# What did George Lucas do right in the prequels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085 "2010-12-22T17:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/61 "2010-12-23T06:25:46Z")
Huh. I thought it worked quite well as hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/62 "2010-12-23T06:38:07Z")
> [@pricciar](#): > > Huh. I thought it worked quite well as hyperbole. So well that someone apparently took you seriously? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/63 "2010-12-23T06:44:27Z")
> [@Camus](#): > > The Plinkett review for Episode I is seven parts, each lasting roughly ten minutes, for a total of 70 minutes. Per IMDB, Episode I is 136 minutes long. If you’re going to repeat a tired canard, it’s best to make sure that it is accurate. This doesn’t even work as hyperbole. Oh, it’s a mere 70 minutes long. What were we thinking? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/64 "2010-12-23T07:12:57Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Oh, it’s a mere 70 minutes long. What were we thinking? :rolleyes: That is how bad the movie was. That is how much awful material the movie gave the reviewer to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/65 "2010-12-23T08:54:25Z")
> [@Camus](#): > > The Plinkett review for Episode I is seven parts, each lasting roughly ten minutes, for a total of 70 minutes. Per IMDB, Episode I is 136 minutes long. If you’re going to repeat a tired canard, it’s best to make sure that it is accurate. This doesn’t even work as hyperbole. Please. This is _literally_ the most pedantic thing I’ve seen in the entire thread.😉 Everything anyone has told me about that review video has pretty much sold me on never watching it. It really sounds pretty obnoxious. _shrug_ Back to the topic, I’d say that the absolute best thing in the prequels was the music. I had the soundtrack CD for The Phantom Menace and about wore a hole in it listening to it so much when it first came out. Lots of little subtle things too that I missed the first few times I listened to it too, like the fact that the parade march at the end of The Phantom Menace is the Emperor’s theme from Return of the Jedi, but in a different chord and sung by a happier choir. The way they used the Imperial march to hammer home just \*what \*the Clone Army was leading up to in Attack of the Clones wasn’t subtle, but it was brilliant. Not to mention the Jedi theme in Revenge of the Sith, particularly during the duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, and again at the end with Uncle Ben on Tatooine. That shot alone with Uncle Ben and baby Luke watching the suns rise was enough to make me actually _like_ the guy, even if he was a grouch in the original film. They wrung all the emotion out of that song that it was possible to get. Other things they did well? Ship design. Not just “ooh that CGI looks cool”, but how you could see how the designs of the ships progressed through the movies, how the Republic Cruisers go from basically an overglorified corvette in Phantom Menace to actual no shit Star Destroyers, but in little steps as the movies progressed. Ditto for many of the fighters we see (Kinda wish we had gotten to see more of some of the other fighters in Revenge of the Sith, instead of only a few faraway shots of the lighter fighters. As others have said, just overall world building, making this faraway galaxy an interesting place to look at. And yeah, acrobatic Yoda was cool, but he was much cooler when he was using the Force to manipulate the environment. The part where he caught one of the Senator Saucers™ that the Emperor had flung at him and sent it flying _back_? And the Emperor stopped laughing and got that “Uh-oh” look on his face? Loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/66 "2010-12-23T09:06:16Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Interesting opinion! Utter shit of course, I’m afraid, but fascinating. See, I happen to be the leading expert on what I mean. You’re right, I misspoke there. Obviously you know what you meant. I was, of course, commenting on what you _said._ My apologies for the mix up. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/67 "2010-12-23T11:18:01Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 1 > 2. Seriously, everyone has seen the Mr. Plinkett reviews. It’s getting to the point where mentioning them like no one else has seen them is…presumptuous, to say the least. There are a few people in this very thread that have said they have not seen them, citing the voice as the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Camus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba8739/32.png) [@Camus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/68 "2010-12-23T11:32:59Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Oh, it’s a mere 70 minutes long. What were we thinking? :rolleyes: [QUOTE=Raguleader] Please. This is literally the most pedantic thing I’ve seen in the entire thread. [/QUOTE] They were likely thinking that it felt LONG. Just say that - that it felt as long or longer than the bloody movie. Is it so difficult? There was nothing about those two comments, which were worded exactly the same and are typically used by people who don’t like the Plinkett reviews, that suggested they were hyperbole, mere opinion, or exaggeration. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/69 "2010-12-23T12:05:54Z")
Incidentally, I am amused to see that a discussion of Star Wars causes such spirited conversation on the Dope.😃 ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/70 "2010-12-23T13:59:03Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 1. I did mention in the starting post that I hate the prequels. > > 2. Seriously, everyone has seen the Mr. Plinkett reviews. It’s getting to the point where mentioning them like no one else has seen them is…presumptuous, to say the least. No, no we haven’t. Assuming everyone’s seen them just because YOU’ve seen them is presumptuous. I actually liked the prequels, and all the good points I can think of have already been spoken for. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/71 "2010-12-23T14:38:16Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > I only watched _The Phantom Menace_. > > Jar-Jar Binks was pretty well designed I thought. The big Gungan-droid battle was silly as a battle, but otherwise the Gungans were a pretty good comic relief race. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the design of the films had a lot going for it. The ships were beautiful - and as pointed out, nicely worked towards the design set that started “Star Wars” - the aliens were impressive as hell, the costume design was sensational. If there’s one area Star Wars films are always amazing, it’s in costuming. I don’t think it came together quite as nicely as the originals, partly because the world they created often seemed jarringly unrealistic. At times the fact that the actors were acting in front of a blue screen was really, really obvious, to the point of taking the viewer out of the scene. I don’t remember that happening in “Star Wars” or “The Empire Strikes Back” - they used a lot of real location shots. There’s still a level of versimil… versilim… you know, realism, that you get out of shooting on location that you just can’t get with CGI. The original trilogy presented a world that seemd lived in, if you know what I mean. It looked like a place inhabited by people. The new trilogy wavered on that point. Sometimes it looked lived in, sometimes not. But all that said, generally speaking the problem with the prequels was not the production values. They were mostly very, very good. An interesting discussion would be to ask why the prequels didn’t work, but “Avatar” generally did work, despite the fact that both had zillion dollar production budgets and spent enough nine dollars on script. I think - and this is just my humble opinion - that “Avatar” had a story of such absurd simplicity that it’s hard to fault anything with it. Yeah, it’s the same damned story we’ve seen a dozen other times, in “Dances with Wolves” and “FernGully” and what have you. But that story is so iconic that you can keep telling it and everyone just wants to know if you did an okay job presenting it. “Avatar” used a stock story to demonstrate amazing visuals. The story doesn’t get in the way. The Star Wars prequels, on the other hand, tried to present themselves as telling an interesting, intriguing story with political and moral themes, but failed to do so because they were so badly written; consequently, the story gets in the way of the production values. IT’s one thing to have a simple story like “Avatar,” but something else to have a story that doesn’t make any sense like “The Phantom Menace.” In the former case maybe you wish there was a better story but at least it works; in the latter, it doesn’t work, and it’s hard to NOT notice that the characters are illogical and contradictory and the story’s rife with holes and just is all twisted and silly. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/72 "2010-12-23T14:44:20Z")
In the Phantom Menace, everything was so overdone and over the top: The pod race that looked like a video game, the wacky Jar Jar hijinkery, the Gungan battle that looked like a cartoon, and yippee! Golly! Anakin saving the day by accidentally flying off in a space fighter, accidentally flying into the Trade Federation ship, and accidentally blowing all their stuff up by shooting some 50-gallon drums left sitting on the flight deck. But when all that was said and done, and everyone was on the ground congratulating each other and slapping each other’s backs, a barely-seen until now Senator Palpatine has a line that he’s impressed with Skywalker and is going to keep an eye on him. That was a wonderful, subtle, underplayed little bit that foreshadowed everything that was going to come into place for the next 2 to 5 movies without being all in your face like most of the rest of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/73 "2010-12-23T15:02:43Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Well, the reason the prequel trilogies were huge box office successes is that Lucas understood what people came to his movies for and saw that they got plenty of it. He delivered plenty of action, adventure, spectacular special effects, epic space battles, light saber duels, alien worlds (Coruscant was exactly how I imagined Trantor to be when I read “Foundation”) and Jedi derring-do vs. Sith vile treachery. What he did not and could not do is create movies that would answer all the problems of life, the universe and everything, incurring the wrath of fanboys forever, fortunately they are a small part of the total moviegoing public. So basically, if one enjoyed the Original Trilogy and was sorely disappointed with the Prequels, he is a fanboy who was looking for a world changing experience. _Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back_ was the best of all six because Lucas did not direct. Too bad he didn’t realize this. But yes, the CGI was much better, so that the on-screen visuals were much more vivid. I’ve read that Lucas did not do Coruscant in the OT simply because he couldn’t do it justice with the tools available to him at the time. But even with Hammill’s and Fisher’s wooden acting, their characters were more compelling than any but McGregor’s in the prequels. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/74 "2010-12-23T15:44:49Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > . But even with Hammill’s and Fisher’s wooden acting, their characters were more compelling than any but McGregor’s in the prequels. That’s not how you assess the cheese factor of the prequel trilogy compared to the original one. You just divide Original Trilogy Yoda by Prequel Trilogy Yoda. ---
**Author:** ![Walmarticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Walmarticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walmarticus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/75 "2010-12-23T16:14:22Z")
That thing he does where he makes some visual or auditory detail very unique, like how seismic charges go **bw_aaaa_ng**. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/76 "2010-12-23T16:20:38Z")
The special effects were extremely well done. Unfortunately, special effects do not make a movie and Lucas has forgotten that. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/77 "2010-12-23T16:59:25Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > That’s not how you assess the cheese factor of the prequel trilogy compared to the original one. You just divide Original Trilogy Yoda by Prequel Trilogy Yoda. You can’t divide by zero. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/78 "2010-12-23T20:08:06Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You’re right, I misspoke there. Obviously you know what you meant. I was, of course, commenting on what you _said._ My apologies for the mix up. Nah, you were just following your MO. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/79 "2010-12-23T20:56:19Z")
> [@Walmarticus](#): > > That thing he does where he makes some visual or auditory detail very unique, like how seismic charges go **bw_aaaa_ng**. I credit that, and the generally spectacular sound design of all 6 films, to Ben Burtt, not George Lucas. The “Order 66” scene was great. It helped, I suspect, that it didn’t have any dialogue, so there wasn’t any easy opportunity for Lucas to screw it up. Hmmm… what else? Ewan McGregor was excellent. The Darth Maul fight was cool (far better than the 100% CGI lightsaberfests of AOTC and ROTS). There was no shoehorned Baby Han Solo cameo, thank God. That’s pretty much all I can come up with. The prequels were three truly shit-tacular films, overall. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/80 "2010-12-23T21:03:51Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Nah, you were just following your MO. Actually, I do apologize for my last two posts to you. They were both unnecessarily pissy. Sorry about that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085.md?page=5)