PT I can't possibly be the only one

I just can not believe that I'm the only one who loves all six Star Wars films equally. Am I the only one that views the prequels as masterpieces?

True, they aren't perfect, but neither are the originals! Even the greatest works of art have their flaws.

 

No, you're not the only one. And you're in the right place to find others who think and feel as you do. I'm one of 'em.

They're perfect if you want 'em to be. But I do agree. And I put it to you, in fact, that a "perfect" person, book, country, system, idea, or whatever, is an inherently violent concept: inspiring violence in others, at the level of the individual, the community, and the state. Better that art has its flaws, IMO.

 

Even though your opinion is part of a very tiny minority, you are definitely not alone.

 

You are not alone (and not a part of a "very tiny minority"). We may be "a" minority, but not tiny - just less vocal (although I see more and more folks now "speaking up"). The vocal minority likes to think they're the majority - and they are in outspokenness.

 

I always though ROTS was the best one and I always got scolded for thinking a movie from the PT was actually quality.

 

I think what you're seeing there is the nature of insecurity.

 

I don't know if I love the all equally (my top 3 are III, IV, and V) but I love them all for different reasons. I love the innocence and set design of TPM, I love the music and action in AOTC, I love the sense of dread and cool battles in ROTS, and I love the original trilogy because I grew up with them and they are timeless. I have a son who is 4 and views the movies as one great collective and I think that is awesome. And when VII comes out he will be in the sweet spot to experience the new ones in the theater and I can not wait. I think some of the older fans like myself just can't accept all of them in the same way which I understand, but for some reason I was able to embrace them all and I feel lucky.

 

They have different feels for sure and some I like more for spectacle, some for story and some for drama. ANH and TPM, ROTJ perhaps as well, are the "lightest" of the six. My fav is ROTS and yet I probably watch TPM (yes, fast forwarding parts and AOTC the most for "casual" viewing (it's now hard for me to watch ANH after the PT - seeing Obi-Wan sacrifice himself ).

While ESB is great on many levels, I fast forward a lot of that as well - I'm just not "as fond" of the Han-Leia stuff without Luke in the OT: in the PT I'm not terribly fond of the length of the pod-racing, the Anakin taking out the droid control ship, the Geonosian "hijinks" with the droids + Anakin/Padme scenes.

After seeing all the movies multiple! times in the theater and on VHS and on DVD I feel okay with fast forwarding scenes. AOTC is the only film I have not seen in the theater (to be frank, my first viewing of TPM had me swearing off SW as puerile and too "game-oriented" but I've since come to really like it).

 

I love all of the Star Wars movies-- even if I don't like certain parts, the parts I do like balance it all out. It's a miracle that I like all the movies because I usually get picky about franchises and series with a mythic arc. So, I just love that Star Wars as a franchise combines the fun of a blockbuster and also the depth necessary for all night movie marathons. Although, at this point, with the ST, doing a marathon of all the Star Wars movies is getting to be an insane prospect.

I don't understand why if I extend the courtesy of not nitpicking Episodes IV-VI (because I'm pretty sure I could really tear them apart if I had a mind to), why others don't do me the courtesy of the same for the prequels? I don't criticize people for having an opinion about art (although I'd join in debates about them) and I expect people to be able to tell the difference between simply having an opinion and assuming an opinion is a universal fact. It's the arrogance of the assumption that everyone hates the prequels that gets to me.

Anyway, tl;dr, I love the prequels.

 

Plenty of people like all six movies. In my opinion, each one has its advantages and disadvantages and it's an entirely subjective and personal matter. If people don't like the PT (or indeed don't like the OT, or individual films) that's fine, as long as they don't try to force their opinion on others. Equally, I would never tell them that they 'must' enjoy all six or they are not 'real fans'. Live and let live is the best way.

Personally, I like all six (although I obviously have my favourites) but I enjoy different aspects in the OT and the PT. There are so many reasons to like a movie - plot, characters, script, acting, cinematography, effects, technology, battles, alien cultures, epic themes etc - it's crazy to suggest that any of the SW movies are completely without merit, even if they do have flaws.

Oh, and I just have to say...

You've hit the nail on the head there. The PT has completely changed my view of OT Obi-Wan!

 

I think they're all amazing If you like the PT as much as the OT, fair enough. If you like one trilogy more than the other, fair enough. If you don't like one, two or even three films because they're not your cup of tea, fair enough. If you don't like any of the films... get out, lol.

 

I am in the same boat I love all 6 movies equally and I never participate in polls that ask me what is my favorite movie because I am being honest in saying that I enjoy each and everyone of them equally and I am a 33 year old fan that grew up on the originals. To me I can't ever get enough Star Wars!

 

Yeah, I like them all!

Of course, 'objectively', there are faults with them and from this perspective, I don't consider Episodes II and VI as good as the other films, but they are still part of the story, and love them as such!

The Alien series is a good example too. When I saw them as a kid in the late '90s, I accepted all of them as the story, I didn't complain about Ripley shaving her head or the cloning. I still really like Alien: Resurrection (I'm in a minority), I had to buy it secretly on VHS so that my mother doesn't notice it. The bashing came later, when I was introduced to internet forums.

I think a lot of film bashing is simply a social experience for people.

 

I love all six movies. I see their limitations, but enjoy them in themselves for what they are. Where I have a problem is in seeing them as a cohesive 'whole'. That is where, really, they fall down, is in seeing them as a single saga which properly fits together. I think this comes down to creating it piecemeal, film by film, having a loose and changing storyline and trying to somehow merge that together - often altering the focus of the storyline (the most glaring example being the shift from "from the adventures of Luke Skywalker" to being the saga of the Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker).

 

I'm with you! They're all masterpiceses!

 

This is utter nonsense. Right from almost the very beginning in the OT era, Lucas talked about prior episodes involving the adventures of Kenobi and Luke's father. As soon as TESB came out as "Episode V" and ANH was retroactively labeled "Episode IV" there was the implication of Episodes I-III which were never going to be the adventures of Luke, regardless of whether or not they were ever going to be filmed. Events taking place before Luke's birth are not from his adventures. Furthermore, "from the adventures of Luke Skywalker" was a tagline that never appeared in the OT films anywhere. It only appeared on covers of books: the ANH novel and SOTME.

 

well I think of them as a saga, not 6 films and each one is a masterpiece, i think of it as 1 long film, 1 saga and that saga is a masterpiece

 

You are certainly not alone. I love all six films. Both trilogies are great, but for different reasons. The original films focus on a few characters who are underdogs, fighting against an evil tyrannical authority. They come off more as a fast paced, fun, space opera. The prequels, however, are heavier films. They are about the downfall of a civilization, and the downfall of the man Anakin Skywalker. People wanted a rehash of the original films rather than the brilliant political and spiritual drama which Lucas intended.

Personally, I do slightly prefer the OT. A lot of that is probably due to nostalgia, and the fact that I'm not a huge fan of TPM. But, with that being said, I probably watch AoTC more often than any other film, and ESB the least often.

 

The OP is preaching to the choir when it comes to me. I have long since thought the prequels are every bit as good as the originals. I think by and large the general public likes the prequels too, just most people feel they aren't as good as the originals. To me, that is fine too. I have no issue if the average person in this world likes the prequels or thinks they are just decent and thinks they are a notch or two below the OT. What bothers me is when people start claiming that the prequels have no redeeming qualities and are some of the worst movies ever.

 

I love all 6 films from start to finish. Sure there are some films I like more than others, but it's all Star Wars, and it takes me out of this world and into theirs, so I'm all for it!

 

Right from almost the very beginning.... what a strange sentence. So, you are suggesting that Star Wars, when GL made it, was always going to be the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker? Even though Anakin Sjywalker didn't even exist at this time? There was simply Luke's father, and he was dead, killed by Vader - Obi-Wan's controversial 'lie' was literally true at this time.

At this time George Lucas had a backstory developed, but he said "The backstory wasn't meant to be a movie". This backstory involved the young Darth Vader killing Luke's father and fighting Kenobi on a volcano. After the success of Star Wars he decided that he could make a series of films, which were going to be sequels, and he began work on The Empire Strikes Back - which was originally given the epithet of Episode II. Only toward the third draft of TESB was the idea of Vader and Luke's father being the same person brought up - up until that point Luke's father was to appear to him as a 'Force Ghost' and train him. At this time GL started talking about his nine or twelve film series including prequels but - as you have noted yourself - this still included reference to Obi-Wan and Luke's father, and he also spoke of how the backstory already discussed (Vader killing Luke's father and then fighting Obi-Wan) would make a fitting end to the prequels.

So, only part way through the process of producing TESB could the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker have even been a possibility.

You don't think that's a change? I'd say that's a pretty big alteration of the story. We then had the loose end of "there is another" from TESB which, because GL had had enough, after all, of Star Wars, became Leia - it was not originally so.

Don't try and perpertrate the idea that how it is is how it always was and was always going to be, because that is the utter nonsense here - and transparently so.

 

Nice try putting words in my mouth, but that kind of thing doesn't tend to work. Nor does all this blather and pathetic strawmanning about Anakin Skywalker as an attempt to distract from the "adventures of Luke Skywalker" angle which you don't seem to be talking about anymore. Congratulations - you defeated the imaginary argument, made by the imaginary person.

I think I already mentioned that. And also the fact that this backstory was never supposed to be "from the adventures of Luke Skywalker". So the only "shift" you've identified is "I am your father". If you find that retcon defeats the ability to view the saga as a cohesive whole, that's your problem.

 

You what? So, you suggest that I have defeated an imaginary argument and then claim that my point rests upon "the adventures of Luke Skywalker"? What a piece of work. My point was that the movies don't work, for me, as a cohesive whole. I put that down to the story having changed throughout the process of making them. Its all there in my post, which is why I questioned whether you were suggesting that it was always the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker - for that, surely, could be the only reason you would suggest it is nonsense to say that the storyline was created piecemeal, film by film. If not, what did you mean?

Well.....you aren't making very much sense here. I'm not sure how you are suggesting that a backstory that was never meant to be a film could bring into question the idea of the films being the adventures of Luke Skywalker (which they were prior to the success of Star Wars, hence the novelisation of Star Wars and SOTME having the epithet - SOTME being the draft of a possible low budget sequel if Star Wars had been minorly succesful, as I'm sure you know).

So, you say that the only shift I have identified is "I am your father" (deftly ignoring "there is another", btw). Firstly this is a pretty big shift. Secondly, it isn't the only shift I have identified. There weren't even going to be prequels. That is a pretty major shiftt, I think. What they were to be about - even once there were going to be some - has changed. The story has been in a state of flux right from the beginning; that is what I mean by it being written piecemeal, movie by mivie (should I really have to explain what was written in plain English in the first place).

As for your last point, I did say (let me quote directly) "Where I have a problem is in seeing them as a cohesive 'whole'.". Did you see that. Quite why you have a problem with how I see the films is another matter. I'm terribly, terribly sorry that my opinion is not the same as yours. Please forgive me.