[Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
As much as I respect all of your opinions, I still get this huge feeling like a lot of you don't like the prequels simply because they -aren't- the OT. Sometimes it seems as though a lot of you had no problem effortlessly suspending your disbelief for the classic trilogy, but now it seems like you guys are expecting the prequel trilogy to be more perfect than the classic trilogy had to be.
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As much as I respect all of your opinions, I still get this huge feeling like a lot of you don't like the prequels simply because they -aren't- the OT. Sometimes it seems as though a lot of you had no problem effortlessly suspending your disbelief for the classic trilogy, but now it seems like you guys are expecting the prequel trilogy to be more perfect than the classic trilogy had to be.
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GoMer, I think you are genuine in your love for the PT, and I think there will always be a diehard PT fanbase, or saga fanbase out there, but I think many from your side just don't understand that the reason many of us don't love the PT movies is because they are not great movies, plain & simple. I think the debates about all the details we discuss, and there are countless of them from the PT, are just a sideshow or a mask for the real reason we don't love them.
Most friends I know who are SW fans think ANH & ESB are the two best, and it is split among us on which is our favorite. Fans like me who just love the good vs evil feelgood story probably love ANH, and fans that like the gritty, darker tone probably have ESB as their favorite. But make no mistake about it, in just movie terms, they are both classics IMO, and that has nothing to do with being a SW fan.
Those same friends all think ROTJ is inferior, some more then others, and ROTJ is the first movie in movie history that gets a pass because of it predecessors. In a movie sense ROTJ is an average movie that recycles many points from ANH, but in a SW sense, I still love it, why? Because it gives me a conclusion to my two favorite films of all-time, and it is a good enough sequel where it has passed the test of time 23 years later, when if I compared many films to the quality of ROTJ that I saw in 1983 and didn't have SW plastered on it, I wouldn't watch it ever again.
The PT movies are extension of ROTJ for many, but now we don't need the PT story to fulfill the OT story, and that is why many fans will watch an OK/average/pretty good ROTJ and will bury the PT movies. I feel ROTJ & The PT movies are on par: Great moments, and bad moments, and it is OK to have one movie that is alright in my trilogy of the OT, but now after watching 6 movies in the saga, you are asking me to watch 4 average movies?
Everyone here wanted to love the PT, and everyone I feel has given it a chance, and it just comes to down to them not liking it, but cause it is SW, you search for something that may change your mind. I do believe there were a faction of OT fans who would never love the PT, mainly cause of the characters. I do believe there were a faction of OT fans who would never love the PT, mainly cause of the story. But that happens whenever you make any sequel or prequel, cause no SW movie has ever grossed as much as ANH, so Lucas has been losing fans since 1980.