I rewatched the Star Wars prequels for the first time in years ..

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Palpatine steals the movie in episode 3, the dude is just an awesome villain, for me it's 5,3,4. Ian McDiarmid is the star of the prequels.
 
I think Revenge of the Sith is a legitimately alright movie, as long as you don't spend any time contemplating what it could have been. Don't sit around wondering why Anakin suddenly starts hating Obi Wan, or why he is totally ok with going off and killing a bunch of kids for no real reason than his new best friend said so, or why he's not pant-shittingly furious with said besty when he finds out that dude doesn't actually know how to keep people from dying and instead promises that they'll learn it together sometime. Just accept it.

I mean the dialogue is cringeworthy and the acting is pretty awful in spots, but as pure entertainment I think it succeeds. I watch it occasionally and I am entertained each time.
 
I think Phantom Menace is still the best out of the prequels and they got worse since. Qui-gon was a very good character compared to the rest of the Jedis. And even Ewan McGregor's Obi-wan was a bit better in the first movie, as he wasn't trying to be too much like Alec Guinness yet. And even the space ships were a bit more interesting, as they weren't yet trying to tie their look to be like the original trilogy designs.

Of course Jar Jar was as stupid and annoying as everyone says... we'll almost. And the kid Anakin says some stupid crap. But that part didn't improve much in the later movies either.
 
inm8num2 said:
Here's what Rick McCallum thought when he saw TPM:

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All kidding aside, TPM and ROTS are still watchable. AOTC is the weakest. They're not the worst movies ever made, but they're just bland in the writing and character development. Scripts needed more collaboration and revision.
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Too bad he didn't have the balls to say this to George Lucas' face while something could still be done about it..
 
nel e nel said:
This describes my experience with the original trilogy as well.
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How do you feel about the original's now, that you've grown up and seen them? I've been able to go back and watch all the films, sort of separated from emotion. I guess I'll always have a nostalgic bias, seeing as my parents introduced the series to me when I was a kid. Truthfully though, I was more of Trek fan as I got older, and I'm not that obsessed with the Star Wars universe.

I can agree the originals aren't masterpiece films, and have their own issues (although again, I would argue Empire Strikes Back is a really great film, in its own right). But I don't think they compare to the Prequels. The Prequels are some of the worst films I've seen (in terms of top to bottom issues. The script, the dialogue, acting, cinematography. It's a fuckin disaster of epic proportions).
 
inm8num2 said:
Ewan at times seemed to be the only actor genuinely trying. FWIW I think Christensen did his best, but he was doomed from the beginning (anybody heard stories about him getting the script only two weeks before filming on AOTC started and confiding to family/friends, "I'm fucked"?).
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But see, I feel like he had nobody to blame but himself. When he was cast, Phantom Menace had already come out, and he could see what Lucas had done. He saw what great actors like Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman had put up on the screen... he stepped into that situation with eyes wide open.

He was fucked, but it shouldn't have been a surprise to him.
 
Delta Assault said:
But see, I feel like he had nobody to blame but himself. When he was cast, Phantom Menace had already come out, and he could see what Lucas had done. He saw what great actors like Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman had put up on the screen... he stepped into that situation with eyes wide open.

He was fucked, but it shouldn't have been a surprise to him.
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Portman? I'd argue her overall performance in AOTC/ROTS is worse than Christensen's. Her lines are just as bad, but she doesn't do any better with them.

It's one thing to know you're getting into a blockbuster film that won't necessarily be a tour de force of acting prowess, but it's probably another to read the script two weeks prior to shooting and panic over how you're going to make the character relatable.

TPM had some bad lines here and there, but on the whole the dialogue actually wasn't that terrible. It's main weaknesses were Jar-Jar and the political/trade plots.

The bad writing became more apparent in AOTC when the film depended on the romantic angle, but I disagree that Christensen shouldn't have been surprised at how bad the dialogue was.

Hoodbury said:
I don't get it? They do have names. Phantom Menace, etc.
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It was a joke about how people mostly refer to the films as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 these days. ;)
 
Raiden said:
Been digging into alot of Star Wars info lately and basically we can all just blame George Lucas having too much power and control on the prequels. He pretty much turned into a Sith Lord where nobody even dared to confront him ans his terrible implentations.

Which makes my outlook on Episode 7 pretty good actually, its such a great universe and there is tons of potential to work with. They actually should call Episode 7 A new hope ..
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That would be a very appropriate title indeed!
 
hachi said:
Yep, not to keep hijacking the thread by promoting these, but I can honestly say that the existence of the prequel trilogy is fully justified only by having given birth to Plinkett's amazing reviews.
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Yep. I've seen these reviews more than the actual films themselves. Together, they are almost the length of all 3 movies. But they totally make the films worth existing. When I was attending a film class in University, my screenplay teacher actually made our class watch these (I had seen them before the class), but lol. They really do a good job breaking down how NOT to make a film.
 
I was eight when The Phantom Menace came out. If you were eight when A New Hope came out you were thirty when The Phantom Menace was released and had different expectations from it then a preteen. At the time I thought the prequels were the greatest thing ever.
 
Joni said:
Honestly, the original movies aren't that good either. You were just younger when you got to know them.
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I wasn't any younger. The prequels were obviously much worse. 2 was so bad I didn't even bother watching 3 at the theater. Years later my friend and fellow former Star Wars fan was amazed that I never saw it and made me watch it on DVD. It was bad as expected.

2 was so fucking terrible though. Even the villain was boring, how the hell do you fuck that up in a Star Wars film.
 
Prequels were missing the high-stakes, set piece space battles of the originals.

You had the trench run, Falcon vs. Tie Fighters, Battle of Hoth (not in space, I know), 2nd Death Star vs Rebel fleet. All iconic sequences because you're emotionally invested with the fight of the Rebels, down to individual pilots, and really felt the scale of the conflict

In the prequels, half the time you didn't know why the sides were fighting or who the sides even were. There was an opportunity for a nice set piece battle at the end of Phantom with the Naboo squadron. Instead, you get Anakin's "what does this button do?" saving the day. Almost all the prequel battles involved stupid amounts of droid slapstick, to the point that the Ewok battle in Jedi had more emotional weight than all the prequel battles combined.

The only thing I give the prequels credit for are the lightsaber duels. Qui-Gon and Obi-wan vs Darth Maul was amazing.
 
Everyone focuses on the acting and story, really, I think the CGI instead of practical effects had a lot to do with how trash it was.

Edit: I take that back, I think the scene were Anakin and Amedala are fighting in the coliseum and then kinda swing together for a quick kiss is probably the worst scene in a high budget movie I have ever seen in my entire life.
 
Bauer91 said:
I was eight when The Phantom Menace came out. If you were eight when A New Hope came out you were thirty when The Phantom Menace was released and had different expectations from it then a preteen. At the time I thought the prequels were the greatest thing ever.
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I just watched Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition. I haven't watched A New Hope in 10 years and I loved it. I re-fell in love with Star Wars. Can you rewatch The Phantom Menace now and enjoy it?
 
Raiden said:
Everybody and i do mean everybody in the Phantom Menace is horrible. People blame that little kid but Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGreggor .. they we're all horribly wooden.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one. That was the first movie I ever saw with Liam Neeson in it, and a few years later when they started using his name as a draw in ads I was confused because I thought he was a really bad actor.

There was nothing really wrong with the kid in that movie, the character wasn't written well and there are probably less than 50 child actors in the whole world at any time with enough skill to make a nothing character like that enjoyable to watch.

Ewan McGreggor I don't remember, but I do remember not liking him at the time. And don't get me started on Natalie Portman.
 
Rest said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one. That was the first movie I ever saw with Liam Neeson in it, and a few years later when they started using his name as a draw in ads I was confused because I thought he was a really bad actor.

There was nothing really wrong with the kid in that movie, the character wasn't written well and there are probably less than 50 child actors in the whole world at any time with enough skill to make a nothing character like that enjoyable to watch.

Ewan McGreggor I don't remember, but I do remember not liking him at the time. And don't get me started on Natalie Portman.
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The kid is pretty bad in that movie, but it's definitely hard to say whether that's because he's a bad actor or just because he had a shit script to work with. George Lucas actually wrote and had that kid deliver the following line: "Yippee!!"

What human being says "yippee?"
 
I enjoy episode I and III from time to time. I will never watch II ever again. The Phantom Menace has duel of the fates, pod racing and practical effects going for it.

really though the prequel trilogy is awful.
 
As a kid/teenage I didn't like any of the prequels very much.
I didn't have any kind of taste or actually knew they were bad movies back then, I just simply thought they were too long and really boring, and could never sit through them.
 
Kerned said:
The kid is pretty bad in that movie, but it's definitely hard to say whether that's because he's a bad actor or just because he had a shit script to work with. George Lucas actually wrote and had that kid deliver the following line: "Yippee!!"

What human being says "yippee?"
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I won't argue the point, it's been years since I watched that movie, so maybe I just don't remember how bad he was.
 
Khezu said:
As a kid/teenage I didn't like any of the prequels very much.
I didn't have any kind of taste or actually knew they were bad movies back then, I just simply thought they were too long and really boring, and could never sit through them.
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But there are heroes on both sides, man. The opening crawl says so. It's like, shades of gray and stuff.
 
I've tried to rewatch them multiple times over the years. But I have a strange OCD thing where I have to start from the beginning, and I just can't get through Phantom Menace. That movie is so awful.

So I never get to 2 or 3, which I remember enjoying when they released.
 
Minion101 said:
I just watched Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition. I haven't watched A New Hope in 10 years and I loved it. I re-fell in love with Star Wars. Can you rewatch The Phantom Menace now and enjoy it?
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I'm pretty sure I would still enjoy it but would notice flaws that don't bother children. I imagine I wouldn't be able to if it was my first time seeing it now after being a fan of the original trilogy for twenty years, which was the point I was trying to make. But honestly I'm more interested in watching the Despecialized editions of the original three movies now.
 
Setting aside the awful dialogue and quite frankly boring film making at times, the biggest mistake of the prequels was not letting us see Anakin and Obi-wan being heroes of the clone war to give Anakin's fall some impact. Clone Wars should of started in Episode 1, Anakin being raised as a Jedi in the middle of a galactic war would have given you a much more interesting motivation for Anakin falling. Episode 2 should have been a galaxy at war movie. Instead all we got was 45 minutes of clone wars content spread over two movies.

They needed a consistent villain as well, we should have seen Maul or Grievous in all three movies being jedi slaughtering powerhouses to give their resolution in Sith some weight. Sith was actually not bad, after six years and two bad movies Lucas remembered how to at least make a movie that you didn't fall asleep in. And the last half was pretty good outside of "NOOOOOOO."

Honestly, you could probably edit all three movies into one fairly good three hour Star Wars movie.
 
ESB was the best for multiple reasons:

1. Huge budget compared to New Hope, but same gritty Sci FI (mostly thanks to Han) which leads to #2:

2. Pre commercialization and kidification we witnessed in ROTJ

3. I much prefer how OT filmed space battles pre CGI and ESB had amazing chase scenes as well as the intro ground battle which was epic in scope


Really though its the grittier feel of the first 2 OT movies that made them feel infinitely more adult.
 
Sulik2 said:
Setting aside the awful dialogue and quite frankly boring film making at times, the biggest mistake of the prequels was not letting us see Anakin and Obi-wan being heroes of the clone war to give Anakin's fall some impact. Clone Wars should of started in Episode 1, Anakin being raised as a Jedi in the middle of a galactic war would have given you a much more interesting motivation for Anakin falling. Instead all we got was 45 minutes of clone wars content spread over two movies.

They needed a consistent villain as well, we should have seen Maul or Grievous in all three movies being jedi slaughtering powerhouses to give their resolution in Sith some weight. Sith was actually not bad, after six years and two bad movies Lucas remembered how to at least make a movie that you didn't fall asleep in. And the last half was pretty good outside of "NOOOOOOO."

Honestly, you could probably edit all three movies into one fairly good three hour Star Wars movie.
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I agree about not enough heroic Anakin. Doesn't Yoda say he was a "powerful Jedi" in the OT? That's why I was never happy with the casting of Christensen has Anakin. He never came off as this strong warrior, just whiny and angry. I wanted to see an Anakin Skywalker who made his enemies cower in fear when he stepped onto the battlefield.
 
I don't understand how people can trash the first two but call the third okay or even good. I think 3 is by far the worst of the series. It seems more like a lampoon movie then a true entry, like it should sit next to Space Balls on the shelf. I actually laugh out loud frequently when I watch it (for the wrong reasons). But 1 and 2 I think are bad but still watchable. Most of the bad parts in the first two come from either Anakin or Jar Jar. The rest, while still often childish and/or uninspiring, isn't laughably terrible Teenagers from Outerspace status like 3 is. I actually really liked Palpatine in the first two.

I assume the higher acceptance from 3 stems from all the fight scenes and the willingness to go a little darker then usual. Bleh. Read the excellent novelization and you'll realize just how utterly void of content the movie is.
 
NYR94 said:
I agree about not enough heroic Anakin. Doesn't Yoda say he was a "powerful Jedi" in the OT? That's why I was never happy with the casting of Christensen has Anakin. He never came off as this strong warrior, just whiny and angry. I wanted to see an Anakin Skywalker who made his enemies cower in fear when he stepped onto the battlefield.
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have to watch the cartoon clone wars for that.
 
Does anybody even understand the logic of The Clone Wars? In AOTC, Obi Wan is sent on the path of an assassin (Jango Fett). Then he stumbles onto the giant cloning facility on Kamino. Apparently some Sifodias guy placed a huge order for clones. No idea who this Sifodias guy is. It feels like part of a huge sinister conspiracy. And then at the end of the movie... they just decide to appropriate and use all these clones as their Republic army to fight off the droids. And it's all perfectly accepted. Nobody cares who had the clones cloned in the first place. Nobody cares about Sifodias. It's just... "Hey, accept that now we have these clones working for us, and they're the good guys. It all makes sense."

WTF?

It's like if right after 9/11, we start going to war with the Taliban. And then... we somehow discover a bunch of high tech robotic drones that were constructed by some mysterious guy named "Osomo." And we don't know who he is or what he wanted to do. But we decide to just incorporate all these drones into our military, with them fighting by our side in Afghanistan, as well as guarding all our important installations in the United States. We just own them now, and it's totally cool.

Who would agree to this? How would this be an acceptable course of action to anyone?
 
Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are pure shite.

I think the thing that kills it for me is that the story arc of Skywalker to Darth Vader is simply not believable. Pure crap.

One minute he's a Jedi wannabe whining on about love and the next he's massacring kids. Utter ludicrous piss.

I hate your George.
 
2 was the worst. 3 was the greatest failure for all of the important moments that were botched.

I liked the pod racing scene though.
 
OP I basically completely agree.

While I do think GL was part of them problem, I don't think they realistically could have ever been as good as the originals. As a general matter I don't think prequels works conceptually. Prequels lack mystery.

I'd also have majorly rewritten certain aspects especially the horrible Chosen One trope, would have had Anakin been an adult in the first film, and would have had him and Padme (who I would have renamed) been in a working relationship from the first film as well.

But at least George Lucas went with his heart. The prequels might not have been masterpieces, but something tells me they're going to be better than the almost certainly soulless and commercial JJ Abrams one.

Wafflecakes said:
I think all the Star Wars films are awful. Equally so.

I feel like a special butterfly.
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I think people take Star Wars way too seriously, but if you look at the originals in the context of when they came out and how they came out they're pretty amazing films. Don't get me wrong, 2001 ASO shits all over them (and every other sci fi or fantasy film ever made), but for the most part, when they came out Logan's Run was exemplar for the genre.
 
The prequels were also too big and Lucas doesn't let a scene go on long enough for it to breathe. Always cutting to another character and plot line every ten minutes.

The Empire Strikes Back, on the other hand, devotes serious time to Luke talking to a muppet in a swamp--no chases, no explosions, no horrible dialogue. Quiet scenes about inner conflict rather than fighting some silly CG creation. And those are some of the best scenes in the entire saga.
 
genjiZERO said:
But at least George Lucas went with his heart. The prequels might not have been masterpieces, but something tells me they're going to be better than the almost certainly soulless and commercial JJ Abrams one.
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I have very low expectations for the Abrams film, but the Star Wars prequel trilogy is the very definition of soulless and commercial. It's basically a 7.5 hour toy commercial and brand awareness campaign.
 
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