How do you see the PT?

Now, let's see if I can't get this topic going without some flaming.  What I'm wondering is, do you view the PT as a part of Star Wars?  Remotely?  Or do you just disregard it?

This idea I saw in the " fanedits" section was very interesting: someone (Golden Idol?) thinks of them like special features on a DVD.  A side story, if anything.  And heck, I agree.

I just disregard them. I'll watch my extremely trimmed down and edited version of TPM from time to time, because for all its flaws, it still felt like a Star Wars movie, and back when it came out, the prequels still had the potential to be something really cool. I really couldn't ever watch AOTC again, even if I were to consider it only a side story. To me it is as unwatchable as any movie with Jim Carrey in it (and I do not watch Jim Carrey films, because they make me want to puncture my jugular with whatever is handy). ROTS is depressing to watch, because there was so much potential there that was wasted. Should have been awesome, but it was so over the top ridiculous in all regards. So yeah, AOTC makes me suicidal and ROTS depresses me ;) So I try to stay as far away from them as possible.

Around 2004-2005, I tried a couple of times to watch the movies in numerical order, with the 2004 OT, just to see if it worked, and if I could see the OT in the context of the PT.  It was... interesting.  With a strong suspension of disbelief, supression of the history of the development of Star Wars, and a grandiose imagination, it is possible.  However, I quickly learned that I preferred to watch each movie in context of itself, not in terms of its retcons:  I watch Star Wars truly believing everything that Owen and Ben claim at face value.  I watch Empire happy to see Luke and Leia make out because the love triangle is totally legitimate. 

Since I no longer watch the 2004 versions at all (after having gotten the GOUT), the prequels have become a different story.  Without the forcefed changes, the OT doesn't fit with it nearly as well.  Granted, even with the forcefed changes, it's still pretty incongruous... a fault of the PT, not the OT.  Ultimately, though, I don't really think about it.  I still watch the PT on occasion and enjoy it for it what it is and occasionally hate it for what it is.  And for the connections/allusions/foreshadowing to the OT that are made, I briefly try to make the connection without thinking about it too hard.

Eh, I guess what I'm trying to say is that, while watching the PT, I can manage to see the OT  as the future of that.  However, while watching the OT, it's much harder to see the prequels, exactly as they are, as being the past.  It's a bit more of a stretch.

I pretty much disregard them/ pretend they don't exist.

If it wasn't for the occasional blog writer/ internet poster/ comedian / Robot Chicken / Family Guy making fun of them every now and then I'd have almost successfully forgotten them.

When I watch SW and I hear Luke or Obi Wan talking about Luke's father/ Anakin Skywalker in the OOT I don't even think of Hayden Anakin except on the odd occasion. Even in 2005 when the movies were fresh in my mind my brain couldn't make the connection.

When watching SW and I think of the era before the dark times, before the Empire I actually think of the vague imagery I used think about pre late 90's (made up in my head of course).

But it hasn't been all that easy. It just means I have to cut everything out of my SW life that isn't the OOT. Which isn't a huge loss. I'm actually pretty content, things are just far more simple.

I am going to give you guys a different take on the PT. First, I never expected the PT to be as good as the OT, so I never felt betrayed like many of my friends when they didn't live up. The big reason why I never expected them to be great is I felt it was impossible for Lucas to recapture the magic he had with the OT characters. How could he do it again and make new characters as good as Luke, Leia and Han? That was a lightning in a bottle and the chemistry was second to none in any movie I have ever scene.

As for the PT, I definitely have mixed emotions.  I do like the overall story it tells, and in that respect, it really tells a cool story 1-6 when you look it at in a macro sense.  I think Lucas miscalculated if you look at the 1-6 story as Anakin's, because it is definitely the worst written character of the Prequels. 

What I do to enjoy the PT is look at it in a macro sense, and look at the story 1-6 as the beginning as to how a democratic republic falls to corruption and is taken over by a dictatorship through War and Power, and then how a band of rebels fight back to bring the democracy back and end the destruction of Evil that haunts the galaxy for 20 years.

In that respect, Lucas is telling a pretty cool story, how Palpatine manipulates his way to the top, while getting elected, sort of the same way as Hitler did it.  Then all the characters are players in this macro story and you can follow them to the end as Luke, Leia, Han, and the rebels celebrate after they defeat tyranny. 

All in all, I don't hate the PT, yet I don't love it either, it is just there, cause it is SW, and it has its moments.  I still love the OT simply because they are better and aren't cluttered with Lucas problems that pervade the PT, but if you guys put aside Anakins story, and try to look at the 6 movies in a macro way, it really gives the OT alot more depth to already great trilogy.

i really enjoy all of the PT,

the first was Ok, the second was much better, and the third was excellent..

i have phantom menace on laserdisc , way before it came out on dvd....

i've watched the prequels many many more times than the originals,

because there is so much cool stuff, and things going on that you can

keep watching them over and over and not get tired of them..

i really like all the special effects, the CG, and atmosphere in them..

to me they totally outshine the original trilogy as a whole (but none

of them are individually better than the original star wars).

i'm not that hardcore a fan, so i don't mind the midichlorians, and all

the other changes that are in it... heck, i don't even mind jar-jar from

a technical viewpoint because basically = c3po (which i never did like)..

the saber battles are a huge improvement, the fight scenes are more epic,

and the gravity and drama in the third were thrilling to watch, and cool to

see how they link everything together...

the PT, right after the SE has made me come back to all the star wars  movies,

and become a huge fan again.... yes, i read the novels, comic books, etc..

but as good as those were.. nothing can match seeing a movie on screen

bring about the ideas that Lucas had for star wars as a whole, and its great

that he's continuing on with the clone wars also..

this is one of the best thing that happened to star wars, in bringing it back

to the masses, and making it popular again, or else it would have died out

to the few that are faithful to only the originals.. and stuck in the past wishing we never had anything new or cool to look forward to..

later

-1

They were fun to watch once  in the theater.  In each case, the second viewing was much worse and I found myself cringing at the dialogue.  The only part of the PT that holds up to repeated viewing is the lightsaber duel at the end of TPM.

I view them as a distant memory. I only saw RotS once (in the theatres), and I haven't watched the other two since before seeing RotS.

I've tried to watch RotS multiple times after the DVD was released, but I only get about half an hour into it before I get bored and turn it off. Even watching "Backstroke of the West" I can't make it through the whole thing.