What one element would you change of the Prequels?

I would've expected yoda's style to be less chipmunk-on-cocaine and more samurai. A little more zen. Just side stepping attacks until the time is right to activate his saber for just a split second. Then the fight is over.

 

I would change what they are like about - we don't need a character story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. We already know how that happened, Ben Kenobi told us. The movies should of been about different characters living during the time when the Emperor was taking over the Galactic Empire, and Darth Vader was hunting down the Jedi knights, maybe a story about Ben protecting Luke and Leia or something. Either way don't spoil things from the Original Trilogy (Darth Vader being Luke's father, Yoda being a little green swamp man, etc.).

If its against the rules to change the whole plot, then I would change it to make it more like the things that were subtly implied, but not outright stated from the Original Trilogy. Like how its implied that the Galactic Empire has existed for hundreds of years, and its implied that the Jedi knights were already dying out before Darth Vader destroyed almost every single one.

Don't try to frighten us with your sorceror's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebel's hidden fort- *choke*

Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the next, and I never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything.

 

The one element I would change—the director.

 

Burn. Ouch.

 

Was disappointed in the Anakin character. The prequels were about his turn to the dark side and it could have been done much better. His dialogue was terrible all the way thru. Would have liked to have seen him older. Maybe as a orphaned teen getting into trouble with his powers and not fitting in. At least the same age a padmae. There relashionship should have been tragic. Like in titanic. You knew what was coming up for them. But they are cringeworthy when they together. Would have also have liked to see him in the suit more. Maybe having to face maul to be palpatines apprentice. I know it would have been bit of a squeez to get that in and the obi wan fight but Will never get to see that now.

 

Anakins actually a really good character in the clone wars. I can't think of any other great prequel character other then darth maul. All said and done I've watched them loads of times. It's still Star Wars. Clones for me was the worst just down to how bad the scenes are between Anakin and padmae. It was like Lucas wanted to get that all out of the way quick and get back to the cgi. But it should have been sad to see Anakin turn on her. Buy making him so young when they met

They didn't have time to make a good chemistry. And his chat up line asking her if she was an angel was as cheesy as anything you'd here in a dive. But that was the first impression. People said haden was bad but his script was terrible.

 

Well, if we're limiting it to one thing and talking about 3 movies, the one thing I'd change would be the 10-20% of the audience that absolutely refuses to quit bitching about them to this day.

Yeah, II is definitely the, "if only..." episode for me too. The sad part is that people actually say that Portman and Christensen had great chemistry off-camera but it completely failed to translate into the movie. I will give them the, "I'd be much too frightened to tease a senator," line but everything else is just unfortunate. It really bums me out because that movie is cram-packed full of important and interesting events; executed poorly.

Oh, and George's self-conscious, "needs more action here," scene with the droid factory. He should've let that slide probably.

 

Are we supposed to magically forget the disappointment?

I have a friend that I met in 1998. It turns out that he was huge Star Trek fan, which I also happened like. When Insurrection came out, I told him it wasn't any good. He responded to me with this comment, "Well it's Star Trek, so I have to like it." I told him that's nonsense. If something stinks, point it out. No one is under any obligation to like a movie just because of it's name.

A few years ago I told this same friend that Star Trek The Next Generation was intolerably bad. He disagreed saying "I remember it being a good series". So he decided that he and his teenage daughters would watch TNG together, from the very beginning to the end, so that his daughters would see how good Star Trek is and develop the same love for it that he has. Well, the hilarious conclusion to that experiment was that they could not even get HALF WAY through season one. TNG stinks that bad, and he now knows it.

The point of all this is that many, many people fall prey to hoping a film will be good so intensely that it influences their opinion of it. I think there are Star Wars fans who live in denial much like my friend did with Star Trek. I don't condemn that, we all go through similar things from time to time. Along those lines, Devin Faraci has written about the fact that immediately after seeing TPM for the very first time, he sat around with his friends talking about the movie, and had actually convinced himself that E1 was better than E4. It took repeated viewings for Devin to realize that The Phantom Menace is really a poor movie.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I truly believe that many prequel supporters are people who simply haven't allowed themselves to be honest about the quality of those films out of loyalty to the Star Wars franchise. Over time, I think they'll come to realize the truth. And a really well done Episode 7 might just be the right tonic for their condition.

 

Lot's of great posts already. Here's a few that stick out in my mind...

1. Midi-chlorians. The Force is supposed to be a magical, mystical presence. There was no need to explain it biologically.
2. Give Anakin a Father. Making him some kind of sci-fi Jesus, conceived by Midi-chlorians was completely unnecessary, and made him less-human.
3. The Padme/Anakin love story in AOTC! These are the only scenes that I consistently skip when watching the prequels. The dialogue is horrible and awkward. And in the end, I just don't believe it. I find myself asking, "Why does she love this whiny brat?" This is such an important relationship in the story of why Anakin becomes Darth Vader, and in the end, I just didn't believe any of it.

 

The only thing I'd so is reinstate the Padme's family scenes in AOTC.

No, you gain far too much. The ESB experience is so much better knowing that Luke is fighting his father and doesn't even know it. It's been decades now. The secret is out. People who have never seen any film know so what would be the point?

 

There is no one thing that could be changed that could salvage the prequilogy.

However, something that really, really stinks is the treatment Darth Maul received. He was SO cool (yes I can praise PT when appropriate) yet GL chose the most inane for him to die. He literally stands there with a light saber and watches Obi Wan hop out of the pit, use the force to grab Quigon's light saber, and then slice him in half. Lame, lame, lame. I can easily think of several better ways to vanquish Maul that do not diminish his awesome presence and fighting skill.

I don't know if it was lazy writing or lazy directing. I do know it stunk to high heaven and it's all GL's fault.

 

Everything

Your joking right? About the Han thing?

 

I am not joking. I would have loved to of seen that. It is a prequel and Han is older than Luke and Leia, so he would have been a young boy at the time. I'm just saying a prequel should reference every important character that were in the original movie, especially the MOST popular character other than Vader.

 

I don't know man, to me that was another problem with the prequels; having characters that are strangely connected with the OT. Why does Anakin have to build Threepio, why does Yoda know Chewie, why does Owen not recognize the droids, why does Boba Fett or Jango have to be in these, why can't Obi-Wan seem to remember ever owning a droid, stuff like that. I personally am relieved Han wasn't in the prequels because I think they would have messed up his character arc too. We'll all get a chance to see Han again.

 

In the rough draft of ROTS, ten year old Han Solo joins Yoda on Kashyyyk and track Grievous to Utapau.
Here's a link to a page from The Making of The Revenge of the Sith book page with concept art:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dI38f9QohM8/URuuT0Y8JHI/AAAAAAAAYmc/nbKA_eDCC-A/s1600/HanSoloCut.jpg

 

Ha ha... No, But seriously.... You're joking. Please tell me your joking. Reference every important character? No, a prequel should be focused on being a good movie. The characters serve the story, not the other way around. You don't need to jam Chewbacca into the story by making him and Yoda friends, you don't need to jam 3-PO in by making Anakin make him, you don't need to fill the script with coincidences just to force every character and story to intertwine. That's convoluted story telling, it's not smart, it's not clever, it's dumb.

 

All I meant was they could have shown some young boy in the Han shirt and vest standing with the crowd during Padme's funeral procession. I was not suggesting he be a part of the storyline or have any lines. I especially was not suggesting he appear in any of the ridiculous scenarios in the pictures shown by you, S. Crumb. I also didn't like the scene with Chewbacca. That was very stupid on Lucas' part, but if he is going to show Chewbacca, then show Han.

 

So what you mean is like a cameo? Like the E.T.s in phantom menace. Just kinda in the background a bit. I'd be fine with that, George just isn't that good at being subtle, I'm afraid.

 

Exactly what I mean and you are right about Lucas. LOL

 

It was hard, but I refrained from giving you a dislike for saying TNG is intolerably bad. But only because I agree with your points on TPM. Pray I don't alter the deal.