Star Wars Prequels : How Would You Do It?

Cafe Society
1

So, I was reading AICN (Aint-it-Cool News) yesterday, and they had some “Jedi Council” articles about the upcoming Star Wars Episode 3.

And I read the complaints, and got to thinking.

How would I have, in general terms, structured the three Star Wars prequels, had the task fallen to me?

Star Wars : Episode 1 - Rise of the Dark Lord

We begin the saga from the perspective of the Sith. Darth Sidious and Tyrannus, possibly Maul. A substantial portion of the movie deals with them and their political machinations as they set up their strike against the Republic - meanwhile, with the forces of Light, Yoda senses disturbances in the Force. The Sith are rising - Jedi are dispatched to investigate far-flung corners of the galaxy. Obi-Wan, a Jedi Knight (not a Padawan - because we really didn’t need more made-up stupid words in the series) is sent to Tatooine, because Yoda sensed a presence there strong in the Force, one which he is puzzled not to have sensed before. On Tatooine, Obi-Wan hears stories about a young speeder-pilot (speeder races instead of “Pod” races) named Anakin Skywalker. The bulk of the “Light” side of the picture deals with Obi-Wan finding Anakin, sensing his potential, and convincing him (without consulting Yoda) to undertake Jedi training. Oh, and Anakin’s about 12 or 13. Sidious’s plan isn’t entirely clear at this point, but references might be made to the clone armies and the manipulation of factions in the Republic to foment civil war.

What we don’t get : Jar-Jar. Anakin’s wunderkind talents with mechanical repair, out of nowhere. Shmi ( :rolleyes: ) Skywalker. The painfully transparent “secret” of Senator Valorum.

What we DO Get : Consistency with Obi-Wan’s version of Anakin’s history fom Episode IV. More intriguing Sith details. Parallelism with Episode IV, since we’re focusing on the ‘Underdogs’ for much of the picture - the Sith, here.

Star Wars : Episode 2 - A Galaxy Shattered

The opening text-crawl explains that three years have passed. Civil War has erupted in the galaxy. Young Anakin Skywalker has begun Jedi training with Obi-Wan, despite Yoda’s reservations.

Naboo is on the front of the war, and over the course of the movie, Obi-Wan and Anakin spend much time there, along with Queen Amidala, and a romance blossoms between her and Anakin. She does not get all gooey after hearing him talk about slaughtering Tusken Raiders - rather, we see him fighting a little too aggressively in battle, but returning to a calmer, more centered state around her. 20 minutes to a half-hour into the movie, we hear about Naboo’s Senator whose been made the new Chancellor of the Senate, with special wartime powers, and we see Valorum for the first time - and see how Sidious is playing both sides. This would actually be a significant reveal. The Republic is faring badly in the battle - until the Clone Army is uncovered. With their forces bolstered, the Republic begins to crush the rebellious factions. We begin to see signs of Anakin’s friendship with Valorum in this one as well, and are told that Sidious purposefully cloaked the boy’s presence from the Jedi Council until he’d gotten too old for them to properly train.

What we Don’t Get : Jar-Jar. Death Star plans on Geonosis.

What We DO Get : Plausible basis for Anakin and Amidala’s romance.

And that brings us to Episode 3, which I can’t re-write until I’ve seen what Lucas did with it. I like the title, though. I’d want to see the Jedi Council dissolved half an hour in, and its members hunted down one by one by a mysterious assassin - not terribly mysterious to those of us who’ve seen the original trilogy, but mysterious nonetheless. Obi-Wan is lured to a secret meeting by his old student Anakin, barely escaping alive, perhaps.

2

I like this.

 I always felt that one of the biggest weakness with the prequels is that lucas simply goes with the assumption that Anakin will be Darth Vader. "Here he is, you know he will become the dark lord, watch how evil he can be".

 Not good storytelling. For us to care about his redemption in Return of the Jedi, for us to care about his slide into the dark side during the prequels, we have to LIKE him, or at least sympathize with his motives. Think how much cooler it would have been had Anakin be drawn as a character who the audience liked and was done well enough that some fans, despite knowing what he would become, would actually root for him NOT to turn to the dark side.

George! Give us a character who we regret seeing his fall into the dark side, give us a character who we understand WHY Amadala would fall in love with him. Not shitty-clorine, no Jar-Jar. Tell a GOOD story.
3

Just so, I’m clear on this, Gamera you would have had Valorum become the Emperor? Or Palpy would just use the assumed name so the audience didn’t make the connection until we saw him?

4

In the first film, we see only Sidious. In the second, we hear references to Valorum as the newly-minted Chancellor of the Senate - before finally seeing and hearing him, and making the connection to Sidious. We wouldn’t hear the ‘Emperor’ title until the third movie.

5 
You are confusing Valorum and Palpatine.

Palpatine is the future Emperor, and Sidious, played by Ian McDiarmid. He actually appears as both, in both Prequels.

 Valorum WAS the Chancellor in Episode I, but was voted out by the end of that episode, he was played by Terence Stamp
6

The very first mistake was casting Aanakin as a 9-year-old in Phantom Menace. He should have been 19 years old, like Luke was in A New Hope. If he’s 19, you get a love triangle between Obi Wan, Aankin, and Padme.

7

Well, CandidGamera, here’s how I see it. You need to move to Hollywood and get into the movie business, eventually working your way up to director. Twenty years from now when Lucas is dead and you’re famous, you’ll finally have the pull to do what you’ve always wanted: Remake Star Wars I-III.

I’m looking forward to it!

8

Sweetums, I think the change was part of Gamera’s re-write. We all know Palpatine will beocme the Emperor, but we know nothing about Valorum. Using references to him without actually showing him in the 1st film, keeps us guessing as to whether he’s a force of darkness or evil.

As much as I think I’d like to see Gamera’s version, allowing him to remake the prequels would be nearly as bad as allowing Greedo to shoot first. Lets keep revisionist history where it belongs… in the history books :wink: George will have to answer for his cinematic sins someday, all we can do is take comfort in the fact that Jar Jar pretty much has to die. (I mean come on, if Mace Windu can’t survive Episode III, what chance does a clumsy Gungan have?)

9

I’d have made him 16 rather than 19, but otherwise I agree. Making him nine was a double-error; not only does it put the prequels out of whack, but it makes Yoda look daft in TESB. He shouldn’t be making a weak excuse that Luke is too old to begin the training - he should be saying “For sake of fuck, Obi-Wan, his father too old to begin the training was at nine.”

Beyond that, I wouldn’t change very much except to beef up Darth Maul’s role a bit and cut out some of the more blatantly videogamish sequences. Mostly I’d be wanting them to be a little more adult in tone; the content is nearly all fine.

10

You know, I am. Thank you. Sorry. :slight_smile:

11

I expected this sort of comment.

You’re missing the point of the thread.

12

Which would be a good thing, since right now it’s just completely silly. Anakin is a petulant child; Amidala is a world leader. Riiiiight. :smiley:

13

I actually had the idea of rewriting Episode I after I saw it, since I felt it had the potential to be a much better film. I even downloaded a copy of the script from the Internet as a starting point.

It didn’t take me long to realize that there wasn’t much inherently wrong with the writing (with a few exceptions – e.g. mid-chlorians) – it was the bad editing and miserable performances that spoiled the movie. Even Jar Jar would have been tolerable with a different voice actor.

I like the idea of Anakin being older, although if another actor had been cast as Anakin or if Lloyd had given us a more serious, mature performance, it could have worked. He may have been nine, but he acted about four. Very annoying.

14

The thing about sci-fi prequels, especially when they come 20 years after the “sequels” that inspired them, is the technology required by sci-fi audiences. All the CGI we come to expect is improving at an exponential rate, yet in the SW universe, Luke Skywalker uses a TRS-80-envying targeting HUD to blow up the Death Star, while over a generation before him, people were running around with little Palm Pilots that could display a 3D holographic render of the entire Death Star with stunning detail. It’s like, technologically, the Empire must have devolved the entire universe or something. Sure, Lea’s stickybun hair style could have been some twisted retro fad, but how do we explain the fact that while Anakin’s new arm is this wondrous golden complexity, his future Darth Vader Suit has a control panel on the front of it that appears to have been modeled after a 1960’s electronic adding machine?

Maybe Sci-Fi prequels just shouldn’t happen. Yeah, we miss the surprise of Yoda and the “Luke, I am your…” well, you know; but starting from the beginning in the first place would certainly help with the techno paradox.

15

I’m not sure how I would do it, but I would certainly change things so that Anakin being trained and eventually turning to the Dark Side was Obi-Wan’s fault. I mean, wasn’t that the major point that made Alec Guiness’s Obi-Wan a character with depth. He somehow felt responsible for Vader and all the evil Vader has caused.

Related to that, Darth Saruman would not have been Yoda’s Padwan. I mean, if Yoda’s student goes bad, why should Obi Wan expect to do any better? In ANH, did Obi Wan not specifically say something to the effect that if he had been as good a teacher as Yoda, Vader would not have turned to the Dark Side?!

So… that was more of a rant than a suggestion. Sorry.

In short: no Jake Lloyd, much less Jar Jar, fewer “stars” cast in general, and somebody besides Goerge directing.

16

Part of the problem with the perquels is that there’s no tension. We know whats going to happen, and then it does. Lucas needed to set up a plot line thats resolution wasn’t obvious from having whatched the earlier movies. Watching Anakin become evil, fall in love with Padme, and watching the Emporor gain power is kind of boring, since we know what the end results will be.

17

Or at least not have Obi-Wan KNOW Darth Saruman. It might have been more effective if the fact that Darth Saruman was Yoda’s apprentice was something known only to, say, Yoda, Mace Windu, and, of course, Darth Saruman himself. Like, he had been expunged from the Jedi order and no one spoke of him. That might have also made Yoda’s reluctance to take on Luke more justified - he himself had tasted failure.

18

Well, yes. The idea is that the days of the Old Republic were a golden age and the days of the Empire that followed are a dark age.

Also, we haven’t yet seen anywhere that is more technologically advanced in the prequels than it was in the first trilogy. Tattooine is the same backwater planet it always was, Coruscant doesn’t appear much changed from the brief glimpse we got at the end of ROTJ:SE and the rest of the films are set on new planets.

19

I like the rewrite so far. If I may offer my own suggestion for the end of Episode III. After whatever it is that leads to Anakin’s massive physical damage and requires the suit, the camera should pan around a room with medical equipment and droids administering to him (though we can’t really catch a clear view of him), probably with a monologue from the Emperor in the background. As the camera comes around to face Anakin, the helmet is lowered into place. The screen fades to black, and just before the credits roll, the respirator clicks on.

20

Iamthewalrus: Absolutely chilling and brilliant. I love it. Which means it will never happen. :frowning: