Well, yeah. They don’t really go anywhere and they don’t have anything to say.
I just rewatched the prequels. Sure, they can be criticized but they do tell a rather cohesive story about a dying democracy’s inability to deal with emergent totalitarianism, while also exploring Anakin Skywalker as a character.
The new trilogy starts with ideas that might be interesting to investigate but then completely fails to do so.
The dialogue is the problem with the Prequels. It looks good, the stories track and all nearly fit into the wider Star Wars universe, it’s just that George Lucas has no idea how actual humans communicate. There was also an absolute tsunami of 3rd party content around the Prequels from comics, video games, YA novels, TV shows, and toys that cemented the Prequels into the cultural Zeitgeist that Disney was completely unable to replicate.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, quite the opposite really, but I do want to point out that Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin got way too much flak when the movies were still fresh. Yes, his dialogue (especially with Padme) was the cringiest thing in Star Wars at the time, but honestly I think that fits his character. He was a slave boy, not even ten years old, taken from his mother (with permission), had the closest thing he had to a father die very shortly after, and was then raised by a religious order who put “minimizing emotion” as one of their core tenets while also letting it be known that he was probably ‘the chosen one’. Didn’t help that they assigned him to Obi-wan, he was literally still a Padawan when they met and therefore had zero experience in training one of his own (plus they weren’t too dissimilar in age). It’s no wonder Anakin grew up not knowing how to talk to girls, getting into fights with his Master who never passed up an opportunity to belittle him (from Anakin’s perspective), and doing emotional, impulsive acts of bravado to prove himself
Another problem with the sequel trilogy is the few things they did try to explore were already done better by the existing films. The other trilogies really hammered home the flaws of the Jedi order. Rich people play both sides, just like the Lando.
I always got the sense that Lando only worked with the Empire because he was forced to; “They arrived just before you did”. He then betrayed them at the earliest opportunity and never did anything for their side afterwards. Yeah you can make the argument that Tibana Gas was being sold to both sides but that in itself wasn’t really shown.
I still agree that the older trilogies did a MUCH better job at exploring their ideas. The sequel trilogy really felt like they just wanted to make audiences giddy by referencing the older properties first. Everything else–characters, story structure, dialogue, any potential deeper meanings or staying power, etc–were all put on the back burner just to try to get the most amount of laughter and applause during opening night
Well, yeah. They don’t really go anywhere and they don’t have anything to say.
I just rewatched the prequels. Sure, they can be criticized but they do tell a rather cohesive story about a dying democracy’s inability to deal with emergent totalitarianism, while also exploring Anakin Skywalker as a character.
The new trilogy starts with ideas that might be interesting to investigate but then completely fails to do so.
“a rather cohesive story about a dying democracy’s inability to deal with emergent totalitarianism”
Which is why the Prequel Trilogy regained popularity given the horrors we’re living through.
Plus Darth Maul is awesome
The Prequels were during Bush II’s wars. They were relevant then as well.
The dialogue is the problem with the Prequels. It looks good, the stories track and all nearly fit into the wider Star Wars universe, it’s just that George Lucas has no idea how actual humans communicate. There was also an absolute tsunami of 3rd party content around the Prequels from comics, video games, YA novels, TV shows, and toys that cemented the Prequels into the cultural Zeitgeist that Disney was completely unable to replicate.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, quite the opposite really, but I do want to point out that Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin got way too much flak when the movies were still fresh. Yes, his dialogue (especially with Padme) was the cringiest thing in Star Wars at the time, but honestly I think that fits his character. He was a slave boy, not even ten years old, taken from his mother (with permission), had the closest thing he had to a father die very shortly after, and was then raised by a religious order who put “minimizing emotion” as one of their core tenets while also letting it be known that he was probably ‘the chosen one’. Didn’t help that they assigned him to Obi-wan, he was literally still a Padawan when they met and therefore had zero experience in training one of his own (plus they weren’t too dissimilar in age). It’s no wonder Anakin grew up not knowing how to talk to girls, getting into fights with his Master who never passed up an opportunity to belittle him (from Anakin’s perspective), and doing emotional, impulsive acts of bravado to prove himself
Another problem with the sequel trilogy is the few things they did try to explore were already done better by the existing films. The other trilogies really hammered home the flaws of the Jedi order. Rich people play both sides, just like the Lando.
I always got the sense that Lando only worked with the Empire because he was forced to; “They arrived just before you did”. He then betrayed them at the earliest opportunity and never did anything for their side afterwards. Yeah you can make the argument that Tibana Gas was being sold to both sides but that in itself wasn’t really shown.
I still agree that the older trilogies did a MUCH better job at exploring their ideas. The sequel trilogy really felt like they just wanted to make audiences giddy by referencing the older properties first. Everything else–characters, story structure, dialogue, any potential deeper meanings or staying power, etc–were all put on the back burner just to try to get the most amount of laughter and applause during opening night