CO said:I still contend the whole idea of the Prequels was a letdown waiting to happen for many reasons:
1. No Luke, Leia, and Han. Sorry guys but characters drive movies, characters connect with the audience, there was no way any of us were going to love these movies because they were missing the big 3 from the OT.2. The more movies in a series, the more they suck. The Rocky series started getting ridiculous by Rocky IV, Superman series by Superman III, some will even say the Matrix by the second movie. How about Lethal Weapon IV, what a piece of crap, same director Richard Donner. Oh, and that Godfather III debacle.
3. The Prequels restrict storytelling. The one thing great about the OT when watching it for the first time is you never know where it is going to take you. Lucas could take the story wherever he wanted (eventually making Vader Lukes father). With the prequels, everytime he tried to go somewhere new, he had to keep with the basic outline of how everyone ends up in Episode IV. And even then he contradicted himself!
4. Lucas is past his prime. When was the last time Coppola made a great movie? Or William Friedken? Or Brian Depalma? Does anyone remember Eyes Wide Shut as Stanley Kubricks last movie? These were all great directors in the 70's, and they all had their run in the 70's, and in the 80's, but I can't think of a great movie any of them made by the late 90's.
5. Everything eventually loses that magic. Even great TV shows lose that 'it', as many movie series do somewhere along the line. Return of the Jedi is a good movie that ends the Trilogy well, IMO, but it does lack that spark of Star Wars and Empire, and it is just so hard to recapture movie magic, that is why classics, are just that, they are come around every so often.
1. No Luke, Leia, and Han. Sorry guys but characters drive movies, characters connect with the audience, there was no way any of us were going to love these movies because they were missing the big 3 from the OT.
When Luke Leia and Han first appeared we didn't know them. The film and the actors sold us on them. The same could have happened with the PT's characters if they were written, directed and cast right.
5. Everything eventually loses that magic. Even great TV shows lose that 'it', as many movie series do somewhere along the line. Return of the Jedi is a good movie that ends the Trilogy well, IMO, but it does lack that spark of Star Wars and Empire, and it is just so hard to recapture movie magic, that is why classics, are just that, they are come around every so often.
It was not necessary for Star Wars to lose its magic so drastically. Star Wars didn't so much lose its magic as have the magic forcefully ripped from it. ROTJ has every inch the spark of ANH and ESB. The magic wasn't shown to be gone until the SE (unless you count the ewok tv crap) and then the magic was pretty much nuked. There was absolutely no need for the prequels to have been as bad as they were. They demonstrate a shocking lack of concern for consistency with the story, spirit and unspoken rules of the OT. It would not have taken much to try a little harder to make actual Star Wars films rather than just films that bore the star wars name. And then we could have a PT that could be a lot more satisfying than what we have now. To me, it's not that Star Wars so much lost its magic as like there was no attempt whatsoever to keep that magic.
4. Lucas is past his prime. When was the last time Coppola made a great movie? Or William Friedken? Or Brian Depalma? Does anyone remember Eyes Wide Shut as Stanley Kubricks last movie? These were all great directors in the 70's, and they all had their run in the 70's, and in the 80's, but I can't think of a great movie any of them made by the late 90's.
Old fimmakers can make good films too. Plus Lucas could have let other filmmakers play a part.
3. The Prequels restrict storytelling. The one thing great about the OT when watching it for the first time is you never know where it is going to take you. Lucas could take the story wherever he wanted (eventually making Vader Lukes father). With the prequels, everytime he tried to go somewhere new, he had to keep with the basic outline of how everyone ends up in Episode IV. And even then he contradicted himself!
There was still a lot we didn't know that could have made a fascinating story, instead of the crap we got.