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[SolVanderlyn]

Alright. I grew up on the prequels. They were my original Star Wars. Everything about them captivated me. The sci-fi aesthetic, the buddhist-like Jedi council, the lightsabers, the characters, the vehicles. I saw Episode I when I was 12, about the same age as Anakin is in that movie. It was my first Star Wars movie. I loved it. The pod racing, the space battles, the EPIC lightsaber duel at the end, the amazing score, the cool characters (Qui-Gonn and Darth Maul). I enjoyed Episode II as well, especially the Kamino sequence. Episode III was by far the best and I loved pretty much everything besides Anakin's super speedy heel turn.

I saw the OT later in my life and realized why people didn't like the prequels. The OT is very focused, and tells one story: Luke Skywalker becoming a Jedi and redeeming Anakin Skywalker. It has a sense of urgency and despair to it. The Jedi are a mystical fallen order, and there is a sense of mystery to the world. The Empire is a legitimate threat throughout the story and Darth Vader is an extremely iconic villain, right from his first appearance - and he appears in every movie after. Lucas said he wanted us to feel like we were thrown into the middle of the story, and he did a good job. There's a lot of goofiness to these movies, too, with Chewie, the Ewoks, the DEATH STAR (twice), so I don't think the complaints against the prequels' goofiness are founded, but I don't have the nostalgia going for me, so... (I like it in both sets of movies, even if Jar Jar is a bit much)

Anyway, I'm rambling. The point is this: the prequels are lacking something the OT has. Why do we start with kid Anakin? It makes Episode I feel so far removed from the others that it is nearly pointless. II introduces the Clone Wars instead of taking place during the Clone Wars, which the far superior cartoon takes up instead. Episode III is the only story where we see Anakin at his peak, and I feel the only prequel movie to live up the the OT (I like it better than Episode VI and equally as much as IV). Why didn't we start with Padawan Anakin? Why didn't we see more of Obi-wan and Anakin doing Jedi missions together? Far too much time was wasted on space politics and extraneous setup. I think it would also have been much better if Anakin was not space Jesus and was simply a very talented Jedi Knight. I think his reason for his fall was fine - he was impetuous and let his passion control him, but it was ultimately Sidious' fault. That was alright, but it needed more time to gestate, and I think it's because we only see "adult" Anakin in one movie.

What would you have done differently? How would you show Anakin's downfall and the Jedi in their prime? Please don't shitpost and say "lolol the prequels were shit, erase them" or anything like that. We've heard it all already. Try to be constructive.

Destroying every copy available, if possible.

Example: Don't do this ^^^^^^^

 

[A-V-B]

Page one rewrite. It's the only hope.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

The answer pretty much exists as-is in the form of "The Clone Wars"

 

[Rockandrollclown]

1.) Remove Phantom Menace, its the least awful movie, but its completely unecessary.
2.) Have an entire movie that revolves around Obi Wan training Anakin or some kind of bro down adventure where you actually get the feeling that these two people are friends.
3.) Re-write all of the dialog, also come up with a new cause of death for Padme

 

[strafer]

make Lucas actually talk to the actors and maybe do different takes instead of just doing one take and then cut.

The dialogue and acting in the prequels are pure garbage.

 

[-Amon-]

Destroying every copy available, if possible.

 

[stump sock]

burn the archives, recall the discs

 

[sixteen-bit]

let Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon kiss

 

[shintoki]

The answer pretty much exists as-is in the form of "The Clone Wars"

I avoided them for years... but with how good The Clone Wars was, it actually made the prequels worthwhile.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

The answer pretty much exists as-is in the form of "The Clone Wars"

If they remade these as full blown live action movies with the titles Episode I and Episode II, I'd be ok with that. Of course that won't ever happen now, but hypothetically speaking.

 

[Jezbollah]

Send a T-1000 back to 1999 to kill George Lucas.

 

[tearsofash]

Less podracing. Less Jar-Jar. No midichlorians.

 

[yanipheonu]

Page one rewrite.

Actually someone mentioned that Disney has basically completely shunned the Old Republic stuff in their Star Wars stuff. Like they too don't want to acknowledge the prequels.

....How plausible is it that they'd just reboot Episodes 1 - 3?
I'd be down, I'd watch just for the sheer curiosity alone.

 

[TreIII]

The answer pretty much exists as-is in the form of "The Clone Wars"

I'd agree with this. That series actually salvaged the Prequel era and Snaking for me.

 

[Strangelove77]

Off the top of my head, never make the first two movies, rewrite all the dialog and all the scenes in episode 3 that involve human interaction and "feelings" to be more natural, recast Anakin, and have Padme die in a less stupid fashion.

 

[ExigentContact]

Condense Episode I and II's plot points into one film. Cut out a lot of the needless stuff across those two. Have I end with the opening of the Clone Wars and the following two films deal with its entirety, instead of having the start and end happen off-screen. Age Anakin up, but keep him a slave on Tatooine who has to race to earn his freedom. Swap Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn's characterizations (apparently they were switched around in a rewrite for TPM) and have Obi-Wan be the more rogue outsider Jedi and Qui-Gon be the more traditional. That gives a developmental arc to Obi-Wan's failure with Anakin and helps him become the character he is in the OT.

Anakin should be more like his TCW counterpart, heroic and brave, but insecure and having a lot of baggage still. His reasons to fall should be earnest in the belief that something needs to end the suffering of the Clone Wars, to end the suffering that he endured in the Outer Rim as a slave, not some contrived and poorly thought out romance sub-plot. Palpatine uses his desire to see something new to engineer the birth of the Empire, twisting Anakin to the Dark Side. Anakin should be Vader by some point earlier on in III and hunting down the Jedi, to fit better with Obi-Wan's lines of Vader hunting the Jedi down. Order 66 didn't have the same effect as the notion of Vader doing most of the work himself.

Maul should survive and keep his character from TCW, and Dooku should be his direct competitor. Both vie for the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, and Palpatine uses both of them to achieve his goals. Maul also gets some of Grievous' character since I think he should be the one to represent Anakin's future disfigurement and rage while Dooku represents his aloof nature and reserved prowess. Episode III can have a paired scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan dispatch Maul and Dooku at the same time, at different points in the galaxy. Keep the idea of Sidious cowing Anakin as he fights, while Obi-Wan looks past his opponents' taunting and finds balance within. Just random ideas.

Aside from that, it needed a lot more character moments. Star Wars can survive a bad plot, but it can't really bear insufferable characters as well.

 

[ShirAhava]

Auralnauts already did

STAR WARS EP 1: Jedi Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCm8yAxBr8

STAR WARS EP 2: The Friend Zone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI8aSJBC9u0

STAR WARS EP 3: Revenge of Middle Management
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itkl7cHcX_E

 

[wesleyshark]

Scrap them and never speak of them again.

 

[Walter White Walker]

No fucking Midi-Chlorians
Padme doesn't die of a stupid broken heart
No kid Anakin, let alone blowing crap up
Rewrite most of the dialog
Make Anakin's descent to the Dark Side a lot more believable

I haven't seen any of them since around the time they released (on DVD because I wasn't going to pay good money to see them in a theater) so that's what I can recall.

edit: Also no plot about trading - so damn boring and convoluted.

 

[Mindwipe]

We kinda had this thread before. I answered there.

 

[Spring Drive]

Someone already did: Star Wars anti-cheese Edition

 

[Bobby Roberts]

....How plausible is it that they'd just reboot Episodes 1 - 3?

Not plausible at all.

The only way the prequels get rebooted is if the entire series gets rebooted. All of it. Which is plausible, really. Give it another 20 years. 60th Anniversary of Star Wars. Reboot everything. Gives them the added bonus of not having to fuck with Fox for distribution rights on the first movie, either.

The biggest trick would be making the prequels not be about Anakin Skywalker. Have him in them. Have him be an important character. But do not make him the POV character. Either Padme or Obi-Wan should be the eyes we look through as audience members. But not Anakin. Anakin is a character we interact with, we bounce off of, we marvel at, but we never inhabit his shoes.

The Prequel Trilogy should have been Obi-Wan's story, the way the Original Trilogy was Luke's. Vader is catalyst, Vader is the engine, but Vader should never be the main character.

Someone already did: Star Wars anti-cheese Edition

These aren't good, even for fan-edits. The only reason anyone gives a shit about 'em is because Harloff & crew over at YouTube Collider push em like crazy.

 

[FrontalMonk]

Condense Episode I and II's plot points into one film. Cut out a lot of the needless stuff across those two. Have I end with the opening of the Clone Wars and the following two films deal with its entirety, instead of having the start and end happen off-screen. Age Anakin up, but keep him a slave on Tatooine who has to race to earn his freedom. Swap Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn's characterizations (apparently they were switched around in a rewrite for TPM) and have Obi-Wan be the more rogue outsider Jedi and Qui-Gon be the more traditional. That gives a developmental arc to Obi-Wan's failure with Anakin and helps him become the character he is in the OT.

Anakin should be more like his TCW counterpart, heroic and brave, but insecure and having a lot of baggage still. His reasons to fall should be earnest in the belief that something needs to end the suffering of the Clone Wars, to end the suffering that he endured in the Outer Rim as a slave, not some contrived and poorly thought out romance sub-plot. Palpatine uses his desire to see something new to engineer the birth of the Empire, twisting Anakin to the Dark Side. Anakin should be Vader by some point earlier on in III and hunting down the Jedi, to fit better with Obi-Wan's lines of Vader hunting the Jedi down. Order 66 didn't have the same effect as the notion of Vader doing most of the work himself.

Aside from that, it needed a lot more character moments. Star Wars can survive a bad plot, but it can't really bear insufferable characters as well.

All of this, a lot of which requires someone on staff whose job it is to tell George Lucas "No, that's a bad idea, you cannot put that in this film."

And better dialog.

 

[FStop7]

Jar Jar falls into a blender 5 seconds after the opening crawl

Trade Federation, Gungan, and Watto characters not designed and voiced by Stormfront

Give Darth Maul some actual reason to exist

Introduce Anakin older, like same age as Luke was in ANH

Rewrite the entire story.

 

[OricWindstar]

I avoided them for years... but with how good The Clone Wars was, it actually made the prequels worthwhile.

I wouldn't go that far, but yeah, they're pretty good.

 

[webkatt]

Combine at least two of the movies into one to make room for a film starring Jar Jar

 

[420bits]

I don't understand the question, what prequels?

Sounds like someone had to much to drink and came up with something silly... like saying there's a 4th Indiana Jones movie.

 

[God Dayumm]

Make Jar Jar evil and the rest writes itself

 

[GhaleonEB]

The prequels were rotten to the core, and that core was the writing. It's a bad story, badly told.

Episode 1 didn't need to happen, it sets up little of value and the age of Anakin meant he had no role in driving the plot and his relationships with others were not meaningfully established. Contrivances such as midichlorians and Jedi forbidden to love (the FUCK) should be jettisoned.

The story of a powerful young Jedi frustrated with authority and bureaucracy, and tempted into using his resulting anger for evil by shadow figure like Palpatine, could be compelling. But it would need a top to bottom re-write.

 

[ExigentContact]

Not plausible at all.

The only way the prequels get rebooted is if the entire series gets rebooted. All of it. Which is plausible, really. Give it another 20 years. 60th Anniversary of Star Wars. Reboot everything.

The biggest trick would be making the prequels not be about Anakin Skywalker. Have him in them. Have him be an important character. But do not make him the POV character. Either Padme or Obi-Wan should be the eyes we look through as audience members. But not Anakin. Anakin is a character we interact with, we bounce off of, we marvel at, but we never inhabit his shoes.

The Prequel Trilogy should have been Obi-Wan's story, the way the Original Trilogy was Luke's. Vader is catalyst, Vader is the engine, but Vader should never be the main character.p

Wasn't the implication of the prequel trilogy in the years before that it was going to be more Obi-Wan centric? I wasn't around for that speculation train, but I think I remember seeing older stuff that dealt with the potential prequels and George's ideas for them that at least one point it was gonna be more focused on Obi-Wan as a the central character, which to me makes the most sense.

But I guess the popularity of Vader won out in the end.

 

[Jarmel]

This would require so much work that it would be better to start from scratch.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

Ugh, another one of these. Not that I'm mad at you, OP, but the SW prequels are so fundamentally flawed that everything needs to be redone from the ground up. There is no quick fix or magic editing that will make them good (and believe me, people have tried.)

Here's just some rudimentary suggestions:

-No Qui-Gon
-Start with Episode II's basic plot, in that the war actually begins in Episode I.
-Anakin is Luke's age or slightly younger, not some stupid kid
-Maul is the villain for the entire trilogy, Vader must kill him to become Palpy's apprentice (parallel to Luke's own test in RotJ. See its like poetry!)
-No jar jar
-No boring bullshit about trade routes. The clones were just created by some rich dudes who want to take over the republic or something.

I'll stop here since I could literally write an essay about this. Number one rule: KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid!

 

[Arthr2ShdsJcksn]

Destroy them. It isn't an interesting story, and the leaving it to our imaginations is better.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

What would you have done differently?

Nothing. Because the Red Letter Media reviews were more entertaining than any of the Star Wars movies

 

[Lord Fagan]

Maul should have escaped in Episode 1, and totally replaced Jango for all of Episode 2. Dooku should have been present from the very beginning, a sleeper within the Jedi order until right through the Geonosis battle, slowly egging on Obi-wan to seek revenge for the death of Qui-gon while giving the "chosen one" a nonstop stinkeye. When Obi-wan holds back, after hearing ghost Qui-gon warning him off at the last second, Dooku does his heel turn, cuts Maul in half (but he still survives for his animated Clone Wars bullshit), and becomes the new Sith apprentice.

Anakin and Padme should be the same age, but different actors, redub Jar Jar with the alien voice and cut his presence down to, "thanks for getting us to the capital, good-by!" and have someone other than Lucas direct. Neeson should have been present in every movie.

That's sort of the broad strokes, but I'm part of the camp that thinks most everything wrong with the prequels is just Lucas's childish, self indulgent crap and awful dialogue direction. Otherwise, there's not much else wrong with them.

 

[HvySky]

Travel back in time and not make them.

Edit: In all seriousness, though, I wouldn't make it all about Anakin and his downfall. And if you have to make it about that, cut out the first movie's focus on Anakin as a kid and instead start off with him already as a young adult. His relationship with Obi-Wan should be front and center.

 

[Jarmel]

Wasn't the implication of the prequel trilogy in the years before that it was going to be more Obi-Wan centric? I wasn't around for that speculation train, but I think I remember seeing older stuff that dealt with the potential prequels and George's ideas for them that at least one point it was gonna be more focused on Obi-Wan as a the central character, which to me makes the most sense.

But I guess the popularity of Vader won out in the end.

Obi-Wan is just as central to the Prequels as Anakin is. They're dual leads.

 

[kunonabi]

As someone who actually really likes the prequels my changes are mostly minor:

The Phantom Menace

Get a better actor for Anakin
Rewrite his lines during the Battle of Naboo
Include the scene of him punching the Rodian
Dial Jar Jar Binks down. I don't mind him but they constantly have him doing something just to showcase the tech and much of his antics end up being a miss.
No super speed Jedi

Attack of the Clones

Get rid of Anakin riding the testicle
Include the scene of Anakin meeting Padme's parents
Remove all of C3PO's nonsense on Geonosis
Better dialogue in some areas. Much of the comedic banter and romantic dialogue don't work as well as they could

Revenge of the Sith

Ending seems too rushed
Improved dialogue
A little more meat to Anakin taking out the Jedi Temple.
Less cutting away from Anakin vs Obi-Wan to Yoda vs Palpatine

 

[Fury451]

The answer pretty much exists as-is in the form of "The Clone Wars"

Basically.

I would drop the entire "prophecy" surrounding Vader too. Like the RLM pointed out, he wasn't space Jesus in the original films.

I think the focus should've been more on Palpatine as well- like a young Palpatine and his Sith origins.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

* Start with the Clone Wars
* Make Anakin around 30 years old (Vader without Mask in ROTJ looked like a 50+ years old Dude anyway). Charmy, witty. Make him likable. But seduced by the dark side.
* Don't make the Jedi this huge monolithic shitty unlikable sect
* Skip all that weird political maneuvering shit with trade taxation and what not.
* Build up one big villain over the trilogy instead of one "boss fight" for every movie.
* The Clone Wars shouldn't be about the origins of the Stormtroopers, but about some cruel alien race which "clones".
* Make it look like the OT looked (which TFA accomplished quite well). The PT is too far removed from the look and atmosphere of ANH.

That's basically it.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

But I guess the popularity of Vader won out in the end.

Lucas was already looking at the whole of the story as "Vader's story" since 1983/84, though, and that viewpoint seemed to have taken hold even more strongly in the intervening years. You repeat some bullshit long enough, even you start to believe it, you know? And so after telling everyone for so long that it was really "Vader's story" as a means to make Jedi's ending seem more emotionally resonant than it really was, he sat down and wrote three movies (and went back and fixed up the three he helped make) to explicitly make it Vader's story.

But it's not his story. He's a key part in it, but Empire and Star Wars are Luke's story, and that's why they work.

I also think slipping into that viewpoint was made easier as he became self-conscious about his own career path, which is a thing he admits to on the commentaries, even. He came back to filmmaking after years of being more or less nothing but a CEO. So he told a kids story about banking and taxes starring an idealistic kid who ended up backing into helping run an empire.

That's kinda why they look and sound the way they do, and why Episode III is the only one of the films that works reasonably well as a film: Episode III is the only story he had somewhat formed in his head before he fully became GEORGE LUCAS: MULTIMEDIA MONOLITH. Episodes I & II are movies made by a man who hadn't told any stories for about 15 years, trying to filter his interests through a family film and the combination of his rustiness and his weird point-of-view resulted in The Prequels.

Absolutely unique and individual films, yes. Not good, though.

 

[PanicFreak]

Get rid of that Phantom Menace garbage.

Episode 1: Clone Wars begins
Episode 2: Anakin moves toward the dark side
Episode 3: Anaken is full on dark operative that springs a trap and spends the rest of the movie creating the Empire

Work Darth Maul in the entire trilogy. Maybe an epic fight between Vadar and Maul to be the Sith Apprentice

 

[inm8num2]

Scrap everything that does not already exist in the OT as a character or as exposition. No Mace Windu, no Jar Jar, no Ric Olie, and sadly no Dexter Jettster. You'll have similar characters that were in the PT to fill in the story, but for example Anakin's love interest won't be Padme from Naboo.

Focus more on Obi-Wan. Ditch the prophecy shit. Use the Magneto/Xavier template for the Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship. Powerful guy with a tragic backstory gives into dark side.

But it doesn't really matter. PT is done and over with. The focus going forward is everything post-RotJ. Endless possibilities for new characters, stories, and conflicts.

 

[MrPressStart]

1) Anakin should have been older when he was discovered. If only 3-4 years older... IT would have made more sense to have him closer to Padme in age instead of a young kid.

2) I thought that the 1st movie was too politically heavy. It deserves its place as the galactic senate is important buy maybe more back story and less politics.

3) Jar Jar needed a much smaller part

4) I would not have killed off Darth Maul in the first film... he should have killed Quigon and it was up to Obi wan and Anakin to avenge his death in the 2nd movie and have Dooku come later in the 2nd movie.

5) I thought the 3rd movie was decent... but I thought that it would have been nice to see Vader fuck shit up a bit more before he is cut up by Obiwan.... I also thought the naming of the twins was rushed.

 

[Sapiens]

I'd make the films less of a tech demo for ilm.

 

[ThatGuyAgain]

I liked Revenge of the Sith. The first two can be deleted from all memory though.

 

[Cormano]

No fucking Midi-Chlorians
Padme doesn't die of a stupid broken heart
No kid Anakin, let alone blowing crap up
Rewrite most of the dialog
Make Anakin's descent to the Dark Side a lot more believable

I haven't seen any of them since around the time they released (on DVD because I wasn't going to pay good money to see them in a theater) so that's what I can recall.

edit: Also no plot about trading - so damn boring and convoluted.

Agree with this guy, also another fixes:

• Don't kill Darth Maul so early.
• Remove any mention of Sifo-Dyas, this was so vague.
• Less CGI, the prequels look so outdated compared to some scenes in the OT

 

[CaviarMeths]

Thing is that was nothing unclear about the story or characters as presented in the OT. A PT was never needed in the first place. More Star Wars isn't a bad thing, but it was pointless and damaging to spend 7 hours trying to arrive at a starting point that we all accepted and embraced 40 years ago.

If I was tasked with remaking the prequels, it would not be 3 movies and it would not directly lead into the events of ANH. The Clone Wars would be a fine event to cover.

 

[trikster40]

Go back in time. Steal the scripts and rewrite them. Kidnap George Lucas so he can't direct. The end.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Lucas was already looking at the whole of the story as "Vader's story" since 1983/84, though, and that viewpoint seemed to have taken hold even more strongly in the intervening years. You repeat some bullshit long enough, even you start to believe it, you know? And so after telling everyone for so long that it was really "Vader's story" as a means to make Jedi's ending seem more emotionally resonant than it really was, he sat down and wrote three movies (and went back and fixed up the three he helped make) to explicitly make it Vader's story.

But it's not his story. He's a key part in it, but Empire and Star Wars are Luke's story, and that's why they work.

I also think slipping into that viewpoint was made easier as he became self-conscious about his own career path, which is a thing he admits to on the commentaries, even. He came back to filmmaking after years of being more or less nothing but a CEO. So he told a kids story about banking and taxes starring an idealistic kid who ended up backing into helping run an empire.

That's kinda why they look and sound the way they do, and why Episode III is the only one of the films that works reasonably well as a film: Episode III is the only story he had somewhat formed in his head before he fully became GEORGE LUCAS: MULTIMEDIA MONOLITH. Episodes I & II are movies made by a man who hadn't told any stories for about 15 years, trying to filter his interests through a family film and the combination of his rustiness and his weird point-of-view resulted in The Prequels.

Absolutely unique and individual films, yes. Not good, though.

This is a superb analysis. I had no idea Lucas actually admitted to this stuff. Makes it even more ironic how art imitates life.