Were the Star Wars Prequels good movies?

[Sheepinator]

Here's a funny interview with Ewan McGregor. When filming his motorcycle around the world show years after Phantom Menace, he was close to the original Star Wars set in Tunisia so he went to check it out. He said none of the Star Wars fans recognized him, even when he stood next to a poster for his movie.

 

[takriel]

Who or what is the phantom menace? Sheev?

 

[Complicated]

They bad even for Star Wars movies.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

The first one was the worst Star Wars movie I witnessed, though I yet have to see TLJ and Solo to be fair. The second one is the Matrix Reloaded of the bunch: it looks awesome, but not a lot happens. The third one is honestly better than Return Of The Jedi, and overall one of the strongest movies of the franchise imho, despite a lot of cheesiness. Much of the memes seem to come from the fact the first prequel movie, The Phantom Menace, is legit shit. The other two movies are worth a watch imho.

 

[Sgt. Demblant]

No I don't think they were but I'm not offended by their existence either. Lucas got way more shit than he deserved for those films.

 

[RumbleHumble]

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I thought we were posting memes from the prequel movies. Not the Clone Wars TV show.

 

[scitek]

I think Episode I is passable. It's too bloated and bogged down by dumb shit like the podrace, but it feels like Star Wars to me. The 2nd and 3rd prequel films had this weird disconnect that made them seem like fan-fiction. Like they don't even take place in the same universe as the original trilogy.

 

[Chivalry]

They are entertaining and they still continue to entertain people through memes. Maybe not good on a technical level, but they are certainly memorable.

 

[Thatguy]

Good over arching plot. Good visuals. Good music. Terrible scripts and acting. Lucas needed to hire a screenwriter and a director.

The ST is the opposite in some ways. Seemingly shallow over arching plot, at least so far. Weakest music but still good. Good screenplay and acting.

 

[Cormano]

Theyre better than 7 & 8

 

[KenobiLTS]

Wow... Phantom Menace is complete ass from top to bottom. Revenge of the Sith is a top 4 SW film. Nothing in it offends the senses like Jarjar, the worst misuse of CG effects in history. ROTS is great (it's currently #3 but sometimes moves up to #1 or #2):

1. The Force Awakens
2. The Last Jedi
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Empire Strikes Back.

The rest range from decent (A New Hope) to horrible (Rogue One).

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RoTS and TLJ above Empire?
Your list makes me cry! It hurts!

 

[Nairume]

TPM needed a self insert for the kids, it's so stupid

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The movie is also so bloated with pointless shit that it needs Anakin to be a kid as a cheap way to establish him starting out as "good"

It's no coincidence that Lucas kept going back to that same cheap trick of using children as thematic shorthand every time the prequels needed to track his fall to the dark side.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

everywordofwhatyoujustsaidwaswrong.gif

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Empire Strikes Back
A New Hope
Revenge of the Sith
Rogue One
The Force Awakens
Return of the Jedi
Solo
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
The Last Jedi

 

[Crossing Eden]

The movie is also so bloated with pointless shit that it needs Anakin to be a kid as a cheap way to establish him starting out as "good"

It's no coincidence that Lucas kept going back to that same cheap trick of using children as thematic shorthand every time the prequels needed to track his fall to the dark side.

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"Not just the men, but the women and CHILDREN too."

 

[Nairume]

"Not just the men, but the women and CHILDREN too."

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Exactly.

Anakin as a child is used as short hand for how good of a person he was
Anakin killing the Tusken Raider children but being conflicted about it is shorthand for him being on the verge of turning to the dark side but knowing its wrong
Anakin killing the younglings without remorse is shorthand for him being beyond the point of no return (which is doubly fucked up because he explicitly gets to come back from that in RotJ!)

 

[BocoDragon]

TPM 3/10
AOTC 1.5/10
ROTS 7.5/10

1 and 2 are pretty awful movies although they were mysterious and did have that Star Wars magic... they were just tone deaf, and often the most embarrassing time you will ever have in a blockbuster movie.

ROTS was pretty good if you embrace the Star Wars-as--campy-sci-fi-serial vision. It was the ultimate cartoon Star Wars movie, and had a flavour of pathos owing to resolving the fall of the Jedi/Anakin. It's just pretty dumb around the edges. Still had a lot of cringe.

 

[WhoTurgled]

they are a lot of fun, hard to call them good but there are a lot of good things about them and even most of the bad things are fun

 

[Betty]

Absolutely not.

... but they did show new stuff, tried new things, had their own identities, which is something the sequels are lacking.

 

[The Emperor]

TPM is pointless
AOTC is...troubled
ROTS is the best star wars film of all time and hands down one of my most favourite films. Yes I know quality wise and objectively there are many issues. But it just works for me and I love watching it.

 

[Denamitea]

They are hilariously bad catastrophes

 

[Crossing Eden]

Exactly.

Anakin as a child is used as short hand for how good of a person he was
Anakin killing the Tusken Raider children but being conflicted about it is shorthand for him being on the verge of turning to the dark side but knowing its wrong
Anakin killing the younglings without remorse is shorthand for him being beyond the point of no return (which is doubly fucked up because he explicitly gets to come back from that in RotJ!)

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Meanwhile in the Clone Wars:

 

[MinerArcaniner]

They were terrible, and no amount of TLJ-induced salt will change that.

 

[Mona]

I thought we were posting memes from the prequel movies. Not the Clone Wars TV show.

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clone wars? thats a gamecube game

 

[ViewtifulJC]

They're not good, they've never been good, and no matter what happens in the next century of pop movies, they will never be good.

 

[Deleted member 21339]

Who or what is the phantom menace? Sheev?

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Seriously?

 

[PhilosopherDirtBike]

Objectively and empirically no

 

[Panther2103]

Honestly I liked them. But I can see why a lot of people didn't .

 

[Bor Gullet]

Nah, Attack of the Clones is worse in every single aspect. The Phantom Menace is bad, but the terribleness of TPM is overstated due to the massive hype preceding it, so the letdown was the biggest. From a filmmaking perspective though, Attack of the Clones is far worse.

The reverse is what happened with Revenge of the Sith, it's still a pretty terrible movie in all respects, but it was better than Attack of the Clones, so suddenly this insane narrative was created where Revenge of the Sith is somehow the only good one of the prequels, despite still being godawful.

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I'm not gonna pretend ROTS is a good movie, but it's one I enjoy very much. It's just... entertaining.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

1. Rogue One
2. Solo
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. The Phantom Menace
5. Attack of the Clones

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Why do people assume that anyone who liked the prequel had to be children when the film released?


ERA has an ego the size of Ego.

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This ends with you admitting you were like 5 when they came out doesn't it?

 

[Nairume]

Absolutely not.

... but they did show new stuff, tried new things, had their own identities, which is something the sequels are lacking.

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Eh, the idea that the prequels were these daring movies that tried new things but failed only flies if you ignore just how much they still take from the OT.

As I noted earlier, Qui Gon actively hurts the entire prequel trilogy (if not the franchise as a whole) just by existing as TPM's equivalent of ANH's Obi Wan because he basically eats up a whole bunch of things that would have made the films better if it was just Obi Wan to begin with. The weird moment at the end of RotS with Qui Gon's entirely off screen force ghost teaching Yoda and Obi Wan how to become a force ghost reeks of them realizing that Qui Gon served no real purpose to the entire trilogy, so they had to forever tie him into something important to the OT.

 

[Strangelove_77]

They're awful. And not even "fun" awful, just awful.
I still don't understand how we got 3 really boring and badly made Star Wars movies in a row.

There was this MTV special where they showed the Phantom Menace to a bunch of famous people at Skywalker ranch and it blew all the late 90s boybands and rappers away. Shit was hilarious. If anyone knows where I can rewatch it let me know.


I've always been curious though, who is the most hardcore Star Wars fan - the fans that hate these movies with a passion and wish they just never existed and curse Lucas, or the ones that play mindtricks on themselves and someone convince themselves that the prequels are just as good as the first trilogy?

 

[Nairume]

I still don't understand how we got 3 really boring and badly made Star Wars movies in a row.

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The franchise went from being a collaborative work between George Lucas (who is talented!) and a lot of other talented people who were capable of contributing their own touches while also helping to keep Lucas in check to being just Lucas himself with nobody to tell him no.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

This ends with you admitting you were like 5 when they came out doesn't it?

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I was 21 in 1999. I was a kid during the 80s when the original trilogy was on HBO.


I think the good outweighs the bad by a fair amount when it comes to the prequel trilogy. This is irrespective of age.

 

[Scuffed]

I never had any inclination to ever rewatch any of them except Phantom Menace and even then I just went right to the end lol. So no they are not good.

 

[Amnixia]

So Era, it's treason then?

 

[RumbleHumble]

clone wars? thats a gamecube game

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Best thing I've read all day.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Naw, dog.

And especially not Revenge of the Sith, which is the worst one.

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They're all incredibly bad but for me AotC is the most egregious. Lucas had three years between TPM and it to listen to feedback and address flaws and he made an even worse film with the same shiteawful flaws as the first.

 

[Nairume]

They're all incredibly bad but for me AotC is the most egregious. Lucas had three years between TPM and it to listen to feedback and address flaws and he made an even worse film with the same shiteawful flaws as the first.

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Honestly, RotS being the one that seemingly did respond to feedback and tried to be a crowd pleaser makes it even worse because of how poorly it does those things.