What we like about the Prequels — Page 9

CO, Lucas will not be putting Chewbacca in Episode VII because he's hardly involved in the making of the movie. So whether or not a lot of canon is retained has nothing to do with George. The Clone Wars series overwrote and contradicted a lot of Clone War-era EU, so George doesn't seem to care a whole lot about the majority of the EU.

Easterhay said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

^If only those clones had been played by real actors in real suits of armour.

And that would have made so much difference, wouldn't it?

It would have been more aesthetically pleasing to my CG-sensitive eyes, yes. 

Easterhay said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

At that time, I had been led to believe that the EU was fully canon, that Lucas respected the EU, and that the films would remain true to the EU and build off of its ideas while still telling its own story.

Had I known otherwise, I may not have been so disappointed. But things are the way they are, and I still don't like Order 66 or the rushed extermination of the Jedi.

I wonder what it was that led you to believe the EU was canon? I don't remember Lucas confirming it to be so at that, or indeed, any other time. Personally, I never took the EU that seriously, even the stories I enjoyed.

Perhaps it was because I was a naive kid at the time and assumed -- based on how internally consistent the EU seemed to be at the time and the use of the EU-derived "Coruscant" in TPM -- that the EU was considered a fully developed part of the greater SW Universe and that Lucas was taking it into consideration when developing the PT.

Had I known then what I know now -- that the prequels at the time already contradicted vast portions of the EU, which in and of itself was internally inconsistent -- I may not have gone into the PT expecting consistency with the EU.

PPPPPPPPPPP said:

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 Dear Mods, please ban this serial deleter and possible sock.  Thanks!

I liked how unintentionally funny ROTS was.  

The Republic using a predeccesor of the Imperial symbol. It shows that the Empire is the very Republic that Obi-Wan told Luke about.

I kind of like that the Jedi kind of sucked.  Not that they were killed by blasters, but that they were sort of stoic & emotionless idiots that seemed out of touch with what was really going on.  

I think that is something Lucas could have and should have played up a bit more.  That there were a lot of flaws to the Jedi Order that would have given a young Jedi like Anakin motivation to leave.  

As unnecessary as it was to revisit the planet again, I really liked the few shots of the town that the little Anakin was living in. Mos Espa, right? I thought it looked really neat. 

I like that this thread got Zig to post again.

If only momentarily.

I thought Palpatine was the best part of the prequels. Darth Vader's backstory didn't quite work for me, but the Emperor's did, even though there was no particular reason for him to be so evil, except POWER, UNLIMITED POWER!

They are Palpatine/Darth Sidious' story to me, how he created the Empire. Oh, and there's also a well meaning but troubled youth who suddenly turns into a mass child murderor. Must have been a Sith mind trick ;-)

Also, overall the special visual effects, CGI, creation of worlds worked for me.  It did immerse me in an alien universe which is what you want from SF.

A few things: 

Special effects

The fact that clones evolved into Stormtroopers

The lightsaber duel in TPM

Obi-Wan - Jango fight on Kamino 

Most of ROTS except that Chewbacca was in it, wtf? And Grevious wielding sabers was silly.  

Some scenes of ROTS were gold though, like:

Anakin finding out Padme is pregnant

Palpatine telling Anakin about Darth Plegous or whatever his name was

Obi-Wan telling Padme about Anakin turning to the dark side

Obi-Wan cutting Vader into bits and the dialogue that followed and

The last four scenes that show where everyone ends up.  The Padme funeral scene is the only scene in Star Wars that almost chokes me up lol. 

Well, until you see Jar Jar...

I saw the prequels as I was growing up.  It's funny how I had glowing opinions of them then and now as an adult my opinion is completely different.  It just goes to show who George's intended audience was.

But still, I like a few things.  I guess I really more like the ideas of things, not necessarily how they were executed (looking through the responses already I think some others have made similar statements).

With today's movie technology, stuff like Avatar has proven you can do things in all CG and it can look really good.  But the prequel movies tried that too soon, and watching them in high-def everything looks entirely artificial.  Great artwork and designs, but just would have been better if he had used them more practically and CG more sparingly. (I guess it could be argued that if George hadn't pushed it too much when he did, the technology wouldn't be as far as it is now?  I don't know.)

Anyways, things I like most:

TPM:

Liam Neeson, doing his best with the awful script.  His rouge-ish sort of nature is a welcome sight among all the other stiff Jedi.

Parts of the podrace, minus the silly bits. (Side note: Hal's edit of it works really well)

The final duel, particularly the final part between Obi and Maul after the barrier comes down.  Ewan McGregor does a good job of showing Obi's emotion through his fighting.

Palpatine causing the whole thing to happen just so he can become Chancellor.

AOC:

Coruscant, especially the Blade Runner type vibes from the night setting and the underworld parts.

Count Dooku, or at least the premise of his character, he was woefully underutilized (particularly in ROS).  Christopher Lee was excellent.

The CG yoda looks so much better than that terrible puppet in TPM.

The brawl between Obi and Jango was cool.

The sound (or lack of) with Jango's depth charges was also very cool.

ROS:

The glimpses of the huge space battle at the beginning was really visually impressive. (wish we saw more of that)

Palpatine pulling all the strings behind-the-scenes was a really neat idea (its too bad McDiarmid didn't have a better script and a better actor than Christensen to work off of)

The Order 66 montage, the music was very effective and its very moving (despite that blue Twi-Lek's death being super dumb looking)

Yoda decapitating those two troopers on Kashyyyk.

Obi at the end "You were my brother" Ewan brought some good emotion to that scene.

The ending scenes remind you of the Star Wars movies you really like, which is nice.

That Naboo isn't Alderaan. Putting Alderaan in Naboo's role would shrink the galaxy more than Anakin building 3PO did.

I like most of ep. 1 except for some of the Jar Jar gags like the farting Eopee. The opening 30 min of the film are absolutely amazing.

All of the production design is fantastic throughout all three films

I liked the overall seriousness of the characters.  I like the OT but the prequels were a different era and everything is much more heavier subject matter wise.

I liked the fact that Vader, even though his name was Anakin, was a huge presence in the last two films.  I'm pretty forgiving on Hayden and I like some of his scenes.  Ian McDiarmid agrees by the way according to his interviews :)

Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi, nuff said.

I think some of the CG creature work like Sebulba is amazing.

The epic scale of the prequels, huge armies etc.  This was what Lucas always wanted Star Wars to be.

I'm glad this thread is here.  We all love the untouched OT but I think the prequels have some definite merit.  It may even be possible that if ep. 7 does not turn out well that these films will be even more highly regarded...we'll see.