The Star Wars prequel films: favorite bits, lines, aspects!

[Nardpuncher]

I really liked the design of the Seante Guards on Corruscant, the blue guys with the plumes on the helmets.

They were like something that George Lucas pulled out of a dream of mine for what the prequels would look like.

 

[Shazam!]

There's a lot I like about the prequels. I think what was missing for me though was the 'Han Solo' type character; someone tagging along taking the piss out of the whole thing. There are no humans in the PT.

 

[Nardpuncher]

There's a lot I like about the prequels. I think what was missing for me though was the 'Han Solo' type character; someone tagging along taking the piss out of the whole thing. There are no humans in the PT.

Good point!
Some may say I'm crazy, but I think Qui-Gon should've been played as a Han Solo type, and perhaps by an American also (though that's very debatable) You can't just call him a rebellious type of Jedi and expect the audience to really believe it if he doesn't act that way.
Of course Liam Neeson was great to have in the movie, but they should've had a more dynamic, funny, well, Han Soloish kind of guy there.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Revenge of the Sith...All of it really, I'm just a fan of the movie. It's my 3rd favorite Star Wars film after A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

 

[TheBrew]

The vistas of EP I. I think that there are so many great wide pan shots in that movie which really help establish the universe and felt like living paintings.

 

[Nardpuncher]

The vistas of EP I. I think that there are so many great wide pan shots in that movie which really help establish the universe and felt like living paintings.

Very true.

I think though, that by Ep II and III he started cluttering up what could be very nice wide shots.

 

[sidious618]

There's a lot I like about the prequels. I think what was missing for me though was the 'Han Solo' type character; someone tagging along taking the piss out of the whole thing. There are no humans in the PT.

But then it'd just be a Han Solo clone and I think that'd be kind of weak. Either go with the real Han (which was impossible) or go in another direction.

 

[milo bloom]

People decry the overuse of CGI, but watching some of the behind the scenes stuff on the DVDs there's a lot of places I thought were beautiful physical sets but turned out to be completely or at least partially CGI. Either way, there's just a lot of beautiful set pieces that show just how big the galaxy these people live in really is.

As for scenes, there's a ton of set pieces in Ep 1 that are really great scenes, they just don't quite hang together that well and are marred by some really bad acting by both major and minor actors. The 4-way battle at the end seems like overkill at first, but there's a lot to be shown and it does it fairly well. (Like the Ewok battle in ROTJ though, it would benefit from seeing more of the better Gungan warriors actually fighting and holding their own. It's pretty clear they weren't immediately slaughtered and were actually taking out some of the battle droids).

Ep 2 is similar, a lot of good set pieces, that don't always flow quite right into one another. The chase over Coruscant is great though, as is Detective-Inspector Obi-Wan, and again the final battle is damn good.

Ep 3 is just all kinds of good, though I really would have loved to have seen the birth of the Rebellion scene in the movie, and maybe more post-suit Vader (and more pre-suit Vader for that matter). There was also a lot of the tie-ins to the OT in ROTS that I think a lot of fans were looking for in the first two also, though personally I'm on the fence about. I love all the unique stuff that the PT gave us, but I do appreciate all the OT nods too.

Something else that I've really started to think about seriously in the past few years is that 1 and 2 both could use another good pass through the editing bay to tweak the flow of a lot of the scenes. Add some character building scenes, and maybe trim some others for pacing.

And I've said for years the events of Ep 1 should have been the first act or the first half of Ep 1, with Ep 2 being at least one or two major battles of the Clone Wars, showing us how Anakin and ObiWan became the friends we're supposed to believe they are at the beginning of Ep 3.

 

[Klaus]

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

...all downhill after that.

As much as I'm a PT hater, I'll try to be nice.

The pod-race.
Liam and Ewan.
The saber battle in TPM.
Jar-Jar being the one who brought down the Republic.
Some pretty pictures.

OK, that's it!

 

[CaptainWacky]

I'm a big fan of all the Star Wars movies on the whole, thought Episode 2 is definitely my least favourite of the six...though it did have Natalie Portman's midriff. Many of my favourite moments have been posted above, so I'll just mention General Grievous for being a hilarious moustache-twirling (or lightsabre-twirling) villain...since no one else will.

"TIME TO ABANDON SHIP."
"Ah, General Kenobi. You are a BOLD one."

 

[Broccoli]

And I've said for years the events of Ep 1 should have been the first act or the first half of Ep 1, with Ep 2 being at least one or two major battles of the Clone Wars, showing us how Anakin and ObiWan became the friends we're supposed to believe they are at the beginning of Ep 3.

I think the main problem with the prequels is that they didn't really feel connected to each other. The Original Trilogy told a complete story that continued on from the previous one.

The Prequels, on the other hand, felt like three random stories that were tangentially connected to one another with many important segments being left out.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Episode I:

-Any scene with Darth Sidious. "Wipe them out... ALL of them." "Viceroy, I don't want this stunted slime in my sight again."

-Duel of the Fates and the Battle of Naboo

Episode II:

-Across the Stars

-The Emergency Powers speech by Palpatine

Episode III:

-Sidious' duel with Mace Windu

-Sidious' duel with Yoda

-Anakin vs. Obi-Wan

-Palpatine's Darth Plagueis speech at the opera

-Palpatine's reveal that he's a Sith to Anakin

-Palpatine's creepiness when Anakin turns to the Dark Side

 

[DarKush]

Ep. 1

-The arrival of the droid army on Naboo
-Palpatine manipulating the no-confidence vote in Valorum
-Anakin's goodbye to his mother. Damn it, I admit it, it choked me up a little
-The look on Anakin's face when Mace tells him he will not be trained as a Jedi. Jake Lloyd's single greatest bit of acting in the entire film. You could see and feel the anger flashing through his eyes
-Maul saying, "Finally we can reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At least we shall have...revenge"
-Maul v. Qui-Gonn on Tatoonine
-On Naboo, when those doors open and Maul is just standing there in total badass glory
-The Duel of the Fates
-Palpatine's prediction for Anakin at the end

Ep. 2
-The lusting look Anakin gives Padme after she first rebuffs him. You knew something wasn't right with him.
-The portentous music that plays as the clone troopers are marching towards vehicles on Kamino
-The Obi Wan/Jango Fett exchange on Kamino
-When Padme ran out to hug Anakin before he went searching for his mother. Natalie Portman had the perfect tan and never looked hotter
-Anakin's search for his mother, with Duel of the Fates playing in the background
-Anakin and Shmi's reunion, his slaughter of the village, and his confession to Padme. Hayden Christensen did a good job with that scene.
-Palpatine's speech when he assumes emergency powers
-Jedi v. droids in the arena
-The battle on Genosis between the clones and the droids
-Obi, Anakin, and Yoda v. Dooku
-The look on Bail Organa's face as he watches those troop ships leave Coruscant
-Yoda's warning that the shroud of the darkside has fallen

Ep. 3
-Obi and Anakin v. Dooku
-Most of the Palpatine/Anakin scenes
-Anakin balking at not being made a master. I think it probably made him look whiny on film, but in the novelization, he needed the master status not only to stroke his ego, but because masters had access to more of the Jedi archives and Anakin was hoping to find a way to save Padme in that information
-Mace admitting that he doesn't trust Anakin. And Yoda pondering if the prophecy concerning Anakin had been misread.
-Mace and the Jedi confronting Sidious
-Mace v. Sidious
-Sidious giving Anakin his new name
-Sidious's creepy smile after he said the Sith will rule the galaxy and then we shall have...peace
-The issuance of Order 66
-Order 66; that was pretty tragic
-Anakin's march on the Temple and massacre of the Jedi
-Palpatine declaring the beginning of the Empire
-Anakin taking out the Separatist leaders; that slo-mo look Anakin gives when he turns around and his eyes are a baleful yellow; he's totally in the grip of the dark side now
-Anakin crying or in distress after he completes his mission
-Padme confronting Anakin
-Obi and Anakin's talk before the Duel
-The Duel
-Yoda v. Sidious
-The scene where we see the mask being put on Anakin's face. It just felt tragic knowing he would be sealed in that thing for the rest of his life

Clone Wars animated series (the cartoon one between Eps. 2 and 3)
-The look on Anakin's face when Obi objects to Palpatine's plan to make him a commander
-Anakin placing his hand against the cockpit of his figther as he looks at Padme
-Anakin v. Asajj Ventress. This was one of the best duels in all of Star Wars
-Anakin getting knighted

 

[Kegg]

As space opera eye candy, pure, cinematic spectacle, these films are all very good. I really enjoyed the design style and sensibility in all three - it also seemed to move away from the more 'used future' environment of the classic trilogy to a more pristine feel. There are more spaceships and planets and aliens and robots than I could dream of having. And the costumes, my god the costumes - people joked about how often Queen Amidala changed her dress, but there were many, many fine dresses amongst her selections. The continuation of this aesthetic is a major part of the reason I must confess I'm enjoying the CGI cartoon, which still looks very nice and polished - though given how heavy the CGI was in the live action films it's unsurprising that the transition was made this well.

For me, at least, The Phantom Menace is also something of a visual landmark - the full capacity for CGI allow filmmakers to build entire worlds and societies was impressed on me for the first time. The massive cityscapes of Coruscant, the etheral underwater world of Ootoh Gunga, the regal, Italianate city of Theed - all very nice. The prequel trilogy certainly remain some of the best films for showing pure space opera eye candy for me, that's for certain.

Williams score is always good here, and I have a particular fondness for 'Across the Stars', the romantic theme from Attack of the Clones, for doubtless sentimental reasons.

 

[DarKush]

There's a lot I like about the prequels. I think what was missing for me though was the 'Han Solo' type character; someone tagging along taking the piss out of the whole thing. There are no humans in the PT.

To some extent I think you're right. But I've read previous arguments from years ago that the main cast of the prequels were more of the Elite so you might not get a more earthy character like Han.

I'm not sure if I buy that. I wanted characters with a bit more feeling. Even the Elites have feelings, and show them. When GL tried to do it, he often did it so clumsily that it could groan inducing or head scratching. The Padme/Anakin relationship was mishandled from jump and the Obi and Anakin brotherhood came from left field after Obi spent the first movie suspicious of the boy and the second movie bickering with him most of the time. The EU has had to do the job of fleshing out their relationship to move it in that direction.

One relationship I did like throughout the prequels was Mace and Anakin. Mace never trusted him and that didn't change. Even when Anakin had proved himself by revealing Sidious as the Sith Lord, Mace was reserved around him.

I also liked the Palpatine/Anakin relationship. It was a good move to show Palpatine taking an interest in Anakin as a Padawan, a good set up for his eventual fall.

 

[DigificWriter]

Here's SOME of the things that I like about the PT:
* Anakin (yes, in all 3 films); his 'hero's journey' is, IMO, really satisfying, even though it ends on an extremely tragic note

* The intergalactic nature of the stories (particularly the Clone Wars; I'd always wanted to hear more about them, so getting to see some of what was going on was awesome)

* The lightsaber fights (Lucas kept upping the ante)

* The locations (although I do think it would've been neat for them to actually build full sets instead of relying so much on CGI to finish partially-built sets, the locales that feature in the PT are nonetheless awesome)

* Jar-Jar (I'm probably gonna get hated on for this, but I really like Jar Jar's character, and am sort of disappointed by the fact that he didn't have as large a role in AotC or RotS, mainly because it kind of feels - to me, anyway - like Lucas capitulated to the haters who complained about the character).

* John Williams' score (particularly the 3 'signature piece' scores from the films [Duel of the Fates, Across the Stars, and Battle of the Heroes]).

 

[RyanKCR]

Liam and Ewan
The Pod Race
The duel at the end of TPM
Kamino
Mace VS Sideous
Obi VS Anakin.
Mellenium Falcon cameo.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Liam and Ewan
The Pod Race
The duel at the end of TPM
Kamino
Mace VS Sideous
Obi VS Anakin.
Mellenium Falcon cameo.

Okay where was the Millenium Falcon cameo in the films? because I keep hearing about it but I think I missed it.

 

[RyanKCR]

Liam and Ewan
The Pod Race
The duel at the end of TPM
Kamino
Mace VS Sideous
Obi VS Anakin.
Mellenium Falcon cameo.

Okay where was the Millenium Falcon cameo in the films? because I keep hearing about it but I think I missed it.

Watch for the establishing shot right after Anakin crash lands Greivous's ship at the beginning of ROTC. Look at the lower right and you should see a ship coming in to land. That's it.

 

[Cutter John]

Good to see some love the the PT for a change. I'd post my list, but it'd really just be a repeat of whats already been covered.

And now we have Clone Wars to fill in those missing gaps.