"13 views and 0 replies"

Ha.

Okay I can think of a few things:

-Some of the designs and visual effects are very spectacular and awe-inspirint. Some of them are dumb and unconvincing, but the prequels have a visual scope that very few films have, and their particular combination of elements is very unique. As a visualist, it's hard not to appreciate watching certain parts just for the sheer visual splendor.

-John Williams has some pretty good scores. Not his best work, but it's generally very good stuff. Not sure if TPM or ROTS is better, but ROTS seems to be more nuanced as well as more bombastic, and I think it also has more actual musical themes in it.

Also, I enjoyed some of the performances. Liam Neeson alternates between having a sense of quiet dignity and looking like he is bored to death, but overall I liked his character. Ewan McGregor in the second two films is the anchor of the films, he's great to watch in every scene he is in, and Ian McDiarmid gives a very nuanced performance that is the only one that comes across as 100% appropriate for the subject matter, probably because he's a Shakespearian actor and knows how to deliver dialogue that other people might characterise as stiff. I especially loved him Episode III, although his character of Sidious in that film was so over the top it was awful. Pernilla August in Episode I was also an underrated part. The older actors all seem to have been able to handle the material, because they had the experience and training (and possibly the talent) to work with it, and they were also very experienced in theatre; the young stars don't know how to self-direct or work with stiff dialogue, so they are dead in the water in a George Lucas film. I also thought Andrew Sacombe as Watto was amazing and really brought credible life to that character--the only example I can think of in the prequels where an exotic all-CG character seemed real and acted well. His one scene in Episode II has a moment where he isn't sure if he recognizes Anakin and its a real moment of CG artistry like you would find with Gollum in LOTR.

Also, I enjoy the way there are a lot of clues in Episodes I and II to future events, and because they aren't spelt out or portrayed very clearly you do have to think about the plots and the subtext quite a bit, which can be a bit frustrating at times but also kind of fun. Its unclear how much is intentional and how much is just poor directorial skill--gushers will say its all the former, bashers will say its all the latter, but I think the truth is in the middle. The films have no emotional core, but at least there is some kernal of intellectualism in them. Unfortuantely, most of the Episode I and II set-ups don't pay off in Episode III (Sifo who?).

However, I do enjoy Episode III. I enjoy its sense of paranoia in its first half and its sense of operatic grandeur in its second half. And pretty good action scenes throughout. I also thought the characters were usually pretty well done--for instance, the opening sequence I find very fun, and it's entirely because of the chemistry between McGregor and Christensen, which was non-existant in the previous film. There a number of scenes in the film that I think are really classic as well, such as the sequence around "the turn" where Anakin and Padme are looking at each other from across the city; the cross-cutting that follows really works to drive the tension, and the whole scene I thought was great until the whole knighting business occurs, which is a bit ridiculous in retrospect. However, while some people bash the whole "Darth Vader goes to the dark side out of love" I thought this was the most believable or at least poetic part of the film in an overall sense, and the most pleasantly surprising.

So there, that's more gushing than I've done all year. :p

I'm with zombie84 in that I really liked Watto. He was probably one of the best parts of the trilogy for me.

A lot of scenes in the prequels are bittersweet for me, because I liked the ideas but was disappointed by the way they were done. For instance, I was really excited by the fact that Boba Fett was going to be an integral part of AotC, and that the Slave I would be in it and all that, but I was disappointed by the way it was actually done.

The colosseum scene in AotC was pretty awesome though, before the Jedi showed up anyway.

So here's a list of what comes to mind at the moment:

TPM: Watto, Darth Maul vs Obi Wan (the three-way fight was way too fancily-choreographed, but I remember everyone cheering in the theatre when that force field went down and Obi Wan just released the fury on Darth Maul)

AotC: the colosseum scene, the fact that Christopher Lee was in it

RotS: I honestly can't think of anything. I've only made it all the way through once

OK. I'll bite. Here's what I liked.

Episode I:

• Destroyer Droids
• Seeing all the droids scramble to repair Amidala's ship. It was a great way to show what astromech droids are actually designed to do.
• The look of Coruscant
• Liam Neeson's performance in general
• The lightsaber battle at the end of the movie
• Wondering how these story threads would play out over the next two movies

Episode II:

• The opening sequence as Padme's new ship flies through the foggy skies of Coruscant
• The look of the new digital Yoda
• The scenes of Clones marching in formation
• Ewan McGregor's & Christopher Lee's performances
• The scene between Obi Wan and Dooku, where Dooku reveals the senate is controlled by a Sith Lord
• Fantasizing that Episode III would be about the Clone Wars

Episode III:

• The epic scale of the opening space battle
• The ROTS clone armor as a nice transition between Episode II and Episode IV
• The EMOTIONAL IMPACT of Anakin's turn to the Dark Side (this part of the movie has a lot of emotion, even if the plot and logic behind the turn are lacking)
• The tension I felt before and during the final saber battle on Mustafar: How would Obi-Wan defeat Anakin?

I will add one more thing to my list. The scene during the final battle when the giant droid carriers park in front of the Gungans, and when the battle droids all activate at once and start marching on them. I know everything after that was pretty terrible, but come on, that was awesome.

This version's been cut up by whoever uploaded it, but you get the idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6R9UkpyvSM#t=2m10s

Diego said:

I'm of the very small minority that considers Episode I the best of the prequels, so I have a soft spot for it.

There are more people who agree with this than you would think.

Diego said:

I'm of the very small minority that considers Episode I the best of the prequels, so I have a soft spot for it.

 I agree

Ha-ha, see?

none said:.

In AotC, when Obi-wan is questioning Jango on Kamino, very reminiscent of a wild west stare down or a cop interviewing the perp he 'knows' did it but doesn't have the proof which could hold up in court.

I forgot about that one. Great scene. I remember when I was first watching it I was thrilled that there was finally a scene between two decent actors where the scene wasn't about what was being said but what wasn't. It's the only scene where Temura Morrison gets to act, which is a shame because he was really good there. He's got a great face for close ups too, like someone out of a Sergio Leone film. But he's tossed on the screen and then off, as though Lucas didn't know what to do with him, a defining characteristic of that movie unfortunately.

CO said:

-The Emperor throwing Senate Pods at Yoda, as that fight was much better then the duel on Mustafar.

Ugh.  One of the worst scenes in all of the PT.

TV's Frink said:

CO said:

-The Emperor throwing Senate Pods at Yoda, as that fight was much better then the duel on Mustafar.

Ugh.  One of the worst scenes in all of the PT.

I call that the chuck jones looney tunes scene, it was just plain awful.

There was nothing good or memorable about the prequels, recently i tried to sit through the first 20 minutes of that phantom plot movie, and just could not bear it was too frickin painful. LOL

As for Attack of the Wooden Romance or Revenge of the Shit, i never even got that far to watching them on DVD horrible movies.

Yeah, I remember chapter skipping the romance scenes so it was pure Kenobi P.I stuff and thinking "hey this is pretty good!"

Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Watto, some of John Williams's scores, TPM duel was pretty good, some elements of the Jedi and their routines, Christopher Lee, Yoda on crack in Episode I, Samuel L. Jackson being pissed at other Jedi as Mace, and TPM's Dolby EX soundmix.

TPM is the best prequel. The others are only bad 1080p videos.

No one really got to act in these films, save for Neeson in some scenes of TPM.

Episode I

• Darth Maul was a cool character, too bad he was there just to be killed.
• Liam Neeson
• Duel of the Fates (as in the score and the duel)

Episode II

• Obi-Wan's adventures
• Coruscant underworld (which was too short and it could've been more darker like in Jedi Knight or KotOR games)
• Seismic charges

Episode III

• The scene with Padmé and Anakin on Coruscant with just music
• Beginning of the final duel before they went lava surfing
• Ewan McGregor

I like the general idea of Palpatine working two sides of a war to create the Empire and remove his enemies.

Other than that I thought the whole thing was one missed opportunity after another.