Star Wars Prequels

Choose wisely.

 

I read an article over the weekend about Episode VII getting a PG-13 rating. It said that all Star Wars movies were PG, since the PG-13 rating wasn't started until after the last Star Wars movie. (It did not say "original trilogy" or anything like that). First time I had seen any news about the movie that seemed to completely forget the prequels happened.

 

I've got to respect Lucas' vision of the Star Wars universe and the attention to detail he brought. It's too bad he didn't just serve as executive producer of the prequels and get some help in the execution. I think they show how difficult it is to make films with no physical limitations as offered by CGI. The self-editing isn't there; not to mention in this case you have an ego-maniacal genius indulging his every wildest wish. But I think he's going to have the last laugh when the new films fail to feel like "Star Wars" without his involvement.

 

I have always said that I never understood the hatred for the prequels. I always liked them (but not as much as the original trilogy). I was fascinated by the story of Anakin turning to the darkside, and the backstory of Obi-Wan, etc.

Yes, the CGI has not aged well at all, and Jar-Jar of course is still as annoying as ever, but whatever. I still enjoyed them.

 

I really enjoy STAR WARS. I was 11 years old when "A New Hope" (STAR WARS) to me was released. We did not have a lot of money so going to a movie was rare indeed... Dad and I went to that movie and it blew my mind. For years I thought how great it would be to be like Han Solo charging around space on some great adventure.
The second movie was released, it was great, and drove the space adventure even deeper into my mind.
The third movie was released and I watched with still wondrous eyes and mind while thinking...this is a bit of a let down, and the teddy bears are a terrible edition to this world.
With a full imagination and no limitations you came up with "fighting" teddy bears? All right...I guess.
Years passed, reruns were watched with almost equal zeal as the first time and Ii purchased my own copies so I could watch whenever the desire arose. Besides, this new THX VHS tape looks really great and sounds good too.
Years later another version was added and inserted into the story line AHEAD of STAR WARS. While it filled in some of the characters it also allowed a lot of air out of the balloon with crappy acting, crappy writing, and seemingly commercial aspects of story line added to sell a video game or toy or something.
Add another edition of "lets sell more stuff" story line with some good stuff sprinkled in to keep the fan base and you have the 5th movie taken care of.
The 6th movie infused a much darker side to emphasize the consumption of Anakin by the dark side and moved into a different realm all together as compared to the first release from 1977. So for me I greatly enjoyed, A New Hope, because it was the first exposure into something great. The Empire Strikes Back, because it pretty much continued the theme and trend.
Then the last version, Revenge of the Sith, while not great, did fill in many things and greatly enforced the bleak dark side of the force. But, it was very loaded with merchandising agenda which gets in the way of the story. So, for me, I guess all the prequels are much less enjoyable than the first two movies released in 1977 and 1980. I'll take them because they do have some merit but when given the choice I'll watch the first two and skip the rest.

 

I'm somewhere between the 3rd and 4th option on your poll. I think the prequels are terrible. Watching them makes me feel ill. I basically don't acknowledge them, but deep down inside I know they exist and I know they introduced a generation of new fans. And I still have a teensy bit of nostalgia for all the hype leading up to Phantom Menace. That was a fun time back in '99 - until I actually saw the movie.

For further context: the OT is practically my religion. I love Star Wars with a passion. I just don't think of the prequels as "Star Wars". They don't look or feel right.

One good thing you can say for the prequels: they provided Abrams and Kennedy with a handy template of all the mistakes NOT to make with the sequels! TFA is gonna rock!

 

Whatever your feeling about how the prequels ultimately turned out, there was a dynamite story in it's potential; epic in sweep, loaded with emotion, and visual spectacle that the original trilogy could only dream of... what it ended up being, however, was both a fatally flawed collective work of hubristic indulgence, and a generally ill-conceived muddle of a very strong broad story arc (much like the Matrix sequels) let down badly by;

a) George Lucas writing them on the fly instead of mapping them out in advance.
b) George Lucas' obsession with the new technology, and CGI up the wazoo.
c) George Lucas deciding he didn't need a proper screenwriter for the scripts.
d) George Lucas deciding the actors (save Ian McDiarmid) should play their characters as stilted mannequins.
e) George Lucas.

And that's not even getting into how established events, plot points, or character traits mentioned in the original trilogy with regards the backstory are contradicted in the prequels, or the fact for future generations, they ruin the reveal of Yoda, Darth Vader's real identity, and Jabba the Hutt. Or the fact that Anakin's age upon his death does not remotely tie into the age of the character in the last prequel. I could go on but you get the idea...

The original trilogy's backstory was just that; a backstory, there for needed dramatic context and character development, not a back door to a whole new trilogy. Sorry George, it's Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi (theatrical versions) only for me, happy retirement though...

Still optimistic about The Force Awakens, Jar Jar Abrams works great when he has the material to back it up...

 

I think they're Tauntaun poo.

 

I think that the charm of the original trilogy is that there are many "real life" things, it's like some kind of dirty disty western or war movie, but placed in the space. The prequels are just shiny good/average sci-fi with so many different creatures, zillions of Jedi and light sabers, huge cities with so many luxury buildings and space ships of any kind...and not much sence in the plot.
Also, to me the most succesful and iconic elements that made Star Wars such a legend are: the music, and Darth Vader. The music is there in the prequels, but the "real" Vader with his suit, mask and helmet is shown only for few seconds (and the scene is just ridiculous). I hope and dream that they'll find some way to produce some new Star Wars movies with heavy Vader presence. As hard they can try (and they try in every new episode) to succesfully "replace" Vader image with some other villain, those attempts are just doomed, IMO.
Still, I have hopes that he new episode will be better than the prequels and will bring back some of the "real feel" of the original movies.

 

Even the third one is just mediocre at best.

 

I know that there are about a thousand of these, but this is an interesting and fairly unique fan edit I discovered recently. Star Wars: The Blackened Mantle. All three prequels are cut together with Revenge of the Sith serving as the primary timeline of the story and episodes I and II serving as flashbacks. The most interesting aspect of this fan edit is that the dialogue has been rewritten. The dialogue is dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles.

 

I like them a lot. I think it's probably worth pointing out that to those millions who fell in love with Star Wars as kids were always going to struggle with the prequel trilogy. I was 8 when The Phantom Menace came out, and it had a similar effect on me as the original trilogy did for many.

It also helps that I was utterly obsessed with the video game on the PlayStation, a great RPG that prefigured the sensational Knights of the Old Republic games, which are two of the greatest video games ever made.

Anyway. I was still disappointed by Attack of the Clones, and to this day consider it the weakest of the six. Revenge of the Sith was good and, in my opinion, rounded out the prequels pretty well.

Sorry guys, but TPM will always be in my affections, even Jar Jar (though not too much)!

 

I prefer to pretend they don't exist. They were very bad films and I honestly hope I never have to see any of them ever again as long as I live. I'll just keep watching the non-anamorphic original trilogy dvds and pretend the whole thing never happened. I get a headache just thinking about them.

 

Voted for "They're ok, they have their moments." I think Star Wars is cool, but I'm just a casual fan so I don't obsess over every detail (like I do with The Beatles.) Most of the things the true SW fans hate don't bother me much...except for Jar Jar Binks. I just FF through that stuff.

 

Revenge Of The Sith is PG-13, so The Force Awakens isn't novel in that regard.

I find it kind of annoying, though, since the series is considered as kind of a family event. I've been looking forward to my kids experiencing something akin to what I experienced as a kid, and while the PG-13 won't deter me, it does put a little itch in the back of my mind about whether it is suitable for them.

 

This may lead to people ganging up on me but I'm not afraid to admit that my earliest memory of Star Wars was watching the prequel trilogy. I liked them fine and I didn't realize why the majority of the fandom had a burning hatred for them until I eventually saw the original trilogy (both unaltered and "special editions") a few years later and compared the two trilogies. My current opinion on them:

The Phantom Menace: It was bad but it had it's moments.

Attack of he Clones: It was slightly more entertaining that Phantom but nothing special.

Revenge of the Sith: It was pretty decent, honestly. It saves the trilogy from being 100% useless to me.

Even if I didn't like them, I would still at least acknowledge their existence but I'm sure people will still put people down and call them, "poser Star Wars fans", or something similar just because they think the prequels had one or two good ideas.

 

First and foremost, the prequels should have been consistent with the original trilogy. Leia said that she remembered her birth mother, but Padme died just after giving birth to Luke and Leia. I like C-3PO and R2-D2, but they had no place in the prequel trilogy. Obi-Wan clearly doesn't remember them in A New Hope.

 

"They are okay, they have their moments."

Though I'd prefer to vote "they're pretty good" - I'd pick an option between "they're GRRRRREAT!" and "they're okay"...

 

PM was decent but other than the Darth Maul duel, hasn't aged very well. AOTC was much better and ROS was the best of the prequel trilogy.

 

Crimes against cinema.

 

I accept that they exist but I don't have much use for them...sort of like how Lucas messed with the original trilogy in '97.

 

I don't mind them. There are some very cringeworthy moments though. Sand....

 

Well said!

 

When my best friend and I -both old school Star Wars anoraks- saw Revenge Of The Sith in the theatre I'm sure we drove everybody in our section bonkers by sitting there throughout the movie picking apart all the continuity errors...of which there were plenty!

Don't you mean, "Bantha poodoo?"

 

For the most part, they're pretty bad. Qui Gon Jinn was a joke, his part added nothing to the story. The whole trade federation thing muddied the first film up too much. I thought that the way that they decided to just up and use the Clone army without more investigation was a joke-"Hey, some old Jedi ordered this army a few years ago. I have no idea why. Strange, we really need an army, right now. Let's use these Clones!". And I can't believe that Vader's suit wasn't more primitive. You're telling me that he wore the same gear for 20 years? That in all of that time, technology wouldn't have made improvements?

I did like how Sidious sneaked his way into power, and controlled the whole thing. I thought that Ewen McGregor was fantastic. I did like that a big part of why Anakin went to the darkside was because he loved his wife so much (that did make Vader appear to be more human).