I didnt know what to expect really but reading Looking Back to the Future of Star Wars http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/05/looking-back-to-the-future-of-star-wars/ ) really gets the creative juices flowing and you do have a 'what if...' feeling to it really.
The prequels did split audiences but thats only because the audience who were vocal, ie. those allowed on the net were older. No longer were they the child who gawped at everything wide eyed and innocent. Also as people get older, so do their perceptions and if you hear something over and over again you eventually reach the same conclusions.
For instance, in the UK I'm hearing how great Harry Potter is and its great a film with British roots has captured the imagination of the world but the films do share the same problems as the prequels in that they try to capture a certain magic but it seems trite and caggy handed. The Dark Crystal is a film where the look gives a sense of wonderment, maybe this is because there's no CGI? Maybe if their was less CGI in Harry Potter and Star Wars prequels, perhaps we'd be more forgiving and get swept up into it. TESB...before I had the internet I found the film boring to be honest. Star Wars was all about space battles but this film didnt have it. The main fight at the beginning never got going because subconsciously you knew nothing was going to go wrong but then you get the internet - and perhaps its also with growing older too - but you read people eulogising about the inner meanings and you get a greater understanding and enjoy it a lot more.
When something is liked there's a greater understanding and thus you read into this too.
But it goes back to what I was saying earlier...kids and indeed us when we were kids, would lap up the CGI effects in films because thats all we would know - in exactly the same we lapped up spaceships firing lazers and ignoring the matte lines around them. You dont see the joins, you dont see the wires. Sadly this goes as we get older.
It also applys I feel to the scripts...one thing levelled against the prequels is that its a kids film with all this political jargon but maybe, just maybe if it had been directed better, edited more ruthlessly with a 100% focus on the story and not toy manufacturing, then maybe it would have been more energetic, more exciting. But maybe it IS like this for kids? We see the boring political story but they see exciting pod races and classic light saber fights.
In a way it's a shame we all have to grow up really. But then you watch films like The Matrix or any other film you fervently enjoyed in the past 10 years and you think "well if I enjoyed them, why didnt I enjoy the prequels" but thats maybe because it took you completely by suprise. Whereas with Star Wars it was no longer a vacuum, we have articles like the one I mentioned, we have no end of EU books and computer games to play. All these things stimulate your mind and then you get other ideas ontop of this and eventually you see a trailer for the first star wars films with all the best bits throw in, combined with the classic music from the original films...your mind is stimulated once again. But then reality sets in. Maybe peoples lack of enjoyment with the originals is less to do with the films and more to do with ourselves. Now we'r older we see the poor acting, Obi-Wans fake wig, poor DVD transfers, over reliance on CGI and others see a wonderful sprawling drama where the skys the limit.
In the same way that if we'd have seen the OT in our current mindframe we'd have noticed poor speeder effects, hamfisted acting in TESB (dont get all mushy on me) and Luke looked like he wants to laugh in ROTJ because he attempts to slay down the Emperor.
But it's not all one way, in the same way that we'v changed - so has George Lucas. We'r all influenced by things in our personal and private life and he's no different. Meetings with no end of execs, bank managers, merchandising managers etc. can subtly make us put things in films. Ones child loving a particular character and name can mean it was included the film - love is blind and our children can do no wrong in our eyes. Being a single parent, sure he probably had help but to do what he did does take some doing I have to say. No longer could he write when inspiration hit him but instead he had to take the kids to school.
It would be great if we could live in a SW vacuum and perhaps then we could enjoy all the films with youthful enthusiasm and no pessimism but we all change and sadly, this may have affected our enthusiasm on the prequels. The ones to blame for their unfulfilled promise isnt anyone per se, its our frustration for us having changed/consumed by no end of other SW storys, its the 'yes-men' who refused to tell George as it was, its Lucas himself for not getting any help when writing & directing and also
You wont get anywhere in life without money it seems and perhaps the day the rot set in was the day when it turned into a business but Lucas needed to do this to ensure his family were financially secure.
I havent seen the prequels in over a year and I'v decided to only watch them and indeed Star Wars again when my children are old enough to enjoy them (we'v only got one at the moment and she's 11 months) so it's waaay off. My plan is to enjoy them, free of the burden of expectation and maybe, just maybe I'll finally see them for what they are.
