Seriously, WHY Do People Consider The Star Wars Prequels to be Horrendous?

[Froggy Slayer]

The best Star Wars is "A New Hope".

.

You are of course wrong, sir, the best Star Wars is Empire Strikes Back, followed by Return of the Jedi, followed by A New Hope. Of course, the main thing that made the Original Trilogy good was that it wasn't all Lucas; he took quite a back seat while V and VI were being made. Come the prequel trilogy, he had protection from editors, and that meant that the first draft of his work got put through.

 

[loc978]

Honestly, I thought the scripts were mediocre at best, even the novels had me scratching my head a little at the time... but I could have overlooked that and still enjoyed the movies immensely if there had been on-screen chemistry between the actors where the story demanded it. Unfortunately, the only people in the whole damn trilogy that had any chemistry going were Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson with the whole master/student thing (so yes, despite Jar-Jar, I consider the Phantom Menace to be the best of the prequel movies... and I find that sad). The rest of it just felt lifeless, which managed to take scripts that had the potential to be good (though not great) movies and turn them into piles of steaming shit.

 

[MorganL4]

I love the prequels.

I was so unbearably bored with the original trilogy. The only good thing about it was Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford's acting.

How old are you?....... I feel I must ask.

 

[Piorn]

I didn't find them engaging. I didn't root for anyone, I didn't care what happened to these people. It was just some people doing stuff. Like a short footnote describing what happened before the original movies, but stretched out over 3 movies.

In the originals, you had Luke. He was a normal farmer who got thrown into an adventure, and you could relate to him, because you knew as much about the world as him.
On the other hand, Anakin was either a little kid or an evil, reckless teenager with troubling political views, neither of which are particularly relatable.

 

[kortin]

I love the prequels.

I was so unbearably bored with the original trilogy. The only good thing about it was Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford's acting.

How old are you?....... I feel I must ask.

18.

And they're still boring as fuck. There is absolutely nothing good about the original trilogy except for Hamill and Ford.

 

[theultimateend]

In a nutshell, it forgot what made the original movies so charming.

We have three movies filled with bland uninteresting characters who have zero chemistry with one another, to a point where we have to be told what their relationship is. Anakin and Padme are supposedly desperately in love, and the way the movies show this is by having them be in romantic settings together. That's all we get. Anakin acts like a weird creep around Padme the whole of the second movie, and by the end she's magically in love with him just cuz.
Then we have Anakin and Obi Wan who are apparently close friends, yet all they do is complain and be irritated by one another.

What made the original films charming was that Lucas had people who were allowed to tell him "No, that's a fucking terrible idea."

Now that he's a huge deal nobody is allowed to do that anymore, and those films are what happened.

Or that's how it was explained to me at some point. Might be entirely false but seems plausible.

You're going to the special hell. They remodeled to make space just for you and your kind. It's now for child molesters, people who talk during movies, and people who think the Star Wars prequels were good while the originals sucked.

Hell is too good for people who talk during films. There needs to be somewhere darker and more agonizing.

Even Satan has standards.

 

[Ieyke]

You mean George Lucas.

 

[theultimateend]

You mean George Lucas.

You didn't quote me but I assume you meant my mistake .

I fixed it, its kind of hard to separate the two since they are basically two sides of the same coin.

 

[kortin]

You're going to the special hell. They remodeled to make space just for you and your kind. It's now for child molesters, people who talk during movies, and people who think the Star Wars prequels were good while the originals sucked.

First off, thanks for the insult, I appreciate it.

Secondly, I never said the prequels were good. I said I liked them more. The Originals bored me out of my mind. There was nothing going on, the story was uninteresting and there was nothing to make me care about it, and the only good things about them were Hamill and Ford. What makes me like the prequels more are the explosions and special effects.

 

[MorganL4]

I love the prequels.

I was so unbearably bored with the original trilogy. The only good thing about it was Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford's acting.

How old are you?....... I feel I must ask.

18.

And they're still boring as fuck. There is absolutely nothing good about the original trilogy except for Hamill and Ford.

Thats what I thought, born in 1994....... That would mean you were 5 when episode 1 came out. In other words, unlike the majority of people who are ranting and raving about the horrifying thing that is SW Episodes 1-3, you never got to grow up with the originals and get past the fact that you were seeing sub-par 1970's and 80's graphics and become invested in the story.... You were 5 years old when Jar Jar ( a giant orange bunny rabbit) stepped in doo doo... You were 5 years old when a bunch of guys were doing acrobatics with lazer swords...... Anyone who sees things like that at the age of 5 is going to look back at it fondly.... Hell it's probably why I still enjoy Space Jam (although now I recognize it as the marketing ploy it actually was, but it's still fun for me).

And at the age of 5, if you were to watch all that cool lazer sword acrobatics and flashy space battles and then go watch something like a sci fi flick with 20 year old graphics.... yeah you are gonna look at it as boring and campy.

 

[kortin]

Thats what I thought, born in 1994....... That would mean you were 5 when episode 1 came out. In other words, unlike the majority of people who are ranting and raving about the horrifying thing that is SW Episodes 1-3, you never got to grow up with the originals and get past the fact that you were seeing sub-par 1970's and 80's graphics and become invested in the story.... You were 5 years old when Jar Jar ( a giant orange bunny rabbit) stepped in doo doo... You were 5 years old when a bunch of guys were doing acrobatics with lazer swords...... Anyone who sees things like that at the age of 5 is going to look back at it fondly.... Hell it's probably why I still enjoy Space Jam (although now I recognize it as the marketing ploy it actually was, but it's still fun for me).

And at the age of 5, if you were to watch all that cool lazer sword acrobatics and flashy space battles and then go watch something like a sci fi flick with 20 year old graphics.... yeah you are gonna look at it a boring and campy.

Actually, I didn't see the prequels until I was 14. I knew they were subpar, and the fact that they are still much more entertaining than the original trilogy is just sad. So how about we stop assuming shit and stick to reality.

The Original Trilogy was utter garbage and Lucas knows it. That's why he invested so much in graphics and special effects in the Prequels, because he knows he can't write a good story, so he might as well make it entertaining to watch. How about we take off those rose-tinted glasses now, eh?

Edit: In fact, now that I think about it, in addition to not seeing them until I was 14, I actually am fairly certain I saw the original trilogy first as well. So there goes your theory.

 

[Casual Shinji]

In a nutshell, it forgot what made the original movies so charming.

We have three movies filled with bland uninteresting characters who have zero chemistry with one another, to a point where we have to be told what their relationship is. Anakin and Padme are supposedly desperately in love, and the way the movies show this is by having them be in romantic settings together. That's all we get. Anakin acts like a weird creep around Padme the whole of the second movie, and by the end she's magically in love with him just cuz.
Then we have Anakin and Obi Wan who are apparently close friends, yet all they do is complain and be irritated by one another.

What made the original films charming was that Spielberg had people who were allowed to tell him "No, that's a fucking terrible idea."

Now that he's a huge deal nobody is allowed to do that anymore, and those films are what happened.

Or that's how it was explained to me at some point. Might be entirely false but seems plausible.

That, too.

Back then Lucas was still a nobody, who had to fight for his creation. He actually cared about what he was making. Eventhough the first cut of A New Hope was apparently total ass, untill a talented editor managed to squeeze a decent movie out of it.

As soon as everything is handed to you on a silver platter and there's no one around to question your decisions, you become a retard. It's inevitable.

 

[FolkLikePanda]

To be fair I can understand why people were pissed off at the Midichlorian things, it ruined the magical feel of it. And yes Jar Jar looking back was annoying (I'll admit I liked him when I was about 5 when Phantom Menace came out). And yes Anakin was whiny-ass *****.

But to be fair,
in
Phantom Menace: Darth Maul was badass and so was Qui-Gon.

Attack Of The Clones: Yoda had some suprise bouncy ball fighting style against Christopher Lee, it showed you the origin of the Stormtroopers and Boba Fett and Samuel L. Jackson in action.

Revenge Of The Sith:
- I thought Greivous was kind of cool (not amazing just kind of cool, would have been nice to have seen him do a bit more though instead buggering off all the time)
- Yoda v Palpetine, I thought was a good idea
- Showed how Anakin turned to the Dark Side (though I was expecting something a bit more evil)
- I thought it bridged the two trilogies quite well.

Yeah, ok there's a few criticisms and it goes to show the Prequel Trilogy wasn't perfect (it could have been done much more betterer [grammar? =P]) but I personally enjoyed watching them and still do when I feel like watching the whole saga.

 

[Ieyke]

Thats what I thought, born in 1994....... That would mean you were 5 when episode 1 came out. In other words, unlike the majority of people who are ranting and raving about the horrifying thing that is SW Episodes 1-3, you never got to grow up with the originals and get past the fact that you were seeing sub-par 1970's and 80's graphics and become invested in the story.... You were 5 years old when Jar Jar ( a giant orange bunny rabbit) stepped in doo doo... You were 5 years old when a bunch of guys were doing acrobatics with lazer swords...... Anyone who sees things like that at the age of 5 is going to look back at it fondly.... Hell it's probably why I still enjoy Space Jam (although now I recognize it as the marketing ploy it actually was, but it's still fun for me).

And at the age of 5, if you were to watch all that cool lazer sword acrobatics and flashy space battles and then go watch something like a sci fi flick with 20 year old graphics.... yeah you are gonna look at it a boring and campy.

Actually, I didn't see the prequels until I was 14. I knew they were subpar, and the fact that they are still much more entertaining than the original trilogy is just sad. So how about we stop assuming shit and stick to reality.

The Original Trilogy was utter garbage and Lucas knows it. That's why he invested so much in graphics and special effects in the Prequels, because he knows he can't write a good story, so he might as well make it entertaining to watch. How about we take off those rose-tinted glasses now, eh?

Pfffft.
Yes, clearly THAT is why the original trilogy is one of the most iconic and beloved things ever put to film.
No, you just have no taste.

I don't even actually like Star Wars very much, and I've certainly never had a rose tinted glasses issue with them (since I saw them all almost at the same time), but I can recognize that the originals were very well written, acted, and put together, while the prequels are ramshackle constructs that were huge wastes of huge budgets.

When I saw these movies for the first times, i realised that, yes, the original trilogy already looked outdated, but I also realized that the prequels were just heaping on as much sparkly special effects crap as they could afford just to hide that the movies were bad.

 

[kortin]

Pfffft.
Yes, clearly THAT is why the original trilogy is one of the most iconic and beloved things ever put to film.
No, you just have no taste.

I don't even actually like Star Wars very much, and I've certainly never had a rose tinted glasses issue with them (since I saw them all almost at the same time), but I can recognize that the originals were very well written, acted, and put together, while the prequels are ramshackle constructs that were huge wastes of huge budgets.

When I saw these movies for the first times, i realised that, yes, the original trilogy already looked outdated, but I also realized that the prequels were just heaping on as much sparkly special effects crap as they could afford just to hide that the movies were bad.

The original trilogy only has its fanbase because people make more of it than there is. They see some sort of deepness in the movies that NEVER EXISTED. It's only iconic because of the fans' rabid speculation ('Han shot first', anyone?) and fanboyism.

The Originals were well acted. They had decent actors. The story was borderline meh. The special effects were (understandably so) bad, and it was so incredibly BORING. I couldn't stop yawning when I first saw the original trilogy. Then I managed to get my hands on the prequels and, although still very bored by the story, at least it was, as you say, sparkly with special effects.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

The best Star Wars is "A New Hope".

.

You are of course wrong, sir, the best Star Wars is Empire Strikes Back, followed by Return of the Jedi, followed by A New Hope. Of course, the main thing that made the Original Trilogy good was that it wasn't all Lucas; he took quite a back seat while V and VI were being made. Come the prequel trilogy, he had protection from editors, and that meant that the first draft of his work got put through.

I'm not wrong, it's just my opinion. You preferred Empire Strikes Back? That's fine by me. Just don't say I'm wrong, because then someone else could say YOU'RE wrong.

And, well, that's just not how opinions work.

Still in my opinion, that very protection from editors is why the prequels sucked. Lucas is a horrible storyteller. All he has going for him is a vivid imagination. In the best of worlds, someone else would've done a pass on his draft and gone "You know, George? Maybe Gungans aren't such a good idea."

Among other things. Still in my very personal opinion, it seems clear that he'd lost all sense of scale and distance in regards to Star Wars and its universe. The prequels were about GCI and easy money. Period.

 

[Signa]

I don't care what anyone says, the worst movie by far was Return of the Jedi.

Seriously, screw those ewoks.

Now that's a sentiment I don't get. Yes, the ewoks were cute, cuddly childbears for kids, but unlike most cute, cuddly childbears for kids, these ones died. You got to see cute bears screaming in pain, smoldering and quivering in death throes. The gungans weren't even half as cute and cuddly, and we never got to see one die.

Were ewoks the "correct" choice to put into RotJ? Probably not (I can still argue for universe development by showing primitive races that don't have laser blasters as a good thing, especially in light of the prequels), but saying that their inclusion dropped the bar that low is ignoring some other egregious choices in the next 3 movies.

 

[MorganL4]

Thats what I thought, born in 1994....... That would mean you were 5 when episode 1 came out. In other words, unlike the majority of people who are ranting and raving about the horrifying thing that is SW Episodes 1-3, you never got to grow up with the originals and get past the fact that you were seeing sub-par 1970's and 80's graphics and become invested in the story.... You were 5 years old when Jar Jar ( a giant orange bunny rabbit) stepped in doo doo... You were 5 years old when a bunch of guys were doing acrobatics with lazer swords...... Anyone who sees things like that at the age of 5 is going to look back at it fondly.... Hell it's probably why I still enjoy Space Jam (although now I recognize it as the marketing ploy it actually was, but it's still fun for me).

And at the age of 5, if you were to watch all that cool lazer sword acrobatics and flashy space battles and then go watch something like a sci fi flick with 20 year old graphics.... yeah you are gonna look at it a boring and campy.

Actually, I didn't see the prequels until I was 14. I knew they were subpar, and the fact that they are still much more entertaining than the original trilogy is just sad. So how about we stop assuming shit and stick to reality.

The Original Trilogy was utter garbage and Lucas knows it. That's why he invested so much in graphics and special effects in the Prequels, because he knows he can't write a good story, so he might as well make it entertaining to watch. How about we take off those rose-tinted glasses now, eh?

Edit: In fact, now that I think about it, in addition to not seeing them until I was 14, I actually am fairly certain I saw the original trilogy first as well. So there goes your theory.

My theory, existed as a way to offer you a way out of being verbally attacked by throngs of bloodthirsty SW fans... You just closed the loop hole. Good Luck......

 

[Private Custard]

The Original Trilogy was utter garbage and Lucas knows it. That's why he invested so much in graphics and special effects in the Prequels, because he knows he can't write a good story, so he might as well make it entertaining to watch. How about we take off those rose-tinted glasses now, eh?

I liked it when he worked with people, accepting his faults and taking advice, rather than steamrollering. Oh 1970's Lucas, how I miss you!