Poll: Alright, I wanna see if anyone agrees with me on this...

[The Funslinger]

They were actually decent films.
Relatively entertaining, with really good visual effects.

Issue?
The entire plot revolving around Anakin.
Also, midichlorians.

The issue with Anakin is that the whole thing about him descending to the Dark Side was done so poorly.
My dad's theory about Darth Vader was that he was only acting as The Dragon for Palpatine so that he could get a chance to overthrow him and bring an end to the Empire.
The events at Endor were perfect for this.

The prequels ruined how awesome this would have been.

rl;td:
If you removed Anakin being a whiny brat and improved the plot a little, you'd have some goddamned amazing films worthy of the Star Wars title.

To be honest, that Darth Vader thing was something I thought of too. Though that possibility is saved by the fact that Anakin said to Padme: "I'm more powerful than the Chancellor, I can overthrow him!" and Padme's death just sort of left him hollow, and he was like "ugh, what's the point?" Anyway, even though they were deeply flawed, I love the movies in the same way I love the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Matrix sequels. I love the characters, and each film did have something good to offer, it just wasn't at its full potential.

 

[Ladette]

I didn't think the original triology was that great to be honest.

However, the new trilogy is awful. The CGI is way too prevalent and it looks fake, yhe acting is some of the worst i've seen outside of SciFi Original movies, the plot is really lackluster, and the whole thing just felt like a cash grab to me. Also Jar Jar is officially the worst character in film ever, he makes the Ewoks look good.

I don't have the same hate for it that I do for say, the Transformers movies, but new trilogy is awful and I hope to never have to watch them again.

 

[Hawkmoon269]

I get so sick of people who hate on the Star Wars prequels. Yes, they weren't as good as the originals, I'll admit that. But, they're a part of the overall story, and as a Star Wars fan, I enjoyed them. Its as simple as that.

Besides, I think sometimes, fans put the originals up on a pedestal to an unreasonable degree. Face it, the originals had dodgy writing, dodgy acting and plots holes the size of the forest moon of endor, and yet they are still very enjoyable films. The prequels fall foul of all the same faults, and yet just because they didnt ride on the same cultural hype that the originals did, they're criticised as far far worse.

It's all George Lucas' creation, and for better or worse, that gives him the power to take the story in whatever direction he wants.

Stop hating the prequels and just enjoy them for their contribution to an interesting, deep and engaging universe.

 

[TornadoFive]

I actually watched the prequels first, because I thought it would be better to watch them in chronological order. So that might have clouded my opinion of them. But I didn't find them too bad. Certainly not the best films I've ever seen, but none of the SW films would apply to that.

I never really understood the hate the prequels got. If you didn't like them, don't watch them. They're done now, complaining about it on some internet forum isn't going to do the slightest bit of difference.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

They're not movies. They're fucking commercials for all the shit Lucas can come up with.

 

[SonicKaos]

Clone wars was great I thought. The first one was alright, but I didn't like the last one... So I guess that puts me in the middle.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Two issues at work here:

1) It's your first Star Wars. You will love it despite anything said in it's criticism.

2)

It's not even a good story. You can enjoy anything despite how horrendous it is.

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The problem most of us have is that the prequels OVERWRITE the sequels badly. It's like adding eyebrows to the Mona Lisa. You may think it's more "realistic", but it drops the value through the floor.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

They have their moments. III is probably my favorite though, because I really like stories were the good guy gets corrupted and go evil.

I'm not much of a fan of the series or mythology at all though. *shrugs*

 

[Embz]

I liked the first one, the next two killed it.

And am I the only person in the world who thought Jar-Jar Binks wasn't terrible?

I liked Jar-Jar too and I enjoyed the first episode but 2 and 3 were pretty bad compared to the original ones

 

[Sutter Cane]

Sorry, but even the things you mentioned in a postitive way, were totally lackluster to me.

The tension just dissolved itself, the direction was so minimalist it was terrible and the only thing the action scenes had going for them was . . . stuff . . . alot of it.

Let Dr.Plinkett help you make the right decision: http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/

Hooray for treating someone as wrong for having a different opinion.

 

[Captain Pirate]

I loved all three.
Yes, the acting was piss-poor in places (Anakin) and great in others, in my opinion (Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, The Emporer and Count Dooku).
Jar-Jar I am very indifferent about.
I found him amusing as a child, and tolerable as a teenager.

But, as OP said, the spectacle totally makes up for any faults.
The granduer of the battle of Geonisis, the eradication of the Jedi, the Naboo saber battle, and pretty much every epic battle was absolutely stunning.

When each and every Jedi is betrayed at the drop of an order, though.. Still brings a tear to my eye.

General Grievous though, man, the FUCK?! They bigged him all up in the Clone Wars cartoons, and then gets killed by Obi-Wan, which would be acceptable if he had actually put up a good fight. Obi's just like "*****, please." as he cuts off two of his hands in the first 20 seconds.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I don't remember them well enough to decide one way or the other, but I do remember being annoyed by everything Anakin did in the third one, especially the infamous "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" at the end.

Luke's NOOOOO was pretty weird too, but most people remember it better because it happened after the big "I am your father" revelation.

 

[Sutter Cane]

Personally I find it interesting that it seems that many people that either:
A. Watched the Star Wars films in chronological order 1-6 or
B. Saw the prequels as well as the originals as a child
don't seem to mind them, and that the typical profile of those who dislike them seems to be that they saw the OT at a younger age, and were older once the prequels came out, or had to wait all those years between the release of ROTJ and TPM.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

As much as I enjoyed the original trilogy, no. The prequels are impressively some of the worst movies I've ever seen, honestly. Amazingly bad acting, poor casting, poor scripting, simplistic and very repetitive cinematography, special effects which actually detracted from the movie itself and dry, boringly sterile action scenes. It truly amazed and horrified me when I realized that after that last one I couldn't honestly care if there was ever another Star Wars anything.

 

[Flac00]

Episode 3 was the best of the prequels, so no.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

I enjoyed them and I still do, although I liked Episode 2 the least of all. That one felt the most dragged out and least action-filled of the series. A lot of the reason I like them is because of Obi-Wan. It was cool to see him grow into the Obi-Wan we see in the originals and I just really like him as a character (and Ewan McGregor does a great job I think). The music is still great and have always liked the lightsaber battles.

 

[Belated]

The romance wasn't believable. Darth Vader become that way for stupid emo reasons. Darth Maul was made out to be a badass and turned out to be a disappointment.

But I loved those prequels nonetheless. I just liked the fighting and the action. And Obi Wan was good.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

They worked as movies, kind of annoying, but they had their good bits.
The reason for this lies in the unfair comparison to the gold standard of the original trilogy.
Everything looks like crap in that regard!

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I thought the writing was fucking terrible and the guy that played Anakin couldn't act to save himself. I don't even want to discuss Jar-Jar, he knows what he did.

The only thing I like about the prequels is the lightsaber fight scenes.

Yeah that's pretty much my stance on the prequels. Dual wielding on one lightsaber battles!