It seems the new STAR WARS overlords – which is to say, Disney – have little interest in reminding us the prequels exist, or that George Lucas did indeed think they would be an alright idea at the time. Earlier this week it was announced the CLONE WARS TV show would be ending, and all videogame announcements have been indefinitely postponed. And, earlier this year, the 3D re-releases of the rest of the prequels were also cancelled.
While these decisions have supposedly come from Lucasfilm, it’s obvious Disney’s hand may have forced them somewhat. It appears, therefore, the big D wishes to cut any and all ties with the prequels in light of the upcoming trilogy. But this, I feel, is a mistake. There’s plenty to be celebrated about THE PHANTOM MENACE, ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH. They are an epic trio of motion pictures.
Do not deny me the chance to call them epic; for what better use of the word than to describe these sprawling space adventures? Oh, sure, they’re more political than the space-western genre collisions of Lucas’ originals, and rampant with more of the same poor dialogue that so afflicted those revered films. And yet their subtext is much greater, more developed and far less simplistic than that of A NEW HOPE, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI.
Of course, the original trilogy set many precedents for action-adventure films in the years following; yet still its more complex themes of daddy issues seem underplayed in light of a more straight-up narrative of good versus evil. It’s only with the prequel trilogy; with the expansion of the STAR WARS universe to include such organisations as the Old Republic and the Jedi Order, that more complex and divisive themes of politics and religion come into play – and of course, a distinct muddling of good and evil (or the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ sides of the Force) in the character of Anakin Skywalker.
That’s not to say Darth Vader didn’t already covet these layers of complexity in the original trilogy whatsoever; they were certainly present, particularly in the underrated RETURN OF THE JEDI more so than anywhere. But a reflection of redemption for the sake of his son seems, particularly in the world of film, quite clichéd, at least in the present day, and in light of the themes presented by the prequels, the culmination of Vader’s arc is positively primitive.
Fear not; I am not dismissing episodes IV-VI as some kind of derivative, lackadaisical attempt at science fiction – they get a lot more right in other departments than the prequels ever managed. But the latest three films present a narrative arc that reflects modern reality; they are a product of their time, and, to an extent, intelligent sci-fi. The problem there, of course, is that people don’t want to learn about politics and religion in STAR WARS: they want to see an AT-AT stomping around in the snow and laugh at a camp gold robot.
In essence, therefore, the two STAR WARS trilogies serve different purposes. And yet the original trilogy seems as if, at the time, it was less relevant; the prequels reflect a modern society in ways that the original trilogy, even in the 1970s and 80s, did not. Does the very fall of the Jedi Order not point to an increasingly secular society, nor the Separatist movement to the rise of minority political parties or movements (e.g. UKIP in Great Britain, the Tea Party movement in the USA)? The prequel films offer us a much deeper, conflicted world than the original trilogy presented.
This is particularly notable within the aforementioned, and now sadly cancelled, CLONE WARS television series. While the show was, on a whole, largely hit and miss, one episode stood out to me most because of the way it addressed complex themes of good and bad within political structures, and how these can become confused at times – at least ‘from a certain point of view,’ as Sir Alec Guiness put it.
The episode in question, ‘Heroes On Both Sides’ (S3E10), involves negotiations between the Separatists and the Republic, and Jedi padawan Ahsoka realising that not everyone on the side of the Separatists is evil – the moral essentially being that your next door neighbour isn’t suddenly the equivalent of Hitler for having opposing political views. It’s a simplistic truth when it’s boiled down, but it’s not something that was ever present in the original trilogy; everything was offered in a very black and white format. There were no greys or middle grounds.
This, of course, made for entertaining cinema in a way that the politics of the prequels did not. But in the same way, the prequels made for far more interesting films (most of THE PHANTOM MENACE notwithstanding). REVENGE OF THE SITH proves to be the most interesting of the lot, and gets some of the entertainment right too. Who’s to say it isn’t a better film than the original three? They share the same traits of terrible scriptwriting and subpar acting. But REVENGE, while executing them badly, offers a more thematically complex ride.
There are those who will decry me for even suggesting that one of the prequel films may better one from the original STAR WARS trilogy all those years ago. And yet, it seems strange that the majority of those fans, who are the ones who grew up with the original films, would not enjoy the prequels for their more adult themes, while children still enjoy them for their sci-fi/fantasy element – because, at the end of the day, STAR WARS is simply trying to appeal to a different generation; a new generation.
While it might feel like something of an insult to all those 30 – or 40 – somethings who grew up with the original trilogy, particularly from a scruffy-looking nerf-herder like myself, the fact is that these films weren’t made with primarily the adult audience in mind. STAR WARS gained a whole new generation of fans in kids who loved the prequels; and yet it still managed to offer something more thought-provoking for the adults. Sure, it could all have been executed a bit better, but then so could have the originals – no matter how much anyone defends them.
I expect I’ll be shouted off the internet for this, but never mind. A NEW HOPE is, and likely always will be, my favourite film of all time. And yet to completely ignore the prequels of all their merits, not even counting those at face value (which, contrary to popular belief, do exist), would be to do the STAR WARS franchise a disservice.
It’s often said that no one hates STAR WARS more than STAR WARS fans. Hopefully one day most of them might see sense. Until then, I guess we’ll just have to hope JJ Abrams knows what the hell he’s doing…
bfg666
Mar 16, 2013 at 4:22 am
That’s an interesting point of view that leaves much to think about. Like most people, I’ve always found (by myself – I forge my own opinions and never bleat with the herd) the prequels to be more simplistic and kids-oriented than the original trilogy, well at least episodes IV and V, but the fact is… you’re right. Damn! I guess I was so appalled by the form that the substance zipped right through my brain without sticking. Thanks for shedding new light on the prequel trilogy.
adambadadam
Mar 29, 2013 at 3:00 am
Sure there were big walkers smashing around (ATC), and plenty of ode’s to the OT. However, I admire the Prequels because they weren’t a rehash of the classics. They did there own thing. Don’t show me something I’ve already seen before, i.e. young man man on a “hero’s journey”. Instead show me something different, i.e. tragedy of a “chosen one”. With the gunslingers and space princesses, there was innocence and first time charm with the OT, but the Jedi weren’t nearly the space samurai they might have been and Palpatine was infinitely cooler in the Prequels.
Rosie
Apr 3, 2013 at 9:21 pm
[“The episode in question, ‘Heroes On Both Sides’ (S3E10), involves negotiations between the Separatists and the Republic, and Jedi padawan Ahsoka realising that not everyone on the side of the Separatists is evil.”]
Padme Amidala had expressed the same opinion in a conversation she had with hubby Anakin Skywalker in “REVENGE OF THE SITH”.
[“However, I admire the Prequels because they weren’t a rehash of the classics.”]
I am grateful to George Lucas for not making the Prequels a rehash of the Original trilogy. I believe that would have been a major mistake.
Douglas Peterson
Jul 10, 2013 at 11:43 am
Revenge of the Sith is the best of the 6 movies, it is nice to read something other than fan-boi dribble bashing the prequel trilogy
bfg666
Jul 11, 2013 at 2:14 am
Sounds like someone hasn’t seen Empire Strikes Back…
Douglas Peterson
Jul 11, 2013 at 3:19 am
I saw it 3 times in the theater in 1980 to meit was just predictable ,forced and rushed and is only a fair movie at best Irvin Kershner was a horrible director and Lawrence Kasdan is an average screenwriter. the chopped up the story which was barely saved by Georges editing it was a rush job to try and capitalize of the flash in the pan success of the first move. Don’t get me wrong I love it and it will always be a classic but it is not even the best of the OT, much less the best of all 6.
bfg666
Jul 11, 2013 at 4:51 am
Predictable, forced and rushed? Saved by Georges? Apparently, you haven’t seen the same movie than everyone else and you don’t know the story of its making. Anyway, Revenge is undoubtedly the best of the prequels but it still has some embarrassing (if not outright grotesque) moments. Empire doesn’t. Do the math.
Gandora
Feb 7, 2014 at 5:46 pm
Even though everyone has their own favorites, I believe Star Wars movies and expanded universe shouldn’t be altered. For real Star Wars Fans who have read the books and even studied the history of Star Wars, changing that history is simply unacceptable.
Roberto Munoz-Alicea
Dec 19, 2015 at 12:18 pm
TESB is more personal, deals with betrayal, romance,… It is simpler in its plot, at times very slow. The acting is good, for the most part. I hate the asteroid monster thing, which makes no sense, and was used as a plot device to force the Falcon out from hiding. Luke’s training is rushed, at least from what we can see (we don’t know exactly how long he trained with Yoda, but it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks). I wouldn’t say the movie is predictable, though. It has good humor and drama. The action is so so.
ROTS is more complicated and darker. It is personal, but also deals with larger themes: the fall of the Republic, the destruction of the Jedi Order. It is about betrayal at a much larger scale. It is about a good guy selling his soul to the devil to try to save her loved one, and a master manipulator of all. It is a great story. The action scenes, especially the lightsaber battles were great. Was the movie sometimes a bit overdone, did it have bad acting and/or dialogue at times? Of course. The story is great, but its delivery was not as good as it should have been. I wish we could have seen more of what was going on behind the scenes in the Separatists side of things. All we see are the separatist leaders, but not their government. We get to see some of that in the Clone Wars cartoon, though.
Both movies are good, but very different.
Plo Koon
Dec 22, 2015 at 9:57 pm
What is very obvious is the true SW fans have embraced the prequels. Its the casual, fringe fans (who may even call themselves die hards) that go with the mass opinion of “I hate the prequels. If you don’t buy the books or comics or collectibles & have never been to a Star Wars Celebration, then let me explain what goes on. The prequels are celebrated hand in hand with the OT. The costumes, the artists, the collectibles. I would say it is a split of about 45% OT, 40% Prequels & 15% Expanded Universe. The prequels are thought of as the overall saga, not split into 3 movies & 3 movies. I agree that as movies the OT is better, but the prequels are not dismissed or slighted in any way shape or form. That’s how I can always distinguish between the fringe & die hard SW fanatics.
Roberto Munoz-Alicea
Dec 23, 2015 at 12:10 am
Very true. I went to Celebration and a couple of other conferences, and people dressed up as Queen Amidala, handmaidens, some of the Jedi, Darth Maul, … The only costume that was obviously missing was… you guessed it, Jar Jar Binks. Plus, in Celebration they have concerts and they play music from all movies. John Williams is amazing.
And I agree that the story is great, it was just that the delivery in the prequels could have been better. They should have used more practical special effects. The acting/dialogue in some scenes (not all of it) was not great. A lot of people, if not most, who complain about the prequels or dismiss them entirely probably never spend the time to try to understand them and appreciate what they have to offer. They wanted those movies to feel just like the original trilogy, even though the story needed to be different. It was the Republic, not the Empire.
bfg666
Jan 3, 2016 at 11:48 pm
Correction: RotS FAILS miserably at trying to be more complicated. It’s actually a very simplistic and childish version of “complicated”. And it is just not that emotionally compelling. When Vader hammers “the big reveal” down on Luke, it’s heartbreaking. When Anakin learns about his wife and kids, it’s laughable. I’m not kidding: when I saw that in the theater, I couldn’t help but burst with laughter, though I hate when others do that. I will grant it to you that the film is the best of the prequels hands down (it’s really not that hard), but it’s still lightyears away from TESB.
Roberto Munoz-Alicea
Jan 4, 2016 at 12:10 am
You’re talking about the scene where Palpatine tells vader that he killed Padme. The thing I didn’t like about it was the big “No”. George Lucas wanted to mimic Frankenstein, since it was vaders first time walking in that suit, but it did look dumb. I agree with you on that, if that’s what you meant. It wasnt supposed to be a big reveal to the audience, since we already knew that padme had died. Aside from that, I believe the plot of all three original movies is much simpler: rebels trying to overthrow the empire, with a little of Luke’s training and other stuff on the side. The prequels had a lot more going on with the jedi, sith, clone war, Palpatine manipulating everything, and others. Maybe those movies should have been a little longer, each. By nature, the story deals with more adult matters, including the politics of the republic. The ideas were great, it’s the delivery of those ideas where most of the issues with the prequels stem from.
bfg666
Jan 4, 2016 at 12:31 am
Sure. Saw ANH in the theater at the age of 6, own countless action figures, a wall-less scenery of the Death Star, a B-Wing, a Y-Wing, the Millenium Falcon, a regular TIE fighter, a TIE bomber, most good PC games and a handful not-so-great ones, read just about every Dark Horse comic book there is and even contemplated buying myself an Ultra Saber, but I’m not a fan… Whatever.
Also, where did you get the notion that I’m a hater? I could argue back that a true fan will keep a sense of reason and NOT eat Lucas’ shit regardless of how stinky it is. A true fan would’ve warned Lucas after TPM that he was betraying his own legacy. A true fan would’ve told Lucas to get his shit together or stop rocking the baby against the wall. A true fan would’ve petitioned Lucas to release the OT in its true, unaltered form. It’s precisely because I love Star Wars that I did all this. I AM a fan of the Star Wars universe. What I’m not is a braindead fanboi of George. Seems like you fail to see the difference.
bfg666
Jan 4, 2016 at 12:53 am
That’s not what we wanted. We just wanted them to be good after 16 years of no Star Wars. They were anything but.
Roberto Munoz-Alicea
Jan 4, 2016 at 1:07 am
Lots of people like them. I love Star Wars, but even the original trilogy has a lot of flaws, if you sit down and think about them. Many people focus on the negative in the prequels (some bad acting, cgi, etc.), and fail to see the good things in them. It seems, like with The Force Awakens, that a lot of fans want all Star Wars movies to look the same and/or deal with similar issues. Even though George Lucas is not that great of a director, at least he took a chance and tried new things. But to each his own. As much as I enjoy watching TFA, I hope that episodes VIII and IX will be more original.
bfg666
Jan 4, 2016 at 1:30 am
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this. What you see as good in the prequels I see as not bad. That’s not the same. And I’m not oblivious to the OT’s flaws either: just to name one, we rant about Christensen’s acting but TBH, Hamill’s was barely better. Still, the OT feels like cinema while the PT feels like a glorified TV movie at best (with III slightly upping the par). As for ep. VII, I haven’t seen it yet: I was letting the herd of lemmings rush in first with their buckets of popcorn and their mobile phones…
bfg666
Jan 4, 2016 at 1:43 am
Yeah, that one scene. It is symptomatic of everything that’s wrong in terms of simplistic writing and lack of actor direction. Sure, the OT had a much simpler plot – simpler, not simplistic – but when you fail at making complex, you’re tripping yourself all over the red carpet and you’re making quite an ass of yourself in the process. The fact that Lucas refused to let go and insisted on shabbily finishing his new trilogy all by himself instead of handing the baby to more competent people despite the well-founded critics is what really pissed people off. We could have had great Star Wars, we got meh.
Roberto Munoz-Alicea
Jan 4, 2016 at 2:29 am
Didn’t Lucas try to get other people to direct some of the prequels and they refused? At least that’s what I read somewhere, but not sure if it’s true.
I can summarize the main things I don’t like in each movie:
I – the underwater stuff is very boring (jar jar is not good overall, but he only annoys me in the first half of the movie; then he doesn’t really say or do much); pod race a bit too long
II – wasting time looking for Kamino; some of the romantic scenes and c3po’s pun jokes
III – A few badly acted scenes by almost everyone, especially Ewan and Hayden; maybe Lucas and the cast were tired of Star Wars by then
IV – a bit slow sometimes; jawas are somewhat annoying; movie is a little goofy sometimes, especially the lightsaber duel
V – the first ten minutes or so with the Wampa stuff; the battle is so so; the asteroid creature (a device to force the Falcon out of hiding)
VI – most of the middle of the movie is pretty slow, although some good stuff here and there; acting is many times mediocre at best (probably tired of Star Wars again)
VII – a rehash of IV and V, which you can see from the trailers (not going to spoil any details)
bfg666
Jan 5, 2016 at 5:49 am
No, he didn’t. Not even when we were ringing the alarm bell.
A few notes:
IV – the rhythm is what cinema was back then. Now, thanks to that hack Michael Bay and his ilk, they believe they have to cram as much frantic action as possible into a blockbuster for it to be good, but there was a time when blockbuster makers actually thought that too much ain’t necessarily better.
V – Did you see the original version? The wampa scene was considerably extended in the “special” edition. In the original, you don’t even see that ridiculous creature.
VI – Marquand, contrary to Kirschner on TESB who had his own vision, was only a yes-man who did Lucas’ bidding. Acting and pacing issues are really not a surprise, as they have been a constant in Lucas’ filmmaking (see I, II, III, IV and even THX-1138. I don’t remember American Graffiti enough to talk about it).
Roberto Munoz-Alicea
Jan 5, 2016 at 2:09 pm
IV is a bit slow, although I understand. It’s hard not to judge it by how movies are made now.
I have seen and own all unedited. I grew up with the OT, and have always loved them, but I always felt that way about the beginning of TESB.
I didn’t like most of the special edition changes:
OT: adding more creatures on Tatooine with bad cgi; Han and Greedo shooting at the same time; Jabba’s scene (not really necessary and cgi not great); some extended scenes, like Vader going walking and boarding his ship on Bespin; the new musical theme at Jabba’s palace; the modified sarlacc; Vader saying “No” right before he kills the emperor; new Anakin ghost (unless they follow up on this idea in the sequels; maybe the ghosts may appear in whichever form they want, BUT Luke didn’t know what Anakin looked like when he was young, so why appear like that?)
PT: Not too many changes, but: extended scenes that were unnecessary, especially the pod race; adding Shmi’s voice when Anakin has nightmare was unnecessary; changing the order of some scenes after the Yoda-Dooku lightsaber battle (didn’t make sense)
I can’t remember any more changes in the PT that would have bothered me. If Lucas changed other thigns, why not change Vader’s awkward “No” towards the end?