Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were bad from the get go....but ROTS which I liked a lot at the time (and has always been talked about as really good on its own and the obvious best of the prequels) has just not held up with time. It has gotten worse and worse as the years go by IMO. All the digital backgrounds and crap all over the screen. The cheesy droid dialogue. The cheesy Grievous voice and design. The cheesy and overly choreographed big fight finale and the lame ass jumping and fighting on those floating droids. The Yoda and Sideous fight is even cheesy now. The stupid floating heads on the clones. The horrible acting from not just hayden, but natialie portman as well who basically was checked out by that time. Ewan is the only one who cared and it shows. The "lost the will to live" death. Ugh....It's really just as bad as the others. The only versions I will ever watch again are the fanedits and even those are still bad because there's only so much you can cut and add.
True, BUT.. he was still stuck in the 'studio system' at that time, which meant he had people like producers staring over his shoulder keeping him in check (well with American Graffiti anyway, THX1138 was more like a student film for him). Lucas hated having to answer to anyone so badly that he became an 'independent filmmaker' after Empire, because he had amassed enough of a fortune to be able to afford to step completely outside the studio system. This meant from that point on, he no longer had anyone looking over his shoulder, no more Coppola, no more Kirshner, no more producers or studio execs who could make him do things a different way. No, he surrounded himself with yes-men who only told him he was a genius. And that's how you end up with every actor on a green-screen stage with nothing to react to, nothing to play off, and nobody to ask why Lucas has Hayden and Natalie acting like wooden blocks of boring nothingness. Nobody dared question George. He's a well-known vindictive grudge-holder. Just ask David Prowse. Anyway, pretty much any movie touched by Lucas after Empire was TEH SUK.
I liked it for the same reasons, but I think it would have been a much better movie if: 1. Kylo Ren had not taken off his mask. At least until he killed Han. It took Darth Vader 3 movies until his mask was removed. It too Kylo Ren 20 minutes. It could have been such a dramatic moment, but instead it was just....eh.... 2. The stormtroopers weren't redesigned. I wish they would have just stayed the same. It would have had more of a connection to the original movies.
This is a serious list, and for everyone that hates on the prequels I could go on about the continuity issues with 7. At least there was the attempt to be original with the prequels, and there are defining moments to the saga. What was the defining moment in 7? Han Solo being killed by his kid? Leia sharing the sadness of the death of her lifelong love with a complete stranger? R2D2 in a coma?
I'm not saying TFA was the best one or anything. Yes, it has some flaws. BUT, those flaws pale in comparison to the utter sh*tstorm that the prequels were.
I disagree. The flaws in TFA are tremendously overlooked. Let's just take the opening scene. Poe Dameron is alerted by BB-8 about incoming ships. 1. Why did they land so far away 2. Why was Poe wearing binoculars? Anyway, Nero I read a lot of your post i appreciate your depth of analysis on most things. I don't want to rail off this thread anymore. You can have you last words to close the argument. Perhaps we should start a new thread that is about the rankings of the star wars movies and we can continue the discussion there.
Nah it's ok. I am biased, I know it. I hate the prequels with all the passion of a thousand white-hot suns. I liked TFA mainly because it let us know we had suffered through Lucas' bungling and come out on the other side. Rogue one solidified this view. And now that it is all in Disney's hands, I believe that they will at the very least be better caretakers of the property than Lucas ever was. But I admit I am biased.
The storm troopers didn't bother me, but Kylo's mask coming off totally did. Keep that sh** on until at least halfway through the next movie, IMO.
On a more serious note and this isn't a list ... 5 4 R1 (def agree) 3 was certainly best of prequels (at least what I remember, but only saw it 1x in theater and not again). 6 for nostalgia I was young and didn't know any better.. But I'd have to have 1 or 2 as worst, 7 was great for visual/special effects... But def agree... The more you think about it the more flaws, I enjoyed it more just turning brain off, I've given up on plot/continuity since 1,2,3 I'll be interested to see what 8 and 9 are or if they just copy the script from 5 and 6 And wasn't serious on spoiler, hahah, just acting silly from all the times I see it online from an older movie (at least in Hollywood times, with the amount pumped out).
He planned to use a different director for each prequel just as the OT and just as the new trilogy is doing. The directors he asked convinced him that it was his baby and that he should direct. If anyone is to blame for the prequels, it's Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis "He didn’t necessarily want to direct them. He told me he had talked to Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, and me. I was the third one he spoke to. They all said the same thing: ‘George, you should do it’ I don’t think anybody wanted to follow-up that act at the time. It was an honor, but it would’ve been too daunting.." - Ron Howard
Which also reminds me that JJ Abrams didn't want to direct The Force Awakens but they kept bugging him and offering him more money till he accepted. If he didn't want to, it meant he was just a big fan that was too afraid of messing up. Not really the right mentality for a director to go into a film. They should have let it be and found a different director. Instead JJ just did it for the money and gave us a half assed film that was just a copy of different parts of the OT and with the same exact feel of his Star Trek films. I think that's what bugs me the most about TFA. It's visually way too similar to Star Trek because of JJ. Those are 2 rival franchises that should have their own distinct cinematic look. I still think Brad Bird should have directed it, and I still hope that hack from Jurrassic World drops out and Brad Bird replaces him. Tomorrowland bombed but I still enjoyed it. Looking very forward to Rian Johnson's unique visual take on Star Wars. Should be dark and I hope it rivals the only real Star Wars movie that matters....The Empire Strikes Back. I'm already counting on Colin Trasherrow or whatever to make a huge dud. So long as we get 1 instant classic from Rian Johnsons, i'll be happy.
I think Disney has proven that they can be trusted to make Star Wars movies successfully so I don't think they'd have done that.....but even if they did, it wouldn't have been worse than George Lucas did.
Disney rarely ever flops when u think about it. Generally they deliver. I mean even these silly child sitcoms on their network are well written, well cast, and funny. And even flops like John Carter aren't so bad that you can't watch it. I pretty much trust Disney on all fronts.
Has there been any info released on the original direction that Edwards shot? With all the news of reshoots that typically spell out doom, the public reception has been overwhelmingly positive for the film. I wonder what the problems with the original were and how the story would've unfolded.
The reshoots were done to eventually end up where the writer and director wanted to go all along. During the process of development, they originally wanted everyone to die, and have it end like that. But then they became concerned that Disney would balk at such an idea, so they developed (and shot) a treatment where a few of them managed to escape. But then it became clear that the original desired ending was where it should have gone all along, and so the reshoots were done. Had they just gone with their gut the first time, there wouldn't have been nearly as much to reshoot.
I don't believe any of that. No one burns 50 million dollars on a hunch the billion dollar corporation won't like characters deaths. Possibly they weren't sure disney would go for it, possibly there was some miscommunication, but that didn't result in 80% of the scenes from the first trailer not being in the movie.
