Why Do People Hate the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy?

[VulcanMindBlown]

Please vote....

I know that there is probably not a "one-size-fits-all" answer... but is there? If there is something that I missed, please tell me and I'll make a new one.

Personally, I thought that Episode 1 was kind of slow, Anakin and Jar Jar were annoying, but they were supposed to be there to set up the Original Trilogy. The action was great, especially the big battles in Episode II + III. Shades of grey and politics was interesting, it's a wonder why DS9 got love for politics, but the Prequels did not. The more evenly matched, large battles was pretty cool in my opinion, along with the Jedi's and Sith's abilities and fighting amongst each other.

 

[Set Harth]

Anakin and Jar Jar were annoying, but they were supposed to be there to set up the Original Trilogy.

Anakin, yes.

Jar Jar, AW HELL NAW.

 

[fireproof78]

Important Point: I don't hate the PT.
Hate implies an emotional connection to the product that I simply don't have. If anything, I can appreciate the work that Lucas put in to them, but don't agree with his choices.

Characters, pure and simple. I don't buy in to them, I don't identify with them, I don't believe they are real people in a real situation, save for brief choice moments. It's only after reading the novels, the screenplay, watching the BTS, and the like, that I have developed a great appreciation for them. But, they are low on my list as far as rewatchability in the Star Wars pantheon.

I've listened to commentaries, video reviews, text reviews, and discussed for years online and in person. I've heard all sides, watched the films, and the like. The characters simply are not there for me to connect with in the same way as the OT, or even TFA.

 

[Tosk]

I can only vote for one thing? Pass.

 

[Smellmet]

I rewatched them all back to back in one day for the first time in ages a couple of weeks ago, and do you know what? I really enjoyed them. It's been easy to hate on these films down the years, but really, I think they're pretty damn good overall. A lot of the visuals are still spectacular and hold up very well today. Problems? Sure. Remove Binks from The Phantom Menace and make Anakin a little older and that film would be much more solid than it is. Darth Maul is a superb, if underused villain. I would still say that it's the weakest of the three, but still has some great moments and the visuals hold up very well for an 18 year old movie.

Attack of the Clones is where the 'all CGI' criticisms come in with most people I suspect, but I bet a lot of people don't actually realise that a hell of a lot of these movies were created using practical effects - the arena in Geonosis, for example was a miniature, and there's tons of other stuff too (check out the big thread on Jedi Council Forums - very informative and interesting with loads of production imagery) the 'all CGI' criticism, is quite frankly, total bollocks. Attack of the Clones really just suffers from the stilted love element and the droid factory sequence with some truly cringeworthy humour, mostly from threepio, but they represent a small portion of the running time, the rest is all very good in my opinion. You've got Boba/Jango Fett, Obi-Wan on a detective style hunt, seeing Yoda fight and use force powers in combat for the first time, Christopher Lee, epic battles, what's not to like?

Revenge of the Sith is a fantastic film, right up there with ANH and ESB for me and arguably has the least problems of the three. Only a couple of bits of poor dialogue and the 'giving up on life' bit spoil the party really. Revenge is an outstanding effort, and is easily the best of the three in terms of entertainment and visual effects. McDairmind owns this movie and is a delight to watch. The fall of the Jedi is a truly heartbreaking, emotional sequence that flows into A New Hope really well. I don't even mind the Vader 'noooo' scene.

Overall I really enjoyed the world building and the art deco influences, especially Coruscant, you can see Lucas was trying to give a roaring 20's feel to it all, paralleling our own world's fall in the 30's and 40's almost. There's issues with the films, but what film doesn't? I'd certainly watch ROTS over TFA, and maybe even the first two over it too. The scores on all three movies are excellent also, far better than the tepid efforts of TFA and easily on a par with the original trilogy. They're worth a re-evaluation I think. They were every bit as groundbreaking in many ways as the original trilogy but just don't seem to get the credit they deserve. I'm not saying they're as good as the original trilogy (bar ROTS), just different. At least they told their own story instead of the lame rehash that TFA was.

 

[fireproof78]

I rewatched them all back to back in one day for the first time in ages a couple of weeks ago, and do you know what? I really enjoyed them. It's been easy to hate on these films down the years, but really, I think they're pretty damn good overall. A lot of the visuals are still spectacular and hold up very well today. Problems? Sure. Remove Binks from The Phantom Menace and make Anakin a little older and that film would be much more solid than it is. Darth Maul is a superb, if underused villain. I would still say that it's the weakest of the three, but still has some great moments and the visuals hold up very well for an 18 year old movie.

Attack of the Clones is where the 'all CGI' criticisms come in with most people I suspect, but I bet a lot of people don't actually realise that a hell of a lot of these movies were created using practical effects - the arena in Geonosis, for example was a miniature, and there's tons of other stuff too (check out the big thread on Jedi Council Forums - very informative and interesting with loads of production imagery) the 'all CGI' criticism, is quite frankly, total bollocks. Attack of the Clones really just suffers from the stilted love element and the droid factory sequence with some truly cringeworthy humour, mostly from threepio, but they represent a small portion of the running time, the rest is all very good in my opinion. You've got Boba/Jango Fett, Obi-Wan on a detective style hunt, seeing Yoda fight and use force powers in combat for the first time, Christopher Lee, epic battles, what's not to like?

Revenge of the Sith is a fantastic film, right up there with ANH and ESB for me and arguably has the least problems of the three. Only a couple of bits of poor dialogue and the 'giving up on life' bit spoil the party really. Revenge is an outstanding effort, and is easily the best of the three in terms of entertainment and visual effects. McDairmind owns this movie and is a delight to watch. The fall of the Jedi is a truly heartbreaking, emotional sequence that flows into A New Hope really well. I don't even mind the Vader 'noooo' scene.

Overall I really enjoyed the world building and the art deco influences, especially Coruscant, you can see Lucas was trying to give a roaring 20's feel to it all, paralleling our own world's fall in the 30's and 40's almost. There's issues with the films, but what film doesn't? I'd certainly watch ROTS over TFA, and maybe even the first two over it too. The scores on all three movies are excellent also, far better than the tepid efforts of TFA and easily on a par with the original trilogy. They're worth a re-evaluation I think. They were every bit as groundbreaking in many ways as the original trilogy but just don't seem to get the credit they deserve. I'm not saying they're as good as the original trilogy (bar ROTS), just different. At least they told their own story instead of the lame rehash that TFA was.

Well written, even if I don't agree with all of it.

Also, what thread on Jedi Council Forums? That sounds interesting. I haven't been on there in forever.

 

[F. King Daniel]

They're just not very good in my opinion. Stuff happens, but I don't have any emotional investment in any of it until Anakin goes off the rails and kills the younglings.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I don't hate them, but the writing is terrible, and the direction gets nothing out of some world class actors. I also feel that Anakin was mis-cast (twice). All in all the films suffer the most from George's micro-managing.

 

[Smellmet]

Well written, even if I don't agree with all of it.

Also, what thread on Jedi Council Forums? That sounds interesting. I haven't been on there in forever.

It's a thread in the prequels section called 'practical effects in the prequels' or something to that effect. It's dozens of pages long and has loads of behind the scenes production images. It's really interesting. Some of the stuff that were miniatures and models that I never realised were so is quite surprising.

 

[Commander Richard]

I know that there is probably not a "one-size-fits-all" answer... but is there? If there is something that I missed, please tell me and I'll make a new one.

Make the poll multiple choice.

 

[Smellmet]

Some of the palaces on naboo for example were models, the big stadium for the pod race among others. Some really amazing work.

 

[The Wormhole]

I certainly don't hate the Prequels. Sure, I prefer the OT, but the Prequels have their own charm too. I will agree the Prequels overdid it with the CG. Especially by ROTS where CG was being used to create ordinary corridors with nothing special about them. Seriously, just stick up two walls and a matte painting to create the illusion of depth.

 

[Tuskin38]

Some of the palaces on naboo for example were models, the big stadium for the pod race among others. Some really amazing work.

The room where Palpatine is being held in the beginning of EP3 was all physical except the roof.

I think that was the biggest practical set in the film.

 

[Smellmet]

That was massive. The space battle going on in the background was really detailed too. ROTS really is a stunning film still. A lot of the mustafar duel was done with miniatures too which you'd never think. There's so many more too.

 

[Prax]

When I saw them in theatres, I thought they were fantastic. Everyone in the theatre was cheering and just as excited afterwards, as before. I had no idea that I was supposed to hate them until many years later. I saw these reviews on Youtube for Trek, and the prequels. I won't mention the name, but after seeing them all, I thought Rick Berman was a hack, Lucas was a hack, and that the prequels were the worst films to ever stumble onto God's green Earth.

A year or so ago, I watched all 6 films with my ten year old daughter(her first time seeing SW) in anticipation of the new film, Episode 7. I had no problems with the prequels and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Episode 1 was her favorite of all six, although she later said Episode 7 was the funniest SW movie when we went to the theatre.

If you google things like Art Bias, Confirmation Bias, Group Think, etc, you'll see multitudes of insightful articles on how we perceive art, approach controversies, join "camps", and so on. The only truly objective way one can appraise art, is to determine whether or not the artist(s) achieved the goals they set out to accomplish. The rest will ultimately come down to taste and influence.

Critical reception for the prequels was nearly identical to the originals, following in a mirror fashion, albeit in reverse:

Episode IV: ANH-Reception was quite positive, almost overwhelmingly
Episode V: TESB-very mixed. Some negative/some positive
Episode VI: RotJ-Mixed. more negative

Episode I: TPM-Mixed. more negative
Episode II: AotC-Still Mixed, but much more positive
Episode III: RotS-Quite positive, almost overwhelmingly so

What does any of this mean? Nothing....All Six films were HUGE commercial successes. The target age demographic probably all loved them at the time. While there were definitely disappointed OT Star Wars veterans, "prequel bashing" seems to have been relegated to chat rooms and message boards while the films were being made/released. It grew to a fever pitch a year or two ago when hype was building for TFA.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

I also forgot to put that they shouldn't have been put into movies.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

Anakin, yes.

Jar Jar, AW HELL NAW.

Jar Jar was meant to be the imbecile who connected the Naboo humans and Gungans by wandering off. I just think that most people didn't like the style of humor the character was created for..

Important Point: I don't hate the PT.
Hate implies an emotional connection to the product that I simply don't have. If anything, I can appreciate the work that Lucas put in to them, but don't agree with his choices.

Characters, pure and simple. I don't buy in to them, I don't identify with them, I don't believe they are real people in a real situation, save for brief choice moments. It's only after reading the novels, the screenplay, watching the BTS, and the like, that I have developed a great appreciation for them. But, they are low on my list as far as rewatchability in the Star Wars pantheon.

I've listened to commentaries, video reviews, text reviews, and discussed for years online and in person. I've heard all sides, watched the films, and the like. The characters simply are not there for me to connect with in the same way as the OT, or even TFA.

What would have made them more likeable, in your opinion...??

I still am not sure if what you're looking for is the Original Trilogy rehashed and made "as good."

For the criticism of Anakin Skywalker being whiny, you could probably, but not as much, give it to Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren.

 

[fireproof78]

What would have made them more likeable, in your opinion...??

I still am not sure if what you're looking for is the Original Trilogy rehashed and made "as good."

For the criticism of Anakin Skywalker being whiny, you could probably, but not as much, give it to Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren.

If the characters had been more likable. I have little grievance with the story, though that could use some tweaking here and there. I don't have a problem with Anakin being whiny if I felt that he grew. But, I don't. The emotions that I come away with from watching the PT are one of "glad that is over" rather than "Let's watch it again" which is what I have with the OT and TFA.

So, as I said in my initial post-characters. They don't feel identifiable, emotionally invested (save for choice moments) or even people in a real situation, again save for brief moments. Anakin is supposed to be a tragic figure that I watch fall to the Dark Side and I shouldn't want him to. I should be shouting at the screen, "No, Anakin, don't do it." Instead, the Emperor comes across as the one person with Anakin's good genuinely in mind, and having a point and the Jedi come across as arrogant jerks.

 

[LJones41]

Are you referring to all "STAR WARS" fans? Because I know that not "all" "STAR WARS" fans hate the Prequel movies. And I don't understand why certain fans do hate the Prequels. I honestly don't. I know why I love them. Just as I know why I love the Original movies.

 

[Ithekro]

No one said "all", don't start that. The question is asked to individual people, not to represent any sort of all inclusive.