Star Wars Prequels

The last one was... OK. I would happily never see them again though I do own Phantom Menance on Laserdisc, for reasons that escape me now!

 

The more time that passes, the worse the prequels hold up. Lucas lost touch - with the craft of story telling, directing, and good judgement. So much potential... unfulfilled.

The only actor and character that came out of the entire ordeal for the better was Ian McDiarmid as the emperor. He owned almost every scene he was in and somehow managed to elevate the role above the nonsense surrounding him.

I expect TFA will be a return to a more familiar Star Wars experience.

 

With a bit more thought and pre-planning in the writing, the prequels could have been a success generally; if you solve the problems of contradictions with the original trilogy, the fact that Episode I is so detached from it's two successors, and the problem of Anakin's age between the two trilogies, the prequels could have played out something like thus;

The Phantom Menace - 40 years before Episode IV; the Nemoidians are the first star system to secede from the Republic and blockade the neighbouring Naboo to force them to sign a treaty recognizing their independence. Obi-Wan Kenobi is sent to resolve the matter, and eventually comes across a young 12-year-old boy on Tattooine, Anakin Skywalker, who is strong in the Force unlike anyone seen before, Obi-Wan takes it upon himself to train the boy, against the judgement of the Jedi Council, who ultimately relent when Skywalker saves the day during the battle for Naboo and the new Chancellor, the elderly Senator Palpatine of Naboo, intervenes on his behalf.

Attack of the Clones - 15 years later, 25 years before Episode IV, Anakin is now 27 years old; the Republic is now facing an existential crisis as dozens of star systems have seceded and a race to war seems inevitable. When Senator Padme of Naboo is nearly killed in an assassination attempt in order to stop her contributing to a contentious vote in the Senate authorizing the Chancellor to declare war on the separatists, the Jedi assign Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to protect her. But matters are complicated by both Skywalker's love for Padme, a love that will have profound repurcussions for both him and the galaxy as a whole, and the mysterious creation of a clone army that reaches back to a former Jedi-turned-separatist leader, Count Dooku, could he be the Sith Lord behind everything? The film ends with the first battle of the Clone Wars. (the final cut should not run for more than around 127 minutes, not the bloated 142 minutes that it did run)

Revenge of the Sith - 6 years later, 19 years before Episode IV, Anakin is now 33 years old; the Clone Wars is nearing it's end as the clone army of the Republic, aided by the Jedi, have beaten back the separatists to a standstill, but the latter launch a last, desperate attack on Coruscant, seemingly capturing the Chancellor whilst he was en route to a meeting. He is rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, but the latter is becoming intoxicated by his abilities and the praise heaped upon him by his exploits. To try and tame him, he is given a seat on the Jedi Council but not made a Master, this creates even more disenchantment for him and he grows ever closer to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who has effectively become an absolute ruler long after his term of office has expired (leading to a core group of Senators forming an organized opposition to the burgeoning dictatorship as they see it, the beginnings of the rebel alliance). When the Jedi discover that Palpatine is a Sith Lord and behind the entire separatist movement, they attempt to arrest him, but Anakin believes they are staging a coup and kills Mace Windu in the process of defending the Chancellor. Palpatine then orders the clone troopers to kill all the Jedi in a first-strike move, and sends Anakin to Mustafar to kill the separatist leadership before they too find out they've been manipulated from the start. Anakin Force-strangles Padme and throws her against a wall in anger when she tries to reason with him, he then fights Obi-Wan in a duel that ends as it does in the film. Padme dies of her internal injuries on a secret rebel base but not before giving birth to twins. The boy is sent to Tattooine to be cared for by Skywalker's half-brother, Owen Lars (who Anakin thought that Obi-Wan didn't know about), whilst the girl is taken to Alderaan by Senator Bail Organa. The Republic becomes the Empire and Chancellor Palpatine, despite being quite elderly at this point, declares himself Emperor. Anakin Skywalker is believed to be dead by Obi-Wan, who feels responsible that his reckless actions in training Skywalker against advice has led to the catastrophic result for the galaxy, and retires to Tattooine to keep an eye on Anakin's young son, in case he should ever be found...

This all just my own ideas, it solves most of the problems of the prequel storyline, and with proper scripts and a more judicious use of CGI, it could (in theory) have worked reasonably well.

 

Wish the OP had put in a different option, something like....

"They are not as terrible as some people say, but they really aren't very good".

I wish I could say I "rarely think of them" (option #3), because they are part of the story and any time I think of Star Wars, I tend to think of the whole story line or at least jump around a lot.

 

Actually this is the main problem - everything in the prequels is far more sophisticated and polished, the technology and aesthetics looks like hundred years ahead of what we see in the original trilogy. You remember for example when in "New Hope" the rebel pilots were preparing to take off for their mission - with all trucks with fuel, mechanics, dirt, oil spots, etc. ... and some 20 years before in this same universe the ships were so shiny, and didn't need any maintenance, using some kind of kinetic power or something... it doesn't make any sense.

 

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They sucked.

 

I think the prequels are utterly disposable and don't add anything significant to the story. In fact, I think the events leading up to Star Wars (sorry, no "New Hope" for me) are best left to the imagination.

 

I think the story was good. Some fight scenes are OK. But the CGI looks rushed, bad acting and worse dialogue, just makes it really hard to like them.

 

I think that there's so much filler and uselsess stories and characters in the prequels, that the whole plot of the 3 episodes could have been presented in 2 films, and the third episode to be dedicated on Vader full character transformation and rise to power - I just don't understand why such an obvious and succesfull formula wasn't considered, this could have been a real classic, IMO.

 

This was one of the biggest mistakes made. He should not have started on Anakin as a boy. That could have been done with a 10 minute flashback, and then proceed as you say.

It is not hard for all of us to suggest amazing movies from the basic plot George gave us (which is quite good). But, it is too late.

 

I agree ... without that romantic bla bla and Jar Jar the movies would have been much better.

 

They definitely should have a place in the story, just not the place that was afforded them in the actual movies. According to all of George's original outlines (going back to the 70s), Artoo and Threepio are the only characters that appear in every episode of the saga.

 

I re-watched a Jedi Alliance vodcast from earlier in the year that discussed the prequels in depth. That kind of inspired my thread to begin with. I think for me if I had to list like the top 5 things that the Prequels got wrong, it's these (in order of importance):

1) Anakin Skywalker should have been a young adult (18-22) and already a fighter pilot. Not a child.
2) CGI usage should have been cut in half, if not more. Lucas got lazy IMO.
3) Qui-Gon Jinn should not exist. The Prequels should have been Obi-Wan Kenobi's story (along with Anakin). Yoda trained Kenobi, that's what the OT told us. And Yoda should never pick up a lightsaber and fight.
4) No Jar Jar Binks + alien characters should have had their own dialect with subtitles.
5. Darth Maul should not have been killed in TPM. Having a consistent villain throughout the PT would have given the audience some room to care and grow with these characters. As it stood, each film had a different villain (sometimes multiple) and each one was sillier than the last one.

The actual stories that exist (synopsis can be read on Wookiepedia – yes, I'm a nerd) aren't bad at all. It's the execution.

What could have been.

 

None of this would have made up for the bizarre plotlines, the terrible writing, and the wooden acting.

There is nothing redeemable about the prequel trilogy. Nothing. It was an epic trainwreck of historical proportions.

 

Maybe Ive wiped these travesties from my mind, but what changes are you making there exactly?

 

Even if the things had not been relentlessly boring in long stretches and all the other crappy stuff people have mentioned ; what made them suck most to me is I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters. No chemistry, no personality, no human qualities. Totally left me cold.

Maybe someday they can redo them and make the Nineology StarWars complete. Ill be long gone by then most likely.

Disney is going to pump out SW movies every year. After the sequels are done why not put some of those billions into remaking the prequels?

 

I bought them for my kids when they were young. I haven't watched them in years, and the last time I thought about them (outside of this thread) was when they were mentioned on an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

John K.

 

Actually, that was the point. The idea was that the time before the Clone Wars/Jedi Purge was that it was a more elegant, sophisticated time,both technologically and culturally, and a more diverse society. The Empire set the galaxy back a century culturally , hoarded technology for it's own needs, and enslaved and even exterminated alien races for "purity". Notice how everything on the Death Star and the Star Destroyers was polished and pristine ala how things are in general in the Prequel trilogy. Remember, the Republic just morphed into the Empire, it wasn't conquered in the traditional sense.

Also, keep in mind, the Rebel Alliance were using out of date technology with their ships and weapons as the Empire left no choice. They pretty much had to cobble together their own ships, etc while the Empire still had access to all the Prequel era technology. Therefore, the dirty oily and messy nature of X-Wings etc as opposed to Tie Fighters etc. It's supposed to be a David v. Goliath story.

 

I voted "They are OK...they have their moments". No one can dispute the original trilogy is light years beyond the Prequels in terms of story, plot structure, direction and acting. So when comparing the prequels overall to the originals, there is no point.

HOWEVER, taken on their own merits, without comparing them to the other movies, they are entertaining, yet imperfect, science fantasy movies . TPM is....pretty slow burn that actually has some cool set pieces, lots of practical effects (when ignoring the horrid Jar Jar stuff)and one of the best film fights ever with the the Darth Maul v Obi-wan/Qui-Gon fight. Attack of the Clones is probably the weakest link, although the final battle and seeing the Jedi Knights at full glory was cool and the closing montage showing the Clones/Empire rising and Anakin and Padme marriage to the lovely John Williams score is a highlight.

Revenge of the Sith....clearly the best one and while it may seem blasphemy to say this....it is a better film than RETURN OF THE JEDI. As a kid, JEDI was my favorite of the Original trilogy...but as time has wore on, it's a let down on SO many levels. in fact, just recently I did a marathon of the original trilogy for the first time in ages, and to go from the exuberance of A NEW HOPE, to the beautiful complexity of EMPIRE...JEDI just feels.....off. The final confrontation of Palpatine/Vader/Luke is great, as well as the space battle at the end. The rest just feels...I don't know how to describe it...like Lucas and his director on it were just spinning their wheels. The less said about the Ewoks the better.

This is how I rank all the Star Wars movies

1) EMPIRE (duh!)
2) A NEW HOPE/ORIGINAL FILM (sometimes number one)
3) SITH
4) JEDI
5) TPM
6) CLONES

The Prequels are not Great overall,but I'd gladly watch them instead of overrated drivel like any of the Transformers movies beyond the first one and Avatar (a.k.a. Ferngully in Spaaaaaaaace!!!!)

Oh, and Ewan Mcgreggor was an amazing Obi-Wan, especially in SITH. I'm hoping one of the upcoming "Anthology" films is an Obi-wan Solo film. Apparently he'd love to come back and to see him shine with a better script and director would be aces.

 

The problem with this is that there's simply not enough time for all of this to have changed that drastically. The evolution presented by what we've seen so far of TFA's ships shows merely improvements on existing designs, not entirely different types of craft all together. Look at most military aircraft in our universe. Aside from a few exceptions, the planes of today look very similar to what was developed 50 years ago. There are improvements on the design, but they're not drastic. The new X-wings bear an unmistakable similarity to the original X-wings, even though it's set 40 years later. But between the prequels and the OT, ships go from elegant, clean, beautiful crafts to chunky, blocky, dirty things. This can't all be due to just being rebels. I can't think of a single craft seen in the prequels that we see existing in the OT. Sure, some things will be beautiful and elegant, like Padme's chrome ship, but there should be a ton of clunky looking craft. It's as if every single type of ship in the universe of Star Wars was replaced by something else in just the decades that separate the prequels and OT. And that makes no sense. A trip down any road will prove my point - there are plenty of beautiful new cars but also plenty of others in varying states of decay. Military is the same - look at the A-10 Warthog. An ugly plane in any aesthetic sense, but so durable and capable that the military just can't get rid of it.

My problem with the design of ships from the prequels is that they're boring and overdesigned. The OT ships show a hand-crafted nature that looks like what happens in the military. A good design is added onto with various things to increase its usefulness. The prequel craft look like they were designed in place, and unchangeable, like each spacecraft is in its perfect form. It's simplistic.

And I think, in general, this reflects how the entire prequel trilogy was approached. George had his story in place and didn't allow for it to organically mutate with outside input. I think he spent so much time concentrating on the "hows" of the prequels in the 15 years that separate RotJ and TPM that he forgot to really contemplate WHY.

 

You make some valid points,and you are right that the time frame is problematic. However, keep in mind to the scope of the two trilogies is different. The Prequels are more of a Macro-view of the larger Star Wars universe while the Original Trilogy is more focused and a more Micro view of the same universe.( One could then argue that is one of the many reasons why the OT is superior in story structure etc as it's more focused ,but that's neither here nor there.)

Also another thing to remember, is that in the entirety of the OT, we never really SEE the actual Empire domain and nearly all the action occurs on back water, outer rim worlds on the outskirts of the Empire as the focus of the story shifts to the band of rebels on the run from the Imperial machine, where the common spaceships are old freighters belonging to space pirates, scoundrels and the like, so it makes sense to see more worn and dirty and old outdated ships that far out on the fringe and not even models from twenty years prior. The core Imperial worlds, especially those like Alderann and Coruscant likely still have the sleek and pristine and pretty looking ships, we just never see them because the story takes place far away in another part of the Galaxy. Even in TPM, Tatooine looks exactly the same asthetically, complete with shoddy dirty technology and clunky old "ugly" freighters and ships, so the precident IS there. It's just that Lucas never bothered to more clearly spell all that out in the narrative.

 

I still haven't seen the prequels.
I know I'll get around to it someday.
See. The original trilogy many times.

Darryl

 

I might have to go along with your list. I watched the Harmy restoration of Jedi not too long ago, and yeah, it's not very good. Jedi will always get credit, because it is part of the original trilogy. Sith will always be criticized, because it is part of the prequel trilogy. But yes, I have to agree that Sith is probably better than Jedi.

 

Wow..........your post is spooky.

It's pretty much WORD for WORD what I think!!!!!! ....... Even the rankings!!!!

Only difference........I didn't even like the first Transformers!!!