What Do You Think of the Star Wars Prequels ?

[WarriorMouse]

The first three were great for all ages
The second three were for kids and teens
The Force Awakens was for kids and tweeners
The Last Jedi was for kids
I expect the next one (in 2019) will be for 1 to 5 year olds.

Talk about being dumbed down. But what can you expect, Its Disney after all, and that's their market.

 

[Cathbad]

We must've watched different movies, WM. No way would I have allowed my kids to watch The Force Awakens.

 

[Amberlen]

Force awakens? Jar jar and droids right? What did you object to @Cathbad?

 

[Cathbad]

Force awakens? Jar jar and droids right? What did you object to @Cathbad?

I didn't object to anything - I liked it! But I never allowed my young children to watch movies with too much violence and/or murder.

 

[Amberlen]

Ahh gotcha

 

[Rodders]

I prefer the PT to the Force Awakens and The Last Jedi (although I do respect Disney’s decision to kill off the old heroes and create thier own way forward. Brave.

 

[BAYLOR]

Time to kick this one upstairs again.

 

[picklematrix]

Every single decision Lucas made caused fundamental holes in the worldbuilding, or was just plan unbelievable (children taken from parents and given deadly weapons by the good guys on the galaxies most civilused planet for instance). Nonetheless, they have enough spectacle to entertain for a few hours, even if plot and character go out the window from the start.
I guess Lucas didn't focus enough on the utterly enthralling space taxes story line! I never did figure out why a trade federation would want to stop trade, even if it was the siths idea.

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

It occurs to me--has anybody here read the novelizations of the prequels? The first one was done by Terry Brooks, and I forget who did the other two, but (while I've seen Terry Brooks do better and I still haven't decided whether I like his novelization, and anyway I didn't mind Phantom Menace) I think the second and third novels are actually...something of an improvement. They explain and justify certain confusing things, the dialogue flows better, the plots themselves are overall tied together better. There are problems with them, of course...but not the ones you typically find in film novelizations, where the authors are sitting down with the script and the film and copying. (I'm thinking of Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who books, primarily.) There's original stuff in there. They're even funny in spots. You could almost say the authors have taken the story over themselves--which really contributes to a surprisingly engaging adaptation.

Better yet, the animations are to die for and the acting is superb.

I realize that saying the books are better than the movies isn't much of a recommendation. I just think they need a mention for their impressive salvage efforts.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

The star wars prequels are probably some of the best movies on political social commentary around. The perfect framework for how democracy fails and empires rise up. As a political geek, they hold a special place in my heart. Oh, and I'm one of the very few members of the Jar Jar Binks fan club. I actually liked the whole Gungan story-line. The new movies do not live up.

I wasn't crazy about TPM, but otherwise I completely agree with @Cli-Fi here. Compared to the prequels, the Disney ones are derivative and unmemorable.

 

[KGeo777]

At some point there will be a complete rethink on Star Wars and the blockbuster era. I think the blockbuster was in fact just another form of 1940s "blockbooking" - a way for a few companies to get an artificial monopoly over media ownership and stifle competition aka cultural diversity. It was smaller studios who had attracted younger audiences to sci-fi and horror--the large companies then sought to claim that market by throwing far more money at the technical design side.
I watched the 1954 FOX film PRINCE VALIANT and was shocked to realize Star Wars was a remake of that film (just as Indiana Jones was an almost cut and paste character from Paramount's SECRET OF THE INCAS). At the time of their release, the connection to these older films was completely ignored. It was said Star Wars was inspired by Flash Gordon serials--maybe a little, but the basic plot is copied from Prince Valiant. The farm boy who goes on an adventure, a black knight enemy, an older hero-mentor, and a magic sword. A few other parallels occur like the attack on a Viking fortress.
There's no chance it was not the template. So it makes me wonder if Fox executives went to Lucas and said: we want you to do a sci-fi remake of Prince Valiant but make a few changes. Especially strange when the traditional story is that FOX had no faith in Star Wars and gave Lucas the merchandising rights--but is that the truth?

 

[Lumens]

I read that the template for the first Star Wars film (SW IV) came from a book called "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", by Joseph Campbell. The moment I found out, I got it and read it myself. It compares several stories, fairytales and myths about the 'hero' collected from different cultures around the world and finds the parallels between them. A good story never goes out of fashion.

 

[Culhwch]

Also Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, though I've not seen it...

 

[KGeo777]

I assume Lucas was watching Prince Valiant as he was reading Hero With a Thousand Faces. t sounds more prestigious to say he was inspired by a book rather than doing a sci-fi facelift of a 1950s Fox movie!

 

[IAmTR]

The prequels were ambitious but not very good. Some amazing lightsaber fights. The politics was actually interesting to me though I know I may be in the minority there. But story telling was not great and Lucas is bad at directing actors. I can't even put all the blame on Hayden Christiansen. Several actors have put in their worst performance under Lucas.

Having said that, as a Star Wars fan I like them better than Force Awakens and it's not even close. It's the same movie we've seen hundreds of times except they wiped away all the EU to bring us crap that was clearly made up by people who are casual Star Wars fans at best. Rey is the worst character of the series (yes, ever worse than Jar Jar). I'll give TLJ a little credit for being ambitious unlike TFA (and that crash was awesome!) but it was still not great.

Overall I can't wait for episode 9 to be over so we can move past the Skywalker family. I'm so done with them.

 

[BAYLOR]

The prequels were ambitious but not very good. Some amazing lightsaber fights. The politics was actually interesting to me though I know I may be in the minority there. But story telling was not great and Lucas is bad at directing actors. I can't even put all the blame on Hayden Christiansen. Several actors have put in their worst performance under Lucas.

Having said that, as a Star Wars fan I like them better than Force Awakens and it's not even close. It's the same movie we've seen hundreds of times except they wiped away all the EU to bring us crap that was clearly made up by people who are casual Star Wars fans at best. Rey is the worst character of the series (yes, ever worse than Jar Jar). I'll give TLJ a little credit for being ambitious unlike TFA (and that crash was awesome!) but it was still not great.

Overall I can't wait for episode 9 to be over so we can move past the Skywalker family. I'm so done with them.

I have to disagree with you on one point. I think the JJ Abram Films, Solo nd Rogue one are far better then Lucas prequels.

 

[KGeo777]

The prequels killed all interest in Star Wars for me.
I looked at the sequel trailers but they didn't appear Star Warsy enough. The Tie Fighter moving like a helicopter was ridiculous and the shakycam ship flying scenes were distracting (as if a giant camera man was standing on the sand planet and running along to film it).

I did check out the Vader scenes in Rogue One and his helmet was wrong. His neck was too fat. Also, the original Vader mask was asymmetrical-they designed the newer ones on computer and removed the wonky qualities. And I don't think Vader would have bothered to kill all those rebel soldiers-that's what stormtroopers are for!

 

[Anthoney]

The last 4 minutes of Rogue One may have been the best 4 minutes in Star Wars history. Mask and fat neck notwithstanding.

 

[KGeo777]

It seemed like a fan film scene to me. Vader would use choke holds more than going wacky with the light saber, but if he was leading that fight against mere rebel soldiers what is the point of stormtroopers.
I didnt notice his fat neck in that scene-I was thinking about the earlier ones where he is talking to the guy.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

The prequels were ambitious but not very good. Some amazing lightsaber fights. The politics was actually interesting to me though I know I may be in the minority there. But story telling was not great and Lucas is bad at directing actors. I can't even put all the blame on Hayden Christiansen. Several actors have put in their worst performance under Lucas.

Having said that, as a Star Wars fan I like them better than Force Awakens and it's not even close. It's the same movie we've seen hundreds of times except they wiped away all the EU to bring us crap that was clearly made up by people who are casual Star Wars fans at best. Rey is the worst character of the series (yes, ever worse than Jar Jar). I'll give TLJ a little credit for being ambitious unlike TFA (and that crash was awesome!) but it was still not great.

Overall I can't wait for episode 9 to be over so we can move past the Skywalker family. I'm so done with them.

I agree with most of this. I actually like the storytelling in the prequels better than that in the Disney movies, and since I don't expect great acting in the SW movies (I mean, jeez, just think of "Return of the Jedi"), that barely bothered me. Your assessment of the Disney movies was right on the money. These are not movies made by people who have a story to tell and are dying to tell it. They're made by people who bought a property and now need to come up with stories dealing with that property to get viewers' asses in cinema seats. That's the sole reason for these movies' existence. Well, that and the merchandising.