Star Wars Prequels (Not Bad At All)

[SSJPhenom]

When I was a kid I loved the Star Wars Prequels. Truth be told, the very first Star Wars movie I ever watched to completion was Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. I was 10 When I watched that film for the first time and I loved it. I imagine what that did to me the original Star Wars film did for kids in 1977. After watching Episode 1, I was a fan of Star Wars, but I wasn't hooked quite yet. I didn't go around trying to actively find every piece of Star Wars media I could until sometime later. It was after Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, in fact, when I became hooked on the lore of Star Wars. It was after watching that film in theatres in 2002 that I went back and watched the originals for the first time. That I started reading the novels and comics. Playing the video games. Expanding my knowledge of the galaxy far far away. I remember going to school the Monday after Attack of the Clones came out and all of my friends and I spent the entire day talking about nothing but Star Wars. We loved it. Especially the Yoda scene at the end. We finally knew why Yoda was so revered by the other Jedi. Mace Windu quickly became my favorite character from the whole franchise. He was a great character. Cut to 2005 and I'm anxiously awaiting the release of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Remember, I'm from rural KY so even in 05 I didn't have access to high speed internet services yet. Only a select few of my friends did. When I finally seen Episode 3, it didn't disappoint. It was fantastic. The action was amazing and that epic duel between Anakin and Obi Wan was worth the wait. I loved it. It quickly became my favorite of the Prequels. It made me love Star Wars even more than I already did.

Cut to about 2 years after Revenge of the Sith and I have consistent access to high speed internet. Where I can get on chat sites and forums and talk with other fans of the same things that I love and what did those chat sites and forums tell me? That the prequels were garbage. That they were horrible. That it wasn't Star Wars. It was like the internet was trying to turn me to the dark side of the fandom. Were the prequels perfect? No, but neither were the original films. For every issue that one can find with the prequels, I can find in the original trilogy. It is my contention that the Prequel Trilogy is even better than the original. It had much better action scenes, graphics, acting, and world building. It pieced together the fall of Anakin Skywalker and why Luke was ultimately able to redeem him. It explained how the Jedi became extinct and how Palpetine became the Emperor. If someone has a differing opinion, feel free to convey to me the reasons why the Prequels were not up to par. The Prequel trilogy made me a Star Wars fans and those movies were not bad at all.

[Y 2 Jake]

I grew up on Aliens, Robocop, Predator and more adult sci-fi. Star Wars has always left me cold.

[Alex]

Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars movie I ever watched. Went to the cinema with my dad and loved it. Missed Attack Of The Clones at the cinema (caught it on DVD), loved it and saw Revenge Of The Sith at the cinema. Again loved it.

I bought all the films on DVD about 2009/2010ish and watched all of them in a marathon. And honestly, the prequels are fine (dodgy cgi notwithstanding) Phantom Menace is kind of boring with the trade dispute stuff (despite it being important in the grand scheme of things), the midichlorians thing I always thought wasn't that big of a deal (I thought of it like the X gene from X-Men) Jar Jar is ok and the pod race and Darth Maul fight was awesome. Attack Of The Clones is arguably the worst, but that's only because of the awkward love scenes between Anakin and Padme. The scene where Anakin kills the sand people then confesses to Padme is still great and again the fight scenes are awesome. Revenge Of The Sith is the best out of the three (and by second favourite overall) again good scenes (the opera scene, the one where Anakin and Padme are staring across the city, Order 66, the scene where Vader puts on the suit) and the fight scenes again are awesome.

I never understood how people say the prequels are cheesy but give the original ones a pass. Admiral Ackbar is a fish haha. And then there's the Ewoks. Anyone who complains about Jar Jar but defends the Ewoks is purposefully being a dickhead. There's cheesy scenes throughout the original trilogy. People are just blinded by their nostalgia.

The new ones I'm meh on. Only because Force Awakens was the same plot as A New Hope and didn't do anything new really. Rogue One was decent but predictable. Haven't seen Last Jedi or Solo yet but unless they turn up on tv or I borrow them off a friend I don't really have an interest

[Slyfox696]

When I finally seen Episode 3, it didn't disappoint. Pet peeve of mine: Your sentence should be "When I finally SAW Episode 3...".

People around where I live use "seen" wrong all the time and it gets on my nerves. Generally speaking, if you want to use the word "seen", you will want to have the words "have, had, has, was, or were" before it. "I HAVE SEEN the movie." "Those people WERE SEEN at the theater". "I SAW Episode 3".

So, just some unasked for advice for you. :)



As far as your contention...uh, no. It is MY contention that Star Wars, Episode 2 is the worst mainstream big budget film ever created. The story is mediocre at best, there are very few fight scenes but, more notably, the dialogue is absolutely horrendous. The dialogue is so cringeworthy. And Hayden Christensen? He was so awful he literally made an Academy Award winning actress (Portman) look terrible and made an otherwise fine actor (McGregor) look terrible.

Episode 3 is nearly as bad in all the aspects mentioned above, but it gets saved by the fact there's a lot less dialogue and a lot more lightsabers. Episode 1 is decent enough, but is completely carried by Liam Neeson.


As far as the original Trilogy having issues? Sure it did. But the original movie was a low budget film, the original Trilogy was responsible for creating the universe and it was filmed in the 1970s/80s when it didn't have the beneift of special effects the way the Prequels did. I do agree the Ewoks are dumb, but I don't have a big problem with Jar Jar Binks.


The Star Wars Prequels are average at their best, terrible at their worst. There was absolutely no excuse for the Prequels to be as bad as they were.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I'm a mega Star Wars fan, have been since first witnessing the opening laser shots of Star Wars A New Hope and seeing the seemingly neverending crawl of the underbelly of a Star Destroyer (ICONIC).

So after the original trilogy wrapped up and I watched them hundreds of times, I then waited years and years and years before seeing a NEW Star Wars film again, not counting the retouched originals. So needless to say I was outside my skin when Episode 1 was announced.

Episode 1: I didn't hate it, and I also was really disappointed in it at the same time. The over reliance of CGI kind of bothered me, it looked bad at times with the cartoonish fish and the dumb looking scene where there Battle droids unload hundreds of laser bolts off the Gungan shields on Naboo. Jar Jar Binks was also a really annoying distraction. Anakin Skywalker cast member also had super cringe lines and was simply a bad child actor. I also didn't like the floating tank/transports, thought they were lazy on them and could have used models instead. The movies high points were the Ben Hur Chariot Race centerpiece of the movie and the final lightsaber fight with Darth Maul. The first time witnessing The Pod Race I was overjoyed, simply amazing scene and nothing else was quite like that in the lore. Same with the final lightsaber fight, compared to the originals these guys were fast and exciting, was refreshing to see....and who didn't love Darth Maul? Come on! This one also played homage to Return of the Jedi's triple climax with the Swordfight/Ground battle/Space Battle.

Episode 2: I didn't like most of this movie right up until the final 30 minutes, then I was blown away. So this one was a big love/hate film for me even more than episode 1. They wasted too much time talking about politics and love. Hayden's grown up Anakin was so wooden they might as well had him dressed up like a damn tree. The Jango Fett vs Obi Wan tussles saved some of these boring ass scenes with Padme and Anakin. Then the final 30 minutes happened, so good. It really saved the otherwise awful movie from being a complete waste of time to me. The Geonosis fight with hundreds of battle droids running into the big group of lightsaber wielding Jedi was an awesome visual. Then they were outgunned, surrounded then here comes Badass Yoda to the rescue with Clone Troopers and rocks the place. Then we eventually get to the final lightsaber fight and Dooku has easily dispatched Obi and Anakin....in hobbles old Yoda again and we see how absolutely awesome he is with a lightsaber, I laughed loudly in joy at that scene.

Episode 3: I liked this one the most as it had the most action, but that was also the film's worst problem in a way. A lightsaber fight in a Star Wars movie is usually reserved for the end to make it seem special...this one had lightsabers cracking open first thing and people just lighting them up left and right. By the time the ending rolls around our belly's are already stuffed with lightsaber action....then we get a duel climax lightsaber fight between Yoda/Palps and Obi/Vader. Both fights were outstanding in their own way. When you have so much action flying around it muffles out some of the films other moments, like one of the best talking scenes in all of Star Wars. It's just a little meeting between Palpatine and Anakin while they watch this weird little floating water ballet, Palpatine reveals that the Jedi are out to get him and tells him a little tale of a Sith who could bring people back from the dead....even Hayden couldn't ruin this scene, it was ominous, creepy and superbly acted.

All in all, big love/hate for the prequels, but they didn't touch the charm of the originals.

[Fallout]

Phantom Menace is mediocre.
Attack of the Clones is also mediocre.
Revenge of the Sith is great.

I'll go more in depth in a later post.

[Fallout]

Well, here's that later post.

I appreciate all three prequels for trying to tell a more in-depth political story rather than "This is an evil empire with no nuance, and these rebels are just all-around good people." I just don't think that was what people were expecting; they were expecting a more simple story instead of something that required a lot of investment to fully grasp, and to the detriment of other aspects of the script.

I also very much enjoy the visuals and spectacle of the movies, particularly the last two prequels. I don't think anything to that scale had been shown on the big screen at that point; and even if they were characters we didn't give a shit about, there's more to film than just the dialogue and character development. Of course that's important and of course that's not good in the prequels, particularly the first two movies. But being pedantic and rejecting any positive aspects because they weren't the films you were expecting is asinine. They should be taken for what they are instead of what you wanted.

[Spidey]

I appreciate Rogue One having the guts to show the rebels as something other than pure babyfaces.

[SSJPhenom]

As I said in my post, I loved the Prequels. They made me a fan of Star Wars and I appreciated them for what they were. I can see why older Star Wars fans hold the original trilogy in such high regard. IMO, what that trilogy did so well was leave you wanting more. At the end of Return of the Jedi, you wondered what was going to happen now. The Empire had been defeated and Luke was now a Jedi. What was he going to do? What were Leia and Han going to do? Each film in that trilogy gave you just the bare essentials to tell their stories and each film left the fans wanting more. I think the Prequel Trilogy had so much story to tell that at times it, admittedly, got bogged down with dialogue and exposition and it made a lot of the scenes in that trilogy boring and a slog to get through. It admittedly didn't have the best dialogue at times either. Although, I don't think Anakin's diatribe about sand is nearly as bad as a lot of people make it out to be. What was boring in that trilogy was all the talk of Trade Federation blockades and trade routes and emergency powers for the Chancellor and such. I don't think fans of the original was ready for all that story and by the end of each film, instead of wanting more, it kind of felt like you may have had enough. I enjoyed the prequels for that very reason though. I love meaty movies with heavy dialogue. My absolute favorite scene in the Matrix trilogy is Agent Smith's speech to Neo before their brawl in Reloaded and the Architect's speech. I love scenes like those. Anyways, I love the prequels.

What do you guys think of the new trilogy? I happen to really enjoy the new trilogy as well and I don't see what all the talk of Last Jedi being bad was all about. Could we have done without the Kanto Byte scene? Sure, but I thought Last Jedi did a fantastic job subverting expectations and it did a wonderful job of explaining the Force. IMO, it was the best explanation/expansion that the Force has ever had in any of these films. So again, I don't understand what all the bitching about the new trilogy is about. I love those movies as well.

[Jack-Hammer]

Star Wars is something I've always been able to take or leave, even the original trilogy. I thought the original trilogy was good overall, but mostly due to the efforts of the first two movies as the Ewoks just took me out of Return of the Jedi. I mean...if you ever wanted to make the Empire look like a complete bunch of pussies, it's hard to imagine a better way than by having them beaten by a race of midget bears with stone age technology.

As for the prequels, I don't think they're as bad as some try to make them out to be but I wouldn't call them good either. To be fair, however, I admit that I'm generally not a fan of prequels. I mean, I already knew that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, I knew he betrayed the Jedi Order, I knew there was a war in which the Old Republic was essentially remade into the Galactic Empire so I didn't need to see three movies in which all the little details were added because, to me, they weren't all that interesting in the first place. That's not to say they couldn't have been interesting, it would've done them a world of good had Hayden Christiansen's portrayal of Skywalker not made him come off as this whiny little emo bitch that you just wanted to kick right in the teeth every time he opened his mouth. I did really enjoy Ian McDiarmid's over the top, almost satanic portrayal of Palpatine, I thought he was the highlight of Revenge of the Sith.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I'm also on the fence on the new trilogy. I think my love of the franchise can be blinding me because I want the films to be great when they clearly aren't (at times.).

Force Awakens was too much of a retelling of New Hope's core ideas. You could almost view it as a remake. But that's not to say that I enjoyed a handful of scenes. Seeing the Millenium Falcon taking off and dragging through the city before getting chased by TIE fighters was outstanding for example. Kylo Ren seemed like our new Darth Vader....but then he took his mask off and he looked like a soft teenager with anger issues. Rey slowly learns the force throughout the movie then is victorious in all her encounters, I like her character, I like the actress playing her, I think shes a good actress....just a bit too Mary Sue for my liking. Let her lose once. She should of lost at the end and lucked out with the ground splitting them apart. Star Killer base was stupid as hell. Just too hard to picture this planet sized base where people can bump into each other by chance. Harrison Ford's old version of Han Solo was uninspired and he didn't seem like he was interested in what he was doing compared to the original trilogy. Bright spots are the new characters Finn and Poe Dameron.

Last Jedi was a fairly big disappointment. Luke was out of character and his whole storyline set up in Force Awakens was pissed to the wind. He left behind a map to find him.....just so he could cut himself off from the force and act like all is lost. Doesn't make a lick of sense. Opening space battle was good. I really didn't mind the whole movie being The First Order trying to charge over The Rebels in a long chase either, it led to a fun moment that was visually stunning in theatres where Holdo goes into Hyperspace to take out half the fleet. Makes you wonder why that move wasn't thought of in all the movies, could have saved some time. Death Star? No problem, send a bunch of droids in ships and have them all run through it with Hyperspace. The throne room fight was cool but that leads me to another WTF moment in this movie. They just offed one of the most powerful force users in the lore in Snoke. He effortlessly tossed Rey around with the force, manipulated their thoughts across the galaxy, sent Kylo Ren flying in one stroke of force lightning. Yet in the end, in this movie, he gets tricked and cut in half halfway in the movie like they just said Fuck This Guy. No payoff, what was the whole point of Snoke then? Finns new gal pal is awful, and no, thats not being racist. Her character sucks, her acting is forced wood and every scene she was in was bad. The whole WORTHLESS sidequest to the casino seemed like a different movie all together, really bad. Only somewhat saved by Del Toro's character, who I liked. Phasma dies in a fight with Finn, who are saved by another stupid BB8 thing where he controls an AT ST, groan. Give us a balance please, is this a kids movie or are we going to take some kind of seriousness to these situations. BB8 seems to be only there to try and fill the R2D2 void but add Nickolodian comedy to it so the kids can laugh, theres nothing wrong with that but it gets pushed too much with him in my opinion. Luke saves everyone with an illusion trick then dies because fuck him right? Even Mark Hamil hated Luke in this movie and hated the nature of his death. So Last Jedi was a bad movie with great visuals.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Adding to my Last Jedi rant: How could I forget the dumbest scene in any Star Wars film to date? Princess Leia gets sucked out to space following a major explosion on the bridge (R.I.P Ackbar that they couldn't be bothered to show on screen) resulting in her opening her eyes in space, then flying through the debris back to the ship. Everyone in the theater laughed including me, it looked so stupid.

[Big Nick Dudley]

The "realism" critiques of Star Wars films always makes me laugh. It's unreal.

People tend to love what they saw first. Younger fans saw I-III, older fans saw IV-VI. I don't think any of them are necessarily great, but the story is awesome. Hayden was bad, but it's not like anyone would confuse Mark Hamill with Marlon Brando, either. I understand that seems blasphemous to you hardcore Star Wars fans, but Hamill has always been a way better voice actor than he was on screen.

The Last Jedi caught far too much heat from hardcore fans. It was almost crybaby level. IT WASN'T EXACTLY WHAT I PLANNED OUT IN MY MIND, SO IT SUCKZZ! Insanity. It was a damn solid movie.