PT Does anyone else get the feeling the PT did not have a self-contained plot?

Having just watch the PT, I would definitely say its vastly inferior to the OT.

Part of the reason is that each movie by itself felt like a small chapter in the specific saga they revolve around and did not feel like self-contained movies. As though there were lots of bits and missing pieces to the story. As I check out the EU specifically revolving around the PT time period, the story no longer feels full of holes and gaps and I suspect if I rewatch the PT I will actually enjoy it overall.

Even Revenge of the Sith, easily the best in the entire PT and the only movie I'd score at least an 8, actually manages to feel the most as though it requires a lot of knowledge of supplementary materials and spinoffs to truly enjoyed. As I am watching Clone Wars atm, I actually grown to appreciate RotS more than I already did and I think I may even give i a 9-10 rating in my next rewatch knowing all the gaps and holes that lead to the events of RotS.

This is very different from the OT where even though watchin ESB and ROTJ required watching the trilogy in order to truly enjoy them, each film felt self-contained. As in you don't have to check out spinoff comics, novels,etc released during the same time period of afterwards, prior, or in between the sagat o enjoy them without getting a sense of plotholes and gaps. If anything the spinoffs to the OT add more gaps than the original films had! If you only watched ANH, you would get a feeling like a concluded saga in its own right and even ESB and RoTJ can really be enjoyed on their own merits if you never watched any other Star Wars movies and did not know the overall plot. In other words the story for each film int he OT is as though they were made specifically for the movie audience and its only because its a connected saga you'd have to watch each film in the series (and even than its starting at any point in the OT stand alone would still give someone who never heard of SW a strong feeling of satisfaction due to the story).

I'd go as far as arguing if you just take out the names of the characters and settings and modify the script a bit, each Star Wars plot can work as a stand alone movie in the OT!

Its very different in the PT where each plot literally felt like they intentionally cut a lot off so you'd have to read the novels, comics,etc.

This came up because I also finished The Matrix trilogy weeks ago and I felt the same The first Matrix movie was much like the OT, very self-contained tot he point the conclusion felt like a eprfect end to the entire saga. But the sequels give the feeling like the directors were focusing less ont he movies themselves and more on the overall universes (and its true, the Wachowski brothers were also consulting on comics, novels, games, and other spinoffs when they were filming Reloaded and Revolutions to the point these spinoffs got just as much attention as the main movies).

So if you watched the rest of the series, its filled with plotholes and a lack of concluding plotline. Hell Matrix Reloaded ends at a cliffhanger much worse than any of the PT and only Revolutions comes to an end (and in Revolutions it feels very much like you'd need to checkout EU stuff in addition to watching the previous movies to even feel satisfied rather than a plot full of holes).

As I watched PT just last weekend, it felt very much like the Matrix though not as forced into checking out EU as the Matrix is.

Does anyone else agree? This is definitely one of the strongest criticism I ahve towards the PT' story.

 

yes, that's a problem
ep3 was supossedto be the end of the Clone Wars, bringing full circle all those characters and plot arcs, instead, it goes in another direction, all the separatist bad guys are all of a sudden shown as good people, the Clone Wars is shown as something insignificant, the movie revolves around Padme dying at child-birth, really lame