Oh yes, his AOTC essay is truly brilliant. His essay for TPM is also good, even very good, but (although understandably in the context of how it was written) a bit too much of a "rebuttal" or "revenge". I just think "Prequel Defense" works best when the writers focus on the merits of the PT and what makes those great for them instead of dealing with the supposed "flaws" too much. I mean everybody who's watched TPM once knows that the Midi-Chlorians and the Force aren't the same thing. Now if people aren't even capable of adequately comprehending two perfectly understandable and simple lines of dialogue like these ("Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the Force.), they're just not worth my time. Sorry.

Lard Buscuit's AOTC essay fantastically elaborates on the film's strenghts. I think reading this was - in part - responsible for my greater appraisal of AOTC in recent years.

Yeah, I wonder why he never wrote anything after he said he would.

Btw, here are Parts 2 and 3 of A Certain Point Of View On the Star Wars Prequels:
http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2...nt-of-view-on-the-star-wars-prequels-part-ii/
http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2...t-of-view-on-the-star-wars-prequels-part-iii/

 

Good thread yall....

 

Just finished his AotC dissertation and I have to say it's fantastic. Everyone with slight interest in Episode II should read it. I've really come to appreciate it even more. About 90% of the dissertation is stuff that I've had in my mind for a long time and it's why I see this review as the one which most closely fits my views of AotC. But those extra 10% that he adds to the bigger picture is the reason why I really respect his writing.

The Phantom Menace dissertation is also great, but as someone has already mentioned, about 50% of it is written more in a sense of answering all of the film's critics.

Too bad he didn't do a RotS one though.

 

Not an official article, but the Nostalgia Critic pulled up some few good points on the good things in the Prequels.

 

That Nostalgia Critic video brings up some really good points. I enjoyed watching it. I have actually watched it a few times.

 

Thread watched along with e-mail alerts for it, nice idea Jarren!

 

Me too! It got off to a banging start! I hope there is more!

 

I remember posting the Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker) video in another thread, unfortunately nobody took any notice

 

I am kinda leery of anyone who calls themselves "nostalgia critic"

 

Erm, that was still mostly "PT is total crap, but these bits are ok"

 

At least there are positive points.

 

Another fitting article for this tread.

 

Same here...ROTJ is my least favorite movie of the saga, but it was unnecessary for him to take the tone that "ROTJ is the SW movie that sucks."

 

Love it!

 

http://unrealitymag.com/movies/how-the-prequels-fixed-darth-vader/

http://unrealitymag.com/movies/the-under-appreciated-practical-effects-of-the-prequels/

http://www.brianonstarwars.com/2014/05/star-wars-prequels-are-just-as-good.html

http://indierevolver.com/2014/07/27/unpopular-opinion-adam-glass-on-the-prequel-trilogy/

 

all true, but the first one is the truest. people these days want DARK

 

Good points here:

https://lovepirate77.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/star-wars-prequels-a-good-foundation-for-the-new-trilogy/

 

http://brightlightsfilm.com/defense-clones-lucass-latest-cheap-thrills-sophisticated-filmmaking/

https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/notes-on-the-duel-of-the-fates/

http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~anne/clones.html

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Phantom+Menace:+Repetition,+Variation,+Integration.-a065131412

 

Here are some interesting ones:

http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.ca/search/label/Fixing the Prequels: RotS

Now you might say whoa! fixing the prequels is pro?

Well actually it is as the writer is trying to have a real discussion but as he noted just last December true discourse often gets sabotaged.

The Fixing the Prequels series was never, as I’ve noted many times throughout, a project for me to complain about the much-hated films. My goal was always to acknowledge the Prequel Trilogy’s very real problems by suggesting ways they could have been overcome whilst preserving the main story, while also arguing that the films are often much, much better than their reputations have developed. I intended this series to end a long time ago, and my hope was that as time went by, the Prequels would gain a bit in the main estimation of pop culture. I never expected them to become beloved, but I hoped that their many good qualities would look better from a distance, and the angry and often obnoxious rhetoric about them whenever they were brought up would become less toxic.

This, sadly, has not happened.

The tone regarding the Prequel Trilogy has remained as belligerently hostile as ever, with seemingly every discussion of Star Wars that comes up either devolving into, or at least involving a substantial detour, into “Why the Prequels were awful” and “Why George Lucas is the worst thing ever” and all the other boring memes, like “Lucas needed someone to tell him ‘No’” and the always-dreary appeals that all the best thinking about the Prequels was ever done by the noxious Red Letter Media guy. Even the sale of Star Wars to Disney, with the subsequent rejuvenation of the franchise with a new trilogy of films plus a number of spin-off movies, ended up with a lot of cheering that “Hooray! Finally we get Star Wars that has nothing to do with George Lucas!” and “I wonder if they’ll completely ignore the Prequels!” and so on.

To this day, while I understand a lot of the criticism these three films have received, I’ve never understood the outright hatred of them. Their mere existence serves to dredge up a fairly ugly side of fandom every time they arise in conversation. I just end up shrugging and saying “Oh well”, all at the same time avoiding a lot of Star Wars discussion, because I just tire of saying the same things, over and over again.

 

^^QFT!

 

Qui-Riv-Bid: The Byzantium Shores fella is a bit peculiar, in that he includes the PT in his 50 favorite films list, yet proceeds to eviscerate all three of them via rewrites.

I don't think I'd change a frame of my fifty favorite movies--that's why they're my favorites. They absorb and envelop me, without discernible imperfections. (I've never watched The Maltese Falcon and thought, "Gee, this Bogart/Lorre exchange is a bit on the dry side. I know what'll spice it up!")

 

This might have been mentioned already, so forgive me if it has, but Roger Ebert (legendary film critic) apparently gave TPM a 3/4 stars, with the only main complaint being simply that the characters aren't that compelling.

And Qui-Riv-Bid, that quote is good. I really think the Prequels get way too much criticism than what is warranted. The reasoning used for them is stuff that could be levied towards the originals, and some are also not objective criticisms at all.

 

Oh, yes. I find that a bit strange and a little distasteful, as well.

"I love this film, but I'd change this, and this, and this, and this, if I could!"

It's somewhat like saying, "I love my girlfriend, but if this were different, and this, and this, and this, she'd be heaps better."

Some love.

 

thanks for posting this...I always thought Kevin Smith was a total jerk and hated the prequels...guess I was wrong...