of the word “victim”–the guy was in a highly-successful film and is now getting a college education–and doesn’t sound like he’s struggling to pay for it. He’s hardly a victim except of anything besides perhaps poor fashion sense.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:03 am
People are *defending* the prequels?? Sweet Jesus, I needed a good laugh this morning =)
Fanboys… god bless their little hearts.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
ZOMG somebody stop him, it’s Darth Vader! Kill him! Don’t let him grow up! Padme is a skank, Jake, don’t bang her, don’t do it!
July 30th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Fat People Are Harder to Kindap
July 31st, 2009 at 8:45 am
Matthew M said: “People are *defending* the prequels?? Sweet Jesus, I needed a good laugh this morning =)”
No shit! I read some of the comments and had a good chuckle too. Sure the original trilogy had its share bad dialogue ad wooden acting. But it was also fun, some great ideas, and shows a lot more heart than anything in the prequels. Episode 3 isn’t bad, but that’s the only watchable film of the later trilogy. I never understood how Eps 1 & 2 made the coin they did.
November 13th, 2010 at 3:29 am
when using desk chairs, i would always prefer to use wood instead of plastic desk chairs .”~
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