Is the Star Wars saga better with Episodes I to III or worse?

[Myasishchev]

Most of the people who hate the prequels can't get past minor (for Star Wars films) quibbles like Jar Jar, the lame dialouge or the lack of "acting".

Having all the hallmarks of a terrible movie amounts to minor quibbles?

It might have helped to intro him and Dooku in Episode 1. Actually, some scenes with a Senator Organa were filmed with a different actor and have never been seen by anyone that isn't a Lucas insider or dead.

I actually kind of liked Dooku. He was a character and plot device that had tremendous merit--for a large part of Attack of the Clones, I thought Lucas was going to pull the rug out and have it wind up that Dooku really was the good guy, and Palpatine had set the Jedi to kill him (successfully).

This, unfortunately, was not the case, and he turned out just to be yet another Sith sidekick. Boring.

 

[JoeZhang]

Most of the people who hate the prequels can't get past minor (for Star Wars films) quibbles like Jar Jar, the lame dialouge or the lack of "acting".

In general, the story being allowed to showcase Anakin's entire fall to (and subsequent rise from) the Dark Side is pretty fantastic, I think.

Movie snobs and CGI haters overlook what's good about the prequels because it's easy... Lucas made it so easy to dislike those elements when the OT was so great for the young and old alike.

Although upon repeat viewings of Menace and Clones there is a lot of dead space. I usually DVD-skip ahead to the next action sequence. This is especially true of Clones. I find the conversation between Anakin and Amidala much harder to endure than, say, any scene with Jar-Jar. The farting scene before the pod race is probably the lowest point in the series... second only to the "new" musical number in Jabba's palace. Absolute shit.

It's also worth nothing that on certain levels ROTS > ROTJ. But of course the original trilogy can always be appreciated on it's own as a set of three films.

Interestingly enough I read after SITH come out that Lucas mused that he should have combined Menace and Clones into one film and spread SITH out over two films. Well, too late for that now!!!

Lucas himself said in a interview with Sky magazine a few years ago that most of the first film such as the pod races is simply filler, and that he wasn't particularly interested in Anakin as a boy (why he makes such a film is not answered).

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Before making his famous review of episodes one and two, redlettermedia made this documentary on episode 3, or at least one aspect of it, one line, one single word!

 

[Venardhi]

Worse. The inherent problem with prequels is that if properly set up in the original story, nothing you tell can possibly be as interesting or satisfying as the vague concept your audience has already created in their mind. In more skilled hands, with a more interested storyteller, they might have pulled off something worth adding to the canon, but as it was the PT is simply regrettable.

I don't want to sound over-dramatic about it, but I feel the same way about it as i would going to my childhood home to find the field out back turned into a parking lot for a Walmart. It doesn't ruin what Star Wars was to me, but it isn't 'home' anymore.

 

[Tulin]

There are only three good reasons justifying the existence of the PT.

1. Thanks to a friend working for LFL during production of AOTC I got to visit the Ranch in September 2001(yes, on THAT day, too - trust me, a pretty fucking SURREAL experience).

2. I got to come back in May 2002 for the premiere and, thanks to another friend got to chaperone the legendary Tony Baxter(google him if you don't know who he is)for the evening to keep him away from overzealous Disney fanboys.

3. RLM's reviews were made. And they KICK ARSE and are actually more entertaining than the films they lambast.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Worse, definitely much worse.

 

[Kegg]

I'd say overall it's better with them. There are things I like about the prequel trilogy - mostly visuals, but also some music cues - and without them I'd have the original trilogy but without the prequels and music cues. The prequels don't harm my enjoyment of the original films... they rarely enter into my mind when I watch them (Empire's vaguely sketched portayal of Vader as Luke's alter-ego and eventual future is far more powerful than any actual backstory you could give the character).

But there are elements I like: the weirdness of the original trilogy's mythic struggle being rooted in trade issues,

It's not, though. The problem with the politics in the prequel trilogy is less that they're boring and more that they're severely underthought. What trade issue? What exactly is going on and why? Eleven years later and I still have no idea what the amorphous 'taxation of trade routes' was, how it came about, why people are opposed to it, and what blockading Naboo is initially supposed to achieve.

The original trilogy painted its political landscape in broad, simple strokes between the good guys and bad guys, and given the rebels versus empire plot that worked perfectly fine, but you can't do something a little messier and expert the same formula to fit.

 

[Derishton]

Kegg, I don't disagree. That's part of the weirdness; that you'd toss in a trade dispute and then tell us next to nothing about it. Either Lucas thinks we know enough about, say, British and American gunboat diplomacy as a way to open markets in the 19th century to make sense of this plot; or it's there to evoke a mood, which as you say it can't really do on the limited account we're given. It's weird, and I think it had tons of potential which went wasted. (Especially given Han Solo's later claim to fame - a smuggler, therefore someone involved in what could broadly be called trade issues.)

Someone earlier said that Boba Fett was de-mystified in the films, and that annoyed fanboys. Possibly so, but my problem was that I thought the opposite occured: I thought Fett's new background as the only son of the template for every stormtrooper in the universe made him seem more mythic, his vendetta against the universe set after the arena scene. I liked him much better as a relatively tough-looking bounty hunter who turns out to be a luckless punk.

 

[TheBrew]

Yes, if only to watch people flip their shit over them.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I'm going to say "Worse" because my interest in the Star Wars saga has diminished greatly since the prequels.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

Worse. As someone said, you had an image in your head of the Clone Wars from what little you gleaned from the OT. So it was hard to live up to that. But really, Phantom should have been skipped. The prequels should have started with Anakin already established as a powerful yet untrained jedi in the first movie. A full blown and very likeable hero in the 2nd and then the 3rd movie could have dealt with the fall of the hero. But instead of the stupid lovesick crap we got, it should have been Anakin tapping into the dark side here and there to gain an upper edge. Against Obi Wan's warnings he goes dark a few too many times and falls into the abyss and becomes Vader.

If you had a solid plotline showing the transition from Jedi to Sith all the other crap like Jar Jar etc wouldn't have mattered. As long as the core story was good.

But really, after the crapfest that was Return of the Jedi, did we really expect the prequels to be good?

 

[Pauln6]

I'd say neither better or worse. It's a children's franchise and I'm sure that many children absolutely love the prequels the way I loved 4-6 when I was a child. It's a mistake to think that fans of the originals that have now grown up could accept the plot holes as readily now that they are adults.

Phantom Menace was actually very enjoyable, even with Ja Ja, but I would say that is because Natalie Portman and Pernilla August work really hard to give the movie an emotional centre. Ian McDiarmid is pretty cool as Palpatine too. I agree that it was silly and unnecessary to have Anakin build C3PO (any worse than stumbling across Spock in a cave - probably not). Darth Maul should have been given a much larger role as well. The jedi are intentionally wooden so there isn't much we can do about that.

Attack of the Clones wasn't awful - a bit long and perhaps a bit complex for some of the younger viewers. Christopher Lee is always awesome. It was a mistake to shoehorn Padme into the action heroine role. A different action heroine would have been preferable, although doubling the number of significant women in a star wars movie might have been too much for Lucas.

The third one is the worst for me. Being pregnant obviously means all you can do is strut around looking worried in a variety of different outfits. Palpatine's evil make-up looked worse than the make up from twenty years ago - way overdone. More politics, more footage of other jedi putting up more of a fight (and possibly escaping) and less obsession with tying up loose ends would have been preferable. The last half an hour of the movie was a waste of time. We don't need to see or hear that Anakin is Vader, we don't need to see Padme die, we don't need to see the identities of the children, and what the hell is that stuff about communing with Liam Neeson's character? One day I am going to do a serious home edit on this movie to make it bearable to me.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

I have mixed feelings about the prequels. I want to like them, I really do, but what really kills them for me is the dialogue. It's just sooooo awful. Episode 2 is the worst offender. Almost every single thing Anakin says makes me cringe.
The story itself is pretty cool, but that too gets dragged down with nonsense like Padme dying of a broken heart, the midichlorians, the demystification of Boba Fett(seriously, I think he was way cooler when we knew virtually nothing about him.), Vader's "Frankenstein" scene, etc etc etc.
I think the anticipation of the prequels was more exciting than the end result. "Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting," to quote another franchise.

So in the end, I think Star Wars might have best been left alone after the OT. Even if the prequels were completely flawless, how could they have ever lived up to anyone's expectations?

 

[FluffyUnbound]

Given the wording of the poll question, I chose Worse.

I think the prequels diminish the original trilogy because they took one of the most iconic villains of all time and turned him into Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen.

You just can't ask me to take Darth Vader seriously after you show me the prequels.

 

[Klaus]

You mean Eps 1-3 are real? I was trying to pass them off as a bad dream all these years. Damn.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I voted worse.

It wouldn't matter if we could just sweep the prequels under the rug, and pretend it never happened. But Lucas is determined to force people who watch the original trilogy to accept the prequels any way possible.

I can't comfortably sit back and pretend they never existed when I have to see Hayden Christiansen giving Luke his stalker stare at the end of RoTJ, like he's sizing Luke up as a potential sexual partner, wondering why Luke isn't wearing a sexy, revealing, black dominatrix outfit with outrageously ornate hair style. Like, dude! That's your kid! Quit undressing him with your eyes!

And why are you standing there with Obi Wan? Isn't Obi Wan mean and unfair? And why is Yoda there. Weren't you supposed to be the bestest Jedi ever? Even better than Yoda? And why do you get to spend the afterlife as a 20-something when Obi Wan is an old fart? And does he have to listen to you whine for all eternity???

Stop the madness!!!!

 

[Trippy]

Given the wording of the poll question, I chose Worse.

I think the prequels diminish the original trilogy because they took one of the most iconic villains of all time and turned him into Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen.

You just can't ask me to take Darth Vader seriously after you show me the prequels.

This. Worse by a long mile. ROTS was the only one CLOSE to adding to the OT, but still too many errors and revisionist aspects to really be needed to improve one's understanding or appreciation of the OT.

 

[RandyS]

I can't decide. On the one hand, I liked seeing the backstory of the OT, but there were several things I would have liked to see changed. Anakin's expressions of love for Padme in Episode II come to mind. That whole "Padme dying of a broken heart" nonsense. It would have added to Vader's fearsome persona if she had died as a result of Vader's choking her--bringing about Anakin's dreams about her dying. As would Vader killing Jar Jar with his lightsaber. What fan wouldn't have LOVED that?

Then there was the business about the Jedi having to take control of the senate if they arrested Palpatine. This makes no sense either. I doubt every senator was under Palpatine's influence. Clearly the ones that weren't would have been able to take control of the senate and restore order by calling for a special election to replace the senators Palpatine controlled.

 

[Silvercrest]

and what the hell is that stuff about communing with Liam Neeson's character?

I didn't have a problem with that. The OT showed both Ben and Yoda disappearing when they died, kind of implying that's what happens to all Jedi. And yet Vader was confused when it happened, PLUS he became a Force Ghost after his death anyway. So, did he not know it was going to happen? On top of that, Qui-Gon DIDN'T disappear when he died, leading to a lot of confusion about who disappears, who doesn't, and what it takes to become a Force Ghost. And whether Vader should have been "worthy" to be a Force Ghost because of all the evil things he had done.

The answers to all those questions can be extrapolated from that one exchange. No, there wasn't any contact with the dead before Qui-Gon found a way, so this is new. But it appears that anyone (or at least any Jedi) can become a Force Ghost if they have either enough training, or assistance from their comrades. (And it appears they can bypass the instant of their own death by leaping straight into the Force.)

Even though the PT had a lot of crap, I have to give it credit for answering so many questions so fast. Now, if only they had handled the prophecy so well....

 

[I Grok Spock]

But really, after the crapfest that was Return of the Jedi, did we really expect the prequels to be good?

Yup

Even if the prequels were completely flawless, how could they have ever lived up to anyone's expectations?

Yup yup.

You just can't ask me to take Darth Vader seriously after you show me the prequels.

E chop, yup yup.

There's a lot of good work in design, effects, and music. However, they fall down completely when it comes to storytelling. Also, and I thought I'd never say this about Lucas, but the editing in some cases is awful (e.g. Anakin/Dooku/Yoda duel). Ultimately, it tarnishes the OT legacy (which was already tainted a bit by ROTJ).