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

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Raiden

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(Yes, i know, this is the bazzilionth thread about it)

I remember actually liking them when i was younger, especially the Darth Maul fight had me hyped as fuck as a little kid. So anyway, i went on a Star Wars spree starting with Episode 4 and ending with Episode 3.

Well, i used to be Team "the prequels arent that bad" but i dont feel that positive anymore about them. 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. Sure the dialogue didnt help but come on.

However, the 2nd half of Return of the Sith was very solid and enjoyable. The simultaneous birth of Darth Vader and the Skywalker twins scenes gave me goosebumps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bEs3dxjPg The part at 2:11 was just the most perfect way to enter Darth Vader.

My conclusion is while the prequels are vastly inferiour to the original trilogy they are however not that horrible as most Star Wars fans want you to believe.

The truth is there was no way in hell after the enormous buildup of hype that came ever since Return of the Jedi released that they were ever going to live up to the originals.

My ranking 5>4>6>>3>>>>>2>1.

Edit: I must add that Hayden Christensen was horrible all the time, every single line he delivered just fell flat. If they replaced him with a more capable actor episode 2 would have been way more enjoyable
 
Ive always thought that anyone who liked the prequels at the time simply was a young kid. Not a criticism of kids back then, when i was a kid i loved stupid movies, that today are complete horse shit. I understand opinions but at some point, a movie can be so bad that, only easily impressionable children can possibly like them.

Watch Red Letter Media's review of the prequels, they are almost longer than the movies, and a nice exorcism of the demons that The Flanneled One summoned in these terrible movies.
 
Into said:
Ive always thought that anyone who liked the prequels at the time simply was a young kid. Not a criticism of kids back then, when i was a kid i loved stupid movies, that today are complete horse shit. I understand opinions but at some point, a movie can be so bad that, only easily impressionable children can possibly like them.

Watch Red Letter Media's review of the prequels, they are almost longer than the movies, and a nice exorcism of the demons that The Flanneled One summoned in these terrible movies.
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Yeah i watched that. Thought it was pretty hillarious but at the same time realized you could do that kinda stuff with any decent movie out there. They hammered on some pretty stupîd and farfetched stuff sometimes.
 
I agree. I saw Ep.1 again in theaters a few years back when they re-released it in 3D, and aside from Jake Lloyd's acting and Jar Jar Binks' existence, I actually enjoyed it. Ep. 2 I remember disliking even at the time, but had some great authentic feeling Star Wars moments. Ep. 3 I think I saw 3 times in the theaters, and is actually one of my faves in the entire series.

Overall there are a lot of things they could've done much, much better. But they weren't nearly as abysmal as some fans want you to believe. Or maybe I'm just in denial, haha.
 
I tried watching them again with my wife a couple of years ago. She had never seen any Star Wars films, so after the original trilogy we moved on to the prequels. I hated them when they came out, and I hated them just as much when I watched them with her. She didn't think much of them either. They just aren't good movies. They each have a few good moments, but those moments are surrounded by absolute garbage.
 
I saw these when I was young. I remember at the time mostly caring about the action figures, the video game tie ins, and being enamored by all the cool stuff about Star Wars like light sabers and the force etc. So of course at the time, it didn't phase me why the prequels were terrible. I do remember being bored during the Phantom Menace. It wasn't until Revenge of the Sith that I started to realize these were bad films.

Then obviously Redlettermedia came out with their videos years later, and that made me realize how terrible they really were. I've since re-watched a couple times, and it's just mind boggling how terrible they are top to bottom (from the cinematography to the dialogue). I will say though, I love the Plinkett reviews so much, that I actually think the prequels were worth being released. I watch those reviews so much, that it totally makes it worth it.
 
I liked them, but Phantom Menace wasn't that good. The kid and Jar Jar didn't help it. The only thing good for me, was the Darth Maul fights.
 
The issue I always have w/ the prequels and the originals, is that the original story was already in place. So why be forced to make all these changes to the orginals to match up to the prequels?
 
"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."

"Believe me, I wish I could just wish away my feelings, but I can't."

I'm not sure if even Laurence Olivier could've saved this.
 
The biggest flaw with the prequels was the way they focused so damn much on Anakin. Why did they have to show him as a kid? Why did he have to be the main character?

The prequels should have featured Obi-Wan as the main hero, and episode 1 should not have even had Anakin at all. Then gradually introduce the cocky, power hungry co-pilot who becomes good friends with Obi-Wan, and eventually gets seduced by the dark side. But noooo, we had to have Darth Vader talking about angels from outer space, and speaking such classic lines as "yipeee" and "now this is pod racing!"
 
The prequels should have never focused on characters that were younger than Luke was in ANH. Watching a youngling Anakin and Fett just isn't what Star Wars was about for me. Condensing Anakin's mother's death and Qui-gon's death in one movie instead of two would have helped a little bit, which would foreshadow Luke's footsteps in ANH. Prequels needed more Vader in the suit, and starting with an older Anakin would have achieved that.

They were fun spectacles in the theater but like NBA basketball's Kobe Bryant...it's just a poor imitation of the real thing.
 
I had rewatched ROTS, a movie I genuinely thought was good, a few months ago, and I really noticed how awful it was, from a story and acting perspective. It was painful at times.
 
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 ..
 
Raiden said:
Edit: I must add that Hayden Christensen was horrible all the time, every single line he delivered just fell flat. If they replaced him with a more capable actor episode 2 would have been way more enjoyable
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After killing the sand people his lines back at the homestead give me chills.

Also you should have watched Jedi and then TPM. TPM gets much better back to back with it.
 
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 ..
Click to expand...

A Disneyfilms Production
JJ Abrams: Epsiode 7: A New Director, A New Hope
 
Here's what Rick McCallum thought when he saw TPM:

85wGh37.png


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.
 
inm8num2 said:
Here's what Rick McCallum thought when he saw TPM:

85wGh37.png


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.
Click to expand...

Ironically AOTC is the one with the writing collaboration.
 
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 disagree. They hold up much better than the prequels, especially ESB, which you can't tell me "isn't that good." And the farther we get away from the prequels, the worse they'll be, because of how much CG was used compared to the more practical effects in the originals.

To be fair, yes, the OT had some bad acting, but honestly, that was the main problem. Sure, ROTJ creates problems for people (I don't share them) but I mean, they're generally considered some of the best films even from a critical perspective, so I think you're a little off base here.
 
I've watched episode 1 three times, tried to watch episode 2 a second time but failed, never had an interest to watch episode 3 again. But then again, I haven't had the interest to watch the original trilogy either for years, not after the special editions arrived (seen them, didn't like what I saw).

The prequels are horrible. There are only three Star Wars movies.
 
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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They have issues, but they aren't anywhere as bad as the prequels. Return of the Jedi has some pretty bad aspects to it though, agree. But I disagree with you about The Empire Strikes Back. I think that's a really good film.
 
Joni said:
Honestly, the original movies aren't that good either. You were just younger when you got to know them.
Click to expand...

Somebody hold me back!

I just re-watched episode 4 for the first time in years, since my GF had never seen any star wars movies before, and i fucking loved it.

And like the post above states, Empire is basically perfection.

Jedi was the weakest, but still fucking great.
 
Got to give George Lucas credit for coming up with the entire Star Wars universe and thus "inventing" the light saber which is hands down the coolest weapon ever. I dont know how anybody will ever top a light saber, its just pure genious.
 
The prequels were so f'd up for so many reasons. The whole time it was like they wanted to focus on Obi-Wan and make him the lead, but they kept ditching him for Anakin who was at no point ever like-able or relate-able and at no point did it ever feel like he and Obi-Wan were friends. Anakin was just some petulant ass clown in 2/3 and an idiot child in TPM.
 
I will always say that Ewen McGregor was a great Obi-Wan. I always think how much better it would have been to solely focus on that character.
 
Azula said:
I saw these when I was young. I remember at the time mostly caring about the action figures, the video game tie ins, and being enamored by all the cool stuff about Star Wars like light sabers and the force etc. So of course at the time, it didn't phase me why the prequels were terrible. I do remember being bored during the Phantom Menace. It wasn't until Revenge of the Sith that I started to realize these were bad films.

Then obviously Redlettermedia came out with their videos years later, and that made me realize how terrible they really were. I've since re-watched a couple times, and it's just mind boggling how terrible they are top to bottom (from the cinematography to the dialogue). I will say though, I love the Plinkett reviews so much, that I actually think the prequels were worth being released. I watch those reviews so much, that it totally makes it worth it.
Click to expand...

You and Lucas both, unfortunately.
 
Into said:
Ive always thought that anyone who liked the prequels at the time simply was a young kid. Not a criticism of kids back then, when i was a kid i loved stupid movies, that today are complete horse shit. I understand opinions but at some point, a movie can be so bad that, only easily impressionable children can possibly like them.

Watch Red Letter Media's review of the prequels, they are almost longer than the movies, and a nice exorcism of the demons that The Flanneled One summoned in these terrible movies.
Click to expand...

I think it's time people are honest with themselves: Star Wars was always a summer blockbuster popcorn kid friendly franchise. I'm from the generation that saw the original trilogy in the theaters. I loved them. I was also 4 when the first one came out.

Now that's not to say adults shouldn't enjoy them, they are great films, but they are what they are, high fantasy hero adventures wrapped in a sci-fi blanket.
 
I keep thinking one day I'm going to sit down and watch the prequels. I've actually never seen them, just clips when episode 1 was coming out and it was everywhere like MTV or whatever.
 
Attack of the Clones is by far the worst. Phantom Menace is not much better but it also has much higher highs. ROTS is pretty fun, I really like that flick. You gotta love Palpatine hamming it up.
 
I loved them when I was too young to know any better but now I find then almost unwatchable. There are some decent sequences spread across the trilogy but the writing is just mind-numbingly bad.

At least John Williams gave us 3 great scores to go with them, the music is the best thing about SW anyway.
 
A Phantom Menace is shit through and through, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith had some okay parts but mostly sucked, A New Hope is kind of boring but alright, The Empire Strikes Back is really good, Return of the Jedi is almost prequel bad. Every film had terrible acting, but the prequels more so.

Still love the Star Wars universe though.
 
brotherbean said:
You and Lucas both, unfortunately.
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lol yes, unfortunately. I was like 10 at the time. This is not to say I ONLY cared about those things. Just that, I was able to look aside the problems of the film because at the time, I was more so hooked into the Star Wars universe and just excited to be able to experience it.
 
It's been a long time since I've seen them but I could tolerate 1; it's just Hayden Christensen ruined 2 and 3 completely for me. I just can't watch that guy. Jar Jar wasn't even that big of a deal to me, he didn't bother me as much as most. Hayden Christensen ruined them for me all on his own.
 
I kind of like the concepts and iconography. I mean, all these years later, the characters of Padme with those dots on her cheeks, young red bearded Obi Wan, Count Dooku, Darth Maul, etc are almost nostalgic (and I was basically an adult when the first one came out). The music, too.

It's too bad the movies all those elements appear in suck so bad. Truly a trio of movies that are better remembered than experienced.
 
Azula said:
I saw these when I was young. I remember at the time mostly caring about the action figures, the video game tie ins, and being enamored by all the cool stuff about Star Wars like light sabers and the force etc.
Click to expand...

This describes my experience with the original trilogy as well.
 
I find them generally unwatchable. They mine as well be Battlefield: Earth to me. The fact that they're even remotely connected to a universe that I enjoyed so much in the first 3 films is just frustrating. Poorly scripted, poorly acted, hammy CG.

John Williams is the only person associated with that film that actually delivered something worthy of the name.
 
I wouldn't classify myself as a Star Wars fan, but I did think they were pretty crappy. And not in a so-bad-they're-good kind of way. More of a 'Please-when-will-this-damn-boring-ass-movie-end' kind of way.
 
SatoAilDarko said:
I will always say that Ewen McGregor was a great Obi-Wan. I always think how much better it would have been to solely focus on that character.
Click to expand...

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"?).

Obi-Wan is the closest thing to a protagonist the prequels have, though.
 
Am I the only one that never liked any star wars movie or anything about it?

Boring, bad effects, bad comical looking aliens, dumb cliche stories. To me ep 4,5,6 are just as bad as 1,2,3.
 
2 could have been a lot a lot better than it was. My god that dialogue from Anakin is some of the worst material the fall upon my ears.
 
Read The Horus Rising trilogy. About a good natured general that inadvertently leads a galaxy into eternal war and terror as an effect of him wanting to prevent the very same.

It basically what the prequels should have been. Except this one has a main character with actual charisma and leadership skills, as well as the notion of that you actually CARE about him :)
 
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