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Looks like the prequels are not aging well.

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Almost four years now since ROTS and 10 since TPM. Most people I know and talk on the internet with seem to loath them even more now. Even ones who initially liked them say they take it back and hate them now. A lot of the Lucas apalogist were trying to pull the same idea the George W. Bush apalogist were trying saying time will make the prequels look better. It ain't gonna happen.

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My best friend said ROTS was his favorite Star Wars film right after he got out of the theater.

A couple of years later he started noticing all of the things horribly wrong with it, and that was the same period I "sorta" liked it... and one time I told him to come watch ROTS with me since I was in town, and he grew disgusted. I asked "What don't you like about it?"

He said: "There's nothing to like."

We did try to watch it, and only sat through a few minutes. Later we just decided to go play Dungeons & Dragons instead.

Basically Darth Vader is his favorite villain since childhood (mine also), and TPM and AOTC got him hyped up to see the dramatic transformation. He felt Darth Vader was put to shame with ROTS. Instead of being a badass, he was still the childish Anakin from AOTC.

So yeah, I know what you mean.

I almost get the impression that "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is Lucas' attempt to put in a good name for himself after the travesty that was the prequel trilogy. He knows they're bad, and I see the new series as a cloaked attempt to redeem himself.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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I noticed that I liked each movie when it first came out, and hated it by the time the next came out. Then a few years after ROTS came out and I hate that, I go back to TPM and say, "Hey, it's not that bad."

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ask the kids and younger people. they'll say different. i like them, but i admit that there are flaws in the PT.

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*ahem* I am one of those "younger people". When I first watched Phantom Menace, I thought it was the most boring movie I've ever seen, but when I re-watched it I thought it was interesting in a way, since I knew what was happenning (but Jar-Jar still sucks). When I first watched Attack of the Clones, I thought it was interesting, but with lame dialogue sometimes. When I re-watched it, I didn't enjoy it that much. When I first watched Revenge Of The Sith, I thought it was great. When I re-watched it, I thought it was good, but lame corny dialogue sometimes. I haven't re-watched Episode IV, V, and IV yet.

Remember, I just became a Star Wars fan in December. That's only about 2 months ago.

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People around here do need to stop dividing the age groups. contrary to popular belief, age has little to do if you like the prequels or the original trilogy. to say otherwise is just ignorant.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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Seriously, just look around the internet you'll find tons of 35 year old guys defending the prequels and 14 year olds who think they're a joke. Add to that all the really young kids who mainly like the toys and the cartoon, which is a separate thing of it's own.

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DarkFather said:People around here do need to stop dividing the age groups. contrary to popular belief, age has little to do if you like the prequels or the original trilogy. to say otherwise is just ignorant.

Yeah, back in summer '02, I heard pretty much everyone ragging on Clones - older people, my friends, my younger brother, even this little kid talking to his dad outside the theater. (Just so it doesn't look like I'm picking on Clones, I actually liked it when it first came out).

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I really hope that this comes true... I remember lots of people, not just me, saying that the PT would be shown up as the crap it is over time... that 30 years after the PT, people will not love those films like people still loved the OT in '97... I just hope that in 2029 I can have a good laugh to myself about how much Luca$h threw away the respect SW had by treating the OT the way he has... thing is, he's in it for the money, so not much hope of him giving a toss anyway...

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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auraloffalwaffle said:

I really hope that this comes true... I remember lots of people, not just me, saying that the PT would be shown up as the crap it is over time... that 30 years after the PT, people will not love those films like people still loved the OT in '97... I just hope that in 2029 I can have a good laugh to myself about how much Luca$h threw away the respect SW had by treating the OT the way he has... thing is, he's in it for the money, so not much hope of him giving a toss anyway...

 

 now that's not fair to assume lucas just wants the money. he doesn't even need money he's so god damn rich!

anyways, the PT will stick out for many people especially future film makers. when ur kids are born they'll laugh at the

OT. Though, i'm with everyone when i say that the OT is better then the PT.

 

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Why will it stick out? In a "you know how you were thinking of doing this? Well, this guy did and, well, just look at it, will ya?!!!" kinda way?

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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I think people way overanalyze the age group philosophy, I just think that most sequels/prequels don't age well over time.

I can tell you as a kid I loved Rocky III & Rocky IV ALOT more then Rocky I.  I loved Superman II ALOT more then Superman:The Movie.  I loved Return of the Jedi alot more then Star Wars and Empire.

Simply because they were fresh and I had seen the originals so many times, but as time wore on and the views of those movies even out, you realize that the original are usually better.

The Prequels are the same way, I enjoyed each movie in the theater, and on my initial view on DVD, but as time wore on, they weren't as great as the OT, and my views of them lessened.

I still don't buy that the PT will all of the sudden be loved once the old folks like us stop complaining about them.  Case in point, Godfather III sucked in 1990, sucked in 2000, and still sucks in 2009, nothing can change that.

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rcb said:

ask the kids and younger people. they'll say different. i like them, but i admit that there are flaws in the PT.

 

 They'll change their minds when they grow up.

rcb said:
 

 now that's not fair to assume lucas just wants the money. he doesn't even need money he's so god damn rich!

anyways, the PT will stick out for many people especially future film makers. when ur kids are born they'll laugh at the OT. Though, i'm with everyone when i say that the OT is better then the PT.

 

I think future filmmakers wil sneer at the PT. Or ignore it. Nor do I think there's any reason to assume kids in the future will laugh at the OT. They may love it.

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rcb said:
auraloffalwaffle said:

I really hope that this comes true... I remember lots of people, not just me, saying that the PT would be shown up as the crap it is over time... that 30 years after the PT, people will not love those films like people still loved the OT in '97... I just hope that in 2029 I can have a good laugh to myself about how much Luca$h threw away the respect SW had by treating the OT the way he has... thing is, he's in it for the money, so not much hope of him giving a toss anyway...

 

 now that's not fair to assume lucas just wants the money. he doesn't even need money he's so god damn rich!

anyways, the PT will stick out for many people especially future film makers. when ur kids are born they'll laugh at the

OT. Though, i'm with everyone when i say that the OT is better then the PT.

 

I think the OT will age a lot better than the PT. The biggest attraction of the PT was the flashy cgi which already looks a bit dated. Once the effects don't look so great and imaginative anymore then the crappy acting and dialogue will be brought to the forefront.

 

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Already has done, in fact... SW77 & ESB are standing the test of time very, very well (if you discount the various SEs)... TPM on the other hand... only 10 years down the line and it looks even more like a painfully average bit of sub-Disney-live-action-kids-movie-fluff than it did originally... the sporadic flashes of po-faced lightsabre weilding look all the more out of place now... adrift, as they are, in a sea of twee... SW77 was smart enough to inject a bit of fun and cynicism into the mix, in the form of Han Solo... he was the character everybody admired... not Luke or Obi-Wan... it's been said many times... the PT needed the smartness of a Han Solo in there for the 'straight' characters to work off... someone to cut through the pomposity with a well-delivered quip or flirtatious one-liner...

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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The original trilogy still looks great, its effects are dated, but they looked damn good for their time, and still hold up quite well. If kids are not laughing at the OT today, they aren't going to be. None of the effects are really all that laughable. The thing was built to last, and it shows.

The SE however, has already had to under go a refit. And will under go another no doubt before its eventual Blu-ray release. I concede that if kids are watching the crappy CG graphics of a SE that hasn't recently been redone, they might laugh.

 

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Hell, I laugh at them all the time, C3PX! And I'm not even a kid!!!

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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They never could get Jabba to look right in the Special Editions.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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No... and I hate the thing with Han walking over his tail... that was a terrible idea...

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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auraloffalwaffle said:

No... and I hate the thing with Han walking over his tail... that was a terrible idea...

Yeah it was. It came from Han walking around him in the original footage, which would only have been possible with a human Jabba, not with a huge monster, proof that they originally planned to put Jabba on screen as human. Zombie84's Secret History of Star Wars site has an article about Jabba originally being meant to be human in the finished film despite official accounts claiming he was intended to be alien. But the walking around bit is my own observation.

auraloffalwaffle said:

TPM on the other hand... only 10 years down the line and it looks even more like a painfully average bit of sub-Disney-live-action-kids-movie-fluff than it did originally... the sporadic flashes of po-faced lightsabre weilding look all the more out of place now... adrift, as they are, in a sea of twee... SW77 was smart enough to inject a bit of fun and cynicism into the mix, in the form of Han Solo... he was the character everybody admired... not Luke or Obi-Wan... it's been said many times... the PT needed the smartness of a Han Solo in there for the 'straight' characters to work off... someone to cut through the pomposity with a well-delivered quip or flirtatious one-liner...

TPM is pretty fluffy. It's very lightweight. But despite that it still has more to it than the later two prequels, which just goes to show how bad they are.

Han was great. A definite contender for best Star Wars character. I once thought Darth Vader was the best, but the best are really Han and Leia, because the actors do such a great job bringing those characters to life.

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I think Han breathes life into the OT... without such a character, it would be a distressingly earnest, po-faced affair... his character is there to subvert that aspect of such a grandiose, operatic story... I have to say, in my later years, the dialogue between Han and Luke about Leia as they travel to Yavin has delighted me more and more... I didn't really 'get' that when I was younger... I mean I understood it... superficially... but Ford really loads that short scene with playfulness and good humour...

The dialogue between him and Leia in ESB is so good... again, it brings humour and humanity into the film... "my hands are dirty too... what're y'afraid of...?"

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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Vaderisnothayden said:

Yeah it was. It came from Han walking around him in the original footage, which would only have been possible with a human Jabba, not with a huge monster, proof that they originally planned to put Jabba on screen as human. Zombie84's Secret History of Star Wars site has an article about Jabba originally being meant to be human in the finished film despite official accounts claiming he was intended to be alien. But the walking around bit is my own observation.

There was an old CD-ROM called Making Magic, which came out before the SE and is about the SE changes. It is kind of funny to watch, because it documents George and his small army of yes men as they go about brainstorming how to make some of the SE changes work. I haven't watch this thing since it was released, though I still have a copy lying around. I remember a scene were George and his guys discuss the problem of the tail, and eventually decide having Han step on it is the best way to make it work. There is also a scene where they come up with the name for the Ronto, and they decided it looks somewhat like a Bronotosaurus, which is often appreviated Bronto, and so decided on the name Ronto.

I wonder if anyone has ever decided to preserve this CD-Rom as a DVD? If all the video could be extracted, it would be very easy to remake the menus and build a DVD with it. Video is highly compressed, but it is an interesting piece of the SE chapter of Star Wars' history.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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If anyone's interested in making such a project, I have the disc and know just where it is.  I'd gladly donate it.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Rontos. Oh god, fuck rontos. Seriously, we don't need all that revisey crap. Mos Eisley was cool the way it was.

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So true... SW77 had pace... it didn't need to sacrifice that to show you a load of "establishing shots" of what Mos Eisley was like... we knew enough from Ben's description and the settings of the subsequent scenes...

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!