10 Movies That Didn't Understand What The Fans Wanted

As divisive as Star Wars: The Last Jedi was, critics lovingly embraced it and a lot of fans will proudly bang the drum for it - which is more than can be said for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Despite the unprecedented level of anticipation for the long-awaited prequel, fans were clued in right away that something was amiss, with the film's opening crawl discussing...the taxation of trade routes. Oh.

And though The Phantom Menace was an undeniable technical achievement in its own right, its overt reliance on digital filmmaking techniques set an awkward precedent for the entire prequel trilogy, ensuring that these films would age far worse than the original trilogy.

That's not to forget the film's myriad other issues: an irritating young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the abomination that is Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), all the cringe-worthy dialogue, totally wasting Darth Maul (Ray Park), and needlessly explaining the origins of the Force.

Fans would've honestly just settled for a nostalgic retread of A New Hope - which is exactly what they eventually got with The Force Awakens 16 years later.

Instead, without any collaborators keen or able to veto his nuttier ideas, George Lucas was given free rein to do whatever the hell he wanted.