Star Wars Episode II: The Movie that Could Have Rivalled Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode II: The Movie that Could Have Rivalled Empire Strikes Back

The second article on how the Star Wars prequels should have been made.

By Potterman - Jan 24, 2012 09:01 PM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars

If you haven't read the first article check it out here.




My main beef with Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones was that we saw a very small amount of the dark side in Anakin. I felt this should have been the movie that featured his ultimate turn. The Empire Strikes Back was the darkest of the originals. I felt episode 2 should have been the same. I mean nothing can compare to finding out Vader was Luke's father but I think we could have seen something that would have shocked us and left us on the edge for episode 3. So with that being said lets get started.

Star Wars Episode II: The Revenge of the Sith - note the change of title as a lot of the events that took place in the current episode 3 happen in my 2.

Moving into episode 2 the clone wars would have already started. We can still have the TV cartoon series take place. Just this time it takes place between 1 and 2 instead.

The first act starts with the invasion of Coruscant and the rescue of the Chancellor. Count Dooku dies, General Grevious escapes and not much changes for the scenes in 3. Continuing on in the first act we start to see the dark side creep up on Anakin. He continually loses his anger when meeting with the Jedi council and starts to disobey orders in the final battles of the Clone Wars. I think we need to see much more disobedience from Anakin both towards the Jedi council and Obi-Wan. He becomes more reckless and it becomes more and more obvious throughout the first act that his anger is taking control.

The second act sees the Jedi Council decide that Anakin be suspended from his actions in the clone wars and they designate him to stay on Coruscant to guard the Chancellor, thinking this is a way to keep him out of trouble yet playing right into Palapatine's hand. During Anakin's time on Coruscant Palpatine takes advantage and starts to push Anakin closer to the dark side. Discussing his dreams about the Queen and also showing him skills that make him more powerful but unknown to Anakin they are Sith skills. We also see Palpatine move closer and closer to his master plan of taking over the Republic with shrewd political maneuvering. We also get Obi-Wan and the last major battle with Grevious and the federation army to end the second act.

The third and final act sets in motion the end of Anakin. As his friendship with Palpatine has grown the Jedi council finally uncover Palpatine's plans. They also find out that Anakin has been studying Sith skills from Palpatine and they strip him of his Jedi Knighthood. The Jedi try to capture both Palpatine and Anakin and we see a battle between the 2 Siths and Yoda, Mace Windu, and other masters. Yoda is the only one to survive the battle and is rescued by the Queen, R2 and C3PO. The Queen sees what Anakin has become and completely loses the will to live. Palpatine issues order 66 and the army becomes controlled by Palpatine at the same time he announces the Jedi murder plot and takes complete control of the republic. Anakin then goes to the Jedi Council which is now occupied by only padawans and children. After destroying the temple Anakin is sent off to Mustafar to wipe out the remaining federation leaders. With Obi-Wan escaping Order 66 he learns from Yoda that the Queen has died (moments after giving birth) and Anakin has turned and is in route to Mustafar where he must be stopped. Obi-Wan meets Anakin where he is informed the Queen is dead and Anakin blames the Jedi and in turn Obi-Wan. We then get our final epic battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin that leaves Anakin in ruin and ends episode 2.

If this was done right this story could have been as shocking and amazing as Empire was. Instead episode 2 was mostly forgettable with very few memorable scenes. Also with clearing up Anakin's turn in episode 2 we get an entire movie on Vader, the Emperor, and the rise of the Empire. Oh how awesome it could have been...

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LoudNoises
LoudNoises - 1/24/2012, 10:44 PM
I'm not about to defend George Lucus and say that his prequels where anywhere close to meeting the expectations most of us had for them. But I can see why he structured the progression of the films the way he did.

I see where your going with your take on both episode 1 and 2. Your trying to get Anakin to turn to the dark side more quickly thus providing more screen time for Vader. While I see the appeal to do so, I would argue that if you rushed the story of Anakin becoming Vader and squeezed it all into the first 2 films then you would lose all of the emotional connection that the audience has to the character.

The prequels were ultimately about a tragedy. How the good guy became the villain. We as the audience are supposed to sympathize with Anakin because he was a good guy, but unfortunate circumstances caused him to make some bad decisions which lead him down a path of self destruction. We are supposed to like Anakin in the beginning and feel bad for him when he falls. If he started going on killing sprees by the 2nd movie then we would never believe that he was a good person in the first place and the audience wouldn't have any sympathy for him.

I don't care how much George Lucas says that Stawars is not about great dialog and more about great visuals. To me this has always seemed like an excuse for shitty writing. I think he got the progression right, but the story was ill concieved. And Hayden Christiansen is a terrible actor, even by George Lucas' standards. The character we are supposed to care about is destroyed by poor writing and horrible acting. This is what caused the prequels to fail in my opinion.
l0rdleg0las
l0rdleg0las - 1/25/2012, 12:30 AM
this is a good idea if they were planning on making only 2 prequel movies instead of a new trilogy.

by doing this you can't set up a 3rd movie. Amidala is already dead. Anakin is now Vader and this trilogy was about Anakin's evolution from good young boy, to angry young man to Sith Lord. Luke and Leia have already been separated which means you can't have any Obi Wan appearances as he is watching over Luke on Tattooine in hiding until Luke is an adult and he an old man. No appearances by Yoda as he is now in hiding on Dagobah.

so while this was an interesting take on how to better make Episode 2, it makes it all but impossible to make an episode 3
Potterman
Potterman - 1/29/2012, 2:39 PM
@loudnoises.

good points. But if you read my first post you still get 3 movies of Anakin. Its just the first movie is a children's cartoon/movie. So the progression is really the same as the current prequels. Its just that the childish episode 1 stuff is taken out and put into a different medium.

@Lordlegolas

You can totally have a 3rd movie after Anakin turns. If you wait to read my 3rd post you will see why. But ill give you a few right now just to help my argument. obi-wan learns how to communicate to Qui-Gon. We can get scenes of Obi-Wan becoming stronger and communicating with the dead Jedis like Mace and Qui-Gon. We can also get some training with Yoda and Obi-Wan. Nobody said Obi-Wan never left Tatooine. We might also be able to Obi-Wan defending Luke without him knowing it. We can also get scenes where Yoda helps coordinate the rebellion with the Senator. Theres tons of scenes of Yoda and Obi-Wan you can include in the 3rd episode. Not too mention the story should be about Vader and the rise of the empire.

Potterman
Potterman - 1/29/2012, 2:45 PM
also my progression is exactly what you just said in your comment

Episode 1: good young hero boy
Episode 2: angry young man who turns at the very end
Episode 3: Sith Lord
Potterman
Potterman - 1/29/2012, 2:47 PM
currently what we have now is

Episode 1: little kid who does hardly anything except accidently shoot and blow up an entire spacestation.

Episode 2: little teenage brat who occassional got mad.

Episode 3: Angry man who turns at the end.

I think we can do without the 4+ hours of little kid and teenage brat Anakin.
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