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Are The Prequels That Bad?

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I myself disliked the prequels. But, recently I rewatched them and looked at them in a new light. I understand that the acting, script, some of the characters, and plot points are pretty terrible, however, if you try to look past all the issues and mistakes, you realize that they aren’t too terrible. I have friends who actually like them. what do you think?

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Of course they aren’t terrible. They’re just terrible compared to the originals.

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No, they are awesome action packed rollercoasters, but not much more: they show that George isn’t that good as writer and a director.
I mean, the battles, the visuals -amazing. But the inter-personal actor stuff: cringing.
Up to a point where they do live up to the cheesy 30’s serials he is always on about:
E1 was basically cliffhanger to cliffhanger without any plot and E2 & E3 had cringy dialogues and acting

But they lacked something. Good dialogues and proper acting?
He should have Larry Kasdan co-write the scripts and have someone else direct the actors.
Like he did with ESB and ROTJ

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“If you look past how bad they are, they aren’t that bad.”

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To quote my favourite movie critic “I’d rather see Episode III than blood in my urine”. That doesn’t mean that E3 or any other prequel is good

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pittrek said:

To quote my favourite movie critic “I’d rather see Episode III than blood in my urine”.

Hmmm, tough call.

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QuantumCat said:

No, they are awesome action packed rollercoasters, but not much more: they show that George isn’t that good as writer and a director.
I mean, the battles, the visuals -amazing. But the inter-personal actor stuff: cringing.
Up to a point where they do live up to the cheesy 30’s serials he is always on about:
E1 was basically cliffhanger to cliffhanger without any plot and E2 & E3 had cringy dialogues and acting

But they lacked something. Good dialogues and proper acting?
He should have Larry Kasdan co-write the scripts and have someone else direct the actors.
Like he did with ESB and ROTJ

This is what I meant.

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psychic squidward said:

DominicCobb said:

“If you look past how bad they are, they aren’t that bad.”

I said if you look past the mistakes INSIDE the movies, they aren’t that bad.

So it’s what’s on the OUTSIDE that counts? What’s on the outside? The DVD cover? I guess the DVD covers aren’t terrible.

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By coincidence, just a couple of nights ago I decided to watch ROTS again – it has been about 10 years since I saw it. So I popped the DVD into the player and gave it a go. I honestly couldn’t remember much about it… how bad could it be?

What a serious C.F. that movie is. The CGI looks like some sort of bad cartoon, or maybe a silly video game. Plus it was all I could do to not just hit “stop” every time Anakin and Padme were in the same frame… I was actually embarrassed to even be watching it (“it’s because I’m so in love with you”… “no, it’s because I’M so in love with YOU.” Geez, kill me now, please!). And don’t get me started on that stupid dragon that Obiwon rides around for about half the film. Good god. And when Anakin walks into the room to kill the “younglings” - that was just pathetic, and in terribly bad taste. I didn’t make it through the lightsaber fight in the lava… I just lost interest when they were fighting on that boogie board, couldn’t take it anymore, and had to turn it off.

The only redeeming aspect of the film is that Palpatine is delightfully evil in fight with Mace Windu. Christopher Lee was a joke (sorry to say), and Grievous was laughable. ROTS may be considered by many to be the “best” of the prequels, but if that is true, it only goes to prove how seriously low a bar the previous two films set. In my opinion, this film is right there with Plan Nine from Outer Space… hey, “execute Order 66!” isn’t any better than - heck maybe was directly stolen from - “implement Plan 9!”.

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The answer to the question Are the Prequels that bad? is to list the things what is memorable about them.

  • virginal birth of Anakin Skywalker
  • the prophecy of the Chosen One
  • Midichlorians
  • Jar Jar Binks
  • Anakin/Padme romance dialogue
  • Darth Vaders NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
  • rigid blue screen cinematography
  • 85% CGI Effects vs 15% Practical Effects (that’s just my guess)
  • (feel free to continue the list)

In the end, the things that are memorable about the PT are mostly the dissapointing (=bad?) things.

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
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‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
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“Originaltrilogy” may not be the best place for an unbiased discussion, believe it or not.
For what it’s worth ROTS is my favourite Star Wars film, but again, “Originaltrilogy”, so I’m not opening up that box.

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 (Edited)

They are bad, but not that bad. Episode 3 is quite good outside of lame key scenes (which means that most of the movie actually works fine), Episode 1 is mediocre but watchable (thanks to great action sequences and some cool visual ideas). Only Episode 2 is an authentic failure. Their conception are nevertheless historic and many new things have been achieved (like CGI characters interacting with flesh and blood actors). I tend to think they are interesting movies (that can be even good thanks to fan-editing), especially with the hindsight of the new Disney’s movies, which are flat and pointless.

Haarspalter said:

  • rigid blue screen cinematography
  • 85% CGI Effects vs 15% Practical Effects

Yep. Like TFA and R1 by the way…

Lucas way of filming is rigid (it has always been; the guy is an editor, not a director), not the tools he developed. The “back to practical” trend of TFA/R1 is a marketing joke. Most of Disney’s new movies are CGI/blue-green screens filmmaking with a few props on set just for marketing purposes… And practical effects of the PT are great (Trade federation actors for example).

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MalàStrana said:

They are bad, but not that bad. Episode 3 is quite good outside of lame key scenes (which means that most of the movie actually works fine),

Which scenes aren’t lame and work fine?

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suspiciouscoffee said:

MalàStrana said:

They are bad, but not that bad. Episode 3 is quite good outside of lame key scenes (which means that most of the movie actually works fine),

Which scenes aren’t lame and work fine?

Most of the opening, from the crawl to the “happy landing”. Most of Palpatine scenes before he reveals himself as Sidious (Opera scene is very good). Most of the Kashyyyk scenes (all except the Yoda leaving in a tiny spaceship thing). Obviously all of “order 66” (except Anakin killing kids). All of Mustafar duel except a few dialogues. Obi-Wan at Utapau going rogue against Grievous (except Grievous death). Etc. Great stuff, great music, beautiful aesthetics, still strong cgi (except a few shots and elements that didn’t age very well). No wonder fanedited versions of Episode 3 are very good movies. But Lucas fails with the turning to the dark side scene. He should have kept it off screen, with this wonderful sequence as the real turning point (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hoXNXSpmng), not the later bullshit in Palpi’s office.

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I can watch Phantom Menace. The Holiday Special is more watchable than the other two.

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Just to pick on one of those supposed great scenes, Order 66 is terrible. The jedi are portrayed as clueless buffoons throughout the PT but at no point is it worse than that scene.

Obviously good? Lol.

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Not to mention the over the top emotional music when why should we really care about any of those people? Most of ROTS is pretty much bullshit when you get down to it. Even the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel is just a shiny, twirly dancing light show. It’s a problem throughout the film - all surface level candy, nothing of substance. It’s the most watchable of the three in my opinion but that’s not very saying much at all.

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MalàStrana said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

MalàStrana said:

They are bad, but not that bad. Episode 3 is quite good outside of lame key scenes (which means that most of the movie actually works fine),

Which scenes aren’t lame and work fine?

Most of the opening, from the crawl to the “happy landing”. Most of Palpatine scenes before he reveals himself as Sidious (Opera scene is very good). Most of the Kashyyyk scenes (all except the Yoda leaving in a tiny spaceship thing). Obviously all of “order 66” (except Anakin killing kids). All of Mustafar duel except a few dialogues. Obi-Wan at Utapau going rogue against Grievous (except Grievous death). Etc. Great stuff, great music, beautiful aesthetics, still strong cgi (except a few shots and elements that didn’t age very well). No wonder fanedited versions of Episode 3 are very good movies. But Lucas fails with the turning to the dark side scene. He should have kept it off screen, with this wonderful sequence as the real turning point (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hoXNXSpmng), not the later bullshit in Palpi’s office.

I agree. I think that Revenge of the Sith is a flawed yet still good movie. I consider Hal9000’s Labyrinth of Evil fanedit to be a REALLY good movie. Unpopular opinion on a site named originaltrilogy.com haha. But yes, I do consider episodes 1 and 2 to be bad movies. They are made into enjoyable movies with fanediting.

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