Jade Defends: The Star Wars prequel trilogy

[Jason]

So I, I think, like you Jade am a pretty big fan. I loved Episodes 4, 5 and 6 as a kid. I bought them when they were rereleased on VHS and had some interviews with Lucas in with them. That's where I learned about the first three episodes initially.

I have seen them each one time, that was enough for me. My break down on why I don't like them I think comes more from the filmmaking side of the fence than the fan side.

I will say... I don't think the movies are outright terrible, however I don't think I need to watch them again anytime soon. I'd rather see that story playout in the Lego Star Wars games.

My issues are as follows:

Acting - With very little exception I think the acting in these movies was terrible. Liam Neeson is no top billed actor when it comes to serious things but he was, perhaps, the more present force in the film. His character, however, was terrible. I'd say the same with regards to Ewan McGreggor. You mention nostalgia being a factor and I kinda get the feeling that most of the people in the movie got involved with it because they loved Star Wars, as we do, but once they got there they didn't really know how to deal with what they had.

It, to me, felt so rushed. Almost like they tried to film all the live action parts over a weekend, then just wrapped everything in CGI and voiced over aliens. Which they did.

To be fair the acting in Ep 4~6 is not super great either, but it felt more urgent and less rushed. They seemed to have more time to get it right back then, or maybe better directed. Maybe a bit of both.

Episode 1 I didn't really have any issue with. The whole Anakin thing was super boring to me, took way too long, introduced too many things that were never spoken of again in the entire series. Jar Jar was annoying yeah, but not terribly so I didn't think. That was his part. To point to another movie I think we've all seen... he was pretty much the Abu (Aladin, anyone) of Star Wars. No one really like him, but he did what he had to do.

Episode 2 other than the whole clone thing finally getting explained was two people barely talking and falling in love in front of a painting that Bob Ross would have taken some issue with. The only interesting parts were the scenes where Anakin and Padme were not on the screen as they were the two weakest actors in the whole series for me... which is sad because they're, arguably, the two most important people in that movie.

Episode 3 was probably my favorite of the prequels and, pun aside, the most dark. Shit hits the fan for everyone in this one. It's really more of an "Act 2" thing if you look at where it should be in place of the story. Any good story follows an arc. It's W shaped generally. There do need to be some alterations made for Star Wars when it look at it by film however. It breaks down thusly...

Act 1 - Things aren't looking too good for our hero. They need to do something about it. This is the first arm of the W. Things started out pretty good, then they got bad. Represented by \ that shape. However, by the end of the act, things are much better. They've overcome their adversity and we close up the Act. We're now here /

Act 2 - Things aren't as good as they were at the end of Act 1. Our antagonist has realized that there's a threat to their well being and they strike back (see episode 5). Things go super wrong for the hero and all parties involved on their side of things. Back down we go \ and thus the act ends. (In episode 5, the rebellion is kinda all over the place, Han's frozen, Luke's lost his hand after he left his training with Yoda) Currently we've followed this much \/\ of our W. Also generally Act 2 is where things are the darkest for the hero.

Act 3 - "Nah, we got this." The protagonist comes in, saves the day and everyone you've ever known and loved, rights all the wrongs, resolves all the issues and comes out on top. Thus our W is now complete. \/\/

Problem here is that Episodes 1~3 really don't... do that. They kinda go ~v/~v_ I don't even know what to call that.

Ep 2, which should be the darkest, is kinda in the middle, while 1 just seems to be all over the place. 3 ends at a super low point with half the people we just spent 2 movies trying to decide if we care about getting killed... children have been murdered... a lady who acts as lively dead as she did alive... is dead. One guy's really angry, another one is really sad, and government has gone to hell because the annoying guy from the first movie served his purpose all along. It's a really hard flow to follow.

The pacing was also super weird though all the films I thought. Things would go super fast then grind to a halt all of a sudden and before you knew it the movie was over and you kinda felt a little sick to your stomach because you didn't know where you were anymore.

My second issue, and this may be the old man in me, is the CGI. It was all over these movies like syrup on pancakes. I don't mind CGI when it's done for a good reason. Lots of movies I like use CGI. This one used too much. It felt, to me, more like a "See what we can do with computers!" which... yeah... we know. We're using them to pirate your movies right now.

What made the first 3 films so great were the practical special effects that made the films feel better. And I mean... just go and watch that opening to Ep 4 with the ships in space. Those ships are real. You can touch them... and you feel like you could watching that. No effect in the prequels gives you that feeling of realism and authenticity. People bouncing around a sound stage in black pajamas with ping pong balls stuck to them isn't quite where I want my movies to go.

Sure it's a new age and a new era and we're going to use computers for stuff... but let us compare Ep 1~3 with Ep 7. Now I know it's not out yet but they've flat out said "We aren't using CGI unless we HAVE to." and I super admire that. It's not the easy way out and the results are always so much better I think.

Anyway, I have to go to work or I'd keep going here. My two main beefs are the acting and the effects from 1~3. I think the story is fine but the way it's told was super poorly executed by way of the actors themselves, the pacing of the films, and the visual effects.

I'll have some video posted later on to highlight some of the things I've mentioned.