re: At what point during your first viewing of The Phantom Menace did you realize it sucked?

my mom got me and my best friend out of school early to join the big arse line for tickets. wrapped around the theater twice, people dressed up, lawn chairs, tents, board games, lightsaber fights. it was incredible. this was a week before the movie was released.

so stoked. all week. so much buildup.

i remember leaving the theater, my parents were in awe, kept talking about how great it was, "the effects!"

i'll never forget making eye contact with my best friend, it was like someone had snuffed out a special little light of childhood we would never get back. we were both struggling to admit what we knew to be true. the movie was shite.

Realize, or admit?

Took me awhile to admit it sucked. Saw it opening weekend, got the DVD 1st day available.

As for realizing... I watched, full of excitement and adrenaline. God DAMN, we finally have new Star Wars! I watched breathlessly, waiting for the moment it became awesome. I kept watching that way, until finally, the movie ended, and- nothing ever made me say "frick Yeah".

Someone once said there's a good edit, with Anakin and Jar Jar removed, and the film is pretty decent. One day I'll find that.

I drug my girlfriend and some others to the midnight opening show, we had been partying a little bit

I was a little wtf when they started talking about trade routes

By the end of the movie I just looked over and said "Is it just me or did that kinda suck?"

We were all in agreement

I think OP hit the nail on the head. The dialogue in that scene was so cringy bad that it was clear the movie was going nowhere. I remember hating the Pod Race as well, and Annie in space was just bricks in the closet at that point.

I was at the age the movie was clearly targeting, and I thought it was terrible.

I thought Attack of the Clones was slightly better. AOTC is a really good movie through the scenes on Kamino, but goes off the rails as soon as Anakin and Padme go to Naboo. The whole mystery assassin thing made sense, but it's like halfway through the movie, they just gave up on that plot to chase the clones, only to completely drop the issue once the war started. Seriously!? No one cared who ordered those clones 10 YEARS AGO!!!!? The fact that they were ready just in time for the war doesn't seem like a little bit of a coincidence? Clearly whoever ordered the clones be created knew the war was coming. Did everyone just say "oh well, I guess we better use all those clones we don't remember ordering 10 years ago". How expensive was all of that!? Where was the money coming from all that time!?

The prequels become better films when some of the excess political discourse and various Anakin/Padme-only scenes are deleted entirely. For instance, I remember seeing the IMAX version of AOTC and it seemed much better for the simple fact they deleted about five minutes or so of the dreadful Anakin/Padme scenes on Naboo.

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At what point during your first viewing of The Phantom Menace did you realize it sucked?

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Never. I loved it. I was 12 and I had posters on my wall, toys, saw it in theaters few times. I was in love.... And then Clone Wars came out. Now that's a movie I hated on first viewing. But I can still watch and enjoy Phantom.

TLJ was more entertaining than Phantom Menace. TLJ did a horrible job with the Star Wars story and characters but it was still better than watching JarJar and Annie.

This moment right here

Outside of Jar Jar and yippee/wizard, I still enjoy it. Hell of a lot better than TLJ.