Look, I saw the first Star Wars movie when I was twenty-two. My childhood? Not so much.
I disliked the prequels because I thought they were badly written. Most people agreed, before the prequels, that the best-written of the three movies was *The Empire Strikes Back*, which wasn't written by Lucas at all. I wasn't complaining that Lucas had raped my young-adulthood back when Empire came out, because Empire was in many ways better than Star Wars.
If I'm complaining about the prequels (and I am), it's because I felt no emotional connection to the events. I admired Han, Luke, and Leia in their separate ways. I feel contempt for Anakin and Amidala.
"As long as the good monkey crack doesn't wear off, go you with being the last defender of George."
I may be a lone defender at this board but there are plenty of folks that dig the movies elsewhere. Not that critical opinion is in any way needed to justify my opinion but both prequels have a fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert even gave The Phantom Menace three and a half stars out of four. Just saying.
"Here's another opinion stated as opinion: make the bad man stop making movies. No, not after this one. Right now."
Too late. It's already been shot. :p
I feel contempt for Anakin and Amidala.
What Betsy said. Did they ever go back and rescue that poor woman out of slavery?
Oh dear. I have just realized that given the choice between watching the prequels and and having to write a 5000 word essay on how excellent the girly stinky elf movie is, I'd choose Mary the stinky elf, every. time.
Most people agreed, before the prequels, that the best-written of the three movies was *The Empire Strikes Back*, which wasn't written by Lucas at all.
Actually, Lucas was involved in the writing process. He just had help and had someone else direct. So while it was the movie that had the least personal involvment from him, he was still involved. (Though I do agree with you. As a kid, I liked Jedi the best. As an adult, Empire is my favorite.)
"Actually, Lucas was involved in the writing process. He just had help and had someone else direct. So while it was the movie that had the least personal involvment from him, he was still involved. (Though I do agree with you. As a kid, I liked Jedi the best. As an adult, Empire is my favorite.)"
Yeah, George Lucas actually did write the first couple drafts of Empire and I recently read one of them and it turns out almost all the elements that show up in the finished film were there from his drafts. Interesting enough in every draft of the script Vader said, "Obi-Wan murdered your father." instead of his famous line because Lucas wanted to keep the secret from getting out and Mark Hammill only found out just before he did the scene.
Plot elements alone do not make a great script. I think if he'd done the scenario and called in a script writer, he'd have had a far better result in the prequels.
George Lucas co-wrote Attack Of The Clones with Jonathan Hales and Revenge Of The Sith with Tom Stoppard.
Yeah, George Lucas actually did write the first couple drafts of Empire and I recently read one of them and it turns out almost all the elements that show up in the finished film were there from his drafts.
Except the dialogue, I promise you. Having not read those drafts, I can still say with utter confidence that ESB's dialogue was not a Lucas undertaking. Because it was good.
This is the primary reason why the prequels with their colorful cast of characters played by highly experienced actors at the top of their game, sucks--even a great actor cannot save that much awful dialogue. It drags down the character. I wanted to laugh at most of Anakin's dialogue in Ep. II, and I think Hayden Christiansen is a fantastic actor. Lucas hamstrung the lot of them by refusing to acknowledge his own shortcomings.
