The Prequels

[Clockwork]

Things you like, hated, cliches, characters ruined, characters expanded etc.

For me, the two stand out performances were Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor. McDiarmid just was awesome no matter what he was doing even if he did suffer from the plague that infected all the movies which is terrible dialogue, to see him charm and deceive his way through the first two movies and then explode into this psychotic master sith was epic. McGregor I thought played Obi Wan pretty much exactly as Alec Guinness played him, clam and reserved but unafraid to take action. Which I believe is a huge credit to the actor.

Just my two cents.

[Gen_Glory]

I blame the scripts, the actors on the whole were great but the script is just appalling.

Also why go from space opera to political drama?!

[Jubal]

Thread title spelling fixed.

[Clockwork]

Ty Jub.

@DD yeah I agree, I think even Hayden is actually pretty decent. Take a look at him in places where he has no lines, he does have pretty awesome screen presence but then opens his mouth and sounds like a whiny bitch.

The politics thing I think was very much a direction producers took, it's a popular theme for movies to have some undercurrent political agenda but star wars had its own set of politics. The expanded universe is just trying to tell a story with politics as a regular mechanic its not an allegorical tale or anything.

[comrade_general]

It was all too childish.

[Pentagathus]

I decided to watch all the star wars films after seeing the new ones, started with the prequels. I liked them all as a kid but although I'm pretty fond of star wars I haven't watched them much since.
The prequels were indeed bad, PM was just very boring (no convincing character development, not actually much action and the drama was pretty undramatic since you already know who Darth Sidious is) AotC was a bit better (more pew pew and whatnot) and Revenge of the Sith was better still (even more pewpew.) Palpatine's manipulation and real agenda were frankly far too obvious, it makes no sense that the Jedi didn't see there was an enemy within the senate (unless they are meant to be distancing themselves from politics but they really don't seem to be.) Also why wouldn't the portugalwits of the trade federation make sure they have recordings of their dealings with him in case he did what he was obviously going to do? I also really don't understand why Anakin's mother was left on Tatooine, even if Qui Gon didn't want to free her by force (and why not?) couldn't they have sent someone to buy her freedom and bring her to Coruscant? The jedi seem like a bunch of dicks to be honest, I can't see how they think they were upholding peace and justice throughout much of the prequels.


To be honest the original films didn't seem that great when I got around to them either though, perhaps because I've seen them before and already know the plot, but there was a whole lot of stupid in them. portugaling ewoks destroying the legions of the empire was unforgivably bollocks.

[Clockwork]

Palpatine being evil wasn't meant to be a reveal I don't think. PM was the best one I thought, Maul and Neeson being the heroes ofc. The fact that Maul even to his death was a mystery is so much better than what they did with Ren. What really didn't make any sense was Anakin from midway through 2 onward. Also the Jedi don't meddle on non-republic planets like Tatooine unless they can't avoid it and Jedi have to have no attachments anyway so being on Tatooine or Courscant wouldn't make any difference except she doesn't know anyone on Courascant.

[comrade_general]

The jedi seem like a bunch of dicks to be honest

[Pentagathus]

I know Palpatine wasn't meant to he hidden to us, I mean it should have been obvious to the Jedi or anyone who thought to look into it. Maul and Quigon felt like complete throwaway characters to me, I think I cared when I first watched it but I was about 8 years old. The Jedi having no attachments is bullarmadillo (they can't not have them without becoming physopaths, which seems pretty messed up). And I feel I should  point out that Anakin was a child, he didn't suddenly become a committed Jedi when Obi Wan took him on, if they wanted to avoid turning him to the dark side then surely showing some compassion to his mother seems like a good start.
Edit: this is part of what I mean about the jedi being dicks, they don't seem to fight for what they believe in (apart from their absolute certainty that the Sith and all dark side users are pure evil, although they never give anyone any evidence of this) they just do what they're told. Probably got something to do with the fact they are indoctrinated into a cult from an early age....

@CG I'd be more worried bout Samuel Jackson if he hadn't got himself thrown out of a window by an injured old man.

[comrade_general]

That's an underlying theme of the prequels: stagnant republic and overconfident Jedi, who couldn't see the evil right under their nose, lining up to be taken over by the Sith.

[Pentagathus]

Or maybe the Sith had an inside man/little green puppet on he council. Will write a conspiracy theory when I can be bothered to make a theory thread.