I like the prequels a lot. In fact, the more I watch them, the more I like them. Especially after the Disney trilogy (which I do NOT hate btw. Imagine someone actually hating a movie, … A MOVIE 😄 What a pathetic individual that must be. Save such deeply negative feelings for the people and situations that truly deserve them, not a piece of entertainment you don’t like because it’s not what you wanted it to be).
TPM is my favorite of the prequels. Yes, it has its problems and most of the film’s fans are quite aware of them, to a lesser or greater degree.
GL isn’t exactly the greatest director of human actors (he’s better with purely CGI ones - YES, Jar Jar actually has more personality than almost any other character in the film), the dialogue he writes is sometimes weak even for the purpose of his idea of a story that is told mainly through its visuals. And some of those visual ideas can at times come off as a bit too wacky, over the top or even cringeworthy (before you get used to them and eventually get to like them).And yet, he was able to create the most fascinating, rich and immersive universe by combining known mythological, sci-fi and fantasy themes and ideas with his own vision into this unique world of Star Wars. The world/universe full of the weirdest creatures you’ve ever seen, where the old fairytale-like struggle between good and evil takes place (in a story that actually has a lot more to say than the seemingly simple message on its surface).
I must give GL credit for creating something so imaginative, cool and deep that it has been able to fascinate and grab the interest of so many people of all ages, of many different intellects, professions, religions, etc. and maintain that interest for such a long time.
Even now, with its dated CGI, TPM immediately takes me back to the galaxy far far away anytime I watch it and leaves me with more impression than almost any other modern blockbuster.
For sure, the prequels have their own vibe and atmosphere, very different from the OT and yet so good in their own right. GL introduced us to this new and at the time not-so-perfect CGI technology (which he used in fascinating new ways and also overused, but still - it’s a rather uniform visual style and much of the the uniqueness of the prequels comes from how all those digital backgrounds, CGI creatures, vehicles and sets create this colorful, other-worldly atmosphere of the prequels’ galaxy. Just think about it - with the prequels we were introduced to so many fascinating new worlds, locations, spacecraft and aliens, all of them expanding upon everything that had been established in the OT. Greatly expanding the universe and its mythology.If the Disney trilogy failed to do one thing it was to let us discover new interesting worlds and capture our imagination the way GL did with his six movies. Always expanding his already rich galaxy in truly imaginative ways, bringing in more interesting and fascinating worlds, aliens and beautiful images overall. His CGI may not hold up to today’s standards but the visual ideas he provided us with are so much more interesting and vivid than the boring environments, aliens, costumes, etc. brought on by the sequels. Maybe it’s because those films were trying so desperately to mimic the OT’s atmosphere that they eventually became almost parodies if it. Plus they had no well thought out story arc and were throwing in ideas on the go
instead of having a good idea about where the story and the characters would go. TPM on the other hand is part of a coherent trilogy of films with a story that felt complete. Not all of it was super interesting (hi, how about an official release of the IMAX cut of AOTC?, gimme please), but at least I knew what and why was going on and felt it was ok if not always perfect.And no, by introducing new imaginative ideas and images I do not mean images of Lea flying around in open space. We’re not making a parody, we’re expanding upon a well established universe. (coming from a person who actually likes TLJ best out of the sequels).
Mostly agree with everything you’ve said.
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