PT Could We Haved Avoided the PT With a Flashback?

Instead of having an entire trilogy of films to tell the origin of Darth Vader and the Empire, could not there have gotten by simply been future sequences filmed for flashbacks or made into holographic recordings given by R2-D2 given by Obi-Wan in Return of the Jedi showing things like how Obi-Wan and Anakin met, the Clone Wars, the rise of Darth Vader, etc?

 

Meh. I'm much happier with most of what we got with the PT. ROTS adds a lot of depth to the other five films, and TPM is such a symbolic beginning. AOTC I would tweak, but it has it's moments.

 

No, I'm fine with how things played out.

 

Could we have avoided it with a flashback? Probably.

The questions is: why would we want to?

 

Would be interesting to see how this would have been done.

 

Could we have avoided the OT with a simple plot summary written on the back of a cereal box? Yeah, sure. I....I guess so. Cool thought experiment.

 

Lucas had only intended for three films to be made, after he split the first draft into three films. But because he was interested in the backstory, that is why he began adding so much detail that he eventually wanted to make multiple films.

 

Aren't we all happy he did so

 

I don't really see how you could fit over seven hours of film into a flashback. Anyway, why would I want to avoid the Prequel Trilogy?

 

Prequel trilogy hater?

Just kidding of course, OP

 

That wasn't meant as a sarcastic remark. I do like the Prequels a lot, even if I like the OT better. I love all of the Star Wars films.

 

PiettsHat -- that response made me smirk.

The_Phantom_Calamari -- that response made me LOL.

 

I misread your comment. I thought you were referring to the OP when you said, "Anyway, why would I want to avoid the Prequel Trilogy?" I thought you were asking why would the OP want to avoid the PT.. The joke was in response to that assumption lol, mistake.

 

Maybe, but even if there had been a flashback(s), I'm sure GL and fans would still want that era explored. Instead of the ST and spinoffs, Disney might be exploring that era right now if GL hadn't.

 

Maybe.

But why should it be avoided??

 

Could we have avoided the OT with a simple plot summary written on the back of a cereal box? Yeah, sure. I....I guess so. Cool thought experiment.
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this, pretty much.

 

It certainly could have been told through flashback. But it's a roundabout argument. They make movies, people ask why not just do it through flashback. Had they done it through flashback, people would ask why not make movies about it, we would right now today still be asking for the movies.

And aside from telling the story, the simple truth is there was money to be made by doing a whole set of prequel films.

 

This is rather misleading. He took ideas out of Star Wars and then used them when it became successful enough to have further films. Things like the Wookiee (later Ewok) ground battle, the Alderaan Prison which became the inspiration for Cloud City, and Luke and Vader dueling with Luke beating Vader and becoming a Jedi. When the first film was locked down in its final form, these ideas were dropped and later modified and used in the other two films of the Trilogy.

The original backstory was very limited, only about 20% of the PT was thought out before he started writing Episode 1. That's why TPM and AOTC seem rather padded compared to ROTS.

 

No.

 

Let me quess. Michael Kaminski?

 

They are about much more than that. You could have flashbacks, but they could never replace everything that's shown in the movies.

Also, ever since TESB was subtitled Episode V, a prequel trilogy was bound to happen.

 

It's May the 4th not April the 1st.

 

These aren't Peter Jackson movies.

 

I gotta laugh at the fact that this thread exists. Most people complain that Anakin's fall and the PT movies in general felt too "rushed," and here is the thought that the PT should've been cut altogether for a 2 minute flash back sequence.

I'm sure big stars like Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen and the bad MF SLJ would've just jumped on to sign a contract for a flashback sequence.

 

It's not exactly untrue, but it's an odd way to go about disparaging the films. Even less than 20% of the OT was thought out before Lucas started writing Episode IV, and yet no one seems to have an issue with the way they turned out. Hell, as much as I love it, I think ESB is padded out more than TPM or AOTC are. Half the movie consists of Han and Leia running away from Star Destroyers, trading snarky quips back and forth until the screenwriter determines that the time has come for them to succumb to their feelings for each other. There's no real character progression there. It's basically just passing time until the next act break--in a supremely entertaining fashion, mind you.