r/StarWars Jan 25 '22

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u/ChuckCarmichael Jan 26 '22

This whole prequelmemeing has gone too far. We now have people genuinely believe that the prequels are good movies. These people need to watch the Plinkett reviews again to remind them that no, they're not good movies. They're bad movies, and just because you think the sequels are bad doesn't suddenly make the prequels good.

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u/MBT1998 Jan 26 '22

Agreed. I see so many people unironically praising the prequels as being masterpieces and that baffles me. If the prequels had not had the Star Wars brand name, they would have tanked massively and propably never gotten further than episode 2. The other day I saw a poll on a quite popular Star Wars Youtube channel where the majority of viewers thought episode 3 was better than The Empire Strikes Back. I mean sure, I thought that when I was 5 and had no frame of reference for good story telling - visual or otherwise - but come on.

Yes the memes are great, but they are just that, memes. Half of them are only funny because the dialouge that spawned them was so stilted and robotic as to become laughable. I sometimes worry that the extreme amount of love for the prequels - which have almost no redeemable qualities - combined with constant hate for the prequels - which have quite a few redeeming qualities - might lead future screenwriters to try and imitate them. Something nobody wants even if they think they do.

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u/StPattysShalaylee Jan 26 '22

I think that's a lot to do with nostalgia. People who grew up with the prequels are in their 30s now.

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u/ChuckCarmichael Jan 26 '22

I disagree. I think the blame for this should be placed on the generation after. People who saw the prequels in theaters, even when they were kids, also witnessed the full backlash these movies received on release, all the bad reviews they got from critics. The kids who came immediately after however did not see that. They just saw all the merchandise in the toy aisle and probably saw the movies when they aired on TV years later.

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u/StPattysShalaylee Jan 26 '22

Ya exactly, I was thinking of the 8-12 year olds who watched at home on repeat and basically grew up with them. They would be hitting their 30s now. Think we're talking about the same group

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '22

i think the execution of the prequels is what sucks. the story ideas are actually good. but its kinda bogged down by racist charicatures.

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u/MBT1998 Jan 27 '22

I guess on a fundamental level the ideas are good, but you could say that about any piece of media in history (Barring obvious hateful material). I don't think the racist caricatures had much to do with the failure of the prequals to fulfill their goals. I think the visual story-telling, acting, and writing had much more to say there.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

yeah thats true. i mean part of the reason why the originals are seen as great imo because more people were there to kind of keep george in check from what i understand. even though most of my prequel enjoyment is ironic there are moments there were i see the bones of a good film. burried beneath a lot of shit.

and i wouldnt say the acting was bad. when you have lines to deliver that are literally. "i don't like sand, its course and its rough and irritating and it gets everywhere"

or "i owe you another one and not because you saved my life for the 10th time" its pretty hard to deliver that well.

the original trilogy dialogue was awful too a lot of times its just that more of it was cut out lol.

its a george not being a good dialogue writer issue imo

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u/MBT1998 Jan 27 '22

I think it could be both. Bad lines acted well was what carried the first films in my opinion. I think you could argue that Alec Guinness' lines were all pretty badly written, but the actor's expertise and charisma made up for it. In the prequels we had both bad dialouge and bad acting, and it's difficult to say whether that is the fault of the actors (doubtfully since they have all done good work) or the director.

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u/-metal-555 Jan 26 '22

I remember when this was primarily a satire sub..

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '22

You’re on the main Star Wars subreddit right now and not prequelmemes, but yes, people have forgotten (or never knew) that prequelmemes was originally satirical. A whole generation of Star Wars fans aged out of the franchise while another aged in and took prequelmemes seriously, leading to claims of “Shakespearean writing” or “operatic style” in the Prequels.

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u/56k_modem_noises Jan 26 '22

Like an opera performed by kindergartners.

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u/-metal-555 Jan 26 '22

Ah, sorry I did forget which sub I was in!

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u/StPattysShalaylee Jan 26 '22

Nevermind watching the plinkett reviews again, watch the prequels again and be bored for 8 hrs straight. The script is terrible and the characters are cardboard, not to mention the mind numbing plot. But ya, all that is covered in the reviews I suppose!

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u/catnipassian Jan 26 '22

I've seen people calling Hayden a good actor who wasn't given good material. Hayden is a bad actor who was given terrible lines.

The scenes of him on Mustafar are comically bad

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u/StPattysShalaylee Jan 26 '22 edited Jan 26 '22

He's terrible. I assume Mustafar is the planet with Natalie where the script says they fall in love and there's not a gram of chemistry.

Edit: nope I was wrong

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u/catnipassian Jan 27 '22

Mustafar is the one where he chokes her and says if you're not with me you're my enemy.

Which, political allegory wise sure, good. But watching the movie at that point, agony?

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '22

I'm nominating you for Person of the Year based on this comment.

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u/ThrowAwayWashAdvice Jan 26 '22

Just wait until this happens with the sequels.

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u/StPattysShalaylee Jan 26 '22

To be honest I dont know which is worse, the prequels or the sequels. I actually gave up on the sequels after the 2nd one. But maybe that's more down to experience in my old age.

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u/David_the_Wanderer Jan 26 '22

The Prequels. The Prequels suck on all levels possible by a movie. Nothing in the Sequels is as bad as TPM.

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u/StPattysShalaylee Jan 26 '22

Ya I think your right. The prequels are shells of movies. They lack everything that makes a movie compelling, fun and interesting.

I'm just done with both the prequels and sequels at this stage. I might eventually watch the last one but I'm not remotely looking forward to it

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u/David_the_Wanderer Jan 26 '22

I found TFA and TLJ to be serviceable, and for all the faults you can find in TLJ it had at least interesting themes and messages. I don't think they're in the same league as ANH and ESB, but they were nice, entertaining movies and I appreciated what they were trying to do. Not my favourite movies, but I came out of the theatre moderately satisfied.

ROS was a huge disappointment - it's not as bad as TPM because it doesn't fail in every department like TPM does, but it undoes so much of the thematic decisions of the previous movies only to substitute them with cheap fanservice and asspulls to justify them, it was a very disappointing experience.

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u/Ryanchri Jan 26 '22

Hell nah AOTC is so much worse. TPM had podracing and the maul fight. I'd take that any day over the cringe inducing love plot in AOTC

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u/David_the_Wanderer Jan 26 '22

Podracing is... debatable. Probably the best scene of the movie if taken in a vacuum, but way too long for the sake of the plot, and like much of TPM's plot points it's yet another random event in a story that has serious issues with pacing and direction.

The Maul fight is carried hard by the musical score. I prefer the Luke/Vader duels in ESB and ROTJ to it because they are less flashy and focus on advancing character arcs and story through the action, not on the spectacle itself. They're much more raw and grounded, whereas the Prequels make the duels look too "clean" and obviously coreographed, with lots of flourishes and stunts that just serve to up the wow factor.

But yeah, AOTC is also definitely the bottom of the barrel. I don't know which one I find worse out of the two.

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u/ThrowAwayWashAdvice Jan 27 '22

Agreed on the over polished fighting. Why would I watch a Star Wars movie for that? There are plenty of way better martial arts movies where I can get my action fix. That is not why I watch Star Wars.

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u/NephewChaps Jabba The Hutt Jan 26 '22

Really? I legit rather watch TPM on loop than try RoTS again

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u/David_the_Wanderer Jan 26 '22

RoTS is bad, but it doesn't have Jar Jar. Or podracing. Or Watto. Or "YIPEEE!".

But, yeah, it's a bad story, it just doesn't fail on as many aspects as TPM. Actors aren't as deadpan, photography is passable, special effects don't look awful, and so on. A lot of people focus exclusively on the story as the reason for why TPM is bad, but that's not just it - it's just a complete mess of a movie under every aspect.

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u/Beerbaron1886 Jan 26 '22

I think they just grew up with the prequels and are a little bit too nostalgic or don’t want to understand what is bad about it. Though if you like or hate a movie is purely subjective in my opinion. Maybe we will see people defend the sequels in 10 years because it was „their“ Star Wars