Poll: Why do you hate the Star Wars Prequels?

[Crazy_Dude]

Jar-jar alone is reason enough to hate them.

 

[CrashBang]

EDIT: For the record I was 6 in 1996 when Lucas relesed the special editions and Episode 4 was the second movie I ever saw (The first being Toy Story) in a cinima and I was 9 or 10 when Episode 1 came out so I was the same age as the target audience but still hated it.

Ditto, man, I was the same age and the VHS Special Editions are the only editions I've ever seen and I love them so much. When I was 9 and I saw Episode 1 I was disgusted. Usually, when you're that age, you don't really notice if a film is good or bad, you just kinda enjoy the bits you enjoy but there's nothing to enjoy about Episode 1 at all!

Side note about remastering: I looked up the theatrical version of the song at the end of Return and I do think the remastered song is much better and that is the only thing about the remastered version I like.

 

[Urgol]

I never thought the old Star Wars was worth all the praise it got.
Or at least I don't think it deserved the level of reverence required cause so much whining about the prequels.
For exampel, are you aware that the ewokes were actually made up as a joke? The scanario should supposedly been a fight between the empire and the wokees but George Lucas thought the ewokes were so much funnier that he choose to change the scenario.

 

[JoJo]

To be honest the only episode I didn't think was that great was the 2nd one, because the "love" acting really was bad. However I liked 1 and 3 and I love Jar Jar because it reminds all the hardcore fans that they are watching a children's film.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I do believe that if we take the story with point-by-point and take the basic structure, it wouldn't be that bad. It's metaphor time!

Imagine a skeleton. That's your basic story. They find Anakin, they bring him along to be a Jedi, he becomes a great Jedi, falls in love with Padme, things get dicy, Palpatine is revealed to be evil (duh), Anakin becomes evil and the set pieces are set for the original story.

Not that bad. Granted, a few rewrites would've made this better, but the basic story is something that I would watch.


Now imagine the rest of the body. It does feel like everything is else is rotting.
-The writing is catastrophic and manages to put good actors in bad roles.
-Poor actors have main roles.
-Too much CGI is shown.
-A lot of characters feel like they don't belong.
-The atmosphere of the original trilogy is not there. (The original felt we were part of a ragtag group against a giant big bad).
-Nothing felt real.
-And much much more!

My point: It does feel like a fail from the director/writer/actors. If all of things would've been improved (better script, not so much CGI, competent actors, etc.), I think the opinions would've been better.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

A few things, really.

- Using CGI as a crutch. The effects in the original trilogy may seem hokey compared to today, but back then they were absolute eye-candy. The fact that the effects team were so constrained by the technology they had access to forced them to be clever and creative to get around it. Hence, styrofoam and cardboard models became X-Wings and TIE fighters zipping along the surface of the Death Star at breakneck speeds.

Contrast that to the prequels, where Lucasarts basically had a blank check and more creative freedom than God. What did they do? Blow their wad on completely uninteresting battles. It was as if, given the ability to represent almost infinite scale, they forgot all about making all those pyrotechnics matter.

- Merchandizing over storytelling. Jar-Jar Binks was a ploy at marketing a new toy, plain and simple. The backlash over the character was so scathing that Lucas severely cut back his screentime in Episode II. And Darth Maul- you saw his face all over the merchandise, but he got all of six lines in the movie before his chances of appearing in any of the sequels was... cut in half.

- Terrible acting. I'm not saying that Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher were any great shakes acting-wise, but they were Hamlet and Ophelia material compared to Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. Combined, their acting was more wooden than an entire petrified forest, and Christensen in particular turned what could have been a slow, conflicted slide towards the Dark Side into an emo pout-fest. How Ewan McGregor managed to play off of that in any way astounds me.

George Lucas made these movies his way. Maybe that was the worst thing about them.

 

[Veylon]

O.k....Anakin and Padme's relationship was that Anakin felt partially responsible for his mothers death since he arrived too late to save her. So when he got prophetic dreams of her (padmes) death, he couldn't bear to see her die too. This lead to his turn to the dark side, which was all an attempt to protect her. But when he felt that she betrayed him, he was so enraged that he actually physically hurt her. This rage was amplified by the fact he had been acting purely on his darkest emotions recently. And he didn't kill her, she lost the will to live after she gave birth. Ridiculous? Well, in a galaxy of frozen carbonites, 'talking' furballs, planet destroying battleships and magical space samurai, I think this is the most ordinary thing in this series. And her death had as much screentime as Vaders, since Vaders final peptalk to Luke is roughly as long as the birthing scene, so no, her death isn't over too quick.

I neglected the birth sequence. You're right. And I'm not saying it's ridiculous, so no need to be defensive. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on how believable his turn was; I found it too quick and unsatisfying, but if you were okay with it, I won't argue.

Can't say much about Boba...since its hard to say much about a character with about as much screentime as Greedo -_-. So, fuck it. I can't really argue about a character thats a blank slate and for that reason, people love him. Its me saying, 'He isn't a real character', and getting the response, 'Thats why we love him'.I can't say shit, so whatever...

I think I'm not making myself clear here. There isn't much to say about Boba. There shouldn't be; he's just a background character like Akbar or Mon Mothma. I don't care whether Jango or Boba gets more screentime or who likes who. My complaint is with the fans' fetishization of Boba Fett and Lucas's indulgence of them. I'm actually in agreement with you here.

And what would the story be ABOUT? Boring sob tales about stolen freedom with subliminal messaging of how people should value their freedom? We get enough of that from the first 3 Star Wars...

It must have been very subliminal, because I missed it. I doubt we saw more than a tiny handful of oppressed citizens in the entirety of the Original Trilogy. In any case, the Episode I I'm envisioning wouldn't be about how people should value their freedom, but about the shock value of having one's world turned upside down. I'd start Anakin out in his teens and give him a good chance to develop the anger that any young rebel feels. That would be the start of his darkness, the fear of once again going through the terror and trauma of his formative years. And a screed about freedom would be out of place, the goal is to focus on Anakin's rise and fall, not the occupation of Naboo, which only provides the context. He helps out a Jedi who was there to investigate, but was ambushed and is now stuck on the planet. He senses latent talent in young Anakin and together the two manage to escape the planet. Of course, leaving everything and everyone he knows on the other side of what is soon to be a war front isn't particularly healthy for Anakin's psyche either...

Epsiode 1 was an origin story. If they didn't go to Tattoine, how would they find Anakin? And if Anakin wasn't on Tattoine, why the HELL would Luke have any relatives on Tattoine!? The originals got away with a lack of origin stories because they weren't the start of the story. Were did these space Nazi's come from? Well, apparently episode 2 was ignorant enough to answer the question.

It's very simple how Anakin could have relatives on Tatooine if he wasn't. The galaxy is teeming with starships and travelers. It's not exactly impossible to travel from one planet to another in this universe. Space Nazis and Stormtroopers, like real Nazis and Stormtroopers (are we Godwinned now?) can be recruited from the general citizenry. All that's needed is a demagogue.

You may have a point about the drama thing...but Luke gets over his 'parents' death pretty quickly. At least Anakin showed some kind of REAL reaction. And there's a difference between, 'My parents were murdered', and, 'My home planet was destroyed'...just saying.

Every movie character ever gets over this sort of thing too quickly. They've only got an hour and half to do so. It's a real limitation of the medium that enough time cannot be devoted to allow the psychological space for acceptance of loss and grief. The best that can be done is a montage.

I feel genuinely sorry for George Lucas, LucasArts and the entire Star Wars film franchise for having to put up with fans who want and WANT AND WANT but give fits when they get it.
Seriously.

This franchise has some of the worst fans I've ever seen. I'm more of a "plague on both their houses" mentality, though.

 

[Ooga600]

One dimensional characters, and a sad, desperate attempt at humor and romance

 

[SageRuffin]

There are a number I didn't like but the main offender for me was that the prequels didn't follow the rules set in its own universe. That and some very, very, VERY bad writing.

 

[DAPLR]

O.k....Anakin and Padme's relationship was that Anakin felt partially responsible for his mothers death since he arrived too late to save her. So when he got prophetic dreams of her (padmes) death, he couldn't bear to see her die too. This lead to his turn to the dark side, which was all an attempt to protect her. But when he felt that she betrayed him, he was so enraged that he actually physically hurt her. This rage was amplified by the fact he had been acting purely on his darkest emotions recently. And he didn't kill her, she lost the will to live after she gave birth. Ridiculous? Well, in a galaxy of frozen carbonites, 'talking' furballs, planet destroying battleships and magical space samurai, I think this is the most ordinary thing in this series. And her death had as much screentime as Vaders, since Vaders final peptalk to Luke is roughly as long as the birthing scene, so no, her death isn't over too quick.

I neglected the birth sequence. You're right. And I'm not saying it's ridiculous, so no need to be defensive. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on how believable his turn was; I found it too quick and unsatisfying, but if you were okay with it, I won't argue.

Can't say much about Boba...since its hard to say much about a character with about as much screentime as Greedo -_-. So, fuck it. I can't really argue about a character thats a blank slate and for that reason, people love him. Its me saying, 'He isn't a real character', and getting the response, 'Thats why we love him'.I can't say shit, so whatever...

I think I'm not making myself clear here. There isn't much to say about Boba. There shouldn't be; he's just a background character like Akbar or Mon Mothma. I don't care whether Jango or Boba gets more screentime or who likes who. My complaint is with the fans' fetishization of Boba Fett and Lucas's indulgence of them. I'm actually in agreement with you here.

And what would the story be ABOUT? Boring sob tales about stolen freedom with subliminal messaging of how people should value their freedom? We get enough of that from the first 3 Star Wars...

It must have been very subliminal, because I missed it. I doubt we saw more than a tiny handful of oppressed citizens in the entirety of the Original Trilogy. In any case, the Episode I I'm envisioning wouldn't be about how people should value their freedom, but about the shock value of having one's world turned upside down. I'd start Anakin out in his teens and give him a good chance to develop the anger that any young rebel feels. That would be the start of his darkness, the fear of once again going through the terror and trauma of his formative years. And a screed about freedom would be out of place, the goal is to focus on Anakin's rise and fall, not the occupation of Naboo, which only provides the context. He helps out a Jedi who was there to investigate, but was ambushed and is now stuck on the planet. He senses latent talent in young Anakin and together the two manage to escape the planet. Of course, leaving everything and everyone he knows on the other side of what is soon to be a war front isn't particularly healthy for Anakin's psyche either...

Epsiode 1 was an origin story. If they didn't go to Tattoine, how would they find Anakin? And if Anakin wasn't on Tattoine, why the HELL would Luke have any relatives on Tattoine!? The originals got away with a lack of origin stories because they weren't the start of the story. Were did these space Nazi's come from? Well, apparently episode 2 was ignorant enough to answer the question.

It's very simple how Anakin could have relatives on Tatooine if he wasn't. The galaxy is teeming with starships and travelers. It's not exactly impossible to travel from one planet to another in this universe. Space Nazis and Stormtroopers, like real Nazis and Stormtroopers (are we Godwinned now?) can be recruited from the general citizenry. All that's needed is a demagogue.

You may have a point about the drama thing...but Luke gets over his 'parents' death pretty quickly. At least Anakin showed some kind of REAL reaction. And there's a difference between, 'My parents were murdered', and, 'My home planet was destroyed'...just saying.

Every movie character ever gets over this sort of thing too quickly. They've only got an hour and half to do so. It's a real limitation of the medium that enough time cannot be devoted to allow the psychological space for acceptance of loss and grief. The best that can be done is a montage.

I feel genuinely sorry for George Lucas, LucasArts and the entire Star Wars film franchise for having to put up with fans who want and WANT AND WANT but give fits when they get it.
Seriously.

This franchise has some of the worst fans I've ever seen. I'm more of a "plague on both their houses" mentality, though.

Argh, you're the worst kind of person to have an argument with, cos you're so nice, and now I feel bad for acting like a douche <

It's not that I hate star wars, but the fact that I like it so much, yet people hate the ones I grew up with. Star Wars for me was Episode 1 and 2 THEN learning about the earlier ones. I watched them since I was so pysched to see the 3rd one. I didn't view any as better or worse, they were all just 'Star Wars' to me. Then all I hear from people is how horrible the first 3 are, and I can't say anything cos everyone apparently agrees, so they get together to talkabout why they hate the Star Wars (new ones) and I just hated that. And whenever you try to say something against it, they gang up on you and yell at ya for 'hating' and 'misunderstanding' Star Wars.

I'm the kind of guy who is willing to try and understand something being taken in a new direction, be it the new Devil May Cry design, new Dragonball movie (it wasn't THAT bad) or, indeed, the new Star wars movies. I also like Dragonforce -_-

So yeah, theirs my little reason for being a prick about this, sorry for the trouble, mate.
You must have an interest in something that the VAST majority hates...now imagine if virtually all of your interests are in the minority of opinion...perhaps yours are if so, great!

I guess I just hate haters

Btw: That Anakin idea....well...people DID say they hated him being whiny, which is a hatred I don't understand, but oh well

 

[Vankraken]

The put it simply the plot was horrible, the fan service was too intentional and missed the mark entirely, too much CG which made everything feel so..... clean and fake. The original 3 had such an organic feel to the sounds, acting, effects, etc that it made it feel alive. Also the original movies had a much darker and grittier presentation of the Star Wars universe while the other 3 had everything so clean cut (even in the frontier worlds) and felt rather dumbed down to the point that small children could understand what was going on.

 

[Alexias_Sandar]

Remove Hayden Christiansen's Anakin. Profit. Enough said.

 

[xdom125x]

Is it wrong that I find it really really funny that in order to be a "real Star Wars fan", you are supposed to absolutely despise half of the movies?

Anyway, I don't hate the prequels. It suffers from the usual problems that prequels face: filling in stuff that was originally left up to the fans' imagination makes people feel like you went dicking around with the established continuity that only exists in their head; it requires you to make your characters less interesting in order to allow them to grow through the in-universe chronological order of the movies; it will never live up to everyones expectations. Also, it has Jar Jar Binks, and that guy is really really annoying.
Also, I would like to note that in these movies defense, it never explicitly states that midichlorian actually causes the force, only that they are in high numbers in force sensitive people, so it can easily be argued that they are only attracted to the force. It wasn't the best way to say that Anakin was powerful, but it was somewhat necessary with the target audience in mind.
Oh, how could I forget, the prequels main love story wasn't centered around a love triangle that involved a pair of twins. It was still poorly executed, but it wasn't goddamn incestuous.

(Flame-shield activated) When I originally saw Episode 1: when I was in the age range that all of the Star Wars movies were mainly aimed at (in the 7 to 13 ballpark, in case you were wondering. The prequels were not targeted at the people that saw the originals when they first came out, even if they think that they are still the target audience), I enjoyed it, even that bastard Jar Jar, who I would like to note is directly responsible for the Sith taking control of the Senate (I just love saying that). When I got older, episode 1 felt way stupider, episode 2 and 3 made me roll my eyes at the "romance" but I still find the latter 2 actually good (and I will defend my stance that episode 3 is better than episode 6 because episode 3 didn't have Ewoks).
They mostly get called pure crap because they are average at worst and are being compared to 2 (or 3, I guess) of the best or rather most iconic sci-fi/fantasy movies of all time.

Oh, and as for the poll, I can't pick between ANH and TESB. But if I must, I will go with the former.

 

[crudus]

Honestly, the prequels took a lot of the mystique out of the entire series. It tried to explain or over explain things it shouldn't have.

I like the lightsaber fights but although they are very quick with lots of flips and twirls they have none of the impact the original lightsaber fights had.

This is actually what I hated the most about the prequels. A lot of finesse needs to go into wielding a lightsaber which you don't get by trying to swing it as hard as you can. Another thing: its a fucking lightsaber. It can cut/melt through (nearly) anything instantly no matter how much pressure you put into it. Why would you swing it as hard as possible when you just need to touch your enemy to hurt them?! The lightsaber duel in the first movie was perfect. That is how you would duel with a lightsaber; it wouldn't be too far off from modern day fencing.

 

[YuheJi]

Talking about the lightsaber battles, they always just seemed so wrong to me in the first three movies. Like the characters were setting each other up with each clash (well, the actors obviously were) but the movie just makes those lightsaber battles appear way too scripted. You're trying to get actors that don't know how to wield swords to fight in these extremely fast duels, and it just ends up looking fake.
The original lightsaber battles just felt more realistic, though obviously they weren't nearly as flashy.
Hell, I've been watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars and I would rate the TV show much better than the prequels. In fact, they're surprisingly violent and well done for a kid's show.

 

[Awexsome]

I hate the Phantom menace but the other two prequels I enjoyed. Yeah the romance wasn't that good but that wasn't the entire movie. I loved the backstory behind the clones and how the Jedi council, the senate, and Palpatine were all interacting with each other. Basically almost everything besides the romance between Anakin and Padme was fun for me. It was still a big part of the movies which is why like most people I like the original trilogy better but I think the prequels get way more flak than they deserve.

Except episode 1. That one was shit.

 

[evilneko]

Oh man, asking me to pick which of the original trilogy I like best. Damn. I just can't do it.

You know what I hated about the prequels?

More than Jar Jar, more than the silliness which plagued Episode I, more than the title of Episode II, more than the poorly-written romance?

The so-called "actor" they got to play Anakin. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0159789/]

I actually didn't mind Jar Jar all that much. The way I see it he served the same purpose that our beloved droid pair did.

 

[HeavyWeaponsSpy]

Jar Jar, the terrible Lightsaber fights, the characters having about as much personality as rocks, the many, many plot-holes, Midichlorians, and a lot of other stuff. Just watch Red Letter Media.

And before the Star Wars fanboys say ''They covered most of the plot-holes in the books and comics!'', just shut up. I don't care about any EU crap apart from the Thrawn Trilogy. What's in the films is what matters.

 

[Veylon]

Argh, you're the worst kind of person to have an argument with, cos you're so nice, and now I feel bad for acting like a douche <

Well, thank you! I know there are a lot of rabid fans out there of various stripes, so it's easy to assume the worst.

It's not that I hate star wars, but the fact that I like it so much, yet people hate the ones I grew up with. Star Wars for me was Episode 1 and 2 THEN learning about the earlier ones. I watched them since I was so pysched to see the 3rd one. I didn't view any as better or worse, they were all just 'Star Wars' to me. Then all I hear from people is how horrible the first 3 are, and I can't say anything cos everyone apparently agrees, so they get together to talk about why they hate the Star Wars (new ones) and I just hated that. And whenever you try to say something against it, they gang up on you and yell at ya for 'hating' and 'misunderstanding' Star Wars.

There is very much a generational gap here, with each generation having it's own prescription of rose-tinted glasses. Most of the charges against the prequels are highly visceral; they lack much punch if you didn't see and care about the originals first. It can be hard to see what a rip-off Jango is if you didn't know who Boba was. Or cringe at the light silliness of The Phantom Menace without experiencing the darkness of The Empire Strikes Back first. When seen I-VI (or even I-II, IV-VI, III), things aren't as awkward.

I'm the kind of guy who is willing to try and understand something being taken in a new direction, be it the new Devil May Cry design, new Dragonball movie (it wasn't THAT bad) or, indeed, the new Star wars movies. I also like Dragonforce -_-

I'd like to see Final Fantasy rebooted as a 16-bit action RPG. I liked the new Star Trek movie.

So yeah, theirs my little reason for being a prick about this, sorry for the trouble, mate.
You must have an interest in something that the VAST majority hates...now imagine if virtually all of your interests are in the minority of opinion...perhaps yours are if so, great!

I guess I just hate haters

Btw: That Anakin idea....well...people DID say they hated him being whiny, which is a hatred I don't understand, but oh well

They hate him for being a child in the first movie. They hate that the Trade Federation is undercut as enemies by having said child accidentally defeat them.

Throughout the Original Trilogy, Anakin Skywalker is built up as a noble, dignified, yet tragic figure. He is named as friend by Obi-Wan, who practically defines noble and dignified. His incarnation as Vader is terrifying and authoritarian. The Anakin of the prequels never achieves the psychological stature necessary to become the enforcer of the Empire, nor does he seem to forge a path that Luke would be honored to follow, even unto death.

This is another one of those generational things. Back in the 80's and 90's, there were any number of people eager to speculate on the horrifying ordeals that would induce Anakin, Jedi Knight, to turn from his path to embrace his role as the Dark Lord of the Sith. They tended to me much darker and more philosophical than anything that happened in the prequels. And thus the feeling of being let down.