What would you rather prefer; a kick in the teeth or a punch in the groin ...? In all seriousness, I voted for the prequels and here's why; - They have a genuinely interesting story of real dramatic, thematic, and emotional heft; a story of actual substance to tell, even if the overall execution of telling that story was largely botched... the sequels are undeniably better-made films overall, but there's simply no story to tell, and Disney's avarice in pushing them out two years apart from 2015 onward meant the filmmakers had precious little time to explore themes, ideas, and characters to make the sequel trilogy work, whereas George Lucas had been thinking about and musing the prequel storyline from essentially 1979-80 onwards until he finally put pen to paper in November 1994. - Episode I may be unwatchable by humans, but it's at least original... The Force Awakens is just plain mediocre, largely forgettable, and, I don't know, feels so corporate. - Episode II would and could still be a pretty solid SW film overall (despite the lamentable digital cinematography) if it received a comprehensive re-edit that tightened everything up, made the overall story much more focused, and cut the running time by a good 15 minutes... The Last Jedi I was genuinely bored watching and didn't remember a thing about 5 minutes after it was over. It was also the first time I genuinely started thinking that SW had finally outstayed it's welcome, I still feel that today. - Episode III, despite it's apparent flaws, is the third best SW film overall (better than Return of the Jedi, imho) and a genuinely very strong entry in the saga because George finally was on to the story he really wanted to tell, the story he had been rolling around in his head for nearly 25 years, and a story that unlike it's two predecessors was intently more focused and knew what he wanted to tell and how to tell it. The Rise of Skywalker I have yet to see and am in no rush whatsoever to do so, but from what I hear, it's overstuffed, convoluted, contrived, genuinely enjoyable and even emotional at times, but far too little much too late to justify the sequel trilogy's existence. And whilst Ian McDiarmid completely walked away with Episode III, the return of his character in TRoS is leaving a sour taste in my mouth and frankly defies all narrative logic, even for a fantasy movie. - Principal photography on the prequels was much too short (a mere three months for each respective installment), whilst the sequel trilogy installments each took six months to shoot and look utterly sumptuous... so that's one thing to their credit over the prequels that is inarguable. - So whilst the sequels were better made films overall, they simply had no story to tell... the prequels didn't look nearly as good and were arguably lesser films in their filmmaking quality but had a pretty damned good story of real substance to tell. C'est la vie, as those wonderful French say!
If they would tightly edit the prequels, I’d vote for them. Better cast and more on point with the plot. It fits better in the narrative arc of the Skywalker storyline. The sequels are their own thing and are fine. I just feel a disconnect from the focus of the first 6 films.
Prequels at least had a unified vision and the story was consistent. PM is ropey but I like the other two. Some great world building as well. The sequels - well TFA is just a remake, I like TLJ but TROS is bonkers in not a good way. There is a lack of a unified vision and everything they did seemed to make the world smaller. Technically they look great and the real locations look better than the greenscreen. Overall then the prequels, the sequels have largely been a waste of great potential. What they could have done....
Prequels (Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith) I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I really do love the prequels. I was in middle school when the Phantom Menace came out and a junior/senior in high school when Revenge of the Sith came out. Having been raised on my dad's Star Wars original trilogy tapes growing up, the prequels were exciting for my family. Those are really the last movies I remember seeing as a family in an actual movie theater. Look, I get they were not exactly cinematic masterpieces, but I really loved the various story lines-- especially learning the events that led up to the original trilogy. That type of story line really appeals to me. As far as the sequels are concerned, I will be the first to admit that I have not seen all the movies. In fact I've only seen pieces and parts. The little bit I have seen does not exactly entice me to watch any more. In my mind, there are the prequels and the original trilogy. Return Of the Jedi wrapped the story up nicely for me, and I personally don't need Disney's take on the "future" of the story.*** ***To be fair, I feel the same way about the "new" Star Trek movies too. I grew up watching my dad's Star Trek movie tapes (Motion Picture to Generations, and later on to First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis)....I have no need to see a reboot of the series. If people like them, then I'm happy for them. I just don't have any interest in them.
I wonder how many people under the age of 30 would pick the original quels over the prequels or sequels.
The prequels were truly terrible. Awful actors, un-charismatic characters, embarrassing tone, and badly dated CGI. They were so bad that I haven't bothered with the sequels and will not do it.
The prequels did get marginally better with each one but they never were good films even at their best. The sequels, as derivative as they are, are entertaining and don’t have the pretentiousness of the prequels nor are they as flat footed. I like the middle film better (and. Rogue. One) than the Abrams films but he did a good job with each capturing some of the magic that Lucas, Kasdan, Kershner, Leigh Brackett brought to the original trilogy. The action sequences in both the prequels and sequels blow away the original films though but the writing and direcri9n are generally much, m7ch better dramatically even in their weaker moments.
It’s worth catching them. I would t judge the sequels by the prequels as they are much more competently made.
I'd take the prequels for Ewan McGregor and John Williams alone, even if I actually liked the sequels.
Love Rogue One. Don't care about the other prequels or sequels to be honest. If I never see any of them again I'd be okay with that.
I like Rogue One too. And I went for the prequels in the poll. I've seen both 7 and 8 multiple times, and I'm not sure I could describe the plots. Did they have any? Haven't seen 9 yet. Not all that eager.
Havent seen the new one yet - hope to next week but I like that the whole thing is a big sprawling uneven mess. I'm fully expecting the new one to basically be JJ's Return of the Jedi, but I'm kind of okay with that. It just is what it is at this point. The first one came out when I was 14 and now I'm almost 60 - acceptance gets easier with time I guess...
Prequels. if you watched the films in story order and not in filming order, the third movie - "Sith" - would be seen as a radical and brave story telling move that half the fans would lambast with a hatred unseen since The Last Jedi . Who would've genuinely thought that Anakin would turn into Darth? And then that Darth would be a perpetually furious one man killing machine in Rogue One and the Original Trilogy? It was a bold, brave, and visionary story telling idea to flip the three films on their head where the hero of films 1,2, and half of 3 would turn into the baddest of bad guys with a permanent murderous streak. If it had been filmed in story order, no doubt 'fans' would also be angry at the Original Trilogy for introducing the somewhat lightweight cliches of Country Bumpkin, Smuggling Rogue and Aloof Princess by George. The Sequel Trilogy is barely worth mentioning, as its barely legitimised fan fiction and - in the conclusion of Rise Of Skywalker - we have some gutless and nonsensical story choices that walk back the brave (but internally consistent choices) of The Last Jedi for JJ Abrams usual "Mystery Box Of Rubbish" where Palps come backs from the dead with the aim of possessing the body of his mystical Granddaughter. Sheesh. You might as well just throw darts at random plot choices for all the intelligence TROS showed.
I think the Leia flying thru space scene of the Last Jedi is the lowest point in the entire canon. Help us, fan edits, you're our only hope
That bit wasn't very satisfactory to me. I understand that The Force is different, and has a slightly different set of innate skills for each person, however, in TLJ the Leia spacewalk didn't feel right to me.
I found elements of the 1st 2 I liked, but "Sith" is easily the best of the bunch. Though even there, it's mainly the 2nd half of the film that works. The 1st is bogged down in unnecessarily complicated story material and slows to a crawl. After that, though, the movie improves a lot!
I hear where you're coming from. I actually didn't mind The Last Jedi, and still think it was pretty gutsy to show a deflated, internally bickering, even mutiny-facing resistance.. and Luke's retreat made sense to me. For the Rise of Skywalker to so blatantly "rip up" everything from TLJ and try to appease disgruntled fanboys that hated TLJ felt wrong. Surely there was a way to "right the ship" without throwing *everything* from TLJ away?
I think so too, and it wouldn't've been so hard : Palps is a force ghost manipulating living beings from beyond death. He is Darth Plagueis, in that respect. Luke as force ghost and Palps as force ghost have a battle. (That's something we haven't seen yet). Rey's parentage is retained. She is a nobody. That's the major stuff.
Spoiler Well, TLJ felt as if it was throwing everything from TFA away… Also, I don't think that ROS actually throws away that much that TLJ built up (or broke down, depending on whether you like TLJ or not). In TLJ Luke hints at Rey being a Palpatine (something about having seen this raw power before). Snoke unceremoniously dying in TLJ only makes sense if there was a bigger evil pulling the strings in the background. It kinda makes sense. I think that TLJ felt very unsatisfactory to many because they thought it didn't.
