What Are the Ways the Star Wars Prequels Could Be Improved???

I'm not having a fit. I'm noting the changes that were done, and my own personal reactions to them. For me, I think it diminishes Han's transition from selfish rogue, to selfless hero, culminating in TFA. It's a small change, but, it's still a change. Otherwise, it wouldn't be remarkable beyond "They changed it so it sucks now!"

Regardless, I think the PT needs more rework, so we will agree to disagree on that point. Mostly because GL has been working on bringing the OT in line with his vision since the 90s.

 

Cut the entire Anakin/ Padme love story out of AOTC and it's an almost perfect film. The whole love story comes off as forced and the actors involved have zero chemistry together. The 'B' story, on the other hand, is very interesting. Kenobi's search for the bounty hunter and his discovery of the secret army and the Trade Federation base is basically a whole film by itself. Starts out as a detective story and ends in a battle of epic proportions. Still one of my favorite land battles in any film. AOTC stands as my argument that an Obi Wan Kenobi standalone film could be a big success.

 

Kenobi's mystery plot is my favorite part of that film, and by and large, makes AOTC infinitely more rewatchable for me among the PT.

 

1. No Jar Jar. The Jamaican / Stepin Fetchit hybrid was a sickening swim through not so subtle racial stereotypes, and not the comedic, "fool" character mirroring Threepio in the original trilogy. Replace Binks with a troubled character trying to redeem himself, lose the comic relief, so ultimately, his senate disaster (AOTC) takes on a greater, tragic meaning for one who tried to better himself only to be the one to set the rise of evil firmly on course.
2. Cut down the number of lightsaber use and/or fights. In the space between he original trilogy and the prequels, fanboys obsessed over toys and EU's emphasis on glow sticks hitting things. Like Boba Fett (more on him in a moment), something that started off as a rare thing drenched the PT in places where it was not necessary. For example, in the bar scene, Obi-Wan could have used the force to rip Zam Wesell's gun from her hand, and pulled her to him--the bounty hunter unable to move. That would have been a way to show how powerful Obi-Wan had grown since TPM, but instead, its more lightsabers in a bullshit "tone poem" parallel (whatever, George Lucas) to Kenobi's cantina scene in A New Hope.
3. Better actress for Padme. Natalie Portman's "royal" act was pointlessly robotic--which is not aloof or haughty (as intended), but it seemed to be an actress having no idea how to act in the manner Lucas intended. Then, her basic Padme performance was awful, going from childlike in one scene, to her nasally, flat "command" voice in the next. An older or just superior actress might have had the range to deliver a believable performance.
4. In the TPM, Windu seems tense as he orders Jinn and Kenobi to go after the "dark warrior", yet by the opening of AOTC, there's no sense of urgency after a DECADE has passed, and the Jedi (who should be concerned more than anyone else in the galaxy) were no closer to even a single clue about the origin or extent of Sith activity than they were in the last act of TPM. Instead, Lucas has the Jedi obsess over politics, babysitting and clones, when the heart of their troubles would have been exposed years earlier if they were dedicated to uncovering the "mystery of the Sith." The Jedi learning more in between films would have raised the tension level, and threat to Anakin, as Palpatine would have turned the screws in greater/more effective ways than pairing Anakin up with his crush.
5. Jango Fett: Exploiting fanboy obsessions, Lucas shoved another Fett into the plot, as the genetic source of the clones, all to use Boba Fett imagery in the PT. In the end, he meant nothing--other than someone to be kicked around by Kenobi, then unceremoniously killed by Windu. Having his "son" (Boba) witness Jango's death meant nothing to the future of the character seen in TESB & ROTJ at all. Instead of Jango, the clone source should have been anonymous, lending an air of a sinister, faceless army just in the background, since being based on Jango added nothing to story, other than the Lucas tendency to make everyone related (in some way) in a series that's supposed to involve an entire galaxy.

That's a start to improve the prequels. I could go into the bad casting choice of Hayden Christiansen, but that's been covered enough.

 

Many (including myself) have posted the opinion that Anakin should have been older to start with. If he had been, the whole nonsense about a 14 year old girl becoming the elected ruler of an entire planet could have been discarded from the get-go. I think Natalie Portman isn't a terrible actress, but I agree that she was given some of the worst dialogue and character elements ever to try and work with in the PT. So many of the lines she had to deliver were just cringeworthy.

 

I lay all of the problems with Padme on Lucas, not Portman. I think she's given enough other great performances over the years to prove that she really is a good actress.

 

Leave the Prequels alone or improve the other STAR WARS films as well . . . especially "The Force Awakens".

 

^So you've been saying, but it continues to be out of scope for this thread.

 

I didn't mind seeing Anakin as a slave child and being freed from captivity because it added depth to the character's history and allowed us to see him as a truly loving and warm-hearted person who wanted to help his mother and his friends and make all their lives better. That being said, had Anakin's story (at least onscreen) started when he was already a Jedi apprentice in-training and well into his career it might have given us more and significantly darker drama from the very start.

Anakin winning his freedom in the Podrace was fun and rewarding to watch but since we knew he wasn't yet a Jedi Knight nor even a Padawan apprentice it's not as if he was going to start swinging a lightsaber and behaving like the hero that was described to us by Obi-Wan in the OT. Starting his story as a teenager or even young adult might have made him a more textured and sympathetic character and given his journey more meat, but the Prequels are what they are. It may not have been the Anakin Skywalker Story most of us envisioned or wanted to see but it could have been a lot worse.

Be glad George didn't start with the painful, cringe-inducing romantic dialogue until Episode II. We could have had three whole movies ruined by "I'm only beautiful because you think I am" or whatever the hell she says. I've tried to actively block it from my mind as a defense mechanism.

 

Why? There has been many commentaries on the weaknesses of the PT, especially characterizations.

People are allowed to have their opinions.

 

You can't make Anakin much older without having to change his dilemma. He's really attached to his Mother like many 9-10 yr olds are. Having to leave her behind would be awful for him. For those here who are parents, you know that at 11-13 years old, there's a big change in many a "Momma's boy/Daddy's girl," etc. (Ohhh, they grow up so fast)

That's why his age was changed from 14 in the first place. If he was 14 or older, not only would he have a much easier time leaving home, he'd look like an ass for leaving him mom a slave.

 

To be honest, he still looks like a jerk, as does Obi-Wan, for leaving his mom a slave.

 

Considering it's Qui-Gonn who initially makes the call, I'd say all three of them end up looking like jerks...

Though one wonders whether Qui-Gonn intentionally didn't make much of an effort because he didn't want Anakin to have the emotional attachment and figured (obviously mistakenly) that Anakin's feelings would fade over time.

 

The entire Jedi Order comes off as looking like a group of self-righteous assholes in the PT. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan don't free Shmi nor even make more than surface gestures that she should also be released from slavery, the Jedi Council routinely treats Anakin like the redheaded bastard stepchild in the basement who shouldn't be allowed to touch anything valuable yet still saves their asses on more than one occasion during the Clone Wars and goes on to outshine most of the Masters, they nitpick over ancient customs and codes of behavior when the environment created by the Separatist crisis and the Clone Wars should have made them a more outwardly-reaching and flexible organization that allowed itself to evolve with the rapidly changing political climate of the galaxy and they fail to adequately deal with the growing shadow of the Dark Side right in their own midst.

Yeah, yeah, I get that Palpatine/Darth Sidious was such a powerful and skilled master of the Dark Side that he was able to cloud the perceptions of the Jedi High Council and hide his presence as a Sith Lord until the last minute, but you'd think a large order of 10,000 Force users - some of whom had the highest midichlorian counts in recorded history and were the most adept and powerful warriors of their era - would have at least picked up on the dark vibes coming from Chancellor Palpatine's office and asked some very serious questions about why the Dark Side was so pervasive around the man elected to lead the Galactic Republic through the most tumultuous years of its history. The Jedi may have meant well and were preferable to the Sith and the Imperial system they ushered into power, but they were clearly a bunch of oblivious dicks.

 

It's not uncommon for organisations, political bodies in the real world not to move with the changing climate.

 

That's sort of intentional. Perhaps not so much leaving Schmi, but a lot of the other things you mentioned. This is the story of the Order's mistakes and downfall.

Well, Obi-Wan wasn't even there. Schmi wanted a better life for Anakin and asked Qui-Gonn to take him before anything. I don't see how Anakin is a jerk. He wanted to go with the Jedi (as any boy would) but was torn and didn't want to leave his mother. Anakin's just an innocent boy with extraordinary gifts.

Besides, Schmi went on to have a nice life. She married a nice farmer man...and inherited a handsome good natured son and lovely daughter-in-law. And for a time...it was good.

 

That portrayal began when Luke discovered that Obi-Wan and Yoda never told him that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker in "The Empire Strikes Back". There was no rule that the Jedi were supposed to be perfect or near perfect. They had their flaws like everyone else.

 

Not just flawed. Almost entirely irredeemable, with no reason to want them to succeed, or want Luke to become a Jedi.

 

Which may be addressed in The Last Jedi/

 

Which is actually more interesting to me if that film ties that in to the larger narrative. But, my point stands that in the OT, the Jedi are heroes, and something to aspire to, and in the PT, the Jedi are selfish, myopic, standoffish, jerks and entirely unsympathetic. They were outmaneuvered by one Sith Lord with little to no indication that the Jedi became wiser by the end.

Perhaps that is George's point, is that the Jedi, as an organization, even if their view on the Force was more correct.