Star Wars Prequels good, or bad?
POSTED BY: OPPYH
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 16:01
VIEWED: 5784
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I have seen episodes 1-3 (Star Wars Prequels) and I can tell you with an honest heart...They ruined the far superior original trilogy form me.
No matter how hard I try, whenever I see Darth Vader in the originals I picture Hayden BLEEPING Christianson. The mystery, and allure of Darth Vader is lost and I thank the prequels for this. Three of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy films have been tainted, all because I trusted George Lucas to satisfy my Star Wars needs. However, he betrayed and murdered those feelings with the unbelievably bad episode 2.
Episode 3 had neat bits in it, but overall(like the other prequels) felt rushed and an undeniable lack of feeling and emotion.
Episode 1 was just kiddy stuff, that wasn't no frikking Star Wars film.
What do ya'll think?
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2 things ruined Episode 1 for me - Jar Jar and the kid who was to become Darth. Also Lucas lost his sense of humor in the prequels. Gone was the tongue-in-cheek humor that made the originals enjoyable.
The one saving grace for Episode 1 was Liam Neeson's character Qui-Gon Jinn. Neeson was awesome as the older Jedi; Ewan McGregor, not so much. He didn't have the gravitas needed to carry the role of the most famous of Jedi's - Obi Wan.
The name alone for me is what Star Wars is all about - "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."
Episode 2 was a "Twilight" mess, with hokey dialogue and even hokier plot (hokier - is that even a word?). The less said about Episode 2 the better. The only cool thing in this installment was the battle between Count Dooku and Yoda.
Episode 3 for me did not stand out even though it was full of action but very little suspense. Well maybe a little towards the end just as Obi-Wan and Anakin begin their epic battle. The thing that spoiled it for me was Darth Vader screaming "Nooooooooo" near the end of the movie when Padme dies. It was memorable, but for the wrong reason.
Still nothing tops the original three, except of course Serenity. Well, maybe even!
SGG
Tawabawho?
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There were prequels? Who authorized that? The George Lucas I know would never do such a thing, sounds like a cash grab to me and any good Star Wars fan knows that he would never, EVER do that. He would be more apt to release the original trilogy on a defunct media platform like Laser Disc just to get people to buy the entire system and then on VHS and then clean them up and re-release them on VHS again and then on DVD and then in a box set with added commentary so that in the end you have 5 different sets of the same damns movies BEFORE he would ever think of doing prequels.
*shakes head* I'm a sucker for the Original Trilogy...
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LOL, jrnyfan, that was awesome 
And oh yes, I can't abide the prequels. Didn't watch any of them all the way through. Sigh. 
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oops
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Quote:
Originally posted by jrnyfan:
There were prequels? Who authorized that? The George Lucas I know would never do such a thing, sounds like a cash grab to me and any good Star Wars fan knows that he would never, EVER do that. He would be more apt to release the original trilogy on a defunct media platform like Laser Disc just to get people to buy the entire system and then on VHS and then clean them up and re-release them on VHS again and then on DVD and then in a box set with added commentary so that in the end you have 5 different sets of the same damns movies BEFORE he would ever think of doing prequels.
*shakes head* I'm a sucker for the Original Trilogy...
Lets not forget making special editions of the movies with added special effects that enhanced them in some areas and hindered then in others (Han fired first, gorramnit!!), then release them on VHS in both fullscreen then later in letterbox, then put the original versions on the latest editions of the DVD but only in 2.0 sound.
Suckers. Aren't we all.
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Quote:
Suckers. Aren't we all.
To one degree or another, no doubt. I saw the "prequels" at the theatre, and I have no real idea why. Sure, I can make the excuse for the first of them, since it WAS a "Star Wars" movie, after all, and would just HAVE TO BE awesomeness writ large. But then I kept going back to see the others, even when I knew full-well that they were going to be tripe.
Thankfully, though, I've never bought any of the movies on tape or disk of any kind.
And yes, Oppyh, the prequels really did taint the originals for me.
Mike
Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde
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There are only three good things to come out of the prequels:
Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars cartoon.
The CGI The Clone Wars cartoon.
Karen Traviss' Republic Commando novels (Hard Contact, Triple Zero, True Colors, Order 66, and Imperial Commando: 501st).
Everything else is just bad fanfic.
My overall opinion of the prequels is well-known: http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=8&t=16704
(I really ought to revise that one of these days, in light of the RC novels.)
Quote:
For those wondering why I rewrote most of RotS (aside from the fact that I just didn't like it), it's because of Lucas' main failure in his script, the one that proves he has no idea what makes the OT work, and even manages to retroactively ruin the three good SW movies (leaving the Ewok movies as the filmic high point of the franchise).
See, the original movies draw all of their emotional force from three revelations, each of which has to hit the audience like a giant spear through the chest (to paraphrase a certain other movie). To wit:
(1) Darth Vader was Obi-Wan's apprentice, and is responsible for the death of Luke's father.
(2) Vader is Luke's father.
(3) Leia is Luke's sister.
There's a reason why That Scene in ESB is one of the most famous scenes in all of film-making, and it isn't the acting or effects. Vader's revelation has to both come completely out of left-field, and yet be utterly obvious in hindsight.
Lucas' [prequel] script spells out that Anakin Skywalker is now Darth Vader, and that he has two children, Luke, and Leia (Organa). You can't watch all 6 movies chronologically, or the originals will degenerate into a showcase of bad acting and merely half-decent writing.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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I actually liked Ewan McGreggor as the younger Obi-Wan. As an apprentice, okay, not so much, he was pretty stifled there. But he did manage to bring warmth and occasional humour to the role, in movies that otherwise were completely devoid of the warmth of the original Trilogy.
Episode one was pretty much irredeemable.
Episode two had like one good line in it. Otherwise, yeah, the plot was all over the place.
Episode three was the better of the three new ones because it at least had some interesting, if heavy-handed commentary about government corruption, and if I can say one positive thing about the first three movies, it's that Palpatine's overtaking the Republic was masterful in it's execution. Unfortunately, it's the only believable part about the whole damn thing, and probably only because it wasn't laid out before you.
The romance - horrible. The acting, when it counted, was not great.
Select to view spoiler:
I mean, Samuel L. Jackson died screaming like a little girl. Something is WRONG there.
Dialogue wasn't nearly as snappy as it was in the first trilogy. But I think the most egregious error is that Padme and Anakin were sorely miscast. Natalie Portman is an okay actor, though sometimes her delivery comes across flat, and that was very much the case here. And Hayden Christiansen... Yeah, no.
Seriously, what happened here? Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia was a spitfire, Harrison Ford as Han Solo was roguishly snarky. Even goody two shoes Luke, if sometimes whiny, had a sweetness about him, and at least he got cool later.
Episode 1-3 didn't ruin 4-6 for me, but it was a near thing.
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Quote:It's like an urban legend or something.
Originally posted by jrnyfan:
There were prequels? Who authorized that?
Episodes 4, 5 & 6 are cool no matter what.
Any mythical "prequels" would just be a waste of time.
The laughing Chrisisall
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