PT Did you grow up with the OT and still love the prequels?

One thing that always gets me, and this is created by movie critics and other various news outlets is always wanting to say the prequels are only liked by younger fans and most older fans dislike the PT. I hate when older fans try validating their love of the originals by bashing the prequels. First off I don't think it makes you a bigger fan of the original movies by bashing the prequels I will never understand the notion that liking the PT makes you less of a fan of the originals, I say they have perfectly complimented the first 3 movies I fell in love with and have completed the story for me. It always disgusts me when I meet someone and I say I am a Star Wars fan and they assume right away that I regard the prequels as disappointments, and they'll give the cookie cutter talking points on why they think the movies are not any good. I look forward to enjoying more Star Wars as I grow older and integrating them with the older movies also, I can never get enough Star Wars!

 

I'm not one who was old enough to grow up with the OT, but I get this too, and it does annoy me. Earlier this semester I was talking to a professor and mentioned that I liked Star Wars. His immediate response was, "You mean the original three, right?" and he seemed surprised at my response that no, I meant all of them (though at least he then dropped the subject rather than than turning the conversation to PT bashing).

 

Well Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor and Sir Christopher Lee made me enjoy all of their moments immensely. And I still do enjoy their moments immensely. I'm an OT gal, BUT definitely enjoy the PT. Sure there are things / characters I am not a fan of, but I would say I am still very satisfied by the PT.

 

That's it basically.

I know it's strongly hinted in ROTS that the Sith created Anakin, but that doesn't change much in the end. The whole "Prophecy of the Chosen One" remains. And such supernatural/satanic/ultimate power is clearly at odds with the originals.

 

Fair enough, I guess you can interpret it that way if you like.

However I would suggest that you can look at it differently and that it is perhaps more appropriate to do so.

The Virgin Birth is completely twisted on its head by the revelation that the Sith are actually behind it rather than it being a spontaneous act of these symbiant Force doo dah's.

Anakin is very powerful because the Sith made him that way. after all they have forseen that one day he will be a Sith and will help them to become rulers of the galaxy. It makes sense that they'd want him to be powerful. he's not powerful because he's the messaiah -just because he was made that way.

Both the Jedi and the Sith are capable of seeing the future. Anakin is not Chosen by Destiny to bring Balance to the Force and he is not the bearer of some ultimate power as a result of that. Rather, someone, presumably a Jedi, has forseen the future and seen that Anakin will destroy the Sith. It is simply that they have forseen the future accurately. Anakin is not granted ultimate power by destiny, he simply is going to destroy the Sith because that's what happens.

 

I saw ROTJ as a child in the 80s, never understood it. I saw TPM in theaters in 99, I loved it. I had no movie to compare it to. It reminded me of The Never Ending Story. Had that storybook fairy tale feel to it. I saw the OT and PT BECAUSE OF TPM.

 

Wow Neon thats very interesting. Im guessing you and I are the same age. I never saw all of the OT in the 80s or 90s, i saw ROTJ a few times on HBO as a kid, but as I stated before the movie didnt make sense. How did Han get captured? Why was Lukes dad in the robosuit? Why did the green elf die? Who is the ghost? My impression of ROTJ was it was cool to people because of the laser swords. It felt like that Queen soundtracked Flash Gordon movie. ROTJ by itself just didnt capture me in. I just wasnt exposed to ANH and ESB. It wasnt until I saw TPM in theaters is when I became curious about ROTJ again. The question then became how does the lil Anakin kid become the man in the suit. Who is Luke and Leias mom? How did Palpatine become The Emperor? Which gave me great anticipation for AOTC and ROTS. At that time In 2000 I only had access to 1 4 5 and 6. So 2 and 3 were the missing chapters. I could only imagine How the innocent pod racer becomes the masked leader who captured Princess Leia.....thats why I got into Star Wars

 

I was going to copy and paste what I wrote in another thread, but I think the thread got deleted.

My love of Star Wars has been a roller coaster. I "grew" up with the OT in the sense that I watched and rewatched it as a kid and collected many many toys (Darth Vader's Tie Fighter being my personal favor) I was about 12 when TPM came out and I loved it than, my only complaint was Jar Jar really and not even close to what people say now. Somewhere around AOTC's I started to lose interest in Star Wars (Ironically at the same time I joined the forum originally) and I only saw AOTCs and ROTS in theaters once out of necessity almost. I honestly think the combo of being a snotty teenager and all the public hate of the PT painted a obscured distaste for them and I stopped caring about Star Wars at all, although I would still sit down and watch the OT if it was on tv or something.

Fast Forward to about two years ago I think. Disney just bought Star Wars and was the talk of the town. My wife had never seen any of them and wanted to dive head first and watch the complete Saga. I told her to ignore the PT but she refused, I told her to watch it in release order and again she refused (stubborn as can be). Finally I agreed to watch the whole Saga from TPM to ROTJ (got to learn to pick the battles when married!) and we marathoned all 6 movies over a weekend. I was completely surprised about how much I enjoyed watching all 6 in sequential order, it brought a new enjoyment to the whole series for me. Are the PT perfect? No but neither was ANH or ROTJ. Star Wars has the great blend of Mythology, Sci-fi, and Fantasy and im so glad I became a fanboy again. Have a lot to look forward to now, diving into EU like a mad man, enjoying the snot out of Rebels and of course greatly looking forward to the ST.

 

Overtly religious tone?

The OT is full of "May the Force be with you"s, and that's fairly similar to "May God be with you".

ANH explicitly refers to the Jedi belief as a religion.

In TESB Luke is told outright that he fails because he lacks belief, i.e. faith.

 

the supernatural/ultimate power I was referring to is the power to create life, or avoid death, in itself.

I see your point, but actually, the very notion that the Sith are able to create life through manipulating the Force, or Anakin's search for that ultimate power from AOTC, is just too much for me.

It gives the whole thing a Faustian arc I personally distaste.

Sure the concept of Immortality was there in the OT with Jedi ghosts, but it's more of a spiritual side, becoming one with the Force after flesh and blood death.

Indeed....




"Difficult to see...Always in motion the future is."

 

This is an awesome phrasing by the way. ESB is totally based.

 

Alright.

But to me, those few words here and there are not as overtly religious as the prophecy of the Chosen One or the virgin birth in the prequels' arc

 

I grew up with the OT and I love the Prequels and the entire Saga dearly.

 

Saw ANH when I was 9 back in 77. Grew up with the OT... but I prefer the Prequel Trilogy for a whole host of reasons (that's not to say I don't love the whole Saga... I do):

a. Larger universe
b. Politics and Palpatine's subterfuge
c. Theological aspects of the Jedi Order and how it contrasts that of the OT
d. Further revelations about the Force
e. Ties to our own history and mythologies
f. Love Obi-Wan (favorite character in the Saga) and Qui-Gon
g. Love the operatic scope of RoTS
h. And countless other reasons...

 

All of this, but most of all, we got the story of Darth Vader the Jedi Knight.

 

Wish we could get more of the PT. Loved the world they created in those films.

 

I grew up watching my step dads VHS boxset of the OT in the late 90's and throughout the 00's, and I absolutely adore the PT, and prefer it to this day. It has so much to offer, that for me, the OT is simply lacking.

 

I grew up in the 80s and while i missed the theatrical releases of the OT (first movie i saw at a cinema was The Last Crusade), i taped them on VHS when they were shown on TV.
They were in my top-3 of favorite sci-fi for sure! The other two being Star Trek and Alien franchises (still are these 3).
I must say though that even then, the effects were obviously dated**, the story was quite simplistic for my taste (all good VS all evil) and the acting was quite cheesy some times.
I deffinetely prefered performances like P.Stewarts' & the challenging philosophical themes of ST (TNG mainly) or the stereotypical yet so fun characters of Aliens (Hudson:''yeah...maybe we got'em demoralized...'' cracks me up every time...LMAO) & the undelying themes of corporate corruption & the ''who's the real animal'' of Alien(s) (Ripley:''you don't see them screwing each other over a percentage'').

When the PT came out, i think i had pretty lost interest by then in the SW-franchise and the OT was basically a childhood memory (which i saw basically 1-2 every year only), so I only went to see TPM to keep company to a friend!
Holy fecal matter was i in for a surprise!
SW went overnight from a ''typical'' blockbuster with a quite straight in your face theme & story & characters, to an experimental multi-multilayered visual storytelling epic exercise, disguised as a typical blockbuster, on human (or alien...) flaws&assets on a micro level and the flaws&assets of democracy (Plato all over the place) on a macro level, that caught me by surprise (that's an understatement if there ever was one)!

If I could use an analogy i'd say the OT=American Graffiti and the PT=THX1138...both magnificent & both very different but both clearly a genius's vision!

Long story short, yes, i grew up with the OT and not only do i still love the PT, but i actually love the OT even more because of the PT!

** funny story...I remember many years ago comming home from school... and the moment i entered the house, my father goes with absolute excitement ''HURRY UP...i just tuned to this amazing space movie, come and watch it!!!''.
Keep in mind now, my father whilst never a fanatic/intellectual sc-fi fan, grew-up with thoses space B-movies filmed in the 50s-60s...he grew out of those and went more into films like ''Bridge on River Kwai'' or ''Lawrence of Arabia'' or ''Ben Hur'' etc..only Godzilla remained one of his favs (mine too!)
So...I hurry up to the living-room and see what's on...my jaw dropped ...and i bursted into ...my father was watching ''The Power Rangers'' and was actually enjoying it!....I just went ''what the hell are you seeing???"

Take what you will from this but in my mind it speaks volumes...

 

I grow up watching the OT since I was very young, maybe 4 or 5 years old. I bought the VHS realease from 1995 , when I was eleven, and I fell in love with the saga. I waited for the TPM since then, I used to buy every single magazine talking about the movie (in that time we had not internet) and I went crazy when the movie was realeased!

But I don't love the PT like most of the people in this Forum, the movies have too many problems, the most important of them are the Bad acting and the story. I hope in the ST they can fix it that.

 

ROTJ was the first Star Wars film I watched. Yeah, it was weird, I had no clue who Lando, Han or Obi-Wan were, but I knew who Yoda was somehow. The opening at Jabba's palace was a bit weird, seeing as how it ties up all the loose ends from ESB. It was also the version with Sebastian Shaw at the end and I had no clue who he was!

 

Could you give me an example of why the story is bad? Or do you just mean you don't like it?
&
Can you give me an example of good acting from any SW movie compared to, let's say Al Pacino's performances in Scarface or Serpico?

Just curious, nothing more.

 

Story?

- The introdution of midiclhorians, stupid and unnecessary;
- Anakin too young;
- Romance of Padme and Anakin (a teenager and a kid...);
- The killing of Darth Maul (what a waste of a good villain that was. We have been spared of Grievous);
- A kid destroying the main ship of the Trade Federation....

And we can go on....

Good acting in SW? There are too many great, not good, but great acting:

- Alec Guiness in ANH;
- Peter Cushing in ANH;
- Mark Hamill in TESB;
- Ian Macdiarmid in ROTJ

The bad acting (and script) in the PT is present in all three movies:

- Jake Lloyd in TPM;
- Hayden and Nathalie in AOTC and ROTS;
- Ian Macdiamid and Jackson in ROTS