I am not trying to get into another “the prequels suck” argument. I was just thinking this morning that the prequels are kind of ruining the original trilogy for me.
I am not sure I wanted to see where Vader came from. I am not sure I wanted to know his whole story. I think there is some magic missing when you see Vader choking that alliance commander at the beginning of Star Wars, and all you can now remember is Anakin crying because he killed some sand people. Just a thought.
Anyone else feel this way?
Not really. From the moment Vader said “I am your father.” he became a tragic figure to me. Knowing he was a rather happy child that loved his mother makes him more so in my book.
What’s ruining the OT for me is Lucas re-writing history. Han shot first, dammit.
I ignore the sequels and let SW stand on its own. It was a big artistic mistake (though great financial decision) to make STAR WARS: THE EARLY YEARS.
I hate to say it, but yes. Oh, yeah, I can still go back and watch the original trilogy and get lost in them; and that takes me back to a time and a place. The prequels haven’t effected the quality of the orginals, of course. But the thought of “Star Wars” just doesn’t hold the magic that it once did for me. It’s become more than just three great films that, quite honestly, and I’m really not overplaying it here, helped to put me onto the path to where I am now in my life. Now when I think about Star Wars, yes, there are happy memories of the original trilogy there, but I also can’t help but think about the mind-numbingly, abysmally, panderingly awful prequels. Ugh.
Hell no.
They are just movies.
Mindless entertainment.
So what if Lucas changed his mind about some things like not having Han shoot first.
Big friggin’ deal.
If having Greedo shoot first ruins the entire set of movies for you, well, get over it.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Well, no further discussion neccessary. We all must feel the way Payton’s Servant feels. Careful, or he might roll more eyes at us.
Damn, man, you sound like my older brothers making fun of me for crying when ET died!
sniff…but he was so cute…sniff…
Anyway, I wouldn’t say they ‘ruined the trilogy for me’. They’re crap,and I don’t think I’ll bother seeing the third in theatres, but the high regard I hold for the first three is due to the experience I had first seeing them (being a kid, spending my parents cash on merchandise, etc).
The prequels are another case of a great idea poorly executed. I have always been intrugued by the transition of good people to evil people and that is precisely what the prequels promise.
Sort of.
For every crappy sequel that comes out the ratio of Good Star Wars to Bad Star Wars tips ever more against the franchise.
Add in the remakes and we have even more Bad Star Wars. It doesn’t ruin the original - that’s still there.
But increasingly the name “Star Wars” (as a whole) means junk. I’ve gone from thinking:
“Wow! Star Wars! Gotta see that!”
to thinking:
“Star Wars? Why bother?”
The prequels didn’t sour me on Star Wars. No, that was done by “Return of the Jedi.” After watching muppets in space, I gave up on the series.
I have to say yes to this one. aside from the vader: the early years bit, i was disturbed by the de-mystification of the force into nothing more than a parasite.
as Trion said, it’s become more of a duty than a pleasure to go see the new SW movies…and yes, I am also quite irritated at Lucas’ revisions of the OT. i know that its his right, but i still disagree.
is there anyone in sci-fi who can write children well?
Yup. Here are just a few things the new SW films are lacking that made the first ones so memorable:
-A wisecracking womanizing space pirate (now a movie archtype)
-The cool smooth taste of Lando Calarisian
-An cool bad guy who can actually stay alive longer than one movie (sorry Darth Maul)
-Ships that I would have actually wanted as toys (a silver-plated SR-71 Blackbird is no Millenium Falcon)
-The Goldan Bikini (Amadalas shredded jumpsuit is a close second though)
The last two movies confirmed the suspicions created by Return of the Jedi, that Lucas has immense talent on the production side of filmmaking but struggles with storytelling. With no one left as a check on his decisions, his deficiencies are more apparent.
Obviously any discussion can be dismissed with “It’s only a movie,” but where is the fun in that? The choice to have Han act in self-defense (vs. Greedo) substantially changes his character. OK, it was cliche, but it was still a good payoff at the end of the original movie to see Han shed his amoral mercenary attitude to join in the Death Star attack.
This fairly well describes exactly how I feel.
It isn’t so much that it ruins SW, it just kind of muddies the water.
I will say this, in a SLIGHT hijack: time and age have diluted my enjoyment of SW.
As my film tastes have grown and matured, and as I get older, I no longer get the rush from Star Wars. It only stays in my top ten because of Harrison Ford and Nostalgia. Mark Hamill was SO bad.
By the same standard, Indy has held up VERY well for some reason. I DON’T look forward to them making a new one though. I think Lucas HAS lost it.
I agree. Phantom Menace is an example of how one or two bad writing decisions can hurt an otherwise good movie. In this case, it was the decision to make Aanakin 9 years old instead of being a teenager. Because of that:
- Jake Lloyd was cast. The one lesson we can draw from the two prequels is that, in Lucas movies, there will be little or no help for the actors from the director. Thus, really good, experienced actors (like Christopher Lee and Ewen McGregor) do fine, while less-experienced actors (like Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen) are just left hanging out there. Lloyd never had a chance.
- The earliest part of the love story was screwed up and many opportunities for cracking wise and a Solo-Skywalker style rivalry for the hand of the Princess were lost.
- The parallel between Luke and Aanakin was lost. If Aanakin was the same age as Luke in ANH, then we could have seen Aanakin making the wrong decisions where Luke made the right ones at similar points in their lives.
- Aanakin’s extraordinary piloting skills would have been more realistic. I related to the teenage Luke’s piloting skills because he was at an age when I would have just learned to drive a car. I couldn’t have driven a car, much less have piloted a starfighter, at age 9.
- The same actor could have played the part in all three movies, we could have gotten attached to him, and thus his fall from grace would have been all the more tragic.
But, having said that, I still love the first three movies, I enjoyed AOTC and PM (although I recognize they both could have been better), and I am still looking forward to Episode III. In order to retain my sanity and hope for the future, I must believe it will be good.
Actually things have gone bad for me since RotJ. The story in Jedi just didn’t conform to what had happened in the previous 2 installments. Hey, Vader killed Luke’s father in the clone wars. I.e., they fought in the clone wars against each other, i.e., someone’s a clone… etc.
EP1 was also a tad non-confirming (as well as bad) and EP2 is worse from what I hear (refusing to see it). The overall story arc has changed from what it should be.
I guess I’m critic-proof b/c I saw SW so many times that it basically steered my life. I enjoyed TPM and AOTC. I certainly did NOT enjoy his tampering with the originals, however. Every tiny background change or even sound effect he changed from SW makes me lose it.
As for tying them all together, I reserve judgement until III comes out. If they don’t explain why C3PO acted like he had never been to Tatooine in SW I will be damn annoyed.
I liked Episode 1 and Episode 2. Now 99.8% of you can disregard the rest of what I have to say, I’m sure.
I would say that they do change how I see the Original Trilogy. But that’s a good thing. I like looking at stuff in a new way, especially if it’s surprising. If I were the kind of person who made assumptions based on an incomplete picture, and then got upset if those assumptions turned out to be wrong, then yeah, I would say that they ruined the original for me.
Quote from earlier post: “The prequels didn’t sour me on Star Wars. No, that was done by “Return of the Jedi.” After watching muppets in space, I gave up on the series.”
To which I can only add, for myself, AMEN.
No. I read Children of the Jedi. If they can’t ruin Star Wars for me, NOTHING will.