SWG Tales

I guess it just comes down to what you're getting out of the movies.

Like everyone else, I didn't like the prequels. I wanted to, and I was highly satisfied with the saber fights (still am now). However I was overall disappointed, but it's not from just the movies being bad. It's from what my sister and I now call "Phantom Menacing." SW had 20 years to hype this, and there was no way that the prequels could have lived up. If George Lucas would have personally visisted every theater and handed out a gold bar to everone who bought a ticket, people would have still said "eh... the gold bars in '77 were better."

To an extent, it's like this with a lot of things. I went over a friend's house about a year back, and he had a Thundercats DVD. It was immediately played and I sat there thinking "Wow, this kinda sucks. Are these the same episodes I went crazy for as a kid?" It didn't live up to my mind's hype. The prequels are telling a different story and I have to admit the story is pretty kick ass. It's focus is different than the originals and the story is much stronger (Failure and manipulation of a government v the rise to power of a young farm boy). Although not visually as impressive as Vader, if this was a series of books, Palpatine would be far more reveered as a villian than Vader. Mace Windu has become the new Fett (in terms of fans following him more than the main characters).

This is not to say the prequels don't have issues. The Anakin story is kinda bad, but it's something the fans want to see. The Gungans were over the top. They are relying on smooth CGI a bit too much. They should not have killed Darth Maul so early.

Ekade, do NOT show the prequels to your daughter. The odds are she won't understand the things that actually make Ep I and II good. It would be like when I sat down and watched Blazing Saddles with my dad when I was 9 or an 11 year old playing Vice City. The things that make it great will go right over her head.

Although, if you don't show them to her, you may miss a great opportunity at cuteness which I just got, when Ep I was explained to me in its entirety (Those men were fighting and nobody wanted to go down the hole. There was that old man and he didn't want to and the other guy did. Then he jumped out of the hole and the guy in the mask had to go down the hole and fall apart). Absolutely priceless moment.

As much as I want to like the prequels, I can't help but feel like I am getting screwed out of seeing a great movie.

"General Kenobi, you served my father in the clone wars.."

Instead we get some kid, a gungan whose name will not be spoken, midichlorians, a useless pod race scene, and a cool but pointless saber duel at the end of Episode 1.


I do love anything and everything that has to do with the brilliannt manipulations of Palpatine. He is by far the best character in the prequels. Unfortunately we get small snippets of him interspersed between a whole lot of useless spectacle.

With 2 movies gone and 1 to go, I have little hope that I will get to see the story I was hoping to see.

there is only 1 thing I need to see in episode 3...just 1 thing...and if I don't someone will die a horrible painful death

Skarr wrote:there is only 1 thing I need to see in episode 3...just 1 thing...and if I don't someone will die a horrible painful death

Would you be happy with a wussified version of that?

I think everyone misunderstood what I was saying about Episodes one and two. My point was that this movie was geared towards a younger audience like it or not; I'm sure Lucas will tell you the same. Secondly, I'm not saying adults can't enjoy films geared towards kids, but rather that kids would find one and two much more enjoyable than four, five, or six.

I've gotta agree though, the hype surrounding these movies was too big. If these movies had been a totally different brand of movie (i.e not related to Star Wars in any way), they would have been met with much more open arms.

I think it was entirely possible for the prequels to live up to the hype. They dissappointment we are all feeling is that it is clear Lucas has completely lost it. The force is just not with him anymore.. *sniff*

i agree that lucas has both lost the force, and the whole gearing towards kids i can understand cause they are the future blah blah blah! He still screwed up my movies and from what i read about EPIII he better do it that way it is in the scripts i have read otherwise i will go to skywalker ranch and protest like a silly lil noob

Ekade wrote:I think it was entirely possible for the prequels to live up to the hype. They dissappointment we are all feeling is that it is clear Lucas has completely lost it. The force is just not with him anymore.. *sniff*

Y'know, I don't think it was anywhere near possible for Episode 1 to live up to the hype, just because everyone had their own idea of what would have been best. Could it have been done better? Sure. If I had my own personal control over the prequels, I would have made something I thought was great, culminating in the final lightsaber fight between Darth Maul and Darth Vader. I guarantee there would have been people who didn't like it, though, and others who didn't like it because it was the trend, a la the Matrix sequels (which really did suck).

As far as aiming it towards kids, I can understand why you say that Ringo, but I don't totally agree. What I think Lucas did was try to make parts that appealed to kids and parts tha appealed to adults. There is no way a child would have understood anything that was going on with the Republic, why Naboo was being blockaded, or why it was such a big deal. There aren't any adults out there who got into Jar Jar and most hated pod racing. The problem wasn't that Lucas had any kid appeal, but that he wasn't able to mesh it into something adults (his core audience) would enjoy.