Good Things in the Star Wars Prequels

Okay, over the past 3 days I watched the 3 star wars prequels. Ive always loved star wars but never watched the prequels due to their infamous status. Yes they are bad star wars movies, but are they that bad as actual movies? The Phantom Menace is (3/10 for me) Attack of The Clones is a bit better (4/10 for me) and The Revenge of the Sith was... okay? I don't know if I want to call it good, after all I have only just watched it for the first time. My score right now would be a 6/10. (If it changed it wouldn't go higher) Anyway after watching these films I feel like their is unappreciated good in there. Anyway, my question for you guys is; What are some things you feel the Star Wars Prequels did that were good?

__________________
You don't have to be the bad guy. You are the most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe. And you are capable of amazing things. Because you are the Special. And so am I. And so is everyone. -Emmet, The Lego Movie.

Oh yeah, and if anybody says giving Yoda a light saber I will kill your family. That is all

I thought Ewan McGregor was good as Young Obi-Wan. Even if the movies were pretty crap the one redeemable thing for me was that they at least didn't **** up casting Ewan.

And I know many don't like it but I did like Samuel L. Jackson as Windu. It sort of takes you out of the movie but he was still pretty good all the same.

Oh, and if anyone says Hayden Christensen I'll flip......

__________________
https://t.me/pump_upp

1. Yoda fighting.

2. The Opera scene.


That scene was a tiny glimpse of everything I hoped the prequels would be.

I do agree that the dialogue in these films is really bad and I would probably do away with the second movie altogether.

However, I still think the story is pretty much how I pictured Vader's story going. I like some of the characters we got. Qui-gon and Darth Maul specifically. I like the different planets we get to see. I enjoy Obi-Wan. I like all of Revenge Of The Sith. I think it is a solid movie.

This is a really hard question. I'm still trying to think of at least one small thing good about them.

The one thing that I appreciated in the prequels didn't come until "Revenge of the Sith". It was when Anakin was crossing over. I appreciated that part of the story finally happening. I thought that was the best of the 3 movies. That was probably due to the fact that it was "darker" than the others.


I don't really dislike these movies as much as other people do. Do I love them? No. I don't hate them, though. I think that if you could completely forget that the original trilogy ever existed (let's just say they were never even made), the prequels would be, as far as movies are concerned, average, at best, for sci-fi/action. But the original trilogy does exist. So, when compared to those three films, the prequels are not good movies (barely even average). I don't mind most of the storyline to the prequels (there are a few things that I don't care for, too). The problem was the actual execution of the story. It is a shame, really. There was potentially something really good that could've been made and it was basically wasted.

__________________
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

Most of the major gripes I hear directed at the prequels feel too much like "nerd rage" - it's not like they were universally critically panned either, the critics gave them fair reviews. Here's just a few examples:

*Yoda using a lightsaber - um... he's a Jedi, so it's a given he's been trained to use a lightsaber

*None of the actors were as good as Harrison Ford - true, but it's unrealistic to expect every movie to have as great an actor as Ford. I mean none of the actors in the Marvel films are as good as RDJ, but that doesn't automatically mean the Captain America or the Hulk films are "bad"

*Jar Jar Binks - He was annoyiing and nowhere as entertaining as C3PO, but the series was already known to have "goofy" elements anyway - the R2D2 and C3PO antics, the Ewoks, etc

*C3PO being built by Anakin - C3PO was a generic type of robot shown in the films, so it's totally feasible that Anakin's slave owner purchased a "built your own robot kit" and assembled him from that - It's not like Anakin built him out of scrap metal or something

*R2D2 not using his jetpack in the sequel films even when it would have been useful in retrospect - maybe R2D2's jetpack had mechanical problems and had to be removed sometime between the prequels and the sequels - easy to explain away, just use some imagination.

*The Force being measurable in your bloodstream - It was already established that the Force was something genetically passed down, this is why Luke told Leia that she also has his power because she was his sister, and Vader was their father

*Kid Anakin winning the podrace and defeating the robot mothership in Phantom Menace - Just explain it away with "The Force" - it's not much different than Luke being able to destroy the Deathstar without his targeting computer after only a week or so of Force training

*Hayden Christiensen - I hear people gripe about him all the time, but I never hear a an actual reason given. My main gripe is that he turned to the Dark Side way too fast, and went from just wanting to protect Padme to wanting to overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy in the span of about 30 minutes. Other than that I have no complaints; if he's just "not as good as Mark Hamil" - well see the Harrison Ford post above.

---

I didn't expect them to be as good as the originals anyway - I watched them for for the backstory, and how the Emperor rose to power and how Anakin turned to the Dark Side.

Phantom Menace: Uh...nope. I really don't like anything at all from this movie. Whenever some time passes and I get the idea to try this again, it seems even worse than I recall it. Abysmally bad, and no, I don't care about Darth Maul, a character propped up completely on his character design, and who barely speaks a word. This film is an absolute pile, IMO.

Clones: I do like a couple of segments in this film, like the clone planet story, the Fett chase with the gravity charges, and Yoda kicking some ass. However, this has a couple of scenes that look like they belong in a video game, and were perhaps designed around the idea of a later game release tie-in. The droid factory, for one, is directly out of a platformer. 3PO is brutally terrible in this, as well. The picnic...Uggggggg...so bad

Sith: This one is definitely a step up from the others, but still riddled with issues. That said, there is some genuinely good stuff here. The opera scene rivals the end of Jedi (Death Star Scenes) as some of the best drama in the entire saga. Really well written stuff, well acted, and well directed. Order 66 is a fantastic montage with a great score and a real emotional component. The cross-cut battle at the end with the saber battles is pretty fun, too. I saw a version that removed Anakin's dialogue completely, and the Mustafar battle was dark and operatic with that content removed. Yoda vs Emperor owns. The final sequence is brilliant, tying in the prequels with the original trilogy....until you get to "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", which is cringe-worthy. It's a frustrating film, to be sure. The trilogy should have condensed Menace and Clones into one film, Sith as part 2, and then a final film called EMPIRE that told the story of the Empire's domination of the galaxy after Vader rose.

Oh! This is the worst dialogue in any movie ever:

"It's because I love youuuuuuu"

"No Padme, it's because I love you!"

__________________

In The Phantom Menace, I liked Liam Neeson, and I really liked the light saber battle between Darth Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But like a lot of people, I felt like killing off Maul in the first prequel was a mistake. His character might have lifted up some scenes in the second movie,

In Attack of the Clones, I liked Christopher Lee, Obi-Wan chasing Jango Fett through space while Fett sent the flying mines or torpedoes or whatever they were at him, Natalie Portman wearing the skin-tight white suit, and liamcallahan, you can start your attack, because I loved that they gave Yoda a lightsaber! His fight with Dooku was great, however very short (Yoda pun not intended). I loved Yoda, after displaying his awesome agility, when the fight was over went right back to leaning on his cane.

Revenge of the Sith. I enjoyed the entire film. great stuff.

That said, I am not a hater of the prequels like a lot of SW fans. I agree there are weak moments in the writing, like having C-3PO say, "This is such a drag." But as just fun entertainment, they are not bad. Of course, nowhere near the greatness of the original trilogy.

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

I had that issue, too. I love that we get the transformation, but it just went too fast. Now I know that I am not the only one out there that had a problem with that fact. I just didn't get why it was rushed in that way.

The Revenge Of The Sith is one great movie in my opinion. I like many characters and the ending scenes is one epic battle and Dark Anakin is one very awesome stuff.

__________________
''Haters are my favourite. I've built an empire with the bricks they've thrown at me... Keep On Hating''
- CM Punk
http://threemanbooth.files.wordpress...unkshrug02.gif

I think they just drug on some of the scenes too long, and had to find a way to cram it all into the end.

I'm not big on all the "Star Wars prequel hate" because I think it's just a trendy thing to do on the internet, and the gripes are mainly nitpicks or great exaggerations.

I watched all of these videos where there are people who are really crying over the trailer for episode VII, and all I wonder is "How many of you are going to be complaining the moment the film ends?". There were people (who may not admit it now) who really liked "The Phantom Menace" (a couple of people that I know, in fact). Then the hate started for it. All of a sudden the people that did like it started to hate it, too. So, I am really curious to see how this all plays out come December.

Worst Cosmic Wars ever.


I will only watch it another 14 times.


Today.

__________________

The Phantom Menace is my least favorite in the series, but I really didn't think of it as nearly as bad a lot of people say (a better example of a really bad sequel is Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Phantom Menace still felt like a Star Wars movie, the Crystal Skull felt more like a Saturday Morning Cartoon compared to the earlier Indiana Jones movies.

It's mainly just a group of die hard fans of the originals who are the biggest on hating the prequels - but people like that are known to nitpik over everything (while ignoring totally comparable flaws in the original films) - some fans for example are complaining over stuff as trivial as the "cross blades" on the Sith Lightsaber - c'mon people.

I really think nostalgia plays too big a role in people's tastes on movies, and people have a tendency to automatically find flaws in sequels or remakes just for not being the original they grew up with.

The scene would've been a lot better if Anakin had screamed before dawning the Vader helm. I agree that that scream in the Vader voice felt very out of character.

Fave: Episode III
Then: Episode I
Worst: Episode II


Ep II is by far the product of Lucas' incessant CG-ing of everything. Ok Sith was CG-ed but at least there were some sets built and the CGI was well rendered... Clones was just CGI all the way through and wasn't done very well.
The whole movie was just a series of skits based around "let's see what situation we can get the characters into this time" from scene to scene to scene to scene.
The scenes between Christensen and Portman were cringeworthy.


Ep I was fun. Jar-Jar sucked but the film reeked of the originals with effects, both practical and otherwise, the action was loud but not too much, the lightsaber fights though short and sweet, they rule the entire saga.
Didn't like the Midi-Chlorians though. It was a chunk of poo flicked into the eye of the fans.
Qui-Gin also uses a leg-razor for a communicator.


Ep III was darker, and had a decent plot. Christensen had improved his acting and the saber fights were improved and had the emotion behind them rather than the stylish fights of Ep I.
Ep I fights still rule in terms of the whole saga though.
Ep III's down points were, as everyone has said, way too fast and unbelievable in the way Anakin turns to the Dark Side.

Ewan McGregor summed up Lucas and his masturbating over CGI perfectly on Top Gear.


The scene is where he hands baby Luke to Owen and Beru and he's riding on that Bantha...


"I'm sitting on a green box, surrounded by green curtains and green walls, holding a green blob wrapped in a blanket... Lucas shouts LOOK AT THE MOONS!!! All I could do is look around and then ask, what moons?"

Don't see how #2 can be worse than #1, but to each his own.

I agree that Episode 2 was more of a "filler" episode than the other two, and nothing significantly happened plot-wise that couldn't have just been included as backstory in episode 3 - on the other hand I definitely though the cast was better this time around, and was glad it wasn't wasting time with constant cameos to characters from the other films (3PO, R2D2, Jabba the Hutt, Greedo, etc).

Jar Jar Binks being made a general I think is the dumbest plot twist in the series by far.

Can you elaborate please? I've never heard any specific complaints about them.

I'd be interested in hearing about the "Midi-Chlorians" gripes in-more detail; I've heard complaints that it was changing "the Force" into something genetic instead of something metaphysical, but I'd always thought the genetic things was already established - with Luke and Leia inheriting it from Darth Vader.

Agree with your last point.