PT Why Are The PT Films criticized? (catch-all thread)

First of all, not everyone hates the prequels. There's a lot more people who do like the PT than the internet shows it. One of the lessons I've learned in life is the following: "if a group yells the most, it doesn't mean it represents the majority..."

Secondly: the prequels may not be masterpieces, they have their issues. Except, way before The Phantom Menace came out in 1999, the context and the expectations were stacked against those movies and Lucas from the very beginning, how some people couldn't be disappointed? Despite their issues, which I see as unfortunate glitches, people throw everything out the window and come back again and again and again with the same complaints (writing, dialogue, etc...), like if everything else that was good about these movies didn't count.

But to me, when people come back with those same complaints, nearly 10 to 20 years after the release of these movies, it looks more like trying to shoot at fishes contained in a barrel full of water: it simply becomes boring...

 

The success of the OT somehow gave the erroneous impression that Lucas was a blockbuster filmmaker who made modern films.
Instead, the PT showed Lucas for who he really was: an experimenting tinkerer who made decidedly un-modern films. None of the style in the PT is modern whatsoever. Not the writing, not the acting, not the music, not the camera work, not any of it. The fact that the films used new computer imaging technology did not make any difference to it (though some find the CG, painterly quality of the prequels clashing with the more downbeat, photographic quality of the originals).

To put it very basically, the PT is not what people are accustomed to. It's not contemporary at all. It has its own style and vibe that people have to treat on its, and their, own terms. For Attack of the Clones, Lucas was many times more influenced by the ancient story of Camelot and soapy melodramas from half a century ago than he was influenced by The Matrix. Which should tell you everything you need to know. That in turn applies to lots of what else is in the films.

On top of that, the PT was compared to the OT, which did not help at all. The OT bridged the gap between modern and ancient. The PT attempted to be more ancient in style.

The OT is also a much more personal story. While the PT does have personal elements, the story it tells is a much vaster one -- a societal tale, in a sense.

This results in people looking at the PT and seeing lots of stuff that, frankly, doesn't fit with what they are used to enjoying. This eventually leads some to simply view the PT as a bunch of mistakes. As if Lucas somehow didn't understand what he was doing with them. That's too bad, and it's wrong, but it's understandable.

Also, the OT were films you could sit back and enjoy. They are stories that really work from the gut (successful hero's journey). The PT is a different story. It's not as much from the gut, it's instead from other places. The head, the heart, but in general they are films that reward you the more you put into them. In this way the PT are both lean back and lean forward films -- lean back in the sense of enjoying the action and so on, as we are accustomed to from the OT (very lean back films), but they also are lean forward films, in much the way that more experimental or independent cinema is. The problem is, that is a style of filmmaking not generally associated with Star Wars. Given that Lucas decided to mix the styles (while also playing with & switching the traditional protagonist/antagonist structure), one is justified in asking who Lucas' audience is. Thankfully there are those open-minded enough to appreciate the difference in styles.

 

Some of it also has to do with various sociological effects, like the bandwagon and the Asch phenomenon where individuals conform to majority rule (real or perceived), even if it goes against their personal beliefs. Prequel hate has become a " social norm" in internet culture, and like most norms, the group will "correct" any individuals who break the norm such as posting liking the PT will get you gang piled on. Disney's marketing is probably just following what they perceive as majority view on the net that fans don't like the PT, sadly by doing this Disney is reinforcing the hate and fanning the flames and sets up a vicious cycle.

 

"Why do people say the Prequels are horrible?"

"People oppose things because they are ignorant of them."
El-Ghazali

 

No doubt there are some fans who didn't like it simply because it wasn't like the OT, but I don't think it's fair to say that's the only reason. I hate to break to PT fans, and TFA fans like myself, but some people just don't like movies for a simple reason....they didn't like it and no further explanation needs to be analyzed.

Growing up I didn't like Superman 3 & 4, Rocky 5, Godfather 3, as I can name countless sequels. Here is the reason....I didn't like them. I just didn't think they were good movies, and that's really all to it. Again, I won't argue that some fans wanted more of the OT and that's contributed to their disappointment, but I think some fans just didn't think they were good movies.

 

I have always thought that it's because they are very different from the original trilogy.
Iroically people are complaing that TFA was too similar the the OT.
People will complain no matter what.

 

CaptainRegor

The complaints regarding TFA criticize that it rehashes designs and plot elements of the OT. To some extent the same kind of criticism was directed at TPM, i.e. another Skywalker blowing up "Death Star 2.5" at the end of the film.

 

I agree, as it will always be a catch 22 for Disney.

In saying that, I do think it's natural that fans will gravitate to one trilogy (or one style) over the other. That's why nobody is wrong when they say they prefer either CGI or practical effects, or they prefer the look of Digital or Film, or they prefer the swashbuckling tone of the OT or the more staunchy tone of the PT. I mean it was bound to happen when you make a 2 trilogies that have a different tone and style, many would prefer one over the other?

 

Agreed. Tallying up the practical effects might make the "gotcha" crowd feel better but it still doesn't change the fact that the final product still looked fake. If you made the practical effects look like CGI then you just defeated the purpose.

 

I think some of it may have been that everyone already knew the story. There were no surprises. We knew who Sidious was. We knew Annakin would become Darth Vader. We knew (nearly) all of the Jedi would be killed. We knew twins would be born, and they'd be separated.
True, the details surprised many people, but I think it's real hard to tell a story when everyone already knows what's going to happen.

 

Dude. Search feature.

 

Exactly. And fans of the OT tried hard to like them, they were just disappointed at the end. Either it's good or it isn't, doesn't matter what came before . Even Sylvester Stallone hates Rocky V.

 

Really great post! I think you're spot on with how people view the PT as a bunch of mistakes because it doesn't fit with what they're used to enjoying. That was how I felt and it wasn't until I came back to the prequels, ten years older and with fresh eyes, that they really clicked with me.

About how the viewer's mental state affects the experience, I would also characterize it as visual/emotional/child mind versus verbal/jaded/adult mind. The adult mind wants clever dialogue and stimulation - and if it doesn't get it, has trouble getting invested. But to really experience the PT - for me at least - you have to see and feel it more than watch it, if that makes any sense. In that way it's more like watching an opera performance than a blockbuster movie.

 

TFA isn't "similar" to the OT. It's a remake of ANH.

 

-Female Protagonist

-Storm Trooper Turns to a good guy

-Son who is the villain kills Father

-The ending is finding the greatest living Jedi

Geez, I just don't remember these characters or these events happening in 1977 as these are the MAJOR points of the movie.

 

TFA is more of a OT Greatest Hits Album than a remake of ANH. A greatest hits album that we desperately needed to reboot the series.

 

Because they wanted to see another OT, or a similar series to that, which would make it another TFA (a cheap copy of OT) and that's not what I wanted see personally, PT was great also.

 

Why does the terminology present in the subliminal textuality of the Prequel Trilogy associate itself with the recording of esoteric dictionaries and how can one object to an audience who only infrequently gasps at its bountiful linguistic revelations?

 

I still think the most important thing about ANY movie is the characters. I can say that Anakin & Padme just didn't resonate with me and that was a big reason why I never loved the PT. Now many will argue that because Anakin was a grey character or a tragic character, that is the reason why I didn't love him as much as Luke or Rey. But that just isn't true as I love Goodfellas and DeNiro, Pesci and Liotta are stone cold murderering mobsters, but they resonated with me even though I was rooting against them at the end of the movie.

 

No it wasn't needed. We already have the OT, so we didn't need a diluted, unimaginative cash-grab like we got.

Why would you a greatest hits of a movie you've already got?

 

I personally do not understand the problem of people with romantic scenes in episode 2 we're talking about two people with almost no romantic experience and no love life, of course they will sound bad when they flirting

 

I hate to break it to you but we really didn't need any SW movie after the Original in 1977. It was a standalone movie with a beginning, middle and end as that film still sits among the all-time classics on every movie list.

Sequels and Prequels are all cash grabs. The new adventures of Rey, Finn, and Poe are no different then the further adventures of Luke, Leia and Han in the OT or the Prequel adventures of Anakin, Padme and Kenobi.

Just because you didn't like TFA doesn't make that cash grab any different the previous SW movie that were a cash grab too.

It's called supply & demand and as long as fans keep coming to see SW movies, then they'll keep making them.

 

They're not cash-grabs, if thought and effort were put into creating new stories, instead of simply redoing an old one.