As I said and have said many times, I am a life long Star Wars fan. I still remember the night my father came home from work with the original saga boxset on VHS, at eight o'clock for the next three nights me, my father and younger brother would sit and watch the movies, and I fell in love with them.
I even remember my father telling me about how there would be a prequel series and having him explain to me what a prequel was.Then arriving late at the cinema on 16th July 1999 the day Phantom Menace was released and getting to my seat as Qui Gon Jinn meets Jar Jar Binks *shudders*
As the years went by my life changed but what didn't was the way, older fan's had a much different view of these new movies than what people my age did, of course this was before I could see the major difference's between the two sets of films.
Now I'm in my twenties and see the obvious fact, the originals are better but I still enjoy the prequels and here I'm going to list my top five highs and low's.
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Low's
5. Meaningless Characters
Okay are we all thinking Jar Jar? he seem's to be the main point of interest when discussing the annoying sides of the prequels and yes, Jar Jar Binks was very annoying and yes I understand he was added as the comic relief of Phantom Menace but still, the prequel movies didn't have one character following the group acting the clown the whole way through did they?
Yes there were funny character's but they didn't cause cringey moments that George Lucas imagined the world would laugh at, I can just see him sat in his office, crying with laughter as he wrote this 'funny' character into the script saying to himself "This is what the fan's want!", all in all Jar Jar serves a purpose but we have to wait too long for that purpose to show up.
Dex Jettster, he give's Obi-Wan a little info and serves as a little visual into the black market side of the galaxy but are you telling me, Obi-Wan would have had to go to him of all people to get some info on a dart? there are honestly no jedi that know of Kamino darts? yes the Kamino archive's were erased but no one knows about them? Obi-Wan could have just found out about it off screen and ended up heading to Kamino, meaning no conversation needed between the pair.
All in all a lot of characters were added and given back stories when they didn't need them, yes thats fine for the expanded universe and so on but don't waste movie time introducing us to character's we don't need here's an example, Anakin's pal on Tatooine, forgot his name why? because he didn't need one as we never saw him again and to be fair we didn't need to see him yet he got a back story and a future.
4. You Had A Crush, Don't Get Weird About It
Attack Of The Clones is cool because we get to see a different side of the universe, almost an update, we see Lucas give us a Coruscant night life scene, it serves a small purpose I guess and we soon move on with the rest of the movie.
Do you know what we don't move on from? Anakin saying he has been in love with Padme for the last ten years, hasn't seen her in ten years and only knew her for a few day's ten years ago. Okay ten years ago, I kissed a girl fancied her and all that, but if I saw her now I wouldn't want to change my life and disobey my lifestyle to be with her and end up ruining the galaxy and so on.
Basically Anakin's 'love' is in reality "I'm a creepy weirdo that for the last ten years, hasn't been allowed to touch girls so I'm going to pressure this one girl into loving me". Seriously I understand love at first sight and all that but Anakin claims that he has thought about her every day since he last saw her and is upset that she hardly looked at him.
I have a friend on Facebook that is hot, so next time I see her I'm going to tell her I've loved her since the day she accepted my friend request, sorry if I help create a galatic empire folks.
3. I Don't Use Photoshop The Background Here Always Looks Over The Top
The over use of CGI, is something many fans blame for the hate of the prequels, and its understandable, infact I'd like to know how many actual on set locatons where used, how many costumes and extras were used. One of the best things about the original's were how great the onet locations were, the costume designs and make up and pratical special effects where.
Lucas seemed to have enjoyed using CGI to the point that he added way too much to something that needed little, imagine your making a cake and taste the icing you have ready and then decide your just going to make an icing cake, A. your not making a cake your making a pile of icing that'll taste sickly, B. It'll melt in the oven and C. It'll make a mess, get what I mean?
It was only during Episode Three: Revenge Of The Sith that my friend leant over to me in the cinema and said "Don't you think their going a little heavy on the CGI?" that is when I realized Lucas must have thought about the money he would make using these effects and not onset locations and paid actors and make up artist's.
Yes the original series would use the same actor to play different roles but its better than using the same machine to make multiple copies of the same computer animated character standing still.
2. Let's Make Him Angry
Now I understand Anakin was meant to fall to the dark side, I understand that fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
But what I don't understand is why they decided it was a good idea to make Anakin so angry in the last two prequel movies?, yes during Attack Of The Clones he should have been angry when his mother died, but he was constantly bitching about Obi-Wan in that movie.
Anakin and Obi-Wan were supposed to be like brothers, yes brothers fight but Anakin seems so angry with Obi-Wan through that whole movie, where was the love between the two?
I personaly think this is what puts fan off Hayden Christensen's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker, because we don't get the time to like the guy as he is constantly angry with something, during the original saga we were led to believe that the two got on well until Anakin's fall to the dark side, I can't remember a scene in which they showed they really enjoyed each other.
Anakin seems to be the worst Jedi ever, the way he's arguing with his senior Jedi and going against not only his master's but his religions beliefs, it all seems very unjedi like.
We should have seen a happy, nice and all in all decent Anakin Skywalker, so that when we see him burnt up and put in the Vader suit we're like "Aww man he was such a cool guy too!" instead we were saying "I prefer the chargrilled, heavily smoked Anakin, he doesn't seem as much of a dick"
Instead of being so angry when arguing with Obi-Wan or telling Padme about how the jedi don't trust him or whatever the day's moan was about, he could have been seen as sad or concerned about it and that would have let us feel for him, thus liking him more.
1. Where Are The Jingles?
Okay this will seem stupid to most of you but, one of the things I loved about the original saga was the little tunes that I'd come away humming in my head, from Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes - Mad About Me (also known simply as the Cantina Band Song), Max Rebo Band - Work It Out or the cute little chime the Ewoks do as they carry the tied up Han, Luke and Chewbacca to their settlement.
In the prequels I'm sure there are none of these, considering the years before the clone wars were supposed to be happier times, the times of the empire's rule seemed to have a lot more tunes.
Again I'm sure there will be a few of you saying "How can this be your number one low of the prequels, but one of the things I associate with my love for Star Wars are the tunes and this was a dissapointment to me.
Maybe one day, the next update on the sage will have the Max Rebo Band playing Work It Out on Mustafar as Anakin and Obi-Wan duel over the firery pits of molten lava, the blue elephant looking dude will be there happily jigging away, we can all live in hope..... some might say a New Hope.
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High's
5. Questions Answered
I always wanted to know, who was Luke and Leia's mother?, where did Boba Fett come from?, what had Anakin been like?, How many Jedi where there? and so on, sure we had a lot of answers for questions we weren't asking, 'Who was Anakin's mother?, Who was the most annoying creature in the galaxy?' but most questions we had were answered.
Although many complain about the prequels, they did set the orginals into shape in a way, with the clone wars and so on, but one question I was happy they answered was something that had bugged me for years was the question of how Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were related to Luke, now I know it says right there 'Uncle and Aunt' but I always thought this was a mistake.
They were never mentioned after they were killed and so it was always a challenge to me, which was resolved.
4. Jedi
I always wondered what the Jedi would have been like, I imagined them to all be fairly similar to Obi-Wan and Yoda but when we met them in the original's they were both in excile and had gone fairly crazy.
But seeing the Jedi in the prequels really gave justice to the qutoe:
"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic... before the dark times... before the empire"
I now know the power, sadness and full meaning of this when Ben Kenobi says it in A New Hope, you can see a slight sadness in his eyes,and thanks to the apperiance of the Jedi in the prequels we know they were exactly as he said.
Of course Jedi like, Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Master Yoda, Qui Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi made being a Jedi seem like the coolest role in the galaxy, protecting the weak and so on being the superheroes of Star Wars.
It makes the Order 66 scene so much more powerful seeing these protectors of the galaxy fall at the hands of their trusted allies the clones, the prequel did a few things right and the way the Jedi were portrayed was one of them.
This scene in Episode Three: Revenge Of The Sith had me wide eyed, open mouthed and speechless, the fall of the Jedi, I had sat through the movie I kept asking myself "How are the Jedi going to fall?" I knew there weren't any about apart from Obi-Wan and Yoda in the next movie but as the movie went on I wondered if we would see their fall.
Then with that line "Execute Order 66" the clones turned on their Jedi masters and gunned most of them down, seeing Yoda turn his suprise attack back on his attackers was amazing.
2. The Duel's
One thing I am certain about is that the prequels held some amazing duel's, from Qui Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul's duel on Naboo, to Anakin and Obi-Wan's tense duel of fate across the dangerous Mustafar, the thing I looked forward to the most about the prequels were the lightsaber battles and by all accounts they delivered.
Before the prequels I had always favoured Luke and Vader's duel on Bespin's Cloud City, the fear Luke must overcome to keep a firm stance and keep up hope of surviving a duel with the feared Lord Vader, walking through dark corridors only to have Vader jump out and strike, it was something me and my brother would play as kids.
But Anakin and Obi-Wan's duel took place as my favorite, I knew it would be an amazing duel as it was after all the duel that left Anakin needing a cybernetic suit to survive, but also it was going to be the last the two men would see of each other until that fateful encounter on the Deathstar in A New Hope.
I think they got every duel just right, the way they showed each Jedi having their own style and so on, but considering there were only three duels in the original saga, this was amazing, seeing Jedi take on different Sith was always exciting.
It set for a different era and we also see that the elegance and danger out a lightsaber duel, compaired to the usual blaster stand off's in the original series due to the demise of the Jedi the key weilders of lightsabers.
1. Obi-Wan Kenobi
I always saw old Ben Kenobi as a sad role, and Sir Alec Guinness rules it, my father always spoke of how great an actor he was and so it made me think of the role highly, then again the character of Obi-Wan is quite sad its self during the original series era, he was a lead Jedi knight/master during the clone wars era and he had to leave that life behind due to his most trusted, loved friend Anakin's betrayal to the Jedi and fall to the dark side, leading Obi-Wan to excile on Tatooine to watch over young Luke Skywalker but from a distance.
Then when Ewan Mcgregor took the role in Phantom Menace, we saw a whole new character, a younger Obi-Wan that was under the guidance of his master Qui Gon Jinn, Mcgregor owned the role, he was the character I wanted to be when we played it as kids and he was the character that stayed true to himself during the whole saga.
Obi-Wan grew during the prequels and I can't think of a way he can be faulted in those movies, he played the part well, and to this day I can't watch the scene where he hands over baby Luke to Beru and he gives one last look before going off to settle in his excile, without tearing up.
He gave such a humbling performance, I think he was the true star of the prequel movies.
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So do you guys and gals agree with me? What would be your top fives?