The Worst thing about the prequel films for me as a fan.

Haley Joel Osment should have been Anakin in TPM.  He was of the right age, and had the acting chops to support such a pivotal role.

Hayden Christensen gave a great performance in Life as a House, so the boy can act.  I guess he just needs real sets and real scripts, but the blame is definitely still on him as much as anyone else.

Everyone failed.  Even Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Liam Neeson, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, and most of all, George Lucas.  Jonathan Hales couldn't even save the damage done by the time of AOTC.  I call bullshit on the claim that there was a backstory back in the 1970's that was "shelved" until later in favor of the "meat" of the story.  The prequels felt like they were written in haste starting in the 1990's.

I also believe that things just might have been better if the whole thing started with Episode I back in the day.  A more logical progression of filming technology, aging of characters, tools used in filmmaking, ships and locations, etc. would be shown in the films.  Things wouldn't be so damn jarring to the eyes and ears if the films were produced in order, and who knows what might have been.  A first episode concentrating on the story, imagine that.

There are also many things done within the films that are just wrong and disappointing on so many levels.  Characters died or no longer appeared, and I didn't give a shit.  Just think if both Maul and Jinn survived and went on to the events of Episode II.  What if, in a battle to establish who becomes Palpatine's right hand man, Maul and Tyranus/Dooku have a duel to the death?  THAT I could believe.  A Sith APPRENTICE taking out a Jedi MASTER like a punk, I don't believe.  Instead of dying in such a cheap, predictable, horrible way, how about a more noble death for Jinn on Geonosis, protecting his comrades?  By that time, the audience just may have started to care about him a little and it might have made an impact.

Woah, sorry for the novel.  I just get so mad about the blown opportunities.

The worst thing for me as a fan is the self-hypnosis that the fanboys undergo to convince themselves that the prequels are good movies.  

Trust me, the hypnosis is real.  I tried to imagine that the parallels between the OT and the PT meant quality and enjoyment.  I looked for Campbell-style "Heroes Call to Adventure" for the characters, as if it would give them some importance and gravitas.  I tried to make it work for a number of years until I had the realization that "Hey, those movies aren't very good."  

Let go of the denial, you fanboys.  Honesty doesn't make you less of a fan.

skyjedi2005 said:

Furthermore the fact that Anakin is more fleshed out as a character in the novels and comics as well as the 2 different clone wars animated series proves Lucas is a hack who cannot write.

Also the characters follow very little logic for what motivates them or compels them to comiit the actions they do in the prequel films.

It is the writing and characters where the films come apart and are hollow.  The visuals hold up, even if there is a bit of over reliance on cgi.

It is really a shame because someone could have come in and added all these things to the scripts in rewrites of Lucas skeleton plot, that followed and weaved a tale consistent withe the original trilogy from 1977-1983.

 

I would not be surprised to hear that Lucas asked Kasden and he was turned down, but it is probably more likely he wanted to control all aspects of the films creation and thought he could slide on by with nothing but visuals and people would overlook the lack of story because of the great visual quality.

It fits with his idea of cinema verite and non story content in films, a purely visual film that tells the story in visuals and carries it along with music and sound effects.

Lucas did ask Kasdan and yes kasdan turned him down. he said he did not  by the  anakin being a klid  story line and he did not think audiences would either. he went on to say that  he would just be trying to change lucas vision and its best if he did it by himself.  he knew the ot story line was crap.

Alexrd said:

haljordan28 v2.0

It's the other way around.  sky was hal before hal was hal.

I think somebody owes sky an apology.

I'm sorry sky.  To my knowledge, you never went on a thread making binge like hal did, nor have you mangled the english language the way hal has.

Still, the basic point stands.

Frink beat me to it, but yeah, hal = skyjedi 2.0, not the other way around.

Only, with hal, it's more like skyjedi plus a whole extra dump truck full of stubborn.  Oh, and hal's views are pretty much the polar opposite of sky's.

(Note that I think I may be getting haljordan and kenkraly mixed up in my mind, but I'm too lazy to figure out which is which right now.)