Originally posted by: Major fatal Moebius
Well, I don't know about you guys, but over the years, now being a little older, wiser, I've learned to appreciate the prequel trilogy a whole lot more than I used to. There's just too much greatness in it to blatantly ignore or scoff at. The OT and PT are two totally different creations (yet, with similar themes and interesting philosophical ideas), accept that and you'll find there's plenty of great stuff to be found in the prequels.

That said, while I'm very fond of The phantom menace and Revenge of the sith now I still can't totally get into Attack of the clones.

Of course, the PT is filled with terrific images, has some nice action scenes and is overflowing with thematic meaning and layered construction. In this regard its worth at least thinking about for a few moments. But a poorly constructed plot, terribly written characters and a rather hollow emotional core cannot be ignored--the films, as dramatic vehicles, which is what they are supposed to be, not intellectual exercises for us to analyse, are failures. But they are fascinating failures. Because even "bad" films have a lot of good elements in them. The sequels to The Matrix are very similar in their relation to the original that the prequels have--the two Matrix sequels have incredible images, some terrific action scenes and are overflowing with layered construction and thematic meaning. But the characters were poorly written through much of it, and the plot badly constructed--I think both of these are much stronger than what Lucas often accomplished, but they are not successes as emotional and dramatic vehicles.

I don't think the prequels should be written off, but I don't think any of here really did--we watched them, discussed them, watched them again, analysed them and discussed them some more. That is far more from fair, and so when we continue to criticise them I don't think its as simple as us not giving them their due. The successes that the films have within them--some clever subplotting, interesting thematic construction, etc--can only entertain you so far without having an emotional or dramatic core to hook us with. Thats why we continue to love the OT but continue to criticise the PT.