In Defense of… the Star Wars Prequels
Not everyone sees eye-to-eye. You might love something that’s reviled by most others. When we at PoP! feel like that, we make an argument In Defense Of…
I still say this is one of the greatest teaser posters ever.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. I grew up watching the original trilogy and spent my teenage years reading and rereading every Expanded Universe novel that came out. So it pains me to hear people talk about how the prequel films suck. I’m not saying they’re perfect, not by any means, but there are redeemable qualities there. You’ve just gotta sift through some bantha poodoo to get to them.
Okay, I’ll admit, most of The Phantom Menace does suck. Jake Lloyd’s performance, Natalie Portman’s woodenness, the introduction of midi-clorians, Jar-Jar Binks; all of that is pretty bad. But there’s still some cool stuff there. The podrace, while admittedly a bit long, is a lot of fun. Liam Neeson is great, but that’s hardly a surprise; he’s great in nearly anything. Ewan McGregor is more restrained than usual as the young Obi-Wan. I’ve heard some complaints that he was too restrained, but I think he’s perfectly in character when compared to Sir Alec Guinness’ portrayal. And bitch all you want about how he went out, but Ray Park’s Darth Maul and his double-bladed lightsaber has been seared into both the geek and public consciousness. I also believe that after so many years and so much hype, no film could live up to the expectations that had been built up for Episode One.
Attack of the Clones is much better. Yes, Manakin Skywalker earns his nickname and the “romance” bits nearly put me to sleep. But then take into account the presence of Christopher Lee, more Sam Jackson, the Kenobi/Fett and Yoda/Dooku battles, the old-school Harryhausen-esque beasts, and the Coruscant chase scene, and the good outweighs the bad.
In my opinion, Ian McDiarmid is the single best thing in the whole prequel trilogy.
Revenge of the Sith is the best of the three. Now that Portman’s an Oscar winner, even after that laughable “You’re breaking my heart” scene, I’m more convinced than ever that George Lucas is horrible when it comes to directing actors. The battles are awesome, especially Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, and we finally see what we’ve been really waiting for as Anakin succombs to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. It also has the arguable best performance by an actor in any Star Wars film, Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. His fantastic acting job throughout the series nearly single-handedly redeems all three prequel films. Palpatine is a perfect example of a Magnificent Bastard, and McDiarmid’s talent and charisma are on full display. His speech at the opera about Darth Plagueis still gives me chills. Throughout all the prequels you can see the gears turning in his head as he rises from Senator to Chancellor to Emperor, turning everything that happens to his advantage. I’d be lying if I said that by the end I wasn’t almost rooting for him. That’s the mark of a great character, and viewing the prequels as centering more on “the rise of Palpatine” instead of “the fall of Anakin” makes them much more enjoyable.
I know I’ll probably be dropped in the rancor pit for this piece, and likely made fun of for a good while as well. That’s fine with me. If you need me, I’ll be in a galaxy far, far away.
Filed Under: Columns • In Defense Of...
So this got posted on April 1st intentionally right?
Actually I agree with most of it, the great moments in the prequels are the set pieces, the scripts were the low points. We had known for years that Obi Wan was responsible for Vader’s crippling injuries, and we were waiting to see it. Unfortunately the movie built around that scene was sub par, and the fight itself was inconsistent at best. The entire concept of the Jedi who is slightly up hill always winning is laughable.
I could go on and on, and even justify things like midichlorians to earn a No-Prize, but I don’t really feel like it.
Actually the timing was a complete coincidence. When I got ready to schedule it, I noticed that and knew it’d raise some eyebrows.
you notice that in episode I, Obi wan kenobi gets knocked down off of a platform that he and Qui gon are fighting Darth mual. Even though he fell like 20 stories he just gets up and jumps straight back up to the fight. just sayin…. lucas is a douche
I miss Darth Maul…
He had such potential.
I’m glad someone better with words than me defended the prequels. Thank you Rob!
You know, I’m not as hostile towards the prequels as some are, but I still have to say that the first two are nigh unwatchable. The dialog, acting, and editing are just so poor that I struggle to enjoy them. In fact, I can’t say I’ve watched EP:1 or 2 more than once apiece since they were released on DVD. I’ve watched Sith a couple times, though.
I truly believe, however, that Lucas wouldn’t have engendered so much hatred towards the prequels had he limited his tinkering with the original films. Even then, had he treated the originals with some respect (instead of claiming they’re lost forever), I think the old audiences would have forgiven him.
What mystifies me to this day is just WHY he did what he did. He could have enjoyed the adulation of both the Millenial crowd (kids who grew up with the prequels) and the Gen X/Y crowd who loved the originals had he just been a bit more diplomatic.
He’s a strange man, indeed.
I used to be a prequel apologist, and I still dig on Revenge of the Sith, but the more I watched Episodes 1 and 2, the more unbearable they became for me.
I still find enjoyment in The Phantom Menace, despite the myriad of problems it has. Attack of the Clones is the more unwatchable of the two for me, because of it’s horrible pacing. It starts off promising, then just fucking stops, and doesn’t pick back up again until the last half hour or so.
Revenge of the Sith has problems, mostly in the scenes between Padme and Anakin, but it’s a movie I enjoy. And I don’t mean, “Good compared to the other two”, but just “good”.
The biggest problem I tend to have with the prequels doesn’t have anything to do with the mediocre script or the sub-par acting, but rather the missed potential. Of all the ways to tell the story of Darth Vader, this isn’t how I’d have done it and therein lies the fundamental problem with a twenty-year-old sequel to a universally adored franchise: everyone already has pre-conceived notions of how it should be so the movie, regardless of its quality, is going to fail to deliver on some fronts.
“The biggest problem I tend to have with the prequels doesn’t have anything to do with the mediocre script or the sub-par acting, but rather the missed potential. Of all the ways to tell the story of Darth Vader, this isn’t how I’d have done it and therein lies the fundamental problem with a twenty-year-old sequel to a universally adored franchise: everyone already has pre-conceived notions of how it should be so the movie, regardless of its quality, is going to fail to deliver on some fronts.”
That’s the biggest reason for my nerd rage against the prequels. Not because they are just generally badly made, but because the story itself is fundamentally flawed, and “not Star Wars”. I just can’t think of these movies as part of the Star Wars franchise AT ALL.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
#This
I was one of those people that really had a clear and reasonable mind when going to see the prequels. I knew they weren’t going to be as good as the originals, so I didn’t even bother thinking that. The prequels are ok as best. Episode one had Jar-Jar, Episode two showed people how boring the senate could be (it’s that boring in real life too. I watch C-SPAN. I know) and episode three……ruined Darth Vader. The last scene should have been Vader becoming the machine that we all know him as rather than than making the last thought of him in that movie being a remorseful emo kid.
Episode two is the one I can watch all the way through. Three is close, but the ending is really rushed. It’s like they said “We can’t end it with Vader. We have to really tie up EVERYTHING people are going to see in episode four.”
That said, the new Star Wars movies aren’t as bad as people think they are. Their just not as good as the originals. And they never were going to be. If you thought that, you played yourself.
My wife and I revisited the prequels last fall after showing our kids the original trilogy, and maybe it’s because we watched them so close after watching the originals, but we couldn’t stand them. The plots were boring (Trade Federations? Snore), the CGI is mostly mediocre, and the actors had little to no chemistry together. It seemed that Lucas wanted to spend more time making homages to other films (a la the Butch and Sundance tribute in Episode II) and giving fans some fun little Easter Eggs than in trying to make three fun, exciting movies like the originals were.
Given the examples you have used, I would agree that the prequels could have been a lot worse.
The Phantom Menace wasn’t too terrible as we were spared the stiff acting of Hayden Chirstensen. One thing I really liked about the first prequel was the droids…largely the real characters and not so much CGI.
On the next two films, what COULDN’T R2-D2 do? Jet thrusters and all sorts of CGI wizardry. Every scene was jam-packed with eye candy, sounds and more. I felt like I had developed attention deficit disorder. How about some more focus on the characters versus glitzing up every scene?
I think the best film in the saga is The Empire Strikes Back, directed by Irving Kershner. I think having someone other than the writer direct was a brave choice which gave great results. More focus on characters made for a much more intimate story.
Sometimes too much CGI can overtake a good story. Add in some terrible acting and a lot of visual/audio pollution and you make a good story tougher to sit thru.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Empire, as the (usually) most highly regarded of the whole series, is one of the two not directed by Lucas.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Empire, as the (usually) most highly regarded of the whole series, is one of the two not directed by Lucas.”
I don’t buy that. Every one of the original trilogy had a different director and they’re all hailed as masterpieces. George Lucas was just a different director in 1977 than he was in 1999. The same can be said of a lot of directors when comparing their early work to their later stuff, though I can’t think of many that have had as severe a fall as Lucas. While some directors get better with time as they continue to hone their craft, some directors (generally the ones that are immediately hugely successful) tend to get complacent as they have nothing left to prove. Throw in the fact that once someone reaches the level of power that Lucas had, he didn’t have anyone there saying, “No, you can’t do that.” As much as I tend to dislike the studio system, there’s something to be said for checks and balances.
“The Phantom Menace wasn’t too terrible as we were spared the stiff acting of Hayden Chirstensen”
I’ll take Christensen’s work in Star Wars over Jake Lloyd’s any day of the week.
I actually really like the prequel trilogy. I like it as much as the original trilogy. And yes, I am serious. I didn’t grow up watching Star Wars. I have no special place in my heart for it. So, I didn’t have any expectations for the prequels. Growing up I always thought Star Wars was kind of stupid. It stemed from my dad not being a sci-fi fan and because of this I didn’t really watch any sci-fi. The closest things to sci-fi I watched as a kid were Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. It wasn’t until I got older that I became a sci-fi fan (and subsequently a bigger geek).
I didn’t see the Star Wars movies until I was 18. I saw Episode II on TV and enjoyed it. This was in 2005 when Episode III was in theaters, so after liking Episode II I decided to go see III in theaters. I loved it. So, I went back and watched Episode I and then the original trilogy. I think because I wasn’t a fan growing up, and because I saw the prequels first it let me enjoy them without bitching about things.
Episode III is my favorite of the six movies.
I saw Episode I in the theater 9 times just for the lightsaber fight at the end