The Stark Hyperspace War would have made a better Episode I than The Phantom Menace

I don't know what the Stark Hyperspace War is, but it doesn't sound particularly interesting right off the bat (and, of course, I'm saying this as someone who doesn't know anything about it, and even if Iron Man is involved). Star Wars (yes, even the prequels) is a story about individuals, and about family. The Force enters in here and there, government and the environment our characters find themselves influence what they do and where they turn to. There is conflict, and there are battles with awesome ships and spectacle. Even in the grandiose The Clone Wars, our focus remained on core characters despite massive battles raging around them.

So blah blah blah. I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Show me your cool space battle, but keep it focused on the individuals. Otherwise, I think it'd lose its Star Warsiness.

 

I agree with @jmjawors that the individuals are important, along with the visuals. Take the Battle of Endor... a purely fantastic and exciting space battle with many awesome things happening, but the thing that made it best is that it had people we actually cared about participating in it, and fighting for a cause we could get behind.

That said, I think it's iffy on a subject like the pre-PT EU wars (which I also don't know much about) because it'd be much more work to set up the characters for the mainstream audience. Aside from Qui-Gon, the casual fan won't really know much about the other individuals involved. TCW fans might have a fondness for Plo Koon, but even that's unsure. I'm worried that such an attempt to focus on an obscure conflict would have to be bogged down with too much explanation and character interactions before we got to any space battles that "felt" better than say the Battle of Naboo (which looks good but falls pretty flat in my view).

EDIT: Plus, and this is partly what makes the PT a little less exciting, is the fact that we know that some characters of course can't die in the film, meaning for those that would probably contribute the most to the space battle (like Qui-Gon), there wouldn't be as much excitement as we know he'd survive somehow.

 

Stark Hyperspace War was so interesting to me in my childhood. If it could fit in a teenaged Anakin, that would be awesome! But more than anything, I feel the idea of a war during "1000 years of peace" would never make sense back as a kid, and it doesn't now either, as cool as it is!

 

This sounds like a plot element from Patton Oswalt's Star Wars Filibuster. What happened? Tony Stark commissioned a mass army of Iron Man replicants to fight The Clones? LOL

 

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it if it were handled well. I remember reading the comics back in the day and thinking that they were pretty good, its been a long time since I read them though. The conflict itself was just a border skirmish from what I can remember, not something that the Republic was directly involved in, hence the 1000 years of peace line still held up. I think it is reasonable to assume that there were plenty of skirmishes that took place in the outer rim during the years of peace in the Republic, after all, the Republic actually only covers a small portion of the overall SW galaxy. That being said though, there are definitely other conflicts that I would rather see on the big screen, specifically one of the conflicts from the days of the Old Republic when the Sith were more of an overt threat.

 

I don't know much about the SHW, but wasn't it more or less invented after TPM came out? In hindsight, yes, I might have made a better prequel but if it didn't further the story or politics (yes, I know the politics of TPM are one of the worst aspects of it, but they were important in the grand scheme of things) would it have accomplished anything? I'm not saying yes and I can't say no. Interesting prospect though!