Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

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i hate it. how about you, my lovable and caring friends here at wrong planet?

I prefer they weren't part of the Star Wars universe. They're good for entertainment purposes but as far as Star Wars go, there's only the original trilogy for me.

Oh, they're garbage.

I'd recommend checking out Plinkett's Star Wars prequel reviews - impressively in-depth movie analysis, done by a fictional character who is completely psychotic, occasionally interrupted by insane ramblings and scenes with disturbing implications. Funny stuff. Not for sensitive viewers.

Episode I
Episode II
Episode III

Shamefully I have never gotten around to watching Episode VI or Episode V (Only the Family Guy parodies ).

The Phantom Menace wasn't great and Jar-Jar Binks is just so hateable (although the video game of it on the PS1 is one of the greatest games of all time ).

Attack of the Clones was a lot better. I loved the fight between Yoda and Count Dooku.

Revenge of the Sith was awesome; full of action, brilliant special effects and an absolutely cracking ending. Also it was the easiest for me to understand the story (and I'm not great with following a plot at all).


Hate me if you must, but these are my opinions.

I'd sooner be raped by jar-jar than listen to that guy drone on.

Redlettermedia is amazing. I can't believe they finally released the episode 3 review. Been waiting forever for that.

Episode 1: I really didn't mind Jar Jar (hell, I loved Jar Jar as a kid), but there are humongous plot holes, way too much politics, and some stale acting. I liked it when I was 5, but not so much now. Oh, and stereotypes.

Episode 2: The whole Clone wars conflict isn't really explained, so really, it's hard to believe that a conflict would arise from a simple split off. Also, Anakin and Padme's romance is wooden as hell. Thankfully, it had nice action scenes.

Episode 3: I have no issues with episode three other than the part at the end where it is stated that Padme had lost the will to live.

I admit that the Prequel Trilogy was full of huge holes. The villains were the best part of the story. Christopher Lee is good in any film and that Palpatine character is the most interesting part the whole story. I believe the actor was McDiarmid, a fine actor. He is cunning and brilliant as villain disguised as nice guy.
The fight scenes were mostly good, a bit overdone at times. On the Good Guy side, there was a disappointment. The actor who played Kenobi (McGregor?), he was good. Neeson was good. Sam Jackson was good.
The actors that played Anakin and Padme looked pretty and otherwise were whiny and annoying. Perhaps it was the fault of the script. Their romance was wooden as noted before. It was also cheesey and overdone.
The prequel trilogy is worth watching on TV when you have time. Not worth buying or going to a cinema. Episode One was the worst of them.

why was episode I called "the phantom menace"?

Because the Jedi don't know about the secretly plotting bad guy (Darth Sidious), making him a phantom menace. Even though he should be a glaringly obvious menace. In short, because the Jedi council are morons.

seriuosly, what happened to george lucas in between 1983 and 1999?

To understand the answer to that question, one must look at what made the original trilogy what it was.
Episode IV: George Lucas writes a script. People tell him it's not very good, and what needs to be fixed in order for it to work. George then fixes the script, presumably with some help, before he shoots the movie, which turns out to be very very difficult, but in the end the movie is pretty good. A marvel of special effects at the time, and a fairly passable story.
Episode V: George Lucas is so tired from the experience of making the first movie, that he lets someone else make the second movie. It turns out that Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan crank out a script that's a lot better than anything George Lucas could have written, and Irvin Kershner does a good job directing it. In the end, the movie is a genuinely good movie.
Episode VI: By this time, George Lucas has established himself as a visionary, mostly thanks to collaborating with others. And he continues to collaborate. This time he co-writes the screenplay with Lawrence Kasdan, and leaves the directing to Richard Marquand. Problem is, George has at this point made such a name of himself that nobody questions him when he suggests...Ewoks. "Cute little teddy bears save the day in the end! You know, for the kids!" - nobody goes "Hey, wait...that sort of comes out of nowhere. We do have this whole thing about Leia being Luke's sister and all that.... Wouldn't it make more sense if Leia saved the day, using the force? Or just by helping her brother stay away from the dark side... It'd make a nice statement and it'd work great thematically!"; Instead they just went "Oh...um...okay, George, that sounds great. Let's...yeah, let's do that. Teddy bears. I love it! Don't we all love it? We love it. Call Henson."

Then cut to the late nineties, George Lucas is a legend. He's got his own money. He finds himself in a situation where if he doesn't do something with this money, he's gonna get into a bit of a situation, so he decides "Hey, I'll just make more of these here Star Wars movies! I am after all a genius! That's what everyone keeps telling me!", and he makes...
Episode I: George figures "I've got the experience. I can crank out a script. No problem.", and he does. He cranks out a terrible script and he shows it to his people, who all say "It's brilliant, George!". And there's no studio to complain, because at this point George is the studio. And he figures "Hey, if I use a lot of computer graphics, I won't have to go through as much trouble I went through making the first movie, so I'll just direct this one myself - piece of cake." So he directs it, and it's terrible.
Episode II: "Hey, what if I shoot almost the entire movie in front of a blue screen?"
Episode III: "Well, that worked great, let's do it again. Oh, script? Um, I'll do that over the weekend. Start designing ships! Call the scotsman and that guy with the girl's name, and Natalie Portman."

The answer to your question: There's no one left to tell George that he needs to fix things.

so, i guess you don't like return of the jedi?

Star Wars: Republic is the best thing to come out of this franchise.

If you're talking about the Republic comic series, than yes. It was so much better than the prequel movies. Most of Dark Horses Star Wars comics are extremely deep and well written, and by far much better than the literary crap that makes up most of the Expanded Universe.

It's alright, has its good bits, but it shows clear early signs of franchise decay, mainly through the Ewok storyline, which seems to serve no purpose other than to make the main characters less important and to sell more toys (Don't like action figures? Have a Star Wars teddy bear!) and open up for spinoffs, which did happen (Ewok movies and cartoons).
Jedi is nowhere near as bad as any of the prequels, but it's a bit of a mess compared to Empire.

I don't hate the prequels to the degree that some people do. In retrospect it would have been better had Lucas just left the whole thing alone and not bothered - only then the clamoring for him to make more Star Wars movies would never have died down. They do have a few redemptive moments (every time Yoda fights, for instance) but they all suffer from screen plays that are simply not very good.

But bottom line is, the movies succeed mostly only in bringing down (or, dare I say it, neutering) much of the original trilogy. They go a long way towards de-mystifying both The Force, the Jedi, and Darth Vader, and thus ruin a lot of the original trilogy. All three (but especially the latter two) of the prequels are special FX tour-de-force's, but at the same time the FX in them were evolutionary and not revolutionary as was the case with the original Star Wars.