Sunflier Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) I think Episode 1 was only saved by Liam Neison, Ewan McGreggor, and Samuel L. Jackson. Wish SLJ and Liam Neison had more roles, but meh... Episode 2 sucked less. Episode 3 was actually really good. So basically you have a good balanced with a bad with a meh in the middle. So, if you average it out, it's one blob of meh.... Edit: I should also mention that I felt Christopher Lee didn't hit his role home as well as he did in Lord of the Rings. Edited January 8, 2012 by Sunflier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunflier Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) I love the prequeals, it's because of them I got to see Yoda wield a light saber, worth all 15 minutes. That was pretty much the only good action scene in Episode 2. Edited January 8, 2012 by Sunflier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colow_Leper Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 One thing about them, one small saving grace... Fantastic light sabre duels Oh - and the introduction of the double ended light sabre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shren Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Cause they used alot of the crappy races from them for this game, which really increased my hatred for the prequels, again this is not star trek this is star wars we like alien races that are alien not humans that are a different color or has some crap glued to there head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pakchooieunf Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) I once heard, from a man who worked for ILM and continues to do CG work, that we should judge the prequels as "kid movies", since the original trilogy were aimed at a young audience. There is a certain degree of truth to that, HOWEVER... PIXAR makes movies for kids. These movies are wildly beloved by adults as well, myself included. So now we have established that a "kid movie" can (and by all rights should) be appealing to adults as well, and knowing the universally poor critical reception of these films, we can rule out the idea that Episode 1-3 somehow operate on a level that stodgy old adults just don't get. We know what goes into a good kids movie, and these movies don't have it. The dialogue in these films is poor. Characters are underdeveloped. Plot is convoluted and hopelessly full of holes. No sense of pacing and pointless filler scenes. I will not go so far as to say that the actors and actresses are bad, simply because the material they were working with was so poor. If I didn't like Anakin, it was because the character was so poorly written. They're just unapologetically poor movies, from the ground up, and almost certainly because of Lucas' unimpeded involvement. This is to say nothing of the fact that Lucas' incestuous **** of his own intellectual property continues to earn him ire.... but that's a different subject. Edited January 8, 2012 by pakchooieunf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitrikzoltan Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I think Episode 1 was only saved by Liam Neison, Ewan McGreggor, and Samuel L. Jackson. Wish SLJ and Liam Neison had more roles, but meh... Episode 2 sucked less. Episode 3 was actually really good. So basically you have a good balanced with a bad with a meh in the middle. So, if you average it out, it's one blob of meh.... Edit: I should also mention that I felt Christopher Lee didn't hit his role home as well as he did in Lord of the Rings. Really? Episode I was not saved at all. First, I can not really rage against George Lucas for one very simple reason. He created Star Wars. He has the right to **** it up anyway he wants Nah. Just joking. Star Wars is not his property anymore, it belongs to the world. Our laws and leaders are too **** to see that. Anyhow. Lucas is not a great director. He can work well with not very good actors, but has no idea what to do with people as talented as McGregor and the rest of the cast. It shows in episode one. None of these guys are allowed to actually act, none of the characters have any depth, or personality for that matter. Episode I in not a good movie. But Lucas is a genious. He never intended it to be a "good" movie. He made ingenious business decisions. He made a Star Wars movie, that 6 years olds of today can enjoy. Ask a small kid, they love JarJar the most. He made a whole new generation attracted to Star Wars. Best businnes model ever: now there is something star wars to watch for everyone out there, from 6 to 60. You dont have to love all of them. If you love some, then you love Star Wars. Then you buy the stuff labeled star wars. Then you play an mmo just because it is star wars... I did not like the new hope. It was always too slow and shallow for me. My favourite movie was the Empire. Amazingly directed, well acted, great movie. Nr.6 wasnt so saga-like either. You can say many things about the original trilogy as well, many reasons to hate it. Ewoks? Crap Ls battles is 4 and 6? Giant meteor monsters, LS that sometimes cuts through everything, sometimes nothing, acting in 4 (besides Solo and Kenobi), etc. Small things, just like the "nooooo". I personally hate JarJar as well, dont like Episode I at all, dont care about Episode 2 besides a few really epic scenes (Obi Wan first inspecting the clone army for example), and I loved revenge. The "noooooo" did not bug me too much, I really-really hated Palpatines performance. He was nothing like the mastermind behind over 10 years of plotting. I hated the scene where Mace Windu dies. Not just because the "unlimiteeeed poweeeeer", but also because it wasnt epic. Because the stunt coordinator misunderstood lucas, and the actors did not learn the fight... Point is, you were never meant to love all of the movies. God, what a long post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xienive Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) One thing about them, one small saving grace... Fantastic light sabre duels Oh - and the introduction of the double ended light sabre I don't think the duels were better. The fights all look like they are dancing and trying to hit eachother's blades. Not to mention since there were so many they didn't become special anymore. In the original trilogy, duels were exciting because you rarely saw a lightsaber in combat. And when they fought, it looked like they were trying to attack eachother wrather than the other person's blade. Edited January 8, 2012 by Xienive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeepsMcJuggs Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) I don't think the duels were better. The fights all look like they are dancing and trying to hit eachother's blades. Not to mention since there were so many they didn't become special anymore. In the original trilogy, duels were exciting because you rarely saw a lightsaber in combat. And when they fought, it looked like they were trying to attack eachother wrather than the other person's blade. Exactly. I'd rather have a slow fight filled with dramatic tension than watch two people supposedly trying to kill each other do tandem lightsaber flourishes. Whats funny is that....for them being hated on, people still watch them anyway and they made a ton of money when they were released. Infact TPM alone made more money then ANH, ESB and ROTJ. What a silly thing to say. TPM made almost all of its money opening weekend, when people lined up having no idea what to expect. I was one of them. The only time I have watched that movie since is when my daughter asked to see all the Star Wars movies (and at five years old, even she got bored halfway through TPM and asked if we could turn it off). I saw AOTC in the theater because my wife and I had nothing better to do that weekend, and I heard Yoda fights in it. I saw Yoda fight. That was its only redeeming quality. I didn't even bother seeing ROTS in theater. I watched it on video after a friend rented it. I have all three on DVD, but I honestly, literally, can't remember why I bought them. I'm pretty sure it was in the middle of the phase where my wife and I bought a ton of movies that we never watch. Oh, and so I could test my sound system using AOTC. It makes pretty noises. Back on the subject of my daughter, the supposed target audience for the prequels: she never wants to watch them. Ever. Any time she wants to see a Star Wars movie, she picks from IV-VI. The only time she went back to watch TPM was after playing Star Wars Racer, and wanted to know what a podrace was (because we'd turned it off before we got that far). Edited January 8, 2012 by PeepsMcJuggs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atumus Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 One of the problems that I have about people that complain about the Vader arc in the prequals, is that the ignore the real world. In junior high there was a kid in my home room that was whiney as hell. In High School he was whiney as hell. Our junior year he shot up six inches, filled out, and was still whiney as hell. He ended up getting a girl friend, got jealous when anyone looked at her and then started slapping her around. Fast forward 20+ years, and he's been in jail for spousal abuse on three seperate occasions, and is one of the biggest bullys I've ever met. Vader forse choaked someone, didn't blink when a planet was destroyed (killing billions) and then... Vader got on his knee and called another person "Master" Yup, whiney *****. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeepsMcJuggs Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) *snip* And one of the problems I have with people that complain about people that complain about the prequels is they're under the mistaken impression that simply because something is possible, that makes it acceptable storytelling. The problem with Vader's transition is Anakin Skywalker is a character with whom you simply cannot empathize. It's not just that he's whiny (Luke was plenty whiny): it's that he's obsessive, antisocial, self-centered, murderous and power-hungry. At no point in Episodes II or III do you ever empathize with him because he never displays any redeeming qualities at all whatsoever. Instead of telling the story of the fall from grace of a great Jedi (and good friend) that we expected, we watch a bunch of oblivious Jedi act all shocked when Anakin goes dark. The bottom line is Anakin's story was told very, very poorly. A prime comparison is Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor on Smallville. This is a character you know is destined to be one of the greatest supervillains the world has ever known, but you empathize with him because you see him struggling with his inner nature, and that while he knows there's darkness inside him, he fears it. He tries to be good, but circumstances and a few wrong decisions force him down his destined path. Anakin was portrayed in the Star Wars Trilogy as noble and heroic, that his seduction by the Dark Side was truly tragic. What we got was two movies of a d-bag acting like a d-bag and getting himself screwed over because he was an ignorant moron who couldn't catch on that Palpatine was setting him up to fail. Edited January 8, 2012 by PeepsMcJuggs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haajib Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 episode 3 is a bizare combination to appel to all the audiences out there, once second it got dinosaurs, and odd humor, the next it contains decapitations, manslaughter, anaking burning, and more humor. I did not expect to cry out of laughter when Darth vader was lured by the emperor in the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardin_Steele Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 All three were poorly written, poorly casted, and poorly acted. At least the special effects were pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkiPride Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I dont hate the prequels, i just think they did a half-*** job in making them. Ep2 is the worst of the 6 IMO. Ep3 is the 2nd best next to Ep6. Again, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrManse Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/ ^ This times a thousand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firequill Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/ ^ This times a thousand. QFT.. dang that link.... watched all three reviews, and he is spot on for all three. (not to mention plinketts "style" is different, to say the least) Really, if you'll only watch these movies once in your life, these reviews are a better use of your time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeepsMcJuggs Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I should also take a moment to remind the prequels' defenders of the title of this thread. The OP asked why everyone hates the prequels, and we're answering. You may disagree that they sucked, but facts are facts: a lot of people hate the prequels, and the reasons we're giving you are why we, personally, hate them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortarrKang Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 If Episode 1 came out first, it would never have gained mainstream acceptance, and the Star Wars franchise would never have become a franchise. Sorry, skipping past the pages in-between to highlight a flaw in your logic. If Ep 1 was the first SW movie Lucas made, he wouldn't have had the money, influence, etc, to force people to accept it as it was. He would have had to make concessions and listened to input from other folks. Essentially, he would have been in the same position with Ep1 as he was with Ep 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeluc Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 QFT.. dang that link.... watched all three reviews, and he is spot on for all three. (not to mention plinketts "style" is different, to say the least) Really, if you'll only watch these movies once in your life, these reviews are a better use of your time. I've seen them a few times now, coz it's funny. But I can't believe that all the way through, I just kept saying 'Yeah...that's so true!' and 'How did I miss that?' and 'Yeah, that just doesn't make sense!'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-sasori Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Ok, how come everyone hates the prequals? Jar....jar.....Binks:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeepsMcJuggs Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Sorry, skipping past the pages in-between to highlight a flaw in your logic. If Ep 1 was the first SW movie Lucas made, he wouldn't have had the money, influence, etc, to force people to accept it as it was. He would have had to make concessions and listened to input from other folks. Essentially, he would have been in the same position with Ep1 as he was with Ep 4. See, that's the thing: you're basically saying that if EpI came out first, it would have been a completely different movie because he'd be forced to listen to the creative input of others. This is probably true. But the guy I was responding to was stating that Episode I, as it is, would have been as successful as Episode IV if it came out first, and people would be decrying IV,V, and VI if they had come out after Ep I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortarrKang Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 See, that's the thing: you're basically saying that if EpI came out first, it would have been a completely different movie because he'd be forced to listen to the creative input of others. This is probably true. But the guy I was responding to was stating that Episode I, as it is, would have been as successful as Episode IV if it came out first, and people would be decrying IV,V, and VI if they had come out after Ep I. You do have a good point. I don't recall if this is something I read, or simply part of the "legend" surrounding the movies. It essentially said that Lucas wanted to make Ep I first, but the studio basically told him no one would be interested in that portion of the story. It could be that I had raised that point during various discussions and debates with folks concerning the episodes. Anywho, back to the OP's point, I don't hate the prequels. I don't think, story-wise, they are quite as compelling as IV, V and VI. I'm also of the opinion that since a lot of us saw IV, V and VI when we were a lot younger (I was 8 when IV was released), we're viewing them with a bit of nostalgia and rose-colored glasses. I can understand a lot of posters' points about why they didn't like them. I also understand the story Lucas was trying to tell, and accepted them as having to draw a line to a predetermined plot point. Of course, he could have taken a lot of different routes to that point; for whatever reason, he chose the ones he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkimor Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Watch all of those. They will make you hate George Lucas, for GOOOOOD reason. Well worth the watch. He does a good job of summing up a lot of what was wrong with the movie, from a very straight-forward approach; as well as with hilarious bits here and there. Good post, Xeroking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STL-Phantom Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 what's the plot of The Phantom Menace? The plot for me was ankin skywalker and how he became darthvader the only logical thing i could come up with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seisaan Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 (edited) The problem with the prequels is they had good concepts, but poor execution either because of poor acting, writing, or Lucas' obsession with special effects. Like Red Letter Media said: Special effects should be used to tell a great story; Episodes I-III George uses a story to tell great special effects. Edited January 9, 2012 by Seisaan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeSaberRattler Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 The same reason other movie Prequels/Sequels have problems and few issue specific to Lucas' style. First they tried to add to much humor and childish humor at that(case in point Jar Jar, and the laughs they gave R2 and C3PO.) Also Lucas is to into CGI all movies are better when you use practical effects and sets as much as possible. No matter how good CGI looks you can still tell the difference. I understand that he wanted it to fill less gritty than the first 3 but it was a little to sterile. Last but not least the lake of emotional acting/dialogue none of the characters actually connected. There were good parts though mostly in 3 and a little in 2. I still enjoy watching them over other films they are just not up to the same standard as Episode 5 or 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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