Am I the only one who liked the Star Wars prequels?
 

Phantom Menace was meh...but I loved Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith. Am I the only one alive? I feel that way sometimes. :)

yes...

yes you are...

No there are plenty of us.

star wars, stargate and most other star things.

at gateworld forum our empire exists I mean full of us from all backgrounds. :D

I liked Episode II quite a bit in spite of its numerous shortcomings. But I thought ROTS was a piece of crap so that kinda undermines anything good in the previous film.

TPM is pretty much a disaster from beginning to end. The podrace is great demo material, but otherwise the movie sucked. And it gets worse everytime I see(and especially hear) any of it.

The best way to put it is that with the PT, I enjoyed SOME parts, but with the OT, I enjoyed EVERY part.

episode one was preety bad except for the pod race and the end lightsaber battle. Two was good except for the romance scenes. Episode three was the best of the prequels.

How old are you OP?

I'm 38, grew up with the OT and loved all things SW growing up. TPM was ok, AOTC was better, ROTS was the best of the prequels. I have never felt Lucas raped my childhood or that these were bad films. Not as good as the OT, but that was another time and I was younger then.
I think if Lucas had help writing the prequels (dialogue, etc.) these could have been much better films, but overall I enjoyed them.

I agree, George really needed a screenwriter. He's not the best at humor.

I enjoy the new trilogy quite a lot, actually. What's missing is great character dynamic. There just wasn't that in the new trilogy. It all came together in "Revenge," but there should've been more interesting stuff going on in "Phantom" and "Attack." That trade federation/senate room stuff was kinda dumb.

I actually liked Episode One the best, despite the fact it had the most obvious flaws as well (Jar-Jar, Jake Lloyd).

Overall, I don't have a problem with the trilogy, it's more a victim of enormous expectations than being terrible movies.

I think the biggest mistake of the prequels was having an entire movie with Anakin as a little kid. If they had started Episode I in the timeline where Episode II started instead, and had Episode II be the transition of Anakin to the darkside, I believe it would have been a much better series. In summary, Jake Lloyd deserves to die, and I hope he burns in Hell.

I thought the best part of the OT was the whole Jedi mythos. Guys with laser swords and magic kicking ass. The PT was all kinds of filled with this and thus, I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Plus, the environments are awesome.. that storm planet in Episode II was cool as hell.

Episode 1:
Pros: Pod-race; lightsaber battle;
Cons: Jar-Jar; Watto, other annoying CG; Lucas' main reason for doing the prequels in the first place: "I have to show Hollywood that movies can be made without real actors"; the fact that this prequel only marginally propelled the overall star wars plot arc; attempting to explain things better left a mystery (midichlorians anyone?)

I'm 22 and the first Star Wars I ever saw was the "Special Editions". So I never cared if Greedo shot first, but I understand the issue everyone else had. The prequels were the first time I experienced a new Star Wars movie.

I enjoyed the prequels enough but they could have been much better. I agree with Chase3001, they could have done the timeline better. TPM was ok, AOTC was better and ROTS was the best in the series. My biggest problem with ROTS is that the story of Anakin's turn to the dark side and the holocaust of the Jedi is incredible. If done properly it could have been the best of the series, if not one of the best movies ever. Personally, I thought the acting, writing and overall storytelling were very poor. Yet, the movie still managed to be emotional. If they had been able to fix the problems with the movie it could have been amazing.

I don't think that some people would have really enjoyed the prequels, no matter what the plot or how they were made. After 16 years of waiting, I think that some people had built up in their minds exactly what they wanted the prequels to be, and were dissapointed by how the story turned out. I for one, would never have guessed the origin of The Clone Wars(The Clones fighting for the Republic- I always thought that they would be the adversaries of the Jedi's the whole time). If I were a kid from 1999-2005, like I was when the OT was released, I probably would have enjoyed the prequels the same as I enjoyed the OT growing up, and I think some forget that they were kids themselves when they saw the OT, and not adults.

The prequels have have gotten more play out of me than ROTJ at least.

The New Trilogy went into way too much detail concerning The Old Republic, Jedi Council, etc. Meetings are boring except if shit is going down, i.e. the Death Star attack in "Star Wars," the other Death Star attack in "Return." Lucas didn't dwell on it much in "Revenge," and I think that's why it worked better than the first two. More action, less talking.

TPM is the only one I really don't care for, and I like ROTS better than Return of the Jedi.

Well, it was "Before the dark times. Before The Empire..."

Was trying to figure out how to say what you just did. I agree completely with this post.

That doesn't mean we have to watch politicians/jedi be mainly boring characters, now does it?

I'm sorta with you. I thought TPM was mostly crap, but there are some great sequences in there. Duel of the Fates comes to mind. I'm not really a big fan of the podrace scene. AOTC I liked. Sure, it's got some crap in there but for the most part I found it to be entertaining. Yoda's fight scene at the end kicked ass. Seriously, how long did we wait to see that? ROTS I really dug. There are definitely some cringe-worthy moments of "acting", but it's mainly a dark film with great battles. The prequels will never be considered as good as or better than the OT, but they at least got better with each installment.

Agreed. The Phantom Menace stuff could have been told in the crappy Cartoon Network show.

Yes. You are the only one.

The only cringe moment I can think of in RotS is the "you're so beautiful." "it's only because I'm so in love with you." Which really, I didn't mind.

ROTS came the closest to the tone and feel of the classic trilogy. But Lucas failed on so many levels in telling Anakin's back story. He was made so unlikeable from the get-go that he was nothing like the tragic figure that I had expected from what little was known of him at the end of ROTJ. He was a pipsquirt in TPM and an annoying mama's boy in AOTC. It took too long to set up the brotherhood/friendship thing between him and Obi-Wan.

Besides the poor dialog, Lucas spent way too much time tying both trilogies together (e.g., similar situations and dialog), much to the detriment of pushing the story forward. He over-explained things that didn't need to be explored that deeply.

I hated the prequels. Hated.

And those movies have pretty much made me hate the entire franchise.

As I've noted in the other current Star Wars thread, the animated Clone Wars on Cartoon Network is the saving grace of the PT in my book. It gave us what we wanted: the frakkin Clone Wars!!



I think you contradict yourself there (not an attack, hear me out): I think people were wanting A. The Clone Wars, B. Anakain going bat-shit.

We got a smidge of A and a smidge of B. The twist of the clones defending the Republic (at first...) was brilliant, one of the few really interesting bits of screenwriting in my opinion.


My timeline for the PT would have been to have the highpoints of The Phantom Menace take up the first 45-60 minutes of Episode one, then start the Clone Wars, have Ep2 be a really pivotal battle of the CW while laying the groundwork of Anakin's fall, then Ep 3 start to wind down the CW, and crank up Anakin's fall.



There were a lot of things to enjoy about the PT, and honestly, TPM is the most fun to re-watch. I'm looking forward to the new Clone Wars series, and the new live-action series to really fill out the universe, the films were just the framework.

Not taken as an attack at all- it's all good.
I just meant that people had their own set idea about what the prequels were going to be. Waiting sixteen years, and building things up in your mind during that time, can only lead to dissapointment at the end result. I was just using the clone wars as an example.

All I ever expected from the Prequels was to see Palpatine take power, and Anakin's fall. Anakin's turn might have been done too quickly(the novelization explained his choice in Palpatine's office much better), but I loved everything about Palpatine's rise to power in all 3 films. Overall, I would take any of the prequels over Jedi (Jedi had great moments, but way too inconsistent).

I didn't mind them so much.

I liked them. I thought each one improved on the previous one.

My ex-roommate on the other hand, loves all 3 of them. He has each one as the #1 movie of 1999, 2002 and 2005. My other friends and I tell him he's smoking crack, but he won't hear of it. :)

I don't like any of them, actually. And I think they demystify the OT, which for me, was always the "cool" part of it. Ben's speech in ANH and ROTJ told us all we needed to know..and left it open for imagination which I thought was the point of movies like Star Wars.

Plus is there anything more ridicoulous than Padme dying at the end of ROTS? Honestly, it doesn't jive with the ROTJ and, most imporantly, how could a mother who just gave birth to her children die of a broken heart? Seriously.

No. You and about 10 other people did.

Episode I pretty much stunk (aside from the 3-way duel at the end). Episode II has some great set pieces that are almost on par with the original trilogy, though the romantic plot is just blech. Episode III has the best dramatic scenes of the prequels (the Order 66 and finale scenes are as emotional as the prequels get), despite having kind-of a weak final duel.

As for the PT, there are some people I know who hate it, I have yet to meet a person who loves it, and most people I know like myself think it is OK, as it has some great parts, but in the same vein has some bad parts in each movie too which really bring them down. But in the end, it is SW, and there is something about a GFFA that keeps you interested. The majority of friends I know agree with me, ANH & ESB are the great SW movies, ROTS & ROTJ are the good SW movies, AOTC & TPM have their moments but are severely hampered by Jar Jar, Jake Lloyd, and the AOTC Romance.

The problem as to why the PT will never be loved is three-fold:

1. You don't have those loveable iconic characters from the OT: Luke, Leia, and Han, as the ultimate guys to root for. Chewy, Lando, Yoda, and Kenobi who are great secondary characters to like. And Darth Vader & The Emperor as some of the coolest bad guys in movie history. What does the PT have? Anakin is whiney and unlikeable, Kenobi is liked, but doesn't have any screentime in TPM. Padme turns out to be barefoot and pregnant and gives up on her kids? Palpatine is really good, but really doesn't get solid screentime til ROTS, so you have alot of secondary characters playing the role of main characters, and that is hard for an audience to relate to. I actually really enjoy the PT story overall, but if you can't invest in any of the characters, the movies come off very hollow.

2. The OT movies were pure B-serial movies, as they had that combo of action/special effects/mythology/humor and a bit of drama to give them legitimacy in the genre. To me they were the ultimate guilty pleasure movies with alittle substance, and you could watch them over and over. The PT is a B-serial movie trying to be a drama like Schindlers List and the two dont' mix. You can't have all this cheesy dialogue, and average acting from actors like Christenson & Portman, and then expect the dramatic scenes to be dramatic! The audience can't go from one to another, you either have cheese or drama, but not both. The PT is ultimately a tragedy, and that has to be more adult then having Jar Jar hopping around like the Three Stooges for 2 hours, and that is why the movies come off very uneven.

3. The OT had more collaboration and the PT Lucas wrote and directed the whole thing, and I believe Lucas was in his prime in the late 70's/early 80's as he had the hunger to make a great movie, rather then being a CEO now. I would ask anyone, who would you want making a Sci-Fi movie, a guy in his late 20's who just got married and has no kids and knows whats cool, or a guy in his 50's with 3 kids who is kinda out of touch?

I love them, really. Not as much as the originals, but pretty damn close. Of course there are numerous faults with them, some that can take me out of the films, but they are great fun and just as far as stories go, they are very well thought up. I'll always admire that Lucas didn't just rehash the original trilogy. To keep plots fresh over six films is rarely ever done (especially when it's a film original idea).

As much as I didn't like Jar Jar, I'm still a bit angry Lucas really sweeped him to the sides in the second two films. I can just feel the regret he had, and that uncertainty somewhat kills the flow of the trilogy.

Still love them, and I am sure someday I'll have watched them just as much as the originals.

Are you forgetting these films are fairytales and moral stories in concept? Don't apply real life logic to these. Padme's death was more of symbolic thing than anything else.

It's not the fact of how she died that gets people goat, it is that it doesn't jive with ROTJ. If Leia said to Luke in ROTJ(1983), I don't remember my mom either, and then Padme died at childbirth, then anyone really wouldn't have a problem other then that Padme is a quitter, but she was in love with Charles Mansion to begin with, so I wouldn't be too hard on her for checking out early!;)

Pretty much my feeling. So much was said and understated when Ben described Anakin to Luke in his hut on Tattooine(brotherhood, great fighter pilot, etc.). None of that came through in the PT or until the very end. He was an annoying kid, and then a whiny teen then an obnoxious teen. So it seems less tragic fall from grace when you've been a bitch from the get go.

:up:

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