For those of us who DO like the SW prequels.

F

Frosteon

Well-Known Member
First off, let me just clear this up right off the bat. For those of you who don't like the prequals, I'm in no way insulting you or trying to change your views on this subject, and I ask the same of you in return.

Ok, on to the discussion. There are those of us here who do like the prequal films. What is it you like about them? Why do you like it? How do you feel about being a fan of these films given some of the other threads around that are negative about these films?

Personally, I feel the action and the music match up very well, I like Obi-wan in his younger years. Same with Anakin, although I will say in this instance that I could do without listening to the romance crap. It's not perfect, and the OT has it's flaws too. Yet I can personally sit down and enjoy watching it.

Your thoughts?
 
Re: For those of us who DO like the SW prequals.

omg this thread is gonna be full of IBTL

my attempt.
what can i say. i truly believed lucas went back to the well too many times. the creativity of the originals were gone, replaced by too much cgi and not enough story, even tho i thought that 3 was the best of the prequels.
 
Re: For those of us who DO like the SW prequals.

I like the last two.

I enjoy seeing Obi-Wan in his heyday.

For the first time we see how Yoda, this little old, weird talking "Confucius" was actually able to kick butt.

It’s fun to see the Clone Wars… as it was nothing more than a tiny blurb in the first movie (ANH).

I like seeing Palpatine's rise to power. It's not terribly different than the rise to power by many dictators... but Ian McDiarmid comes off in the first two as this seemingly warm and trustworthy guy (even though, you know he isn't) so that you can kind of see why everyone trusted him. Yet, with Anakin you can see him coaxing him slightly to the Dark Side very early on. Then in the 3rd movie, he does a complete 180. People say that they didn't like seeing him laughing like a madman at the end of RotS... but I think that after he sees years of working and planning come to fruition... after the Sith were forced to operate for 1000 years in the shadows, and he would rule the galaxy as the Emperor that finally brought them out of the shadows... he'd be a little giddy.

I’ve never understood the problem with Anakin either. The complaints range from whiny little brat, to being too short. Well, first, I can’t imagine a well-adjusted and calm person as a Jedi Knight becoming the Galaxy’s most notorious murderer. I also don’t know why people think Vader is calm… any time anyone ticked him off for any reason, he’d choke them to death. That’s not normal behavior. Besides, Luke was just as annoying and whiny when we first met him in ANH. As for his height… Vader is mostly machine. And if he were 6’7” I would find it unlikely that he would have fathered tiny little Luke and Leia.

I like the dark and emotional tone of the third movie. I’ve always been a fan of the Dark Side and the Empire… and to see them triumph is a lot of fun for me… yet, it has a sadness about it too.

Are they perfect? Nooooo…. I wish Lucas hadn’t directed. He doesn’t make actors feel comfortable, even if he tries to do so. His directing, combined with the difficult dialog (and Star Wars has ALWAYS had that) is visible in the actors performances. The editing seems choppy at times, and too much ended up on the cutting room floor in favor of action sequences that seemed to drag to me. Honestly, we didn’t even need 90% of the first movie. That would have given the opportunity to put in what was missing.

So not perfect, but I can enjoy them.
 
Re: For those of us who DO like the SW prequals.

2 Reasons to love the Prequels.

Rifftrax

Darths and Droids.


If those don't make you truly appreciate that they were made, nothing will.
 
Re: For those of us who DO like the SW prequals.

darthgordon said:
I like the last two.

I enjoy seeing Obi-Wan in his heyday.

For the first time we see how Yoda, this little old, weird talking "Confucius" was actually able to kick butt.

It’s fun to see the Clone Wars… as it was nothing more than a tiny blurb in the first movie (ANH).

I like seeing Palpatine's rise to power. It's not terribly different than the rise to power by many dictators... but Ian McDiarmid comes off in the first two as this seemingly warm and trustworthy guy (even though, you know he isn't) so that you can kind of see why everyone trusted him. Yet, with Anakin you can see him coaxing him slightly to the Dark Side very early on. Then in the 3rd movie, he does a complete 180. People say that they didn't like seeing him laughing like a madman at the end of RotS... but I think that after he sees years of working and planning come to fruition... after the Sith were forced to operate for 1000 years in the shadows, and he would rule the galaxy as the Emperor that finally brought them out of the shadows... he'd be a little giddy.

I’ve never understood the problem with Anakin either. The complaints range from whiny little brat, to being too short. Well, first, I can’t imagine a well-adjusted and calm person as a Jedi Knight becoming the Galaxy’s most notorious murderer. I also don’t know why people think Vader is calm… any time anyone ticked him off for any reason, he’d choke them to death. That’s not normal behavior. Besides, Luke was just as annoying and whiny when we first met him in ANH. As for his height… Vader is mostly machine. And if he were 6’7” I would find it unlikely that he would have fathered tiny little Luke and Leia.

I like the dark and emotional tone of the third movie. I’ve always been a fan of the Dark Side and the Empire… and to see them triumph is a lot of fun for me… yet, it has a sadness about it too.

Are they perfect? Nooooo…. I wish Lucas hadn’t directed. He doesn’t make actors feel comfortable, even if he tries to do so.His directing, combined with the difficult dialog (and Star Wars has ALWAYS had that) is visible in the actors performances. The editing seems choppy at times, and too much ended up on the cutting room floor in favor of action sequences that seemed to drag to me. Honestly, we didn’t even need 90% of the first movie. That would have given the opportunity to put in what was missing.

So not perfect, but I can enjoy them.
Click to expand...

Very good points. I agree about some of the dialogue. "Anakin, my love for you is like a loving river of loving love." :lol
 
I haven't watched the prequels in some time, but did enjoy them and still do (looking forward to Blu-Ray). Following are some stuff I can think of off the top of my head from each film:

TPM
- The Obi/Qui-Gon/Maul saber battle. Lightsabers, John Williams' score, what's not to love?
- Enjoyed the podrace scene.
- Had chills when we first see Qui-Gon and Obi fire up their sabers in the waiting room at the beginning of the film.

AOTC
- Liked Jango's armor/character, and thought Temura played the part well.
- Enjoyed the Battle of Geonosis, especially on the big screen.
- Got a chuckle from Anakin's line (after his saber is destroyed): "Not again, Master Obi-Wan's going to kill me."

ROTS
- The opening space battle, and entrance onto Grievous' ship was entertaining.
- Grievous' character was pretty cool. Four lightsabers at once?!
- Did not care for much of Portman's performance, but did like the scene on Mustafar; she seemed to actually have some emotion.

Overall
- As said above, McDiarmid was wonderful throughout all three.
 
I'm not overly fond of TPM and AOTC (I can watch them though), but I was impressed with the majority of ROTS. Like others have said I feel that McDiarmid played his part excellently. I really enjoyed watching Obi go from apprentice to Master. The fights were excellent and the music was just plain awesome. I love listening to the ROTS soundtrack. The battle between Anakin and Obi is probably my favorite of the series.

I do, however, feel that overall there is much lacking. Dialogue is sketchy, too much CGI detracts from everything else, and I just don't understand some of the motivations. Anakin is frustrated at work because he thinks he's being held back, but who doesn't feel like that sometimes? I can't imagine loving someone so much (or being so selfish) that I would murder friends, children, and other innocents just to save her life. Just not enough character development for me to buy the change.

I honestly think that if they had started off in the AOTC and rearranged some things we could have had a much more fulfilling trilogy. We could have seen some different characterizations and motivations that may make me believe things happened like they did for something other than because that's the way we knew it would end.
 
I love watching Maul take on two Jedi with a dual blade lightsaber. Pure awesomeness!

I like the Coruscant chase scene in AOTC.

The scene where Obi-Wan asks Jango Fett if he has ever been to Coruscant, is some of the best acing in any Star Wars movie.

The space battle that starts off ROTS is spectacular.
 
I like that Lucas had the balls to tell a story about an elite organization predicated on the supression of personal emotion ultimately failing do to the exploitation from within of their primary weakness. Does well to set up the individualistic truimph of Luke's journey.
 
I really liked the lightsaber fights and the fact that it was Hayden and Ewan doing almost the entire thing. The Maul fight would be my favorite followed by Episode 3's. The space battles throughout were also good, just being able to see them on a giant scale. They weren't limited like they were with models and blue screens.
 
I've said a lot about what I don't like in other threads. Here's what I like:

TPT:

MacGregor as Guinness.
The fact that Liam Neeson was in it.
McDiarmid.
The fact that a lot of Tatooine looked sorta Starwarsy.
The landing of the robot army with the animals running in front of the vehicles.
The pre-podrace build-up. The podracer crashes.
Threepio's putdowns of Binks were good, as was Kenobi's putdown of both Binks and Skywalker.
The view out of the window at the Jedis' place.
Some of Portman's hair and clothes were good.
The bit when that Naboo fighter gets shot down into the field.
Them dinosaur things with the dome shields were quite good, as were the droids' tanks.
Kenobi when Neeson buys it.
The music.
The sound was good.
The idea of doing a whole film about a kid who'll grow up to be evil (but Lucas failed to bring it off. ANYway...)

AOTC:

MacGregor's beard, which, while it made him look like Kenneth Branagh (always a bad thing), provided good continuity toward Guinness. The rest of Macgregor was good, too, especially when he was talking to that cloned bloke on the clone-maker planet, as someone mentioned above.

Hayden Christensen, who did a man's job with the material given him. He was very good when Portman made him look an idiot outside by the lake after he first tries to come on to her. I felt genuinely sorry for him at the end of that scene.

Mcdiarmid again.

The view out of the window from the Jedis' place was still good.

The line, 'Good job!' from Kenobi in the arena. That cat-monster in same arena. That was quite good.

The gunship things.

The laser hits on those giant sphere spaceships as they took off.

The sense that there might have been some meat to the political intrigue if only I could've fathomed it all out... (was it my fault for being too thick? But I'm OK with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy; I guess Lucas is just over my head)

The shot of those proto star destroyers taking off at the end.

Oh god, Im sorry... it just looks like I'm taking the p***, I know. I didn't mean to. I honestly started out with the intention of saying something positive, because there ARE things I like, but when I write 'em out, it just comes over as an extreme case of damning with faint praise, lol...
 
McDiarmid's performances are the best thing about the Prequels. The whole speech about Darth Plagueis is superbly executed, and when he says with such relish, "I can feeeel your anger!" I friggin' got goosebumps!

Loved Liam Neeson although they should have given him much more to work with. Ewan MacGregor was a wonderful Kenobi and did his best with the dialogue given him.

Just about every saber fight was excellently choreographed and executed.

Loved seeing Christopher Lee in the films although again, wish he could've had dialogue worthy of his abilities and I REALLY wish they would have ejected that ridiculous name. "Dooku"???

Loved the chase through Coruscant, the sequence on Camino and the fight with Jango.

The only things about ROTS that I liked were McDiarmid (until he defeats Mace when he becomes a completely ridiculous cartoon), the saber fight between Kenobi and Anakin, and MacGregor's emotions just before the fight and immediately afterward.

Now I'm anxiously waiting for the Prequel Special Editions when Lucas' children use CGI to remove all traces of Jar Jar Binks. :lol
 
I'll echo what others have said here. The nice thing about the original films is that there was a good few classically trained actors to keep the whole thing grounded. McDiarmid's performance, especially in III (I'm thinking specifically of the opera house scene) is really top notch.

The opening space battle scene of III is probably the best example of CG from all of the prequels combined.

I really enjoy Ewan as Obi Wan. Obi was always one of my favorite characters anyway, and I think MacGregor did a good job of tying his speech and mannerisms into Guinness' performance while at the same time bringing his own spin to the character. Actually, on the whole, I thought the prequels gave us more illumination into Obi Wan than Anakin, even though the focus was ostensibly on Anakin.

The closing battle on Geonosis in AOTC is a really nice sequence. It was nice in the prequels that they showed these massive ground battles that were really absent from the OT. And seeing Yoda in action for the first time was spectacular.

TPM: Darth Maul was a really cool character. Liam Neeson's performance was great and I was really stunned when he died towards the end.
 
I like a lot of the things that have already been mentioned, like Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul.
Also:
Young Obi Wan(oh hell's yeah)
Yoda flipping all over the place and kicking butt
^^These were already mentioned, but they are tops on my list, so I said 'em again.

Old-school, pre-Purge Jedi. Other than old Ben and Yoda, you didn't run into any other than Luke, who still had a lot to learn. I also enjoyed the variety of the Jedi, especially new female characters and aliens for costuming!
 
I like the prequels because they make me feel like a kid again. Overall, if you look at the big overall picture, the whole plot is pretty dark. I think Lucas still managed to make it kids a movie despite those undertones. (Perhaps he tried too hard to balance out that heaviness a bit too much with a little too much goofiness).

You get to see the Jedi in their hey-day.... I mean, what else could you want? It's the frigging old Republic at it's fall.

I think Ewan was superb as Obi Wan Kenobi. Headstrong at first, then the calm, collected Jedi we've come to know.

I like the prequels. I enjoyed them a lot - it doesn't mean they don't have their flaws, even the OT had it share of problems, I just think that most folks can't see past the fact that these are supposed to be kids movies, and simply put: you can't go home again.
 
I love the music and the lightsaber duels in the prequels.
Though I am still a fan of the original trilogy I think that George did the best he could do with the prequels.
 
nickytea said:
I like that Lucas had the balls to tell a story about an elite organization predicated on the supression of personal emotion ultimately failing do to the exploitation from within of their primary weakness. Does well to set up the individualistic truimph of Luke's journey.
Click to expand...

Agreed, and one of the things that we don't see pointed out much about the PT. It could have been near tear-jerking if Neeson had done the voice-over at the end of "RotS" that appeared in the novelization. "Love is the answer to darkness." Yoda realized he didn't have all the answers, and he interpreted that as being about taking the chance on training Luke, when in fact it really could have meant Anakin all along. Would have worked very well for setting up the finale of the saga. :thumbsup
 
Most of the things are listed, so I'll pick some random favorite scenes.

TPM
Obi Wan in TPM on the Trade Fed ship as he casually "bats" a blaster bolt backwards at a battledroid.
Qui Gon cutting through the Trade Fed bridge door and the associated dialogue from the Trade Fed guys.
TPM end duel. Best SW duel EVER, even growing up during the OT.

AOTC
Coruscant speeder chase, just because I think the planet is cool and we get to see more of it!
Jango vs. Obi Wan. Shows Jedi have martial arts skills, but also there are people who can stand toe to toe with them. Granted Obi Wan had no lightsaber.
When Mace shows up on Geonosis, that intro was just awesome.
Mace jumping off the platform after Jango tries to cook him, as he deflects blaster bolts while he's falling. That's why he's a bad***.
The Jedi showing up all over the arena.
The Jedi charging the battledroids because that was just cool.
Clonetroopers and the Gunships.
Yoda. Oh so that's how he fights!

ROTS
Wookiees fighting!
Order 66. We waited almost 30 years to find out how the Jedi were destroyed.
Sidious' reveal.
There's more, just can't think of any right now!
 
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