About Phantom Menace, I actually liked it when it first came out. I think it was partially because of what Beck said, about the anticipation of something greater, and also due to soaking up all the excitement from the crowd (I went opening night surrounded by people in costumes). And seeing stuff on the big screen was pretty intense.
It's not entirely bad. I enjoyed the pod race the first time, and the lightsaber duel and the battle scenes weren't bad. But, the more I thought about it, the more stupid the plot seems. I think the Red Letter Media guy does a great job of explaining why none of that movie made any sense. Why the fuck would you blockade a planet no one would give a fuck about? Why do you only blockade it around the equator, and why do the heroes leave the system through the blockade instead of flying "up" or something? Shit like that.
The second movie had some somewhat exciting battles after about 3/4ths of the way in but even when I first saw it I thought Hayden was a whiny ass bitch. I wanted to punch him through the screen.
By the time the third movie came around I was hoping for something BETTER and got shit. I actually walked out of the theater more disappointed than I was with the first two when I first saw them.
As for Transformers, I like the first one. It's not the greatest ever, and I do think it needed more robots, but I did like it. I hated the jiggle camera at the end though. The second one should never be mentioned again, and should be buried in the vaults in Nevada where they were originally going to bury nuclear waste. RotS can go down there too.
