Why does everyone hate the prequals????

[DrDavidLopan]

Umm, Portman, who played Amidala, was must have been at least 17 at the time of filming, was about to start at Harvard, and had already done a good job in a few movies by the time Episode I came out. I enjoyed her in "The Professional" for instance. So, if your are gonna blame someone, blame the writer, not Portman. She's a darned good actress. Check her out on IMDB.

 

 

You are absolutely right... That is why the script sucked so bad. It made decent actors (Liam, Portman, Ewan) sound so cheesy and terrible. Portman is an Academy Award nominated (winning? I can't remember if she won last year) actress, but anyone would sound like a hack with that script.

[Akalayus]

Terrible dialog isn't the only thing that was bad with the writing for the prequels. Plot holes, lack of continuity with the original trilogy, and general dumbness were the true causes.

[MrSchmo]

 

Watch all of those. They will make you hate George Lucas, for GOOOOOD reason.

 

You have made my day. Killed 70 mins at work. It was the best and most honest star wars review.

[Akalayus]

Oh, Plinkett also as reviews for both Attack of the Clones (funniest of the three IMO) and Revenge of the Sith. Truly insightful and hilarious.

[CFourPO]

The prequels were not that bad.

 

The original trilogy was just very good.

 

Our expectations were high.

 

So we rage.

 

For many of us that grew up in very secular homes, StarTrek and Star Wars filled a void for spiritual moral lessons of good evil and magic. I say that half-jokingly. But in all seriousness, a good Joseph Campbell style analysis could be made of what I said. It fits his mythic archetypes easily. I know a lot of little kids that like Jar Jar. While I disowned them as relatives, I appreciate their developmentally delayed-esque standpoint because they were deprived of existance when there were only the 3 movies.

See e.g.

Edited January 11, 2012 by CFourPO

[Hamsterkill]

I've long criticized Lucas' screenwriting skills on the prequels.

 

The stiffness of Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson was evidence enough of this for me. They did well with the lines they had and there's not much more you can ask an actor to do.

 

Hayden had terrible writing, yes, but he also did a terrible job delivering those terrible lines at the same time. And yes, I would expect an actor to tell off director George Lucas if they think they're getting bad direction from him. Part of the actor's responsibility is to know their character better than anyone else. If the actor doesn't think a direction is justified they need to have an argument with the director about it. The actor may get overruled, sure, but at least he'd be getting the big George to think about it.

[Tirfin]

I've long criticized Lucas' screenwriting skills on the prequels.

 

The stiffness of Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson was evidence enough of this for me. They did well with the lines they had and there's not much more you can ask an actor to do.

 

Hayden had terrible writing, yes, but he also did a terrible job delivering those terrible lines at the same time. And yes, I would expect an actor to tell off director George Lucas if they think they're getting bad direction from him. Part of the actor's responsibility is to know their character better than anyone else. If the actor doesn't think a direction is justified they need to have an argument with the director about it. The actor may get overruled, sure, but at least he'd be getting the big George to think about it.

 

This is so true. Season of the Witch had this problem 100 fold. I just watched it. At first I was like "wow this is bad acting even for Nick Cage" then after listening to the dialogue I realized the best Shakespearean performer wouldn't be able to make this dialogue sound good.

[Zobos]

The prequels are hated because they were designed to appeal to the youngest possible audience, with the specific intent of selling a bunch of Star Wars colored plastic crap to kids. And to add insult to injury, since they knew their target audience (age 7 and under) would accept anything at all that takes place on the screen, as long as it looks like Star Wars, they took a bunch of short cuts, which was the metaphoric equivalent of stabbing their older fans in the eye balls, repeatedly, with a spork.

 

The original movies made billions more by promoting plastic crap and bedsheets than they actually did at the box office, so it was a no brainer for the Hollywood suits that don't care what loyal fans want, because loyal fans have discerning tastes, while small children (who lack discerning tastes) will be placated at every turn by their parents.

[jarjarloves]

The prequels are hated because they were designed to appeal to the youngest possible audience, QUOTE]

 

You know how those kids are all about Trade Disputes and Senate Hearings.

[Zobos]

Kids like stuff they think is for adults, if it doesn't exceed their attention span. Its all part of the formula.

 

I'll wager most adults felt those scenes were a disappointment because they were unnecessarily lengthy and dry, and took time away from the adventure story they were expecting.

 

But obviously you liked it. So I suppose you were part of the targeted audience.

 

I guess that's all it really boils down too. Those who are bitter because they were not targeted by these movies.

 

I'm proud to be counted among them!

 

In 1983, Jabba the Hutt was on the cover of Time Magazine, because it was perceived as being the coolest character to ever appear in a film, at the time. The only thing that the prequels produced which could be characterized as iconic was Jar Jar Binks, and that was because it was perceived as one of the worst characters to have ever appeared in a film at the time.

 

Well, Darth Maul achieved temporary icon status, but will forever live in Jar Jar's goofy shadow.

[vcoke]

When I was younger I liked the prequels simply because I was too young to nit-pick. But when the 3rd prequel came out, I remember being bored by it, even during Obi and Anakin's fight, lasted far too long. But let me start at the first prequel.

 

Anakin simply should not have been a child, he should have been under Obi's training from the get-go, maybe 15 or 16? The pod racing section was very unappealing to me, felt like Lucas was trying to make Nascar fans to like his movie. Jar-Jar could have worked if they hadn't pumped his character full of... oddness?

And here is where they could have started the relationship between Anakin and Padame, maybe have Anakin and Obi be her guards? Better timing for both of their ages. And Darth Maul. I love this character and wished they hadn't thrown him away so quickly. It's the first time we get to see an alien like that, not to mention he was a sith with a double-bladed saber. Would have been much better if they had maybe... captured Maul and have him show up in the 3rd prequel, but I'll touch on that later.

 

Prequel 2? Attack of the Clones? Hmmm, didn't Obi in the 4th mention this? He did! Got me amped up, thought for sure it was going to be Clones verses the Republic, nope. But anyway... the awkward relationship only got worse here. Anakin's character came off very creepy to me in this one, what happened to that jedi training? You know, about discipline and all that jazz? Again, wished they had made Anakin and Padame's relationship like I opted above, would have simply made the characters more real to me. And the god-awful fight between; Obi, Anakin, Yoda, and Count Dooku (may have misspelled). Obi went down far too easily, and Anakin's hand getting severed seemed forced. And I know I wasn't the only one laughing when Yoda started jumping around with his mini-saber, not due to awesomeness, but simple ridiculousness. Oh, and how is it that Padame could still see herself marrying the same man who just told her he murdered women and children?? And good ol Jango went down too easily, just like Maul.

 

Prequel 3...what happened? General Grievous, oh he seems kinda cool, ah wait he's already lost two of his hands, well maybe, ah damn he's dead. While he wasn't really a favorite of mine, I would have liked to see Obi destroy him in under 30 seconds, not the 20 minutes it took! And that was just for Obi to catch up to the fleeing wuss!

Dooku fight... uh, so Anakin was persuaded that easily to kill him eh? I guess he would let you borrow his saber if you just said 'do it'. And them safely landing on a city coated with buildings without killing a minimum of 100K people...riiiight.

Now, had they kept Maul alive, he could have reappeared here, he could have been the one to bust out from the jedi temple, reunite with the emperor, and siege the temple while Anakin and Obi had their fight elsewhere. Then have Vader and Maul have one last fight to determine who would be the emperor's apprentice? At least that way it might have been cool to see Anakin lose his limbs rather than Obi's 'I have the high ground=no way you can win". I love Obi but that part was very cheap.

 

There's a lot more I could rant on about with the prequels but the actor for Anakin won't be among them. While he isn't a great actor, I believe he faltered simply due to the poor writing/dialogue he was forced to act. Ah, but that's all for now, let's keep this discussion going, loving it! (And if you haven't, check out RedletterMedia's review of the prequels, good stuff and funny, and you might see the movies in a whole new light).

[LiquidHayter]

Let's start off in order: Ep.1 had bad acting whether it be by Jake Llyod, Ewan Mcgregor, or Liam Neeson. None of them excelled, which is unfortunate because both Mcgregor and Neeson are great actors. Blame it on the dialogue which was horrible, but I blame it on the decision of making virtually everything in these prequels with computer graphics. Anyone realize how hard it must be to act against a green screen, green characters, and with nothing to actually act with while filming a scene? That's why I excuse Christianson's bad acting later on in the series. He's a novice in general, not particularly bad, but when you veterans such as Neeson or Portman not giving their best, how do you expect a novice to perform a role as complex as Anakin correctly? Ep. 1 also did something that should have never had an explanation: The Force. More specifically, the medaclorian bable Qui-Gon explains. For the love of droids, please don't explain the one, mysterious thing of the universe. It wasn't necessary and took away the element that made it so wonderful. Next, Gungans. There's no explanation on why they compete Ewoks on how pointless races are in this universe. Ep. 2 ruined Yoda and Obi Wan. Making Obi Wan look so dumb compared to Skywalker. We are expected to believe later he really bests him in a fight. Yoda became a gimmick with his fight scene and while I enjoyed it, his dialogue during this movie hurts his character development. What we see here doesn't feel like the Yoda we meet later. Really quick: Anyone care to clarify why Darth Maul had the upper hand or "high ground" and Obi Wan was able to jump and kill him, but Anakin couldn't? That's ridiculous. Did the Republic not have an Army of its own? Why was it forced to use the clones? Did people not feel like signing up? Because in Ep.4 whether or not they agreed, it seemed like the youth were all about joining and seeing the galaxy. The younglings idea was horrible, as was Padme's death to a lost will to survive.. How the hell does a droid even determine something like that? Did she use her dying breaths to tell it that? Mace Windu, Lucas's, imo, strongest, most ****** character in the prequels went out like a chump. I apologize for the rant, but the belief these were any good blows my mind. In my world, there's only Ep. IV, V, and VI. I also apologize for any typos, I'm on my BlackBerry at work and while I just milked the clock for an easy half hour to rant about SW, I just don't believe anyone besides Lucas' double chins actually enjoyed the prequels.

[Sunflier]

Let's start off in order: Ep.1 had bad acting whether it be by Jake Llyod, Ewan Mcgregor, or Liam Neeson. None of them excelled, which is unfortunate because both Mcgregor and Neeson are great actors. Blame it on the dialogue which was horrible, but I blame it on the decision of making virtually everything in these prequels with computer graphics. Anyone realize how hard it must be to act against a green screen, green characters, and with nothing to actually act with while filming a scene? That's why I excuse Christianson's bad acting later on in the series. He's a novice in general, not particularly bad, but when you veterans such as Neeson or Portman not giving their best, how do you expect a novice to perform a role as complex as Anakin correctly? Ep. 1 also did something that should have never had an explanation: The Force. More specifically, the medaclorian bable Qui-Gon explains. For the love of droids, please don't explain the one, mysterious thing of the universe. It wasn't necessary and took away the element that made it so wonderful. Next, Gungans. There's no explanation on why they compete Ewoks on how pointless races are in this universe. Ep. 2 ruined Yoda and Obi Wan. Making Obi Wan look so dumb compared to Skywalker. We are expected to believe later he really bests him in a fight. Yoda became a gimmick with his fight scene and while I enjoyed it, his dialogue during this movie hurts his character development. What we see here doesn't feel like the Yoda we meet later. Really quick: Anyone care to clarify why Darth Maul had the upper hand or "high ground" and Obi Wan was able to jump and kill him, but Anakin couldn't? That's ridiculous. Did the Republic not have an Army of its own? Why was it forced to use the clones? Did people not feel like signing up? Because in Ep.4 whether or not they agreed, it seemed like the youth were all about joining and seeing the galaxy. The younglings idea was horrible, as was Padme's death to a lost will to survive.. How the hell does a droid even determine something like that? Did she use her dying breaths to tell it that? Mace Windu, Lucas's, imo, strongest, most ****** character in the prequels went out like a chump. I apologize for the rant, but the belief these were any good blows my mind. In my world, there's only Ep. IV, V, and VI. I also apologize for any typos, I'm on my BlackBerry at work and while I just milked the clock for an easy half hour to rant about SW, I just don't believe anyone besides Lucas' double chins actually enjoyed the prequels.

 

 

Paragraphs dude.

[LiquidHayter]

Surely you couldnt understand my point of view without paragraph breaks; i can understand your confusion.

[Eillack]

You see OP, most people are what some like to call, selfish cry-babies. "This isn't what *I* want....WHAAAAAAA.....I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS, RAAAAAAAAAGE."

 

I like both trilogies. I also loved how Jar Jar grew up in Ep II for the most part. Overall I'd say PT had much better battles, and OT had some better story telling.

 

But hey what a lot don't realise are two things:

 

1) Lucas' creation, he is the grand master, he can do anything he wants and has 100% right to it

2) Star Wars isn't real

Edited January 12, 2012 by Eillack

[Gruug]

I love the "Prequels". In fact, I would go so far as to say I love them more the Ep. IV-VI. I will also go so far as to say that I like Jar-jar Binks. And I will not apologise for that either.

[TekaruPrime]

My girlfriend and I watched Ep 1 again last night. It had been a few years since she saw it (with me, for the first time) and now that we're playing SWTOR a lot, she got curious.

 

and yeah, it's worse than I remember.

 

I stand by my previous comment (which I can't find for some reason) that changing ONE small thing about the prequels would have a ripple effect and improve many, many other things:

 

Make Hayden play young Anakin, even in Ep 1. Some of the improvements this would cause:

 

They would have found Anakin when he really was "too old" to start Jedi training - at 16.

The chemistry between the main characters would have been more established.

The chemistry between Padme and Anakin would have been more natural - and feel less forced in Ep 2.

The ten year gap (!!) between Ep 1 and Ep 2 could be shortened to 1-2 years, thereby making the Jedi not seem so STUPID to be oblivious to Palpatine's plot.

All the "accidents" child-Anakin does would seem more ominous if a 16 year old, untrained yet incredibly Force-sensitive does them instead.

Less focus on pod racing and more focus on slavery on Tatooine - and thereby setting up more angst for Anakin being TRICKED into leaving by Qui-Gon and not being able to save his mother.

etc.

[reaperkeepet]

lol I deleted this thread from my tabs because I thought the discussion would not go any further and I come back days later and 300 posts. xD Edited January 12, 2012 by reaperkeepet

[RachelAnne]

Episode 1 is very well made. It does work for me - I like the little boy and Nat is also doing a great job. These 2 together are fun to see, and they got a connection, a connection Hayden and Nat never had. But also the whole story of the how & when is atleast for me "understandable".

Dont forget that their whole set was blown away by the wind, still the shots at Tatooine were done well.

 

Episode 2 is not my fav. the love story is just annoying and I also think that the cast for Anakin was very bad. He was unable to match Nat, she is a great women but he just looks like a dumb boy all the time.

This guy should represent Vader? I just cant believe this, he is too nice for that and always seemed to be misplaced in every scene. The little Anakin was so natural in all what he did, but the old one looks like a robot, without a own opinion, without feelings - almost like a robot. But as George said - it is a typicall "fill in" which is necessary.

 

Episode 3 is well made again, the story finishes and you instantly want to watch episode IV. This was atleast for me very important, there are too many movies where you miss the connection between the parts.

Still the cast of Anakin is not much better, Hayden is for me the typical cast that I never get warm warm with. He does not fit to the other cast´s, he seems like a stranger all the time. And as I said earlier, for me he is not a Darth Vader but his acting was a bit better than in episode 2.

 

 

So for me the prequels are very good, just the cast of Hayden does not work for me and because of this, is episode 2 where he and nat have many scenes together the worst of the 3.

[RagnarokJC]

You see OP, most people are what some like to call, selfish cry-babies. "This isn't what *I* want....WHAAAAAAA.....I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS, RAAAAAAAAAGE."

 

I like both trilogies. I also loved how Jar Jar grew up in Ep II for the most part. Overall I'd say PT had much better battles, and OT had some better story telling.

 

But hey what a lot don't realise are two things:

 

1) Lucas' creation, he is the grand master, he can do anything he wants and has 100% right to it

2) Star Wars isn't real

Took you this long to jump in to defend your precious PT films? I'm disappointed. I also love your opening remarks in light of the fact that it's mostly kids and a younger (more immature and less experienced) audience who generally tend to like the PT films more than older generations do.

 

To address those 2 things you brought up:

 

1) Lucas owns the right, but don't ever mistake that to mean that he's solely responsible for creating all of it, particularly the OT films. That is an insult to people like Lawrence Kasdan, Gary Kurtz, Leigh Brackett, Irwin Kerschner, and Richard Marquand who had a big hand in those films and to whom Lucas actually listened. The fact that he's making these stupid changes in the OT films with each re-release is indicative of his desire to put more of *his own* mark on those films which others helped him to create, as if to say "This it the way everyone should see these films.". In doing that, he's also insulting the people who paid to see the OT films in their original unedited format.

 

2) People can't criticize something because it isn't real? This is the most asinine argument I've ever seen here, and that's saying something. I know Piranha 3D wasn't real, but I still think that it's a PoS film. If you're going to bring up arguments like this, you've already lost.

[Kodiaxis]

Not enough scruffy looking nerf herders.

[Heathlr]

The final fight scene between Obi-Wan and Anakin was horrible. That was the movie's one chance to redeem itself and it blew it. Who cares if they had to practice swinging sticks really fast for a million dollars? I would too if I was getting paid for it!

 

It was a stupid, ridiculous fight with no realism in it. That's why I like the originals' fights better- they actually look like they're fighting with swords, whereas the prequel jedi fight with pixie sticks or something. There's no believe-ability to it and so there is no tension. Its watching something we can't understand and waiting for it to be over so that we know what the outcome of the "fight" was.

 

Actually, the episode 1 fight was pretty cool.

 

This is a problem I have with the prequels as well. After re-watching the Episodes in order I-IV, I'd like to know how Anakin goes from flipping all over the place and wielding his saber like a boss, to basically looking like he has his hands tied together as Darth Vader. I know this could be explained by the fact that he now has robotic parts and he has less fluidity, but he a robot arm before and if anything the robot parts would help him keep his talents despite being 30 years older.

 

I think one of the biggest problems with the prequels is that the Jedis, as well as other characters in the story, seem so much "better" in terms of their use of the force and the wielding of the sabers, that it even craps on the original movies when watched in order.

 

Don't get me wrong, the original movies are amazing, but it really says something about how terrible the prequels are when they even make the original trilogy look worse just because it was so overdone and cluttered.

 

In the end, it came down to the fact that it wasn't necessarily the actors in the prequels, but the script and storytelling were terrible, the screens were too cluttered with junk, the CGI was overdone and not enough realism, the actors were acting with blue/green screens for too much of the movies, and Harrison Ford wasn't in it.

 

Granted, they're still okay, but without having the original trilogy ahead of them people would've rofl'd at this movie, and they never would've stood a chance in the box office.

 

What happened to R2D2's little jets to fly around?

[Titus_Infernus]

George Lucas really isn't a terribly great story teller. The midichlorians thing was very lame. The pacing in Episode II was awful, a better director could have shown Anakin and Padme falling in love spread across a few space adventures instead of trying to put me to sleep for 45 minutes.

 

Overall the inconsistencies and plot holes introduced by the prequels makes purists rage. There was no need to insert C-3PO and R2-D2 into the prequels and the "oh yeah we just erased their memory banks" excuse was cheap.

 

I get that Jar-Jar was put in for comic relief, but again it could have been done better - he didn't need such an annoying voice to come across as funny. Also, Lucas' script and directorial skills were not up for the challenge but nobody dared defy the great Lucas.

 

So much wasted potential, it's a shame.

[PeepsMcJuggs]

But hey what a lot don't realise are two things:

 

1) Lucas' creation, he is the grand master, he can do anything he wants and has 100% right to it

2) Star Wars isn't real

 

Oh, you're absolutely right: we've been completely oblivious to those two things this whole time. Thank you SO MUCH for enlightening us with your original, well-thought out words of wisdom!

 

1) Lucas didn't direct, nor did he produce, Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi. Lucas came up with the original idea of Star Wars, but it was the work of hundreds of others (and people calling Lucas out on his crap) that made the Star Wars Trilogy what it was. What he has a legal right to do does not make it any less morally reprehensible, insulting to everyone that worked on those films, and hypocritical in light of his own statements in the 80s regarding preservation of works of art.

 

Furthermore, the prequels showed the height of his arrogance, as he deliberately selected a staff that wouldn't disagree with him, instead of turning to the team that helped make it successful in the first place (with the exceptions of Frank Oz and John Williams, because he couldn't do it without them). This is yet another insult to the original production crew.

 

2) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoffsLaw

Edited January 12, 2012 by PeepsMcJuggs

[DrDavidLopan]

The prequels were not that bad.

 

The original trilogy was just very good.

 

Our expectations were high.

 

So we rage.

 

I couldn't disagree with the first part of this statement any more....

 

The prequels were horrible. The acting, dialogue, cheesy cgi, etc. They were not merely, "bad compared to the originals...." they were cringeworthy little kid movies. I can't watch five minutes of one of the prequels without slapping my head in disbelief. The scripts are HORRIBLE. A man can only stand so much cheesy dialogue, cliches, and one liners. It's like a high school student wrote the scripts.

 

Terrible... just terrible.