Could the prequels fill out three films? Some say the story was stretched thin--i agree that the optimal way to tell this story is to make one grande prequel, a sort of three hour Episode III. But there is a lot of stuff before that that is very good--the machinations of Palpatine, the downfall of the senate, the transition from peace time to political tensions to outright war, the discovery of Anakin Skywalker, the adventures of young Obi Wan and young Anakin. Once again, there is a very good reason why Lucas didn't just make a single film, and there is a very good reason why we all thought a prequel showing these things would be great. If handled correctly, this could have been equally as good as a solitary prequel, perhaps better as it would be grander, richer and more developed. Return of the King could be designed to sort of work by itself, jumping in the middle of the story the way a stand-alone-Episode III or the original Star Wars did, but it enriched by the two films which came before it which start at the impetus of the whole plot and follow it to its conclusion. I really hate to keep comparing the prequels to LOTR, and i don't really think that LOTR films are the greatest in the world, but they are along the lines of what the prequels should have been like. FOTR is light and whimsical, for the real gravity of the story has not yet entered, and we meet all the characters and have all the beginings and exposition and history fleshed out, but its told with heart and humour, and there is still a pervasive undertone of darkness, a serious drama that undercuts the lightness of the humble beginnings. TTT of course is where the plot begins to thicken as characters begin to change, the drama begins to unfold and things start going wrong--its tense and exciting and compelling. Then ROTK finally brings the story to its climax as all the storylines built up for two films finally are consumated and the epic battle is fought--Episode III of course, being a tragedy would not have the optimistic half hour coda: imagine how powerful the film would be if as Frodo is dangling of the edge of the crack of Doom, he falls in, only to be dragged out as the monster that Gollum was, while the last stand of Minas Tirrith is defeated and all the characters are killed except for Gandalf and Aragorn who limp away in retreat as the world is overtaken by Sauron. It would have been a heartwrenching and powerful film. If Lucas had constructed the prequels with the same gripping drama and human center that Peter Jackson gave his Rings trilogy--flawed as those films may sometimes be--we would have all welcomed with open arms the new six-episode Tragedy of Darth Vader.
The prequels, the way Lucas chose to make them-- due to his limitations as a writer and director, his poor choices, and his lack of serious collaboration with other creatives in construction of the story--do not dramatically work in the way that they were intended to, in the same way that Lord of the Rings trilogy does. Because of this, it is preferable that the films, as they now are, not be part of the original trilogy storyline, but told as a seperate series or incorperated as flashbacks in a sequel-prequel-trilogy. Even then however, the many flaws of the trilogy will not go away--the won't affect the original films in as damaging a way as they do now, but the fundamental failures of the series will remain. The films of course have many good moments in them because Lucas is not a total hack; occassionally things come together. TPM is kind of cute as a childrens fantasy film, Attack of the Clones has some nice B-movie homages and a pretty interesting side story on Tatooine, and Revenge of the Sith has many gripping action scenes and even some refreshingly compelling human drama in it. This is why so many fans cannot let go of the films completely--I've talked to many "gushers" recently whom i sense are realising that the films overall are not all that great, but they feel torn to allegiance to them because they love Star Wars and because the prequels have these occassional moments of goodness that make you want to watch them once in a while. But the films failed simply because they were not written well or directed well. Its as simple as that. The material was mishandled and the human drama was completly lost.
I like the idea of combining the sequel and prequel trilogies--its twenty years after ROTJ, and we see how Luke and company are rebuilding the galaxy. Maybe Luke has begun anew the Jedi order and his young student, perhaps even his own son whom he is training, asks him about his grandfather, maybe twenty minutes into the film, thus beginning the real thrust of the story as Luke sits him down and narrates the sordid story--the way this device was wonderfully used in The Princess Bride. We could occassionally cut back to Luke and his son as the youngster interupts the story at key points, and when the prequel tale finally finishes it could cause Luke to reflect on where he and his friends are bringing the New Republic and the New Jedi Order, so that the past is not repeated, as we finally say goodbye to the galaxy in a brief twenty minute coda.
Its a true shame that we have to continue to fantasize about the how the prequels could unfold after they have already been told. Of course defenders of the franchise say that we had preconcived notions and high expectations: to which one can only say "duh." We sure did. But just as Empire Strikes Back not only had a lot of preconcieved notions and high expectations riding on it, it wasn't at all what was expected, but this is considered the strongest film in the entire series. After The Two Towers, there was a lot of expectation for Return of the King, and since the story had already been around as novels that were beloved by millions of fans all over the world, there definitily was a lot pre-concieved notions, and especially when Jackson had to change so much of the structure to accomodate the medium of cinema rather than literature. But the film was a smashing success, and although some fans had criticisms about this and that and although the film may not be quite as good as some hyped it out to be, it is indeed a gripping, exciting and touching human drama that still manages action and scale twice as big as the entire prequel trilogy combined. You don't win best picture and best director for a so-so film--even if you think it didn't deserve all its praise, it is enough to say that the story was successful in its telling. So my point is that it is definitly possible to tell a prequel story that would have been praised and enjoyed and defied our expectations and was touching and moving. Lucas simply failed as a storyteller, as a director and writer.