PT Anti-prequel campaign, truth or myth?

I don't think there's a conspiracy involving Disney making backroom deals with the press and bloggers to destroy the prequels' reputation so that people will be more excited for their films as they prepare to whip out the black helicopters once they've tracked down all the prequel fans to be eradicated so nobody will stand up to their new Star Wars regime if that's what you're asking.

Is there a certain media gravitation towards the disgruntled portion of the fanbase? Does it seem like certain places seem to know that that portion fo the fanbase likes to hear that sort of stuff? Sure. I do think there's something a slant in the media that the filmmakers really don't seem to be doing anything about, but nothing particularly Machiavellian. The closest is maybe the practical vs CGI thing and it's context on that front with the rest of the series. Sure they didn't outright lie, but it did feel like they were delivering the effects info Obi-Wan style. With just the right pieces and in such a way that a particular idea is built up to steer the listener in their intended direction without other information that would complicate the matter and saddle them with a bit more trepidation or at least instill less a sense of overwhelming enthusiasm about it. But that doesn't necessarily amount to a full-on outright campaign.

 

As far as Limp Bizkit is concerned...they were very popular when I was in high school (I myself was a fan--go ahead folks, throw your tomatoes at me ). The hatred thrown at them by the internet elitists is hilarious considering that they were selling a hell of a lot of albums and selling out at concerts across the country.

Much like the prequels, they're used as the butt of jokes now even though they were extremely popular in their time.

I don't think this is a matter of anyone caring that someone doesn't like what they like. It's more of the snobbish attitude thrown our way by some of those people. "Oh, you like THOSE movies? You must not have very good knowledge of film or you'd know they were terrible."

Ummm...yes, I have a very good knowledge of film, and I happen to think the prequels are fantastic. Those types can slag off. Now, if they want to dislike the movies without being a snob? More power to them. To each their own. But I won't allow them to throw some elitist crap at me or play the appeal to popularity game. No way.

 

Great post Let me get you a beer (or a blue milk or whatever they won't serve to droids round here).

 

Ha! I should think that you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge, and -- he-he-he -- wisdom.

 

I believe its true. So in a non movie related board this guy was going on a rant and said this.

oh god, hayden c sucks. such a horrible anakin. especially in rots. and his horrible chemistry with mcgregor. anakin and kenobi are supposed to be good friends. anakin and padme's romance was awful as well. zero chemistry. rots should have had half the film with vader in his suit hunting down and kicking the **** out of jedi. but instead we got midichlorian bull**** and politics. ****! and the political scenes from tpm, what a joke. the prequels are just bad movies. had they not had the backing of the original trilogy, they would have flopped commerically. can you imagine if the phantom menace was the first star wars film?



So here is what i said.

HMMM. 1. Have you ever acted in a billion dollar movie before. 2. Have you ever written a billion dollar movie before 3.have you ever considerd that The Prequels were made to show Anakain's fall to the dark. 1 in TPM he HAD TO BE A 9 year old boy because unlike all the other Jedi who never knew a family could not be attached to someone but Anakin was taken from his mother at a young ageis a traumatic experience for ANYONE well except maybe you. But he is already unstable and when you flash forward 10 years later he is stressed out because he is attached to his mother but didn't know how to ask for help because the Jedi forbid attachment and he is not a normal Jedi. 2. Padme and Anakin had more chemistry then Han and Leia who by the way talk about creepy Han actually closes in on Leia and forces himself on her. 3. The midicholrians are not the force the communicate between the users and the universe so if you are stronger tin numbers the better the communication.Palpatine orchestrated the entire downfall of the Republic because in order to become Chancellor he has to get the current chancellor removed from office and the only way to do that is two fabricate an invasion so he can expose the current leaders incompetence he succeeds step 1. Step 2 forge a War within the Republic so the Emergency Powers is granted that is actually is an important scene in the saga because he basically succeeds in gaining all power. Step 3. After his experience in ATOC Anakin is in a extremely fragile state because he couldn't save his mother from death and will do anything he can to save Padme from death in childbirth. So Knowing this Palpatine takes this to his Advantage by telling the "Story of Darth Plaguies the Wise" this is the second most important scene in the movie because he implants the idea of ultimate power in Anakin and when he is duelling Mace Windu is the final step in his plan because as Anakin already distrusts the Jedi Order who did not grant him mastery basically seals his fate. When Anakin walks into the Chancellors office Palpatine is playing the victim card and tells Anakin "He Must Chose" so He decides to intervene and chop of Maces hand and since Obi Wan is on Utapar he can not influence Anakin to stay away so that's an very important plot. So Anakin is now darth vader. With Windu and the other masters dead and Yoda on Kashykk he can execute his plan to take over the Galaxy by wipeing out the Jedi Order on Coruscant who are defenseless without Yoda. I am starting to get sick of you acting like a mod and your arrogance/superiority complex. and no they would have not flopped commercially. TPM is the SECOND HIGHEST GROSSING MOVIE in the franchise $1.027 billion and would have made $395,256,917,007.91 in 1977 and had Mixed to Positive reviews. ATOC Grossed 643 million and had 66% Approval Rating and ROTS is the Second most Critically acclaimed SW movie your arguments are invalided my friend.

Here is his reply

They were so bad because they could've been so good. The story is potentially there but Lucas was more concerned with showcasing ILM than creating a good story. His ego got in the way as he direcetd them all and no doubt surrounded himself with more enabling YES MEN than anyone on earth. I mean how in the **** did people sit in the board rooms and editing rooms and allow these travesties to occur. How does a thing like Jar Jar Binks get the thumbs up? How does Jake Loyd get cast as Anakin? How do the Gungans even exist? How does the dialogue get passed? How do they change Yoda's chacater turn into a lightsaber weidling sonic the hedge hog? How does the Emperor turn into a bumbling bafoon more fit for the Munsters or Adam's Family? How do completely idiotic scenes like Anakin jumping out of a cruiser on Coruscant thousands of feet in the air and Obi-Wan simply say "I hate it when he does that" ss if Anakin is casually defying death on a daily basis? How does the epic ligtsaber battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin get clutterd with bull**** swashbuckling and exterior elements? In fact how are all the lightsaber battles save for the one on Tatooine almost all completely void of emotion or itensity? How does Anakin who is supposed to be this noble Jedi hero get portrayed as a sniveling whiney little brat that NOBODY likes, even in the begining? How did nobody sit there and say to Lucas, "whoa hold on man none of this is jiving with the original trilogy"? How? They are such a failure on an artistic level that you can't help feel they intentionally tried as hard as they could to **** it up.

They are so blatantly, so glaringly, so obviously terrible and that's why I have to question those who like them. I know taste is subjective but usually there's some element where you can find common ground. The Star Wars Prequels though are just so unfathomably bad I can't see what's appealing about them unless you're a 4 year old kid.

Then he replied

You have this absolutely absurd and frankly hilarious inability to recognise the complete and utter artistic failure that is the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Here is a nice explanation for you www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2015/05/03/star_wars_why_does_everyone_hate_the_prequels.html.


The nerve of the internet

 

When will the bashers get new material?

 

Consciousness>>Materialism.

I mean, someday they will, but not today.

 

From what I've seen, I think there is definitely a prominent anti-PT sentiment among fans, especially on the Internet... but whether that is because of a vocal minority of because most fans simply dislike the PT is up for debate. The thing is, Disney's going to swing the marketing to whatever they think will appeal to the audience. That's why they've been playing up the use practical effects and the like. I don't think there's an organized anti-PT campaign, but it would be an easy argument to make to say that Disney is definitely putting more emphasis on the OT than the PT. Of course, it would be impossible (not to mention ridiculous) to completely purge the PT from marketing. I've seen plenty of PT references in this new era. Disney knows that fans exist and they'll throw a bone every once in a while to keep them on their side.

tl;dr - It's general consensus that the PT is bad (maybe not by the SW fandom, but by pop culture/media in general), it's easy to make jokes about it, Disney will laugh along if they think it will make them money and swing the fans in their favor.

 

I've seen this many times...

That's rather ironic, coming from people who were treating George Lucas as snob, arrogant or disrespectful for years...

It has become pratically a habit for many people to snob the prequels and those who do like them...

 

Sadly the PT hates is spreading like a virus and is moving offline now into TV. I don't watch Big Bang Theory but have heard the show has made several PT putdowns. Just tonight on the ABC show Blackish, a lack luster family comedy, had a scene in which the oldest son (who is nerdy) tell his father not to "Phantom Menace it." There was a different episode where the same character was concerned his online girlfriend wasn't a real nerd, a poser. So he tested her by asking nerd culture questions, like did she like the LOST final and which SW film is her favorite, of course the "correct" answers are the majority opinions such as LOST final sucked and TESB is everyone's favorite, which really highlights the groupthinking in nerd culture, and why I want no part of it.

 

Was Blackish making fun of guys who give women geek purity tests? Because that would have been interesting. There's a lot of jokes in my section of the Internet about how men lament women not being interested in their stuff (whether it be baseball or video games or movies) and then handing a woman a purity test as soon as she shows up.

 

Not sure, the oldest son besides being nerdy is also dim witted and often easily tricked by his much younger siblings. But it highlights how in nerd culture there are "correct" opinions that all individuals are expected to hold as facts.

 

I have a question for you all.

Have you any of you ever received hostility for liking the prequels? I have. Not from people on here, but from other places like IMDB. I have literally been told that I'm not a real fan of Star Wars for liking the prequels. And then there are people like Simon Pegg, who has outright said that he doesn't respect anyone who likes the prequels. He was serious about it too. I often wonder what would happen if he met George Lucas in person. In fact, the director of Episode 8 said he likes the prequels too. Does Pegg not respect him either?

 

Well the IMDB boards are filled with some rather unpleasant fellows and they bash just about everything. The worst places are not the SW boards but the Marvel/DC boards. The threads there are filled with insults, trolling etc. At least that is what I've found when I have been over there.
Then I tend to get depressed and loose faith in humanity.

But to answer your question, I have received hostility for NOT loving the prequels.
Yes, even here.
I have been told that if I don't love the PT then I am not a SW fan.
I have been told to shut up and go away when debating problems I have with the films.
I have even been called a "Right wing extremist" for preferring the OOT over the SE.

Yes I have seen people on the "Basher" side behave very badly and rudely. But there have been those on the "Gusher" side that have done the same. Neither side is innocent.
Which is why the Gusher and Basher Sanc were created back in the day. They were established to limit the flaming that went on when discussing the films.
And why this site adopted the very good policy, "Discuss the Films, not the Fans."

Bye.
The Guarding Dark

 

Apparently the "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens" doesn't require going through the PT.

 

I think that, given the relative negativity and bitterness towards the PT that so many older SW fans harbour, and the relative disappointment felt by the old skool fans of the OT, an easy point to exploit both for clickbait journalist pieces (cough blogger posts cough) and for marketing purposes is the "this is way better than the prequels" and "this is THE follow-up SW movie you've been waiting for for 30 years!" and this card is played a lot, there's no conspiracy there, it's just the quick and easy path...

As much as I love the PT films, the reviews saying that it was made to resemble the OT and nothing like the PT was a true nerdgasm for me, as I love the PT but the OT is SW turned up to 11, and is unrivalled by the PT, not even in the same league.

 

I disagree with your last paragraph. The OT is not SW turned up 11 at least not to me. The prequels on the other hand looks like it takes place in a galaxy far far away and tells a much more compelling and interesting story. I will never understood why some think the OT is what the heart and soul of SW is. The OT was a simplistic good vs evil tale which in itself is not bad but that is not what makes SW great IMO. SW is about more than just empire vs rebellion, death stars, earth like locations etc. Too each their own though.

 

I feel like the OT was given tonnes of flavour with the PT, everything has so much more depth and meaning that wasn't there previously, and like chicken without sauce and breadcrumbs, still tastes great on its own, but has so much added to it with the PT, so I would say that with the existence of the PT, the OT is far more than just what you described, but they used to be much more plain, but were still the best films out for decades (IMO) and still probably the best movies in existence today (IMO) too!

 

To me the two have a palpable synergy with their interlaced structure. Their similarities and differences working to enhance each other's meaning and unique from what you see in most other such franchises. IMO Lucas' saga as a whole will always be the heart of Star Wars. And turned up to 11 at that!

 

I have received lots of hostility on the net over the years. Such as a Star Wars Lego collector forum, Star Wars action figure forum, MST3K sites (MISTE's really hate the PT), Movie forums, firearm forums, etc. Only a few SW fans sites like here and Prequel Appreciation Society seem to have low hostility towards the PT.

 

I don't see gushers much. At all. The only Gushing I see is when it comes to here(even then, there isn't much of it, and it's only a couple of posters).

Though I agree, not much innocence on either side.

 

Thank you nate.

You actually helped me find where the NHK was lurking. This only further evaluates it.

 

I don't really pay attention to the Prequel-haters at this point...it's been 11 years since the last one came out...it's too bad people have to keep drudging that up...either you like them or not and there's nothing I can say to change your mind....personally, I love them. They're just fun yarns and if you let a few artistic choices that you don't agree with ruin the whole saga for you, then I feel bad for you.

 

I like them.

They remind me of Anakin from Attack of the Clones strangely enough

"It's all George Lucas's fault, He has no talent, he's holding back Star Wars''!

 

Pardon my ignorance but what is "NHK"?