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

[Pharsalus]

The writing is garbage, the characters are dull, and the directing is lazy. Most episodes of any Star Trek series had better camera work. John Williams score is really the only good thing to come out of them. Red Letter Media makes many good points, and I love watching thier reviews more than the movies, but I came to many such conclusions myself far before seeing those videos. I was in middle school when Ep. 1 came out and even through the glamer I really felt I could have written some better dialog.

I was basically raised by the original trilogy, but there's just more there, and miniatures are better than CGI, they just are aside from the effects being revolutionary for their time they look alot more convincing, and shots aren't cluttered with ****.

Personally, I mostly liked the prequels, (except for the second one) worts and all, and I while I can certainly understand why most people don't, here's another way to remember them: The movies as a D&D campaign in web comic form. [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0001.html]

Can't agree with you, but I'm digging this three pages in.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

inb4 red letter media review.

I'l just post this here before anyone else to save trouble.

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/

And just like with Bob's review, I'll simply say "This video aside..."

Please try again my friend.

So you want me to explain to you why I hate the prequels WITHOUT using any points from a video that sums up every reason I can come up with?

Well I guess you win in that case? If you wanna call it that...

But seriously the red letter media review explains perfectly why the prequels are terrible (at least the Phantom Menace). The Phantom Edit does fix a few problems though.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I don't hate them, prefer the older films, but I like the idea of the prequels, just the execution of the idea that flopped a bit for me.

But we wouldn't have a lot of the cool Star Wars games, comics etc if it wasn't for them. Battlefront I & II and KotoR owe a bit to them.

 

[Vault101]

I also got the feeling that it tried far too hard to tie everything to the original trilogy. Why did C3P0 have to be made by Anakin? Why did Obi-Wan actually have to own R2? other little things like that .

its called pandering....

also the dissconnect between works when going back to somthing old

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

here's another way to remember them: The movies as a D&D campaign in web comic form. [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0001.html]
It's entirely possible you'll end up liking Jar-Jar, or at least his player.

I would just like to say thank you, I have just spent the past 2 days staying up reading this and it is my new favourite webcomic.

 

[surg3n]

Y'know who get's the worst rap in the SW univers.... The Ewoks.

Personally, I liked them, there, I said it. Little furry dudes running around the forest, smashing stormtroopers, forming cross-species crushes. But that was maybe just my age at the time, I was 8 - and the whole setting was tangible... like we could go into the woods and play star wars, and the toys from that movie were the best of the whole series - speed bike things, AT AT walkers, if you had some SW toys and a back yard then the 80's was a fun decade. Ewoks brought Star Wars down to an 8 year olds level. Plus by the time ROTJ was released on video/TV etc, and became properly accesible for everyone - movies like Trolls and Labyrinth were out, the Ewoks fitted the era, just so long as you were in the right age bracket. People talk about Empire as being the best SW movie, but for me I can barely even remember that movie - it's all over the place, at least ROTJ has a firm plot, it starts off awesome and ends up awesome, you just gotta be 8 at the time.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

I don't mean to be insulting but see when you get asked this question about why you like the prequels (and indeed why you like them better than the originals) and your response is "because the fights were more awesomer!"

I can't even...

It's completely...

It totally renders me speechless when I see replies like that.

Cos I don't even consider myself a huge Star Wars fan, and even I realise that if thats your reason for "liking" the prequels then you have entirely - ENTIRELY - missed the point of Star Wars.

While for some movies it's okay to be as thin and "weak" as the prequels, it is not okay for Star Wars.

Example:
The Transformers movies.

They are literally movies with the lamest, weakest, stupidest storylines and characters ever. And let's face it guys the only reason we like them is cos "Yay! Optimus Prime!"

They are completely popcorn movies that from the very start were intended on being that way. And thats completely fine.

I love them for that, and completely do not agree with the criticism levelled against them for that simple reason. They are supposed to be that way.

Star Wars on the other hand was never about the flash, the light sabers, the force, or even the universe. It was about the characters, and about the struggle of good versus evil. And in the prequels the characters are probably the weakest and lamest characters ever written. Almost all of them are caricatures.

Also I forgot to mention either.

Every single time a character said that Anakin was meant to "bring balance to the force" by destroying the dark side according to that lame ass prophecy, I wanted to epic face palm. Even when the prequels first came out and I was only in my early teens it made me groan.
You don't achieve balance by destroying the other side! It makes no fricking sense!

If the prophecy was something like he would bring "peace" to the force, or something it would have made sense.
Imagine a set of scales.

The left side has 150 grams of weight on it. And the right has 250 grams of weight on it.

The left represents the light side, and the right the dark side.

To balances the scales you would shift 50 grams from the right to the left, or remove 100 grams from the right.
You would not fling the whole 250 grams away. Then there is no balance at all, nor any chance of balance.

Almost enough to make you wish Kreia had succeeded, and the force had died.

 

[Blackbird71]

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, I thought the originals were a bit meh to be perfectly honest. I liked Episode One the most out of all six. There were awesome fight scenes, and the podracing scene was really cool. Plus, you know, Liam Neeson. Also, Darth Maul was an awesome villain. The view that the prequels were abominations mined from the deepest bowels of hell is certainly not universal.

I find it interesting that the one specific scene you cite as "really cool" was practically lifted in its entirety from another movie*. Sure Lucas put a Star Wars skin on it, but it was clearly not Lucas' creation. I've never seen a more blatant case of cinema plagarism passed off under the guise of "homage." What does it say about the movies when what you think is the best scene actually belongs in another movie?

*For the young'uns who watched Phantom Menace and were oblivious to the reference: the pod race was a remake of the chariot race from "Ben Hur". You should watch it, it's a really good movie, a cinema classic and a piece of film history.

 

[Heronblade]

Last night I was going through some of MovieBob's old "Escape to the Movies" reviews and I stumbled across his "Phantom Menance Wasn't So Bad" video in which he asserts that Episode 1 wasn't "I wanna murder George Lucas" bad, but rather simply a "meh" worthy movie.

That statement gives you all the information you should need. Think about it for a moment, The original trilogy was and still is pretty damn close to godhood in terms of popularity. While I feel that not all of that popularity is deserved, it still is an excellent series, one that I thoroughly recommend the tiny percentage of people who haven't seen it to see.

By comparison, the prequels, particularly phantom menace, are not only "meh", but upset a great deal of the original SW lore. As a result, yes, rabid fans are pissed.

 

[Blackbird71]

In somewhat related news, I just heard on the radio that George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm to Disney, and they are planning to release Star Wars: Episode 7 in 2015. Here's hoping Disney can do less to screw up the series than Lucas did; is it too much to wish for the Zahn trilogy as movies?

Here's a source on the sale: http://247wallst.com/2012/10/30/the-force-lucas-sells-out-to-disney-star-wars-is-coming-back-with-disney/

 

[Baron_Rouge]

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, I thought the originals were a bit meh to be perfectly honest. I liked Episode One the most out of all six. There were awesome fight scenes, and the podracing scene was really cool. Plus, you know, Liam Neeson. Also, Darth Maul was an awesome villain. The view that the prequels were abominations mined from the deepest bowels of hell is certainly not universal.

I find it interesting that the one specific scene you cite as "really cool" was practically lifted in its entirety from another movie*. Sure Lucas put a Star Wars skin on it, but it was clearly not Lucas' creation. I've never seen a more blatant case of cinema plagarism passed off under the guise of "homage." What does it say about the movies when what you think is the best scene actually belongs in another movie?

*For the young'uns who watched Phantom Menace and were oblivious to the reference: the pod race was a remake of the chariot race from "Ben Hur". You should watch it, it's a really good movie, a cinema classic and a piece of film history.

But movies do that sort of thing all the time, don't they? There's a fine line between plagiarism and tribute. In any case, if I was saying that the first Star Wars was a life changing experience that was moving, artistically beautiful, and a movie everyone should see, then that'd no doubt be a concern. However, I'm only saying that I found it the most entertaining out of a series of movies I didn't particularly enjoy. All it had to do was entertain me for 2 hours, and it did, through cool scenes like that.

The Shawshank Redemption succeeds in every aspect, as do Inception, Fight Club, American History X, and (500) Days of Summer. They succeed in not only holding my attention for a few hours, but in really making me think. They're fantastic pieces of cinema. For Star Wars Episode one, I had much lower expectations, and it exceeded them just by being better (in my opinion) than the original trilogy.

 

[Prophetraz]

I put the complaints regarding the Prequels (after careful thought) under the same banner as the complaints about Mass Effect 3, Derpy, and a thousand similar events.

Fanboy pissing and moaning.

I loved the prequels. Especially Anakin. He was one of my favorite things in those movies, and Christensen quickly became on of my favorite actors.

Hardcore fans of anything will complain to the umpteenth degree about source material not lining up with their supposed ideal of what it should be. You gotta just ignore that. Sure the Prequels have some cheesy or otherwise ham-handed or even bad moments, but no more than the originals did.

Fish swim, birds fly, Republicans practice bigotry, and hardcore Star Wars fans cry at the drop of a hat.

We have ourselves a winner! You are one of the few people on this thread who is not a raging fanboy!

I want to examine some of these complaints of the prequels:

1. CGI Effects
What is the point of this complaint? Having a lot of CGI isn't too awful as long as that isn't all the movie is, and people who complain about this don't even say that it's bad. They just say "Too much CGI, that sucks". CGI has helped to make the battle scenes be pretty awesome, without interfering with the story. If the CGI makes the movie look more awesome, without being just a montage of CGI effects, what's the problem. As for the complaint about Yoda being CGI: as opposed to him being a weird looking hand puppet like he was in the originals? Yeah, nice nostalgia goggles you got on there, where did you buy them?

2. Anakin being "whiny"
This one I really don't understand. People are looking at this more as a movie to entertain them rather than what would make sense in a real life situation. Here's what I mean: "Anakin needs to stop talking about romance and Padme and go do something cool!" or "Anakin turns into Darth Vader he starts complaining about his girlfriend! What a whiner!". Okay, so the thing between Anakin and Padme is annoying and shouldn't be in the movie because romance apparently doesn't belong in Star Wars, even though it develops the character as something besides "I'ma go kill stuff with mah lightsaber." What about that thing between Han Solo and Princess Leia? That was okay because it was in the original movies, nostalgia goggles are selling like hot cakes! And when he still cares about Padme when he turns into Darth Vader, it shows he was still human on the inside even with his badass Darth Vader exterior. Yeah, his girlfriend DIED, and it's wrong for him to show some emotion? That makes you sound like a moron who is a terrible judge of writing.

3. Jar-jar
Not going to disagree with this one, he was a silly character that appealed to the kids and was a slap in the face to the adult fans.

4. Characters doing something that is the opposite of what their character should do
People say Obi-Wan broke character when he calls Anakin reckless and then goes and does the most reckless thing possible. It is possible that that was exactly what the movie was trying to show, that he acts like Anakin is really reckless when he is ironically just as reckless as he is, to show that he's not a complete tight-ass of a Jedi master. But I'll allow this complaint, but there's just one problem with it. When does this happen to anyone else outside of one or two scenes with Obi-Wan? It's supposed to be complaint about the prequels when it's about just what one character does in a couple of scenes. This complaint is definitely a minor one, for reasons I have listed.

5. Anakin turning to the dark side makes no sense
Really? Even as a child I could follow this one pretty easily. The Jedi knew about that "chosen one" thing, so they constantly treated Anakin kept criticizing him for doing anything and treating him like a child. So Anakin, being somewhat young and impressionable still, of course turns to the dark side with some convincing by Emperor Palpatine. If Anakin were like 40 and had extensive training, this backstory would have indeed been pretty nonsensical. But he wasn't. And really, couldn't you say the same about ANYONE who chooses to go to the dark side? Why does ANYONE hate the Jedi that much? The "chosen one" thing already predicted that he would have a lot of hatred and evil inside of him, that's basically the entire checklist for being a sith.

6. Clone Wars plotline came out of nowhere
Not really, they spent the entire second and third movies developing it. What, is that not enough time to be able to follow it? They cloned a guy who is an excellent fighter, and made an army of excellent soldiers. Cloning, even on a mass scale, isn't far fetched for a sci-fi movie. It works just fine, and it makes sense. You have the means to make an entire army of somewhat disposable humans for you, sounds like a good idea to me (if I were part of a government that really cared that little about sentient life). And since they never seem to explain the origins of the stormtroopers in the original movies, and their faces are never shown, it fits into the story well enough.

7. The midichlorians ruined The Force
Yes, because developing a small piece of backstory for something that makes no sense is a bad thing. I'm sorry but seeing as The Force is supposed to be this magical force of nature in a universe where there is nothing else "magical" to be found seems pretty ridiculous to me.

And now for some postives of the movies:

1. The Soundtrack
I don't need to explain this, everyone knows John Williams is one of the best composers ever.

2. Lightsaber Duels
Do I need to explain this one as well? These scenes are just plain badass, and John Williams' awesome music perfects it.

3. They offer some backstory for the original trilogy
Also needs no explanation.

And I'm not even a George Lucas fanboy. I agree he should NOT have edited the original trilogy, they were fine just the way they were. The most that should have been done to them was to improve the quality to high-definition or something.