I'll grant that George Lucas is a decent idea man, and throughout the prequel trilogy you can see tiny glimpses of legitimate potential.DeimosMasque said:And that's just A New Hope. When you get to Empire it nearly triples in memorable moments (hell every scene with Yoda is a memorable thing.) Return a but less but that's because the movie gets a bit slow after Tattonine is over.lucky_sharm said:As for your final question, yes I can because lightsabers only comprised a very small fraction of the action depicted in the original trilogy. What I remember are Luke and Han's banter while infiltrating the Death Star, the cantina scene where Han blows up Greedo, Han's solo scene talking to another Stormtrooper on a mic, Han and Luke and Obi-wan on the Millennium Falcon talking about the Force, the scene where Owen and Luke are picking out the droids, the trash compactor scene, Han chasing after a gang of troops like a mad man and running away afterwards, Luke and Leia swinging over a large chasm, the Trench Run, and the aftermath celebration where the entire cast embraces one another.
Notice how almost all of the above scenes I mentioned consist primarily of dialogue? What interactions in the prequel trilogy do you remember where characters are just going back and forth on one another where there wasn't any battle going on? Were they just sitting down on chairs talking, standing on floating platforms while talking, pacing slowly from one area to another while talking?
To be fair looking back, while I'm not really much a fan of the Prequels, @zegram33 each movie does have some great little scenes here and there that I find to be memorable for the -right- reasons (as in good moments that aren't remembered because of how bad or boring they were Pod Racing and 'Yippie' from Phantom come to mind)
In Phantom Menace - The first "I'm cold" scene with Anakin and Padme when they are heading to the Capital, is probably one of the only scenes where the young actor really showed he could potentially act given the right director. There's a lot of emotion and pathos there. The only other one I can think of off the top of my head that has always hit me is during the final Duel.
When the energy barriers go up and Qui-Gon and Darth Maul are separated. Qui-Gon immediately begins to meditate, enhancing his calm and becoming one with the Living Force. And Darth Maul paces like a caged animal to keep his aggression and passions inflamed... to stay with the Dark Side. Everything else that did go wrong with that movie, that scene did the most to show the difference between the Light and the Dark. The Serene and the Passionate.
The Clone Wars is a bit harder because the Anakin and Padme's romance is so backwards and awkward (the one trained by a monk order not to love pushes for a relationship, an unattached Senator keeps reminding him it's forbidden always seemed backwards to me.) But I would say one scene always hit me... and it's pretty much at the end. The Prototype Star Destroyers and cruisers taking off from Coruscant as Palpatine, Bail Organa and others watch. Just as Organa shakes his head and smashes his fist on the railing, a version of the Imperial March plays... it's perfect because you've been cheering on the Clone Troopers because they were helping the Jedi... you forgot what they would become, and what is happening right now. That subtle music cue sells it.
Revenge of the Sith. The first long shot is awesome, but it's CGI so it's not as impressive as other long continuing shots. But it is memorable and a good shot, even if the more slapstick and silly stuff that comes after it clashes with the tone of the rest of the movie. The scene at the Opera with Palpatine and Anakin has the one great moment "Where can I learn this power?" the response: "Not from a Jedi." Now for two unpopular ones... The Scene where Mace initially confronts Palpatine and lets out the lightsaber. In some ways its the wrong thing because in Return the Emperor basically viewed a lightsaber as a toy, a Jedi's weapon. But man that scene and scream is so cool.!
The other unpopular one is... I love Revenge's reveal of Dark Vader (except for the Nooooooooo!) I think seeing Anakin burned and destroyed (btw why did the lava only burn by proximity when they were done fighting?) And slowly rebuilt and then asking about his wife was perfect. The rest was sort of bad, but acceptable.
So there. As a 34 year old. Who saw all three Prequel movies in the theaters. I just listed the moments that were memorable to me that didn't involve lightsaber battles.
Problem is that he doesn't want ANYONE to tamper with his vision...even though the reason why the original trilogy was so successful was because other people were able to challenge George creatively.