Whats so bad about the Star Wars Prequels?

[Animyr]

What's sad is the movies could have been good had George handed the actual screenwriting off to someone who knows what they're doing. Ever read the novelization of Revenge of the Sith? It's fantastic! The movie is rubbish, but the book was great.

Yeah, you can't help but admire how a little recontexting and a little added depth transformed a notoriously mediocre screenplay into what was a pretty good novel in its own right. Oh, what could have been.

 

[Snotnarok]

Besides the massive points Plinkett has made, the movies were boring and focused on characters that weren't written very well for their roles. The music was great, the effects were neat, but they did just about everything poorly besides SOME action scenes.

Episode 3 will forever hold bucket loads of hate for starting off looking so interesting, fooling me into thinking there'll be a fun space battle, but no it turns into Obi & Ani having 'hilarious' antics with droids trying to pull their ship apart.

There's a LOT wrong with them. They're not the worst but they're not even worth watching.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Everybody has their own issues with them. And yes, I'll say that no 'orgional fan' could consider the Prequels as being better than 'decent'.

My issue is that the entire Extended universe that I enjoy more than the original movies (i.e. the books, games, comics, RPGs and otherwise), were shot in the head by Lucas, without a moment's hesitation. That's kinda the thing that soured me to it all, because most Star Wars fans love the EU as much as they love the movies, be they lovers of Prequel or Origional, because the Extended universe is so well done and has so many wonderful stories and experiences, it's what Star Wars Fans love about Star Wars.

When Lucas back handed the EU and the lore in the Prequels, he backhanded all the fans. That's what hurts.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Prequels are essentially the pinnacle of style-over-substance in modern western films.

When Lucas back handed the EU and the lore in the Prequels, he backhanded all the fans. That's what hurts.

You should elaborate a bit.

EU is fine, but goddamn they've had it gone to shit in recent year.

 

[Zombie Sodomy]

For me it's always been more about the bitter taste of betrayal than the over all quality of the prequels. If you look at them on their own you get three kind of so-so movies, and if anyone could have actually done that we'd all have forgotten about them. While not awful, the prequels were such a drop in quality and imagination from the originals that we were all a little pissed. The worst thing about the prequels though, is that they compromised the awesomeness of the originals. When I watch the original trilogy I try to think of the force as this bad ass cosmic buddha energy that pervades everything, but no here come the midichlorians to nag me about my mistakes and get their sticky fingers all over my fucking popcorn.

 

[Silvianoshei]

Me and my brothers/sister had fun driving to pittsburgh one time, and we rewrote the script of the prequels. Anakin is no longer a kid, he's a gladiator who is using his force powers to win matches. He's rash and violent; citing that all he want's to do in buy his mother's way out of slavery. In reality he's addicted to combat, and relishes every victory. He DOES have a father, who died in the arena. There are no such thing as Medichlorians. He is the same age as Padme. No pod racing, just lots of gladiator fights. Also, no jar jar.

We decided to leave the trade dispute in because it's so characteristic of Palpatine to do some shit like that. We changed the characters mainly.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Too much political talk. Now, political talk can be interesting if it's done effectively, but the prequels fail to make it interesting. There's too much walking around and talking about shit that only they seem to known about. They're incoherent most of the times and the characters are so flat and boring that I really didn't care what happened to any of them.

If I listed a 'Biggest Complaint' about the prequels, it's that; characters. They're all bad. Everyone last one of them. This goes beyond the whole 'Jar Jar is annoying! And Anakin sure does whine a lot! Boy that line about sand really sucked.' The character's are just so bland and poorly written, that never once while watching the films did I say to myself "Wow! I sure do like that character. I hope good things happen to them and I'll surely be emotionally affected if they die!" This says a ton when you think about the original trilogy - the original three films had the most generic character archetypes in the world, and yet they're still more endearing and charming than any of the prequel characters.

I'm also not a fan of the 'For Kids' argument, because it's not a reason, it's an excuse. Little children are going to want to watch a movie packed full of boring political dialogue? Little children are going to want to watch the hero murder other little children? Yeah, no. I don't buy it. I still love the original trilogy, despite seeing it when I was younger. I also loved Power Rangers when I was younger, but I hate it now. If the prequels were ever good at some point in your life, they'd still be good.

They are not awful movies, though. I mean, I'd rather watch Episode II than watch Disaster Movie. They are just mediocre cash grabs that exist because Lucas and his studio wanted to make a shit ton of money.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Im apparently wrong but I always thought the third was the worst movie. It felt like too much plot and not enough big battles. Especially after coming after the clone wars ending. Which I guess sums it up well. It didnt live up to expectations of the audience and made the star wars series less awesome I guess by explaining things and complicating it.

I dont know, other than the third I liked them.

 

[Soluncreed]

I enjoyed them because I saw them first. And regardless of what anyone else says, General Grievous was the greatest villain in the series. Who else would crash an entire starship and attempt to kill all who were onboard simply because two guys with flashy swords killed a couple highly expendable robots? Only this guy.

 

[ungothicdove]

You want answers and not opinions on a piece of art. The quality of art is usually pretty subjective as opposed to objective. Example: No one can debate that Usain Bolt is the fastest man when he's run the fastest time. However, you can say that Transformers 2 is better than Terminator 2 because that's your opinion. You'd be wrong but whatever.

Anyway, I liked the Phantom Menace when it first came out, I think I was 11. I enjoyed the originals more but I still thought it was a fun movie and since I was close to Anakin's, age it filled a young boy's hero fantasy for me. A couple years later Attack of the Clones came out and I saw it in the theater. It was all right but I remember being disappointed when a friend bought it for my birthday when it came out on video. The love story between Anakin and Padme was cringe worthy. I deluded myself into thinking I like Revenge of the Sith for a while, but after re-watching all six films last spring, I think it was actually my LEAST favorite of the prequels.

This video kind of sums things up I guess...


Anyway, if you enjoy them, I'm happy for you. I cannot. But then again, I didn't like Return of the King or The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey so maybe I just get to butt hurt when something I love isn't exactly how I wanted it to be.

 

[mfeff]

So let me start by saying I'm a younger gent and my first Star Wars movie was The Phantom Menace. Which I loved at the time.

So onto the question. What makes the prequels bad? I really wanna know. I can understand Attack of the Clones because that movie suffered plot dragging like no tomorrow and I understand Jar Jar in the Phantom Menace being despised so much, but then again he is a children's character. But can someone explain to me why they are so bad. I loved the Revenge of the Sith, in fact it is tied with Return of the Jedi (holy shit just noticed the similar title) for my favorite. But the main question is what make the prequels bad in so many people's eyes.

Note:If all you are going to say is opinions, I understand that I want answers though, I fail to see what makes them so terrible to some people.

Like others I highly recommend the Red Letter Media "Plinkett" reviews on the trilogy... bring pop-corn and a sense of humor. Maybe some booze.

As far as the prequels not being able to live up to fan expectations... there is plausibly some truth in that. Though the films themselves are so poor as films that the argument could easily comes off as mere "apologetics" rather than a reasoned discourse. Considering the structure, abuse of light sabers, Anakin as a character study; it is by all accounts a fan fiction/fantasy of fantasy of the original franchise. If one let's the "couldn't live up to..." we could apply it to rubbish like Aliens: Colonial Marines. Bad is Bad.

Where it breaks down (for me) is the taking of the original aesthetics, having of been influenced by a late era Sengoku Jidai... (Jedai) with a heavy bent on Daoistic or Confucius philosophy, and turning it into this ridiculous subversion touching on genetics and implying genetic manipulation of a master race.

To put the prequels in perspective Plinkett also does a video discussing the new Star Trek reboot which is also well worth your time. In that he explains what JJ Abrams got right and is all n' all positive of the rehash.

Makes one wonder if Disney wasn't paying attention to that when they tapped Abrams to pick up and re-kindle the torch.

This oldie but good pretty much sums up my take on it... enjoy!

 

[Fluffythepoo]

Having watched the original 3 at least 20 times by age 5. Watching the prequel at 7, 10, and 13 was goddamn fantastic.

Watching them at 18 they were considerably less so, though undeserving of the sheer amount of hate they have. Especially since im a millennial, and every conventional explanation for what constitutes good plot structure and characterization is completely irrelevant when faced with the reality that generation Y doesn't like the conventional approach at all.
Ignoring visuals and cgi improvements and just looking at plot and characters: Generation X will love the original 3 (regardless of when they first saw them) and hate the prequels, Generation Y will love the prequels and hate the original 3.

that said all the plotholes/illogical bits that were in the prequels were also in the original 3 (or the same type)

So: if you were a millennial youll like the prequels, if you werent youll hate them, and in some cases you will in a bitter rage point out as many flaws as possible, while ignoring all the flaws with the original 3.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

that said all the plotholes/illogical bits that were in the prequels were also in the original 3 (or the same type)

I'd like to know what plot holes you're referencing that are as glaringly obvious as the ones in the prequel trilogy.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Prequels are essentially the pinnacle of style-over-substance in modern western films.

When Lucas back handed the EU and the lore in the Prequels, he backhanded all the fans. That's what hurts.

You should elaborate a bit.

EU is fine, but goddamn they've had it gone to shit in recent year.

Recently, yeah they've had some problems, but the EU is the creation of hundreds of other writers.

The Thrawn Trilogy, 501st Legion, Books that make the fantasy of Star Wars into something tangible and realistic. The 501st series was amazing in fleshing out a world other than Lightsaber fights and AT-AT's. Games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter put you into the world with Stories that you lived and controled, Dark Forces, and Battlefront gave you that on the ground immersion. I'm just speaking from what I enjoy most from the Universe mind you. But those things built the Extened Universe and those are things that most Star Wars Fans have the great memories of. You can ask most fans and they'll tell you about the first time they saw the movies (prequel or origional), but you ask them about Star Wars Lore and you'll hear them tell you about a book they read, or a game they played, or a character they had in their RPG group.

Sure, there were projects that made me physically ill, like DeathTroopers. And there were creations that just kind of made me shurug my shoulders and go 'alright' like Force Unleashed.

But with the Preqel movies, it established the Lucas arrogance that the only thing that was Star Wars was what he'd created. That took all the creators that he gave licence and just tossed it all aside. To the point that he was actively tearing down established timelines, throwing out authors and directly crushing what they'd created. It's what sickened me, and the Prequel films are what is so associated with it. Remember that Lucas only wrote A New Hope before the Prequel Films. Up until the Prequels there were other writers with far more experience in the Star Wars Universe than George Lucas. Then George comes back in and decides to screw over all those other writers and say 'you're wrong, even though I said you could do that, now /this/ is what Star Wars really is!' (Mind you, this is coming from someone who did NOTHING with the intellectual property on his own for YEARS and left all the work of developing the Fans and making the money to others)

That's the bit that gets me, that arrogance and dismissal of everything he was content to make money off of because Star Wars Fans loved it, all the things that created the Star Wars the Fanbase knows today.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

that said all the plotholes/illogical bits that were in the prequels were also in the original 3 (or the same type)

I'd like to know what plot holes you're referencing that are as glaringly obvious as the ones in the prequel trilogy.

well there are many: lukes training taking seemingly just one afternoon, stormtroopers not knowing how to look inside doors, not firing a laser because theres no lifeforms, stormtrooper being so obscenely incompetent (theyre goddamn ewoks), leia leading the empire to the then hidden base for no real reason, stormtropers, and this one is pretty good


all lucas films are filled with these kind of holes and the prequels are no exception, but to say they dont exist in some of his films (original 3) because those films are somehow better than others is silly, just silly silliness wearing a silly hat, wrapped in silly

 

[Lovely Mixture]

snip

I agree, the Thrawn Trilogy is a great icon of EU (I got into it as well as the Courtship of Princess Leia)

I think it's interesting that you say that: "those are things that most Star Wars Fans have the great memories of." But I see your point. many people who stayed Star Wars fans from 70s, 80s, and onward would have definitely had invested themselves in the EU. At that point, you could definitely say that Star Wars became a community creation rather than Lucas's own.

I think the EU got out of hand right after NJO. It speaks for itself when it was revealed that the decision to kill off Mara Jade was from Lucasfilms who didn't even bother to inform Timothy Zahn before or after the fact.

 

[Pinkamena]

Well the first two were pretty crap. I really enjoyed the third movie though, I thought it was quite good.

I agree, the third was great and hella dark.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

that said all the plotholes/illogical bits that were in the prequels were also in the original 3 (or the same type)

I'd like to know what plot holes you're referencing that are as glaringly obvious as the ones in the prequel trilogy.

well there are many: lukes training taking seemingly just one afternoon, stormtroopers not knowing how to look inside doors, not firing a laser because theres no lifeforms, stormtrooper being so obscenely incompetent (theyre goddamn ewoks), leia leading the empire to the then hidden base for no real reason, stormtropers, and this one is pretty good


all lucas films are filled with these kind of holes and the prequels are no exception, but to say they dont exist in some of his films (original 3) because those films are somehow better than others is silly, just silly silliness wearing a silly hat, wrapped in silly

No, I get that, but I said as glaringly obvious. Sure, there are points in the originals, but the prequels have most competent viewers scratching their heads the entire time. Through all three films. Sure, some stupid shit happens in Return, but nothing quite as baffling as what takes place in Revenge.

My point was that even as flawed as the original trilogy may be, the prequels are that much shoddier.

 

[FFHAuthor]

I think the EU got out of hand right after NJO. It speaks for itself when it was revealed that the decision to kill off Mara Jade was from Lucasfilms who didn't even bother to inform Timothy Zahn before or after the fact.

Now THAT is what bothers me so much. I've heard a lot of arguments that say 'Lucas can throw out the EU since he didn't have input' when the whole 'flamewar that is a cannon debate' crops up among fans. But the creative input of deciding what characters are going to die in books is a bit of a big bit of control of other writers work. I knew that Chewie's death had been directed by Lucas, but I didn't know Mara's death was as well.

But what Lucas did to Karen Traviss was where he lost my faith in him. She was my favorite Star Wars Writer, and I couldn't tell you wither I liked her or Timothy Zhan more.

 

[Comocat]

If you look at how Episode IV, the story revolved around the Empire blowing up a planet. In Episode 1, a bunch of ethnic aliens, are pissed about a trade blockade.

Harrison Ford was also an awesome smuggler, I couldn't name a main character/actor in the episodes 1-3 to save my life.

The original episodes may not have been the best movies ever- but I will bet money every Sci-fi person on the planet has at some point, held a flashlight and wished it was a lightsaber.