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Star Wars (again): To what extend has your appraisal of the Prequel Trilogy changed since the Sequel Trilogy?

My opinion of the prequels is...

  • Night and day, I now see what Lucas was doing and love him for it.

    Votes: 10 8.9%
  • Much changed, I appreciate the consistency and some of the drama a sight more now.

    Votes: 15 13.4%
  • Yeah they're the better of the two for sure.

    Votes: 37 33.0%
  • Look at my humorous star wars themed gif to compensate for my lack of input!

    Votes: 4 3.6%
  • I prefer the sequels.

    Votes: 5 4.5%
  • I dig the prequels even less, the sequel trilogy brought something to the table the prequels lacked.

    Votes: 3 2.7%
  • The sequels are hot stuff, I wish they'd retconned the prequels entirely along with the EU.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I think the Prequels are bantha poodoo, just as I did 15-20-odd years ago. Nothing changes this.

    Votes: 25 22.3%
  • I love the prequels, regardless of the sequels, maxi big da force.

    Votes: 13 11.6%

  • Total voters
    112

RavenSan

Off-Site Inflammatory Member
Dune's too esoteric to pull in a big enough audience for him to get a sequel out of it. I don't see it doing a whole lot better than BR 2049 to be honest, especially with it going straight to VOD. I just hope he manages to nail the first book as best he can.
Honestly I'll be happy if it's as good as BR2049. I fuckin love that movie. Probably in my top 5 sci-fi movies all time.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
I've always enjoyed the prequel trilogy, despite (and perhaps in part because of) the different feel to the OT. Both were great, but I think Lucas understood that his saga was a series, and the prequels shouldn't be the same story as the originals in a slicker coat of paint. A lesson JJ was painfully ignorant of, given TFA and ROS. And any hope of having coherency was killed with Rian Johnson stepping into the most crucial part of a trilogy (the middle) instead of letting one person have a vision.

The sequel trilogy has its moments, granted. The first battle with the Millennium Falcon, Rey's introduction, Han Solo, the light Saber battle on the Star Killer Base, the throne room scene with Stoke, Rey and Ren, Luke's Astral projecting, the final Rey and Ren fight, I mean...it's just a shame that these moments couldn't have been earned by a plotted out story.
 

Catphish

Member
Honestly, concerning the now-dubbed 'Skywalker Saga', Star Wars has been consistently disappointing to me beginning with the "special editions" of the OT that came out in the mid-90s. I thought most of the additions, with the exception of Cloud City and the enhanced space battles, were forced and in some cases, like the Muppet Show in Jabba's Palace, painfully fucking stupid.

The PT was mostly a cringy, boring slog, and the ST was just a complete nonsensical clusterfuck with no respect for what came before it.

That said, the ST was so bad, that it did make me appreciate the PT a little more, if for no other reason than it at least had the same heart as the OT, shoddy film-making notwithstanding.

Now, aside from those nine movies, I have to say, I really like Rogue One, and enjoyed Solo. They may not be perfect, but they at least feel more like Star Wars movies to me than anything that came out of the PT or the ST.
 
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Soodanim

Member
Last time I watched the 9 movies was 2019, and it was the first time for 8/9.

I don't think any of the 9 movies are all that special. Empire is the best, and I don't think the prequels are that horrible, but I don't put any of them up on a pedestal. I enjoyed the lore of the EU more than the 6 movies, and in current times Mandalorian is the best thing that exists. Mandalorian doesn't exist without what came before it of course, but I think it says something about the movies that a TV show came along and was that good.

When I started 9 I stopped during the opening crawl, went back, and skipped through the end of 8 because I thought I missed something. Little did I know, what I missed was in Fortnite. Of course, the most obvious place to look. Silly me. The Prequels might have gone a bit wild and flippy, but the originals had some downright shit action bits in. Laughably shit.
 

Corgi1985

Banned
As coherent movies the prequels are still trash, but they do have their moments. The ship designs are cool and the emperor and obi wan mostly carry the trilogy. Too bad the dialogue is trash tier.
 
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Pagusas

Elden Member
crap is crap, and both series are completely crap. Star Wars has now had 2 good films (ANH/RoTJ), 1 generation defining film (ESB), 1 decent film (TFA), 4 horrible abortions (TPM, CW, RotS, RoS) and 1 film that makes it onto my worst films ever made list (TLJ) How in the world Star Wars still has any relevance is beyond me. Thats 5 fricken stinkers to 4 good films.
 
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NahaNago

Member
They both weren't good. I would say that the sequels felt more like star wars but the story went crazy. The prequel kind of felt like a political soap opera. I kind of like some of the goofier parts of the prequel. I think I may like the prequel more because of Darth Maul.
 

Doczu

Member
crap is crap, and both series are completely crap. Star Wars has now had 2 good films (ANH/RoTJ), 1 generation defining film (ESB), 1 decent film (TFA), 4 horrible abortions (TPM, CW, RotS, RoS) and 1 film that makes it onto my worst films ever made list (TLJ) How in the world Star Wars still has any relevance is beyond me. Thats 5 fricken stinkers to 4 good films.
Man i like you, but calling the Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith abortion level movies, while placing TFA higher is a reeaaaaaaaaaaaaal stretch.
Come on man, at least put RotS in thr decent film level, TFA is not better, it's a remake of New Hope made with new tech.
 
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Pagusas

Elden Member
Man i like you, but calling the Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith abortion level movies, while placing TFA higher is a reeaaaaaaaaaaaaal stretch.
Come on man, at least put RotS in thr decent film level, TFA is not better, it's a remake of New Hope made with new tech.

Hey I like you too! But not enough to lower my standards :p

kidding, and RotS is borderline, and the best of the prequels, but it still made me feel bad when leaving theaters.

TFA was a copy, but it actually made me excited for the future of Star Wars. It *felt* like there were possibilities and we were going to get more good than bad going forward. I forgave it for the copy cat nature of its story thanks to it having to shoulder rebuilding the brand after the prequels hurt it. On top of that the direction and look of the film felt right, something I had big problems with regarding to the prequels.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Star Wars is a massive universe but at its core it’s Jedi vs sith with cool instruments like falcon, light sabers etc. there’s probably 250 billion species of aliens.
 

Liamario

Banned
The sequels are better. There's no scenario where the prequels are good. They're just not. You can't polish a shit, no matter how hard you try.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
The prequels are still shit. They completely destroyed the Jedi mythos. Turns out the Jedi were easily destroyed by a bunch of droids, and mainly of the humorous "Roger, Roger" type.
 

Saber

Gold Member
I understand the major dislike for the prequels, but I feel like they not only tried but deliver a very watchable and enjoyable movie. Thats the crutial part of any movie, make their public feel more like watching and wanting for more every time.

The sequels are bad movies and its not even by Star Wars standarts. You got that stupid feeling of "dIsNeY mAgIc", and feel like almost everything is a positive cheesy every so often. And don't get me start on the cast act, souless as fuck. The only thing I remotely like was the idea of a trooper somehow going against them, the idea it self is great. But good ideas are meanless if you don't know how to handle.

So in resume, the prequels are good movies but not fair SW movies, while the sequels are just trash regardless.
 

MacReady13

Member
I always have loved the originals. Little too young (not born for original) to have seen them on original release at the cinemas (born 1980) but did see the originals re-released late 90's on the big screen. Loved them even more.

Prequels were announced and my excitement was through the roof. Phantom Menace was released and I remember the word of mouth was good. Some critics loved it. Others not so much. I watched it with my family and was a little indifferent. Felt bored at the start but once things got going really enjoyed it. Watched it a few more times at the cinema and loved it more each time. Saw the other 2 at the cinema. Didn't love Attack of the Clones but it was still good. Loved Revenge. Thought it ended the prequels really well and set up the original 3 films perfectly fine.

Sequel time. Was very excited. Wanted to see what other film makers could do with Star Wars. Read all the reviews online. Glowing praise. I distinctly remember noted prequel basher (and all round fat cunt) Patton Oswald saying the last scene was iconic! How could this fail? I sat in the cinema, popcorn and drink in each hand ready to be blown away. Visually- stunning. But I'd seen all this before. Nothing wowed me. It was generic crap. I walked out so shattered. My brother was seeing the next session and I expressed my disappointment. Called my dad on the way home to say it felt like it was missing the Lucas touch.
Saw Last Jedi at the cinema and was again pissed. What the fuck did I see? And every critic loved it! Leia dies then comes back? How?! Fuck was I watching? Actually thought about skipping Last Skywalker, but considering I'd seen all of them at the cinema I thought, why not? Possibly the worst of the 3. Made no sense. Plot holes everywhere. Story made no sense. Too much going on. Felt like a 6 hour movie condensed into a 2 hour film. Terrible. I actually left the cinema really upset. They'd broken me.

So in conclusion, nothing touches the originals. The prequels are on the whole fine, and in fact I feel they are probably underrated films that get shit on cause it's the cool thing to do. The sequels are overrated tripe that I saw once and will never watch again. For me they are not a part of the proper Skywalker saga. Once George Lucas left the Star Wars saga to others they completely fucked it up.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
I've never really hated the prequels besides the script mainly. Just lots of cringe.
But no matter how much shit you want to talk about Star Wars, at least it's not as cringe as the LoTR trilogy

tenor.gif
 

Zangiefy360

Banned
I tapped out of the new trilogy after the absolutely terrible and force-fed trash that was The Last Jedi. I still have no desire to revisit the prequels and I don't think I ever will. I'm fine with the original trilogy being the only Star Wars movies in my collection.
 

Sybrix

Member
I always liked ROTS, it’s a really good film

I recently re-watched TPM and enjoyed it more now, it’s still an ok film but more enjoyable now

AOTC……….yeah……… it’s just bad and cringe at some points too

I think the sequal films will go the way of the prequels, in time they will be accepted
 
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Loved certain elements of the prequels. Think certain characters were vital to expanding the lore. Some cringe moments for sure, but it wasn’t a waste of time.
The sequels were disappointing and felt like they didn’t have a real plan...turns out they didn’t 🙄
 
I think I like prequels a bit more after disney disaster trilogy. I didn't like TPM but AOTC and ROTS were much better. Never got why people hated AOTC I liked how it opened the story and introduced new characters. ROTS was quite good just the Anakin turn from good to bad was to quick for me. Now the sequels. A mess without cohisive story, with 0 world building, giant plot holes and half of story elements stolen from original trilogy. TFA seemed good at first but the more I thought about it the more I disliked it. Not that bad but just a ripoff of TNH. And don't get me started on Starkiller base a magical super weapon that can shoot a beam with hiperspace capabilities, hits multiple targest with 1 shot and have 100% accuracy. And now the worst of Star Wars TLJ. Nonsensical plot, story is a big middle finger to both original trilogy and TFA, new characters are laughable, scenes taken directly from OT, whole stupid Canto Bight plot, milking scene, Leia totally wasted. I could go on for hours. TLJ was so bad that I skipped TROS.
 
Yes, the extremely unpleasant Disney trilogy did put things in perspective, and the prequels can now be seen as at least somewhat entertaining movies and a true expansion of the Star Wars universe.
 

Tschumi

Member
I've never really hated the prequels besides the script mainly. Just lots of cringe.
But no matter how much shit you want to talk about Star Wars, at least it's not as cringe as the LoTR trilogy
tbh on rewatches i can't stand the fast cut editing and vignette style they use... it plays like a very 00s tv commercial... 'how can we communicate the events of an afternoon in 5 minutes of screen time? montage!' ekh

still love them though sorry
 
tbh on rewatches i can't stand the fast cut editing and vignette style they use... it plays like a very 00s tv commercial... 'how can we communicate the events of an afternoon in 5 minutes of screen time? montage!' ekh

still love them though sorry

You talking about LoTR? I love the movies too but


0a015a48-bedf-4932-a681-1c25da5ff238_text.gif
 

NecrosaroIII

Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
Prequel trilogy is still mostly shit but it's better than sequel trilogy.

Only good star wars movies are 4 5 and 1
 

Dr.Guru of Peru

played the long game
Complete shit movies that were just extended action figure commercials. The sequels (except TLJ) are vastly superior but still flawed movies.

honestly, the original trilogy sucks too. The best Star Wars movies are Solo and Rogue One.
 
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The prequels have beautiful music. I also like Obi-Wan's portrayal by Ewan McGregor in Episodes II and III. I think the prequels have imagination and potential, but fell flat on their face in execution - which is sad, and I don't despise them anymore like I once did. Clone Wars content, video games, books and other media have softened me in that regard, and have somewhat replaced the prequels in my mind. I feel if George had a legitimate person in authority challenging his decisions creatively, and faced the struggles and constraints he did with the OT we may have had something decent.

The sequels aren't worth anything really.
 

EekTheKat

Member
Sequel doesn't change how I viewed the Prequels.

I thought the Prequels were fine, kind of more of the throwback to the serials of the age that inspired Star Wars. It was never meant to be high theater but just your usual good vs evil plot wrapped up by a conspiracy theory.

Prequels were also the start of the show/explain too much era of film making thanks to abundant use of CG. The Original Trilogy showed just enough of the lore so that people filled in the blanks/missing parts in their own minds.

Disney Sequel trilogy seemed like it was written by a bunch of writers who re-watched the whole trilogy over a weekend and copied the bits that they liked, without really understanding what made those things work. Vader didn't need to be an angry raging edgelord for him to resonate with the kids for example.

I mentioned this in another thread I think, but an old man sitting in a hut talking about the Clone Wars in the Original Trilogy did so much more lore building than Disney ever did with a hundred million in CG budget on their gigantic fan film. Old trilogy the universe felt big and was expanding. Disney Trilogy the universe was small and seemingly shrinking.

Also I should not have to play Fortnite to understand part of what was going on in the Rise of Skywalker.

The Sequel Trilogy was basically really expensive fan fiction propped up by Disney megabucks. Kind of funny that old joke Spaceballs 2 : the Search for More Money wasn't too off the mark after all.
 

Tschumi

Member
Rogue One.
Can i just say i disagree here?

I recently watched Rogue One again and, yeah, they could hardly fuck up characters over a trilogy if they only live for one film, but it really didn't strike me as a particularly good flick. I thought the characters were about as cliched as any other Disney star wars character, the locations too... The contrived exploratory hoops they had to jump through to justify the final act of the film feel arbitrary as any in the sequels... The edgy edge grit... the darth vader scene was great the first time but it just feels more frustratingly shoehorned in every time i watch it.. Also Bothans are a[n annoyingly political and self serving] species and no fucking Bothan spies were anywhere near that film..

I mean, I'm not trying to argue, this above rant was for the thread at large, not only for your benefit eheh, i respect ur opinion.

Empire is the best, imo.
 
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MrMephistoX

Member
The prequels are fun films but Portman and Christensen were young inexperienced actors and likely too timid to say no to bad dialogue and just improv or rewrite it on the fly like Carey Fisher and Harrison Ford. More experienced actors could act around it like Ian McDiarmid, Peter Cushing, Ewan McGregor and Alec Guiness. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in particular were masters of dealing with bullshit scripts from their low budget Hammer Horror days and acted around the bad dialogue and modified lines. I’d be willing to be Portman and Christensen would be way better at handling it today and could almost redub their lines in whole thing to make it a way better trilogy.
 
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Tschumi

Member
I always have loved the originals. Little too young (not born for original) to have seen them on original release at the cinemas (born 1980) but did see the originals re-released late 90's on the big screen. Loved them even more.

Prequels were announced and my excitement was through the roof. Phantom Menace was released and I remember the word of mouth was good. Some critics loved it. Others not so much. I watched it with my family and was a little indifferent. Felt bored at the start but once things got going really enjoyed it. Watched it a few more times at the cinema and loved it more each time. Saw the other 2 at the cinema. Didn't love Attack of the Clones but it was still good. Loved Revenge. Thought it ended the prequels really well and set up the original 3 films perfectly fine.

Sequel time. Was very excited. Wanted to see what other film makers could do with Star Wars. Read all the reviews online. Glowing praise. I distinctly remember noted prequel basher (and all round fat cunt) Patton Oswald saying the last scene was iconic! How could this fail? I sat in the cinema, popcorn and drink in each hand ready to be blown away. Visually- stunning. But I'd seen all this before. Nothing wowed me. It was generic crap. I walked out so shattered. My brother was seeing the next session and I expressed my disappointment. Called my dad on the way home to say it felt like it was missing the Lucas touch.
Saw Last Jedi at the cinema and was again pissed. What the fuck did I see? And every critic loved it! Leia dies then comes back? How?! Fuck was I watching? Actually thought about skipping Last Skywalker, but considering I'd seen all of them at the cinema I thought, why not? Possibly the worst of the 3. Made no sense. Plot holes everywhere. Story made no sense. Too much going on. Felt like a 6 hour movie condensed into a 2 hour film. Terrible. I actually left the cinema really upset. They'd broken me.

So in conclusion, nothing touches the originals. The prequels are on the whole fine, and in fact I feel they are probably underrated films that get shit on cause it's the cool thing to do. The sequels are overrated tripe that I saw once and will never watch again. For me they are not a part of the proper Skywalker saga. Once George Lucas left the Star Wars saga to others they completely fucked it up.
Posts like yours are the reason i ask questions like the OP at all.

I was born in the late 80s, so the 90s remaster 3-VHS box was my introduction to SW.. Loved it. I adored the whole TPM environment, the games they made for it - jedi power battles in dreamcast, awesome co-op.. pod racer, starwars starfighter, heaps else.. that xbox game obi-wan lolll... I watched the movie dozens of times and never thought of criticising it because of my age. I was pretty much the same about Ep 2.. loved the games, that tank one, battlefield, republic commando, starwars starfighter 2, etc.. i thought the movie was epic, maybe not as free from criticism as tpm... by the time ep 3 came out i was older and, it didn't light the same fire of imagination in me so i don't look at it as favourably as the first two. If i were 2 years younger i might have liked it, too.

Sequels.. watched each with my girl, had problems with each of them before i even left.. feel like all the interesting plot points of the first film were entirely dissipated by the end.. star wars is full of shameless merchandising but maz kanarfa or whatever she's called felt like a crime against humanity...i honestly, automatically, mentally shifted into a different trilogy, in my mental space, as ep 9 gradually pulled further away from the first two.. like in my mind ep 7, 8 and 9 are all entirely disconnected movies and i regularly... It's really rare for me to do this but i was smirking/grimacing from the moment the emp was resurrected in ep 9
 
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It's not like Star Wars is the best thing ever, but those prequels are horrible. Episode I doesn't have much meat to it but it's comfortable, II is close to being the worst movie in the world and III is enjoyable if you turn your brain completely off.

Compared to VII being fun, VIII being interesting and IX being horrendous (and IV being fun, V being good and VI being whatever) it's hard to argue how the prequels are absolutely horrible to anyone who enjoys movies.
 
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Toons

Banned
I like the sequels WAY more than the prequels. Ill watch the worst of them over the best of the prequels any day
 

Paltheos

Member
What do you mean? There's only 3 star wars films

The best response. The other 6 movies aren't even worth consideration. They're all shit, at that level where they're not even worth discussing.

What's been weird for me is this bizarre quasi-renaissance around the prequel movies for some, as if there was something of value there to begin with that we all just didn't see. Yeah, they might be better than the new movies on average but we're talking average 4/10 vs 3/10 movies here. I just don't see that it's worth all this discussion. Just 3 Star Wars movies in total. Done.
 

Scotty W

Member
I swore off Star Wars after 8. The prequels are cringe, but I would watch a new George Lucas directed Star Wars in a heartbeat.
 
Doesn't really change anything. If anything the sequels make the prequels look a bit more coherent and slightly more conceptually interesting. They are still the same goofy flawed movies that I still sort of like though.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
Both shit on the original films but the ST shit on it then burnt it to cinders.

plus the PT despite some bad dialogue was fun. The ST was just a mess all over.

Rey and Kylo could have been Jacen and Jaina trained by a happy Luke. But nope.
 

Doczu

Member
The only good things we got from Disney SW are rhe shows and spin off movies. It's like the suits didn't even bother with them and that saved the productions. Tgat says a lot.
 
The prequels are utter trash and always will be. On-screen character assassination of Anakin Skywalker. And don't give me that shit about Luke, he wasn't done the way they did Anakin for 3 films.

The narrative that the ST was anywhere near as bad as the PT is laughable.
 

Gp1

Member
Both episodes 1 and 2 are bad. EP. 1 is a disposable bad child adventure of the 80/90's with some really cool scenes here and there.
EP.2 is just heartless. Here the bad CGI really pops out. It plays like one of those bad pre rendered games of the PS1/Saturn era. The visual is strange, the script is bad and the delivery is laughable. Those dialogues between Annie and Padmé were cringe even before the gen z'ers kidnaped the word. The only scenes that I can remember without squeezing memory are just plain bad (ok, the yoda scene was cool... At the time....).

Now EP 3 is a really good movie that gets bashed way more than it deserves. Still leagues ahead of every single Disney era movie (bar Rogue one) and it's a worthy conclusion of the saga. It has one or two bad/over the top scenes here and there but you know what Lucas was trying to sell there.
The prequels has 2 bad movies and 1 really good with some problems, but they are coherent and they fells like Star Wars in a era before the empire and the OT. They feel like something you expect from the universe at that timeline.

From the Disney trilogy, EP.7 was good when you consider that you are introducing the saga to a new generation. The fell is there, some beautiful scenes, etc. When you consider that they didn't know were to go with the story (and that the 30 years immediately after the fall of the empire looks way more interesting than the garbage collector daughters saga...), you accept that it would have to be some sort of millennial/GenZ rehash from the OT so fans can recognize and newcomers can relate.
The problem lies with the fricking EP 8 that literally raped 40 years of fandom and canonicity and left EP.9 (and the entire trilogy) in a unsalvageable state from every single point of view. They would need a 4:00 hours movie and use every single cheap narrative device (like they did) just to give EP.9 some sense of direction and conclusion to a trilogy.

So yeah.
When you look back, between dead and wounded, you see and respect what Lucas was trying to achieve with the prequels, from the top of his director chair in air conditioning.

Ps. Rogue one is a curious case. It's good, but when you see the trailer you know that (like every other blockbuster from that time) it was butchered by producers and PR in the editing room. It could be way better than it already is...
 
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ManaByte

Member
Ps. Rogue one is a curious case. It's good, but when you see the trailer you know that (like every other blockbuster from that time) it was butchered by producers and PR in the editing room. It could be way better than it already is...

Actually the opposite happened. The original version of Rogue One basically had the cast dying on the beach before getting to the bunker (you can see this in some BTS stuff they released where Cassian basically gets shot in the back). A certain Disney executive extremely extremely extremely high in the chain HATED the original cut. So they brought in Terry Gilroy (who also did the reshoots on Edward's Godzilla) to redo the third act.
 
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