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What do you think of the Prequel Trilogy? a general discussion thread

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 (Edited)

 
What do you guys think of the Prequel Trilogy? Is it good? bad?, mixed?, sucks?

The Reason I am asking is some PT fans say ROTS is better then ESB

How can they say that ??? losers lolz. I don’t like the Prequel Trilogy, I wish George Lucas never made it!

 

Mod Edit: There is also a similar thread for Sequel Trilogy discussion - here, and another for OT discussion (of sorts) - here.

May the force be wth you .........
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I love the entire SW saga, and what makes any one movie great makes them all great to me, because it's all part of one big awesome (IMHO) story.

I don't think people who disagree with me are losers though, I accept that not everyone will agree with me and don't need to make myself feel better by calling other people names.
Your focus determines your reality.
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I don't think the PT is great filmmaking by any means, but I can enjoy them for what they are. Honestly, they could have been a lot worse.
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Did we really need a new thread for this? Just browse the titles of other threads and you'll find a variety of opinions.

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I find them very disappointing. I hate the glossy, computer-generated textures, surfaces, sets and people. I think the scripts are poor when compared to the OOT and I think the character of Anakin is particularly poorly realised, in terms of writing and performance, in all three films. I think the treatment of the Force and of the Jedi and Sith orders show an emphasis on spectacle rather than depth of thought. The plot whereby Palpatine is seeking to take control of the galaxy has always struck me as unnecessarily complicated and never becomes fully clear (and I mean this in a "how unsatisfying" rather than a "how intriguing" kind of way). I hate the day-glo Disney colours and lighting. I hate the way ROTS proposes to tie-up all the loose ends between the PT and the OOT within about half an hour of screen time. I hate the way the PT demonstrates so little genuinely convincing depth in any of its characters. I struggle to be convinced that Anakin and Ben are genuinely friends. I struggle to be convinced that Yoda is as great a Jedi as his reputation. I struggle to be convinced that Natalie Portman is the same actress as was in Leon. The PT fails to hit the mark when it comes to comedy, drama, romance or tragedy. It is a mess. It is average. It is shallow. It is patchy.

This is, of course, just my opinion. Thanks for letting me share.
Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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I dont think they are cinematic masterpieces by a stretch, but I like them and find the story interesting enough and I enjoy them enough for two hours and that will do me...
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I honestly don't see how the prequel movies could have been any worse. Are they the worst films ever? No way, but again, they couldn't have been worse unless George Lucas were to intentionally try to do just that while making them. Just my opinion.
40,000 million notches away
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There are only four good things about the prequel trilogy in my mind. They are:

--Liam Neeson. He saved the Phantom Menance. The rest of the acting was crap, but he balanced it out and brought some much needed dignity to the film. He also embodied what a jedi should be. Right up until the moment he died and his body DIDN'T disappear.

--Darth Maul. C'mon, admit it, he was a cool vilain. I'm not usually one for flashy visuals, but his dual sided lightsaber was pretty darn cool too. They ruined it with his brief speaking part though.

--The duel at the end of TPM. (Duel of the fates.) That was a cool lightsaber fight. Very well coreograpahed, and genuinally exciting. Unlike the other battles in the PT, it wasn't all just flashy visuals and spinning lightsabers. They were actually trying to fight, and it was cool. The music was great in this scene as well.

--John Williams's score, by far the best thing about the PT. It was the only thing that felt remotely like the OT. Was it as good as the OT score? Not even close. That's nothing against John Williams, but think of the source material he had to inspire his music on the OT compared to the PT. You can easily see why there is a differance in the music quality. Also, Williams had evolved as a composer as this point, and stopped using levimotifs for charecters. He now used them more for emotions and places, which, while still good, doesn't have the brilliance of the OT music. I mean, without seeing the OT, you can tell a definate story from just the music, with the resounding themes and brilliant one use pieces.


Other than that, the PT was awful. It was nothing like a Star Wars film, and fucks up the OT whenever you watch it. I choose to ignore it when I watch SW, ESB, or ROTJ. My dad can't ignore it, and as such points out all the innacuracies in the two films. Part of that is he's still under the delusion that Lucas had a master plan from the beginning. I've tried to explain to him the truth, but he doesn't exactly get it, which makes it kind of annoying to watch the Star Wars trilogy with him.

One thing that REALLY pissed me off about the PT was how much it dicked with the concept of the force. In TPM, they try to make us believe it is a blood type, and in AOTC and ROTS it's a weapon of mass destruction. Yoda is constantly getting in to fights using the force, and it was silly. The force is, simply, the whole universe, and everything grows from it. How you can use it does ont depend on the type of blood you have, but what kind of person you are. The Jedi do not "manipulate" the force. They become in tune with it, and it helps them, and they help it. They tap into in thier darkest hour, and it rewards them.

When a Jedi dies, they are so in tune with the force, they simply become one with it. Dying and becoming a force ghost is NOT A TECHNIQUE. This little bit in the PT pissed me off, and completely tarnishes what the force is. The force is everything, so naturally, everyone becomes one with it when they die, but some moreso than others. The Jedi, because of how they used it in thier lives, are able to truly become a living, breathing part of the force, which is why they are able to return to the world through it. If the force is everything, then when your physical body disappears into it, you are part of it and can once again become part of "everything" when you are dead. Why would that be a technique? Why? If your body never dissolved in to it, then how can you later become part of it?

Plus, when watching the OT, it's just a given that when Jedi die they diappear. You don't have to get in to all the metaphorical stuff.

There are other reasons I hate the PT, like the acting, the writing, the plot, the CGI, and other things like that, but how they messed with the force in it is unacceptable. Completely inexcusiable, and I will always hate it for that.
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As I have said earlier, the problem for me with the PT is that Lucas tries to marry this character arc of Anakin Skywalker to the OT now as one big story, and it just doesn't work, cause the OT was not written that way.

Lucas to me has gone Vader crazy ever since 'I am your father' and though that is a great moment in SW-ville, it is when the saga became too narrow on the dealings with Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. I just dont want to see Anakin Skywalker as the star of SW for 6 movies now, and that is why the PT doesn't fit the OT.

As much as the OT was about Luke, it wasn't solely about him, Han & Leia were just as important to how everything occurs in the three OT movies. The PT is about Anakin, and if anyone disagrees, just check out the 9 year old kid in TPM playing Anakin, right there I saw that and thought, 'Character arc?" That is why Lucas says it is the tragedy of Darth Vader as the saga story now, it is the character arc of that character, and if you don't love that character, or don't find him compelling you aint gonna love the movies, no matter what quality they are.

Lucas should have given equal screentime in all 3 movies to Anakin, Obiwan, and Padme the same way he did with Luke, Leia, and Han. Even though Anakin is the star of the PT, his turn to the darkside should have been a plot point, not a turning point, or a build up of 3 movies as Lucas wrote it.

He wrote the first two movies in anticipation of Anakin turning, that is why they seem like setup movies now, cause they are! Once Anakin turns, the real story of the PT happens, but the problem is there is only an hour left in the trilogy, and all the good shit is either tossed or put in a montage to music like a greatest hits.

Sure we need to know certain things from TPM & AOTC, but they plod along for 4 1/2 hours of EU stuff that is nice to read in a novel, but not in the movies. ROTS should have been the PT story, and not just Darth Vader running around killing people as Lucas accuses many of us of wanting, but the Clone Wars, the birth of the Rebellion, the Jedi Council all should have been more prevailent in the main story rather than just plot points, or having to watch some cartoon to get more info.

Lucas put the scope too much on Anakin, and it started in ROTJ with Vaders redemption, but turned out pretty good, cause it was a subplot to the Luke and the Rebels story.

The future of the saga 1-6 will not come down to quality per say, but do you want to see 6 movies about the story of Anakin Skywalkers rise, fall, and redemption, and I believe that is a harder story to sell to the masses then the uplifting story of Luke, Leia, and Han. That is why I believe you will have a diehard niche fanbase of saga lovers, but not nearly as big as the OT crowd cause it is too narrow of a story. I wanted the PT to be a backstory, not a linear story, just a telling of the events that happened before Episode IV, but didn't totally need to marry the trilogies to gain its value. For me, whatever we say about Jar Jar, and midiclorians, I am not interested in 6 movies about Anakin Skywalker, it is just not that interesting.
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Yes but all fans own the whole saga now even if they think the PT sucks
May the force be wth you .........
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Originally posted by: SW
Yes but all fans own the whole saga now even if they think the PT sucks



Yes, and I also have the Rocky boxset too of all 5 movies, but that wont blind me to believe that Rocky V still sucks, and The Original Rocky is the one of the greatest movies ever. Quality trumps boxsets anyday.
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Originally posted by: SW
Yes but all fans own the whole saga now even if they think the PT sucks


So I'm not a fan
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Me neither, Scruffy!

Ain't no damn PT in my collection.
Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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What PT?
He big in nothing important in good elephant.

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Originally posted by: SW
What do u guys think of the PT ?? Is it good? bad, sucks ?

I don't own the PT. But I've thought about buying Ep.1 just for the lightsaber battle at the end. THAT is good, as is the music that accompanies it.

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Originally posted by: SW
Yes but all fans own the whole saga now even if they think the PT sucks
Not ALL fans do, as you can plainly see above.

I do own the PT, but the inferiority of those films to the originals saddens me. I continue to watch particular parts of each of them, but I find I'm not often inclined to sit down and watch them in their entirety.

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I would guess that a majority of people on this site (originaltrilogy) DON'T own all the prequels. And quite a large percentage don't own any of them.

So, no, we don't own them. Not all of us are hypocrites.

I don't. I thought about ROTS, which had moments of goodness, but on a second watching (rental) the dullness and stiupid scenes stood out even more, and I realised it was just a mediocre sci-fi movie like the first two prequels.
Darth Lucas: I am altering the trilogy. Pray I don't alter it further.
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I don't hate the PT, though I thought all three were dissapointing films - especially ROTS. I feel that each has its moments amidst its many flaws, but overall I thought they were decent films and I own all of them.

I think Lucas is a horrible director in his old age. Or maybe it has something to do with there not being anyone to question his decision-making. But the acting in all three films was subpar at best and there are countless lines that are just awful. The action carries these films, not the characters, and an outstanding soundtrack makes up for a lot of things that might otherwise be too distracting to tolerate.

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I always felt that John Williams was a big part of what made the originals better than the sum of it's parts too.

I feel like much of the emotional resonance comes from the music he wrote.

Luke saying Noooo! as he saw Ben disappear could have been fairly cheesey with different music I think.
Your focus determines your reality.
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TPM=best of the bunch
AOTC=Worst (crap acting)
ROTS=crap acting again and Anakin's turn wasn't convincing enough, spoilt the whole movie for me.
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I've got a whole list of changes that _I_ think would of made the film better. I've posted it before, I'll have to find it cd somewhere...

I tought Maddox had a hilarious review of ROTS:

Here
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Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic

Luke saying Noooo! as he saw Ben disappear could have been fairly cheesey with different music I think.

I actually thought that his reading of that line was very heartfelt and convincing, as was the scene immediately following it where Leia is consoling him. I think Mark Hamill's performance in SW was his most natural and unaffected out of the the 3 films.

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Originally posted by: Mielr
I actually thought that his reading of that line was very heartfelt and convincing, as was the scene immediately following it where Leia is consoling him. I think Mark Hamill's performance in SW was his most natural and unaffected out of the the 3 films.


Hamill acted much better than his reputation in all three movies. [sacrilege]I actually thought there were a couple of instances in Star Wars where Harrison Ford looked pretty awful:


- The way the blaster flopped around as he fired at the stormtroopers in Docking Bay 94. Those bolts should have gone everywhere.

- "What's so important? What's he carrying?" That delivery smelled bad.


Don't get me wrong - he acted well for most of the movie and he stole the show in ESB, but he was surprisingly uneven in Star Wars.

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