When did you realize the Prequels sucked?

This has probably been covered before... but here-a-goes again (unless Moth3r merges it.)

1. Phantom Menace.  I worked at Barnes & Noble at the time so I got a chance to read the Terry Brooks novel a couple of weeks before the book was released and a solid month or two before the movie came out.  I think the promo material had me quite concerned (the title being revealed in fall of '98, I think was the first real danger sign I picked up on...) but the book convinced me of it.  I remember telling all of my friends at the time that the movie would suck.  They would just stare at me as if I had said that I believed the world was flat or that we actually landed on the moon in 1969.  I didn't end up seeing the movie for 2 years (long story!) and I didn't personally talk to anyone who had seen the movie for 5 months after it had come out.  I told those people (that had seen the movie) that it sucked and some of them agreed with me.  When I finally saw the movie, it amazed me that Jar Jar was not, as I had believed for 2+ years, the worst part of the movie.  I couldn't believe my eyes- I couldn't believe that Anakin took that cake with Yoda a close second.

2. Attack of the Clones. I saw this movie opening weekend with my wife.  I had read a one page summary six months prior which claimed to be real, but was too absurd, too stupid, and too *blech* to be the real thing.  It, unfortunately, was spot on- Dexter's Diner and Peggle the Lesser et al.  I can't remember one specific scene that told me that this movie was a stinker... I wanted it to be good and I had high hopes, if low expectations, going in.  The whole theatre laughed when Yoda drew his lightsabre.  I thought they were laughing for the same reason I was- the absurdity and wrongness of the scene.  Apparently, some of them told me later, they were laughing because they thought it was awesome.  My brother told me he thought AotC redeemed Phantom Menace.  Six months later, he refused to call it Star Wars and just called it Phantom Menace II.

3. Revenge of the Sith.  All of my hopes for a decent Star Wars prequel were then thrust onto the unwilling and uncapable shoulders of RotS.  The first 2 minutes were great!  Space battles!  Dogfighting!  And just when it looked like it was getting good-  Out come the cute Mickey Mouse droids which start dancing on Anakin's wing.  This went on for the next couple minutes.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing!  Surely I was asleep at home having midnight-pizza fed nightmares of Star Wars' last hope!  Then they landed in the hanger and I thought the rest of the movie could be good from then on.  Then R2 pulls a gun on the Super Battle Stooges (*Nyuck Nyuck*) and I rolled my eyes.  Maybe the movie could be good from there on out.  THEN the CG Chris Lee started morphing around the screen.  I gave up hope.  But then, near the middle of the film, I could feel the tension and strife in Anakin growing.  I thought: This could be GOOD!  Anakin was in Palpatines office trying to decide if he would side with him or with the Jedi.  I thought: FINALLY!  Here comes the fall of Anakin Skywalker!  I sat on the edge of my seat:
Palp: Join the Dark Side!
Ani: No!
Palp: Please?
Ani: Alright. (defeated) I will do what you say!
I was defeated.  Maybe the final lightsabre duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan will be good, I consoled myself.  And, of course, it was too over the top to connect emotionally.

So, that's when I knew each prequel sucked.  Except for Ewan MacGregor who was excellent.

I was in denial the whole time, sadly. It never hit me - I didn't let it hit me - until well after the fact.

Until ROTS came out, I kept thinking This will all work, it's all going to fit, Episode III will fix everything. Lo and behold, come May 2005 and ROTS was history's most expensive PowerPoint.

vote_for_palpatine said:

I was in denial the whole time, sadly. It never hit me - I didn't let it hit me - until well after the fact.

Until ROTS came out, I kept thinking This will all work, it's all going to fit, Episode III will fix everything. Lo and behold, come May 2005 and ROTS was history's most expensive PowerPoint.

 LOL

Similar experience for me. I liked TPM at the time, thought AOTC was even better, and re-watched them quite a bit. I knew they weren't as good as the OT but it was exciting to have new SW films. I lost interest in them a bit by the time ROTS came out, but I loved ROTS and still consider it a pretty good movie. Looking back at the completed picture, however, and with the excitement off, more and more the films didn't hold up. AOTC especially fell apart. TPM I still enjoy as a children's fantasy film--which is the reason I think I liked it in the first place--but failed to hold up as a Star Wars film. I think it took the full trilogy to be seen before the massive failures of the first two films became totally apparent because I just kept telling myself ROTS would make them work somehow. As good as that film was, it made the previous ones seem worse, and it made it apparent that they weren't really necessary for understanding anything in it as well.

When Anaikin was moaning during that dream sequence in AOTC, and the audience in the theater started laughing -- that's when I realized it all sucked.

TPM was part of my childhood-as a separate film I can stand it.

I saw AOTC, but after seeing it in an omnimax dome theater I realized that things were getting worse. If you thought it was bad before-try seeing it in that dome! The horror..

ROTS was one of the most depressing experiences I've ever had in a movie theater. Completely lackluster and boring. You go in knowing exactly what will happen, and there's just no way that they'll just let it unfold like a great slumbering mess is there? Oh wait; that's exactly what they did. That was just a bunch of "ohs" and "I guess this is where he gets the-yeah".

After this I gave up SW for some time. I would look around from time to time at all of my stuff and long for the SW of my childhood. What I wouldn't give for another release of the 97SE in theaters. (OOT would be better, but I'll take what I can get.) It wasn't until the GOUT and this site that I began to pick up the pieces of my shattered fandom. Geeky, I know.

If the the majority of what was added to the EU for the Prequels was added or substituted the result would be much better. These films do suck though. They really suck. As films, as Star Wars-as just anything. They're bad on all fronts and most criminally they are tepid and uninspired. They are the cartoonish tripe that critics accused the OT of being.

"The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner now I am the master.""Only a master of empty technique!"

The absolute moment I realized the degree of suckness was when I finally saw the original version of THX-1138 again. Episode II was made by the same guy? How can it be?

zombie84 said:

Similar experience for me. I liked TPM at the time, thought AOTC was even better, and re-watched them quite a bit. I knew they weren't as good as the OT but it was exciting to have new SW films. I lost interest in them a bit by the time ROTS came out, but I loved ROTS and still consider it a pretty good movie. Looking back at the completed picture, however, and with the excitement off, more and more the films didn't hold up. AOTC especially fell apart. TPM I still enjoy as a children's fantasy film--which is the reason I think I liked it in the first place--but failed to hold up as a Star Wars film. I think it took the full trilogy to be seen before the massive failures of the first two films became totally apparent because I just kept telling myself ROTS would make them work somehow. As good as that film was, it made the previous ones seem worse, and it made it apparent that they weren't really necessary for understanding anything in it as well.

I always knew they were sub par, but when they were put on a pedestal by Lucas who can release them but not the OOT, it made me hate them. I also started to hate them because they made the EU a big chunk of utter crap. And they turned the fan base into a bunch of Yoda quoting nerds.

I was a Star Wars nerd in the 90's, but the PT made me identify myself as a fan of the original originals. You really have to love them all to be classified as a Star Wars nerd nowadays.

I also realized I wasn't a Star Wars nerd anymore, when conversations with Star Wars nerds became a frustrating argument. I can't sit with today's Star Wars nerds and be one myself. The last time I did, they sounded like that bald guy in the People Vs George Lucas trailer "Mr. George Lucas, we the fans (the TRUE fans), salute you!!!"

I can hang out with you guys all day, because you have seen the good ones in their original glory.

Another instance of me hating the PT, was when I started making DVD covers. Try finding good images of the OT without having to go through pages of prequel crap.

It's funny- it sounds like all of us gave the prequels every chance.  Even though I was pretty sour about TPM and AotC going into RotS... I still hoped deep in my heart that RotS would somehow make the other two make sense.

At the very least, I was curious how the whole Sifo Dias thing was going to shake out.  They didn't even take care of that!

doubleofive said:

Same here, almost exactly.

I really only realized the flaws in the PT/SE after you guys tore them up for me every day. ;-)

 Glad we could help you out there.  Did you take the info we gave you and convince your wife?  Or did she already know how much they sucked?

doubleofive said:

 

zombie84 said:

Similar experience for me. I liked TPM at the time, thought AOTC was even better, and re-watched them quite a bit. I knew they weren't as good as the OT but it was exciting to have new SW films. I lost interest in them a bit by the time ROTS came out, but I loved ROTS and still consider it a pretty good movie. Looking back at the completed picture, however, and with the excitement off, more and more the films didn't hold up. AOTC especially fell apart. TPM I still enjoy as a children's fantasy film--which is the reason I think I liked it in the first place--but failed to hold up as a Star Wars film. I think it took the full trilogy to be seen before the massive failures of the first two films became totally apparent because I just kept telling myself ROTS would make them work somehow. As good as that film was, it made the previous ones seem worse, and it made it apparent that they weren't really necessary for understanding anything in it as well.

Same here, almost exactly

 

And here. Except I'm going to forget that nothing happened and never gonna see them again.

xhonzi said:

doubleofive said:

Same here, almost exactly.

I really only realized the flaws in the PT/SE after you guys tore them up for me every day. ;-)

 Glad we could help you out there.  Did you take the info we gave you and convince your wife?  Or did she already know how much they sucked?

Ric Olie said:

When the credits rolled on AOTC.

:-(

(To be clear, that's when I realized AOTC sucked.  TPM rules!)

I admit it can be a guilty pleasure. I watch it for 2 things: You and Darth Maul.

when i realised that the original versions of the OT "dissapeared they had"

So... are a lot of you saying that you hate the prequels because the O-OT was never released on DVD?