1. You're all nuts.
B. Has the general approval of the PT gone up or down over time here at OT.com? On the one hand, it seems to me that it has gone up, as people who saw (and liked) the PT as kids (and maybe before they saw the OT) are starting to join this board in higher numbers. On the other hand, the novelty has worn off for many and some of those people aren't as positive as they used to be. But on the other hand, some members haven't watched them in a long time now, and nostalgia is starting to set in and they don't remember how terrible these movies truly are. Finally, on the other hand... oops... looks like I'm out of hands.
3. There are a few things that I do like, and I will be forced to honestly dump them here below... but that doesn't mean that the PT doesn't suck. Perhaps it's akin to liking the cherries in a Cherry and Poop pie. I really like cherries... but the poop, man! The POOP!
3.A. Also, I've posted this before, but let me see if I can say it better this time: I think the prequels got better with each release (2 was better than 1, 3 was better than 2) but not enough better, so that each release was a bigger failure. Here's my analogy. You have a goal to save $100 dollars a month during September, October and November so you can spend $300 on Christmas presents. In September you actually go in debt $80 instead of saving anything. That sucks big time! But you still have 2 months left and now you just have to save $380 total, $190 each in the months of October and November. So, no big deal, right? Well, October comes and goes, and you break even. That's a lot better! But still, you didn't come anywhere close to saving your $190 for the month, meaning you now have to save $380 in November to be successful. Maybe you can do this! If you can, everything will work out fine! Let's hope, and let's try to do it! Yeah! We are totally jazzed for this! Well, in the end you save $50 in November. Had you done this all three months, you still would have fallen short of your goal of saving $300, but at least you'd have $150, and that would be something! But no... you are still $30 in debt. So which month was the greatest failure? Each month, you spent less and saved more, so you did better as time went on... but compared to where you needed to be to accomplish your goal, you actually did worse. September came in at $180 under goal. October came in at $190 under goal. November, your best month because you saved $50, came in at $330 under goal!
4.d. (these are presented as "compliment, but" pairs, just to ensure no one can feel too postivie about my comments) ;)
I. Senator Palpatine was good. (Darth Sidious was not). The idea of working both sides of the "free" galaxy against each other for the purpose of establishing an Empire was done quite well. At least, the idea behind it.
II. Some of the ship designs. I'm thinking that the half TIE/half AotC ships were a good look, and showed the start of the Empire design infiltrating the Republic. However, a lot of the rest of the ships looked like Star Wars future, not Star Wars past.
III. Duel of the Fates was exciting as choreography, and the emotional tie to the end of the movie. It however should have been the example of Jedi lightsabre prowess... not the tip of the iceburg of whirling, twirling, CG morphing, tasmanian turbine action found in later prequels. I still prefer the fights in ESB and RotJ.
IIII. Ewan MacGregor was generally pretty good. He had some bad material to work with, but I think he really did with it what he could. It's not his fault that he had to go to Dexter's 50's Diner or say things like, "Your Clones are Most Impressive"
V. It really did push forward the tech that is the future of filmmaking. We'll probably (or already are) looking back at the CG sets and characters of the PT and think they look pretty crap... but there's no denying that we'd be 5 or 7 years further back in this tech if these movies hadn't been made. Whether you like it or not, that tech is the future. And the sooner it gets past its growing pains, the better for all.
VI. I too liked the Arena scene in AotC. Until jive-talkin' yoda and his ballerina twirling Jedi show up. But then once the action heads for the hills, I think that bit is pretty good too. At least... my memory tells me it is.
VII. I thought the look of the ships and the action was back to OT levels by the time RotS rolled around. The visuals started to carry a little more weight, and space looked better, if that makes any sense. Unfortunately, there's truly only about 30 seconds of good space battle in RotS... but what's there is pretty good. Sadly, it serves more as a "what could have been moment" than a "good moment" but what can you do?
VIII. It was interesting to see some other locales and planets. Naboo was nice to look at it. After the OT did "Forest Planet, Jungle Planet, Ice Planet, Cloud Planet, and Desert Planet" it left a lot of people thinking, "What's left?!" But of course, "Tuscany Planet, City Planet, Volcano Planet, 50's Diner Planet, Stormy Oil Rig Planet, and Honey We Shrunk the Kids and put them in a Day Glow Mushroom Kingdom Planet" were yet to come. If only that darn, out of the way, "furthest from the bright center of the galaxy" planet didn't keep coming up so often.
IX. The Podrace is 90% good. The announcers and the silliness bring it down, but the action isn't bad. Jake Lloyd isn't even annoying in this scene!
And that's about it. I never cared for Qui-Gonn, Shmi, or Watto the way a lot of you do. I have no fondness for TPM, because it has the worst Anakin (see my savings example in point 3.A above), the most Jar-Jar, probably the worst Yoda (though it's a close three way tie) the most poop jokes, and the most ridiculous plot... and I could go on. It did use the most physical sets and the most models, so it does have a slightly better look in those regards, but that's a small cherry in a Poop Pie.
Ω. THE END.
