Is this why people hate the Star Wars prequels?!
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The Prequel trilogy was characterised by bad acting, awful scripts and childish humour.
The Original trilogy was characterised by bad acting, awful scripts, childish humour, and some really really cool ideas, like ninja wizards and cowboy space pilots, as well as classic good vs. bad storytelling bigger than the people involved that worked because it was so true to the archetype. Nothing in the prequel trilogy came anywhere even close to being as cool as any of:
lightsabres
donkey walkers
chicken walker
the death star
darth vader.
And thats it, really. The storytelling in the prequel trilogy was all about anakins emotions, massively hampered by the fact that the actor couldn't act, the fact that what the story viewed as justifiable rage was really just teenage angst which somehow turned weedy-lame anakin into the biggest most bad-ass villain of any series ever, practically at the flick of a switch at the end of episode 3. All the unexplained pain, rage and hate that characterised the original trilogy was explained away in the prequel trilogy, and instead of the story being bigger than its characters, the story relied on its characters, which is a shame, because lucas can't write convincing characters or dialogue worth a dam.
Also, anybody who can think trade embargoes are anywhere near as cool as the last stand of a few rebels is a fool.
The Original trilogy was characterised by bad acting, awful scripts, childish humour, and some really really cool ideas, like ninja wizards and cowboy space pilots, as well as classic good vs. bad storytelling bigger than the people involved that worked because it was so true to the archetype. Nothing in the prequel trilogy came anywhere even close to being as cool as any of:
lightsabres
donkey walkers
chicken walker
the death star
darth vader.
And thats it, really. The storytelling in the prequel trilogy was all about anakins emotions, massively hampered by the fact that the actor couldn't act, the fact that what the story viewed as justifiable rage was really just teenage angst which somehow turned weedy-lame anakin into the biggest most bad-ass villain of any series ever, practically at the flick of a switch at the end of episode 3. All the unexplained pain, rage and hate that characterised the original trilogy was explained away in the prequel trilogy, and instead of the story being bigger than its characters, the story relied on its characters, which is a shame, because lucas can't write convincing characters or dialogue worth a dam.
Also, anybody who can think trade embargoes are anywhere near as cool as the last stand of a few rebels is a fool.
Explaining the force was weakly handled in parts but the acting the writing the pacing......uhg.... they are a few tequila shots script production wise from being transformers....Blindswordmaster said:
I dunno I think the acting in the first films was much better, better paced and just better stories.Susurrus said:
Red letter media will show u why the prequels sucked
phantom menace part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/1/FxKtZmQgxrI
clone wars part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/0/CfBhi6qqFLA
these movies were flashy trash
phantom menace part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/1/FxKtZmQgxrI
clone wars part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/0/CfBhi6qqFLA
these movies were flashy trash
Pretty sure any point I make has already been made on this one. The bad acting ruined Eps 2 and 3...I mean, goddamn, why did they pick that guy for Anakin? The thought that Darth Vader, the most badass villain in the history of cinema in the eyes of so many fans, could possibly emerge from that mewling putz is beyond me.
Episode one had midichlorians. The comic sums up how I feel about that pretty well; they took a good idea and in one fell swoop ruined it through overexplanation. Way to go, Lucas. Way to go.
Final point...and this copies over to the newest Indiana Jones movie as well...
The movies relied far too much on CGI and special effects. Now, that's bloody rich coming from a star wars fan, considering the original trilogy had effects out the ass. But think about it this way. Watch A New Hope. Particularly, watch the death star battle. Every ship that blows up does such in a way that looks real. Now check out the prequels. The explosions, the ships, the entire scene...you can tell its CGI. Fantastic though it may look, it doesn't look REAL, which somewhat hurts the suspension of disbelief. Second point on this one, look at the lightsaber duels. Sure, watching Jedi act like a gaggle of freakin' ninjas going to town is cool, but the fights are remarkably sparse in anything resembling meaning. It's all show, no substance. Now look at when Luke and Vader duke it out at the end of Return of the Jedi. Every little bit of emotion the characters can portray, plus the running theme of the whole trilogy condenses into one fight, where Luke snaps and starts hammering the crap out of his old man. You'd think, say, when Qui-Gon died, Obi-wan would have some kind of similar reaction...nope. Not really.
And on a final, and personal note...Darth Vader is too badass to be reduced so. You spend two movies watching this angsty teenage queer pissing and moaning about his mommy fixation and his extraordinarily thin romance, which is about as far removed from Vader as it gets. Then, in the end, when he suits up for the first time, they presented him with the chance to redeem the pathetic, mewling whelp that was Anakin and make the ultimate villain. All they needed was a suitable display of rage, in some way shape or form. Did we get that? Nope. Instead, we get a man in the darth vader suit crying like an angsty teenager.
Lovely.
The movies were poorly written, the acting sucked (which isn't necessarily the actors' fault, considering some of the cast being people of fairly good quality), the substance was secondary to the appearance...
Screw those movies. I'm going back to the original trilogy...the ONLY trilogy, imo.
Episode one had midichlorians. The comic sums up how I feel about that pretty well; they took a good idea and in one fell swoop ruined it through overexplanation. Way to go, Lucas. Way to go.
Final point...and this copies over to the newest Indiana Jones movie as well...
The movies relied far too much on CGI and special effects. Now, that's bloody rich coming from a star wars fan, considering the original trilogy had effects out the ass. But think about it this way. Watch A New Hope. Particularly, watch the death star battle. Every ship that blows up does such in a way that looks real. Now check out the prequels. The explosions, the ships, the entire scene...you can tell its CGI. Fantastic though it may look, it doesn't look REAL, which somewhat hurts the suspension of disbelief. Second point on this one, look at the lightsaber duels. Sure, watching Jedi act like a gaggle of freakin' ninjas going to town is cool, but the fights are remarkably sparse in anything resembling meaning. It's all show, no substance. Now look at when Luke and Vader duke it out at the end of Return of the Jedi. Every little bit of emotion the characters can portray, plus the running theme of the whole trilogy condenses into one fight, where Luke snaps and starts hammering the crap out of his old man. You'd think, say, when Qui-Gon died, Obi-wan would have some kind of similar reaction...nope. Not really.
And on a final, and personal note...Darth Vader is too badass to be reduced so. You spend two movies watching this angsty teenage queer pissing and moaning about his mommy fixation and his extraordinarily thin romance, which is about as far removed from Vader as it gets. Then, in the end, when he suits up for the first time, they presented him with the chance to redeem the pathetic, mewling whelp that was Anakin and make the ultimate villain. All they needed was a suitable display of rage, in some way shape or form. Did we get that? Nope. Instead, we get a man in the darth vader suit crying like an angsty teenager.
Lovely.
The movies were poorly written, the acting sucked (which isn't necessarily the actors' fault, considering some of the cast being people of fairly good quality), the substance was secondary to the appearance...
Screw those movies. I'm going back to the original trilogy...the ONLY trilogy, imo.
To be honest, my biggest issue with the prequels is the massive dissonance between the lovingly crafted models used in the originals and the CGI employed in the prequels. Sure it looks good, but it just seems so unreal next to the old movies. I know technology advances continually, but the two trilogies don't even look like they take place in the same universe.
Of course there are also some other things:
EP1:
Anakin's midichlorian level is OVER 9000!!!
Stupid kid actor
trade federation, wtf?
EP2:
Did everybody have a stroke followed by a lobotomy in between ep1 and 2? Bloody hell, the acting was more awkward than an elementary school play
Hayden Whatshisface can't act. At all. He's terrible
Just die you, smug prick! (talking to Obi)
EP3:
km, not as bad.
Of course there are also some other things:
EP1:
Anakin's midichlorian level is OVER 9000!!!
Stupid kid actor
trade federation, wtf?
EP2:
Did everybody have a stroke followed by a lobotomy in between ep1 and 2? Bloody hell, the acting was more awkward than an elementary school play
Hayden Whatshisface can't act. At all. He's terrible
Just die you, smug prick! (talking to Obi)
EP3:
km, not as bad.
It has been said in interviews and in documentaries that while Lucas was a great story-teller and visionary, he had massive help with writing and directing (he didn't direct the episodes V or VI, I believe), according to Hamill and Ford, much of their dialogue as written was un-sayable, and all the actors said there were large amounts of improv in their lines.
Now flash to the prequels, where Lucas is king of SCI-Fi blockbusters. No one dares to tell him his dialogue is trash, or dares tell him which scenes are unnecessary.
Executive meddling made the OT great, while full control by Lucas made the prequels not as great.
Now flash to the prequels, where Lucas is king of SCI-Fi blockbusters. No one dares to tell him his dialogue is trash, or dares tell him which scenes are unnecessary.
Executive meddling made the OT great, while full control by Lucas made the prequels not as great.
Between the dead jedi master who's mentioned in one scene and then why the guy ordered the army is never explained? Trying to discover why Jango Fett, the guy working for Dooku, was used for the clone army's template? The fact that Jango was trying to kill a senator? Why the clones were suddenly deployed in spite of their questionable origin? I mean, yeah, its what they were made for, but the republic lacking any kind of military force what-so-ever? I could go on but I'll just start with this.Flames66 said:
Simply put, the problem is that George Lucas never had any idea why his movies were successful.
The fun of Star Wars, for me, came from the sense of adventure. The idea that these characters were always moving TOWARD something. That everything was to accomplish a goal and everything that happened prevented them from achieving that goal. That's kind of what made these movies a trilogy, since they didn't really achieve their goal until the third movie.
Go ahead and call me stupid, In the new "episodes" I felt left behind by what was going on, and I think they made a political thriller by episode III? I don't know. I saw them all in the theater and I literally couldn't tell you a thing that happens in any of them. Liam Neeson gets cut in half. Anakin Skywalker goes to the dark side without ever convincing us that the dark side is a good idea. The "goal" in Episode III is to set everything up for A New Hope. And when the protagonist of your movie is the director, then you don't have a movie anymore.
The original trilogy was a love letter to genre pictures. And the new episodes were a kind of movie that I didn't want to watch that happened to be called Star Wars.
The fun of Star Wars, for me, came from the sense of adventure. The idea that these characters were always moving TOWARD something. That everything was to accomplish a goal and everything that happened prevented them from achieving that goal. That's kind of what made these movies a trilogy, since they didn't really achieve their goal until the third movie.
Go ahead and call me stupid, In the new "episodes" I felt left behind by what was going on, and I think they made a political thriller by episode III? I don't know. I saw them all in the theater and I literally couldn't tell you a thing that happens in any of them. Liam Neeson gets cut in half. Anakin Skywalker goes to the dark side without ever convincing us that the dark side is a good idea. The "goal" in Episode III is to set everything up for A New Hope. And when the protagonist of your movie is the director, then you don't have a movie anymore.
The original trilogy was a love letter to genre pictures. And the new episodes were a kind of movie that I didn't want to watch that happened to be called Star Wars.
I don't quite get this.Jovlo said:
Let's all be very honest with each other here: The original Star Wars films don't have great acting. I love me some Harrison Ford, but Star Wars is far from is best work. And the Dialog wasn't that great either in Episodes 4 through 6.
Luke, at the beginning, is nearly unbearable.
"But I was going to goto Tashi's station to pick up some power converters! Whiiiiine!"
"Biggs is right! I'll never get out of here! Whiiiiiine!"
"This thing is a hunk of junk! Whiiiiine!"
Ugh.
The point is that Star Wars never had great acting or great dialog. And to complain about that is just...well, weird. The Midichlorian thing was bizarre, sure, but whatever. I'm watching a movie where people can shoot lighting from their hands, there are explosions and sound in space, and people have swords made of light energy that can cut anything...I think I can shrug off something about 'midichlorians'.
Now this is an excellent reason. They certainly do not have the same feel.
And that's the problem when you create a prequel to a movie made 15 or so years earlier. You just can't get the same feel. Everything looks newer, too clean. And it's supposed to be way before the events of Episode 4!
I'm a big Star Wars fan (Maybe not as much as some), and love (And own) all 6 films.
The prequels do have a different feel, but they fit with the original 3.
Third was great, first two are complete garbage. incoherent plots, way too many endings, shitty acting, and the over usage of CGI. I don't care about the midichlorians as much as most people, but when judging episodes 1 and 2 as films, and not starwars films? they are huge, heaping, piles of shit.
I never really hated the prequels more than I hated Star Wars as a whole. The entire series is good as a mindless action movie, but there are people who take the movies way too seriously. Star Wars does not really stand up to brainy evaluation, which is fine, except fines try to make it stand up to brainy evaluation anyway. I am all fine for taking apart Star Wars, but it is nothing against the prequels.
I don't even think that many classics stand up well to scrutinizion, at the end of the day its up to suspension of disbelief and your tolerance for crap that will make or break the thing you watch or play.j0frenzy said:
well i didn't think about that really, and yes it did had this mystic thing in the older episodes that wasn't "cientifically" PROOVED but hey Lucas can do whatever he wants with his license. Go create your own universe if you don't want it changed!
you should make a poll by the way....
you should make a poll by the way....
Jar Jar ...
... the hour spent making it obvious that Senator Palpatine was going to be Emperor Palpatine, like, that guy, y'know, with like the hood and the cloak and the hissy voice, right, like he held his ahnds like this and like he was evil and y'know? Well this guy, like y'know that guy was called like Emperor Palpatine and this guy's Senator Palpatine, well, right, this guy, see, with like the way he wears the cloak with the hood and he's got that hissy like voice and he holds his hands like this you see that well this guy, right, he's going to be that guy ...
... and the hour spent advertising a Sega arcade racing game.
... the hour spent making it obvious that Senator Palpatine was going to be Emperor Palpatine, like, that guy, y'know, with like the hood and the cloak and the hissy voice, right, like he held his ahnds like this and like he was evil and y'know? Well this guy, like y'know that guy was called like Emperor Palpatine and this guy's Senator Palpatine, well, right, this guy, see, with like the way he wears the cloak with the hood and he's got that hissy like voice and he holds his hands like this you see that well this guy, right, he's going to be that guy ...
... and the hour spent advertising a Sega arcade racing game.
I didn't hate them. There were things wrong with them, though:
The acting and dialogue were horrible. Everything felt extremely unnatural, and there were a lot of stupid one-liners that just didn't need to be there, as Star Wars isn't about being funny.
The story felt like, rather than flowing, it was being pushed. It was just rush-and-go to the next big thing. Some scenes were well-written and easy to become immersed in, but for the most part, it felt rushed.
Then comes the angst factor. Anyone who saw episodes IV - VI knows that Darth Vader is a badass. Personally, when he bellowed "NOOOOOOOOO!" into the darkness... my heart broke. I think my jaw actually dropped while I was watching. Through the whole movie, Anakin was a *****. I know he was turning, I know he was angry a lot, and I know he had a lot to be angry about, but it was displayed very childish-ly. It's obviously not Hayden Christiensen's fault (maybe it was... his acting felt hollow sometimes), as it goes back to the first problem - badly written.
Overall, the prequels were just... disappointing.
The acting and dialogue were horrible. Everything felt extremely unnatural, and there were a lot of stupid one-liners that just didn't need to be there, as Star Wars isn't about being funny.
The story felt like, rather than flowing, it was being pushed. It was just rush-and-go to the next big thing. Some scenes were well-written and easy to become immersed in, but for the most part, it felt rushed.
Then comes the angst factor. Anyone who saw episodes IV - VI knows that Darth Vader is a badass. Personally, when he bellowed "NOOOOOOOOO!" into the darkness... my heart broke. I think my jaw actually dropped while I was watching. Through the whole movie, Anakin was a *****. I know he was turning, I know he was angry a lot, and I know he had a lot to be angry about, but it was displayed very childish-ly. It's obviously not Hayden Christiensen's fault (maybe it was... his acting felt hollow sometimes), as it goes back to the first problem - badly written.
Overall, the prequels were just... disappointing.