The Star Wars Prequels Were Nearly Perfect
When it comes to Star Wars, the original trilogy can't be matched. I would never have the audacity to say that prequels were as legendary as the original trilogy, but I will say that the prequel trilogy was damn near a masterpiece. These three films were nearly perfect! If George Lucas had just ironed out a few things, the prequels could've been just as adored as the originals. To use a Baseball analogy, Lucas nearly hit a homerun but unfortunately the ball just died at the warning track. Lucas almost had another masterpiece on his hands, but he fell a little bit short. Yes, the prequel trilogy was actually very good, despite what many people think. It had a compelling story, many dramatic moments, tons of action, romance, beautiful music and many other great things! But why is it absolutely despised by many? It definitely has faults, which kept it from being an all-time classic set of films, but it definitely had more positive aspects then negative aspects. Let's dive in and fairly analyze the good and bad parts about these three controversial films.
Let's start with the good parts:
1. The general story is wonderful and it expands on the mythos of the Star Wars universe and brings it to life. Lucas attempted to show the downfall of a functioning (yet crumbling) republic - and how the people let democracy turn into a dictatorship. Episode 1 shows how the Old Republic, even though it means well, can't handle a conflict revolving around one of its major planets. The Trade Federation, in an attempt to gain power and more wealth, has blockaded the peaceful planet of Naboo (which doesn't even have its own professional military force). This blockade is unjust and many of the Naboo citizens are starving because goods can't reach the planet. Supreme Chancellor Valorum attempts to resolve the situation by sending two Jedi Knights (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn) to make peace negotiations. The Trade Federation viceroy immediately panics when he realizes the men who were sent to negotiate with him are in fact Jedi. He contacts Darth Sidious - the real man who has orchestrated this whole fiasco. Sidious tells him to kill the Jedi and then send a military force down to Naboo in order to force their head of state Queen Amidala to sign a treaty which would legalize the actions of the Trade Federation. A Trade Federation battle droid army is sent to Naboo to overpower them with brute force. The Queen is captured, but the two Jedi Knights were able to survive the attempt on their life and they are able to rescue Amidala. To make a long story short, in a series of events, which involves the Jedi and Amidala having to stop on the desert planet of Tatooine and the discovery of force-sensitive prodigy Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi are able to get back to the capital planet of the Republic Couruscant and inform the senate about the events that have transpired. The senate doesn't believe their testimony, which makes Amidala completely lose faith in Chancellor Valorum and she makes a motion for a vote of no confidence in him. This leads to a vote where a new Chancellor will be elected in. Senator Palpatine of Naboo is elected as the new Chancellor. The seeds have been set for Palpatine to completely take over the entire galaxy. In Episode 2 Palpatine manipulates things to start the Clone Wars. He is able to convince the senate to give him emergency powers, akin to Julius Ceaser, in order to create a clone army and defeat the Separatists. In episode 3, Palpatine has been given so much power that he is effectively a dictator. After the two main leaders of the Separatists, Count Dooku and General Greivous, are defeated, which effectively ends the Clone Wars, he convinces the public that the Jedi Knights are evil and have been plotting to overthrow the republic. In actuality, it was Palpatine who evil the entire time. He had been plotting to become Emperor since his youth. He was actually a Sith lord trained in the dark side of the force. His true identity was Darth Sidious. Palpatine convinces the government that the only way to defeat the Jedi Knights and prevent another civil war from happening is to give him complete control and make him an absolute dictator. The Republic is transformed from a democracy to a dictatorship. Palpatine becomes a tyrant in the span of three movies and we can clearly see how all the plotting and scheming in each movie led to his rise. It's actually a very compelling arch from start to finish.
Anakin Skywalker at the end of episode 1 is reluctantly allowed to be trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin is an absolute savant who learns every thing very quickly, and it's clear by the start of episode 2 that he is more skilled than his master. However, his powers have made him quite arrogant and he is prone to taking unnecessary risks which jeopardize their missions. He is powerful but he doesn't have the wisdom, experience or temperament to go off on his own. When they're given an assignment to protect Padme Amidala, who is now the Senator of Naboo, Anakin is smitten. He secretly has a major crush on Padme and he really wants to reveal his feelings for her. However, the Jedi code forbids romantic love, so he is very conflicted. This causes him to start to resent the Jedi order and his mentor Obi-Wan. Anakin wants to break off on his own and not be restrained by the archaic Jedi rules. When Anakin is given the task of escorting Padme back to Naboo, he reveals his love to her. By the end of the movie they get married - if anybody found out, it would be career suicide for the both of them. As the Clone Wars break out, Anakin proves he is one of the best Jedi Knights in the entire order, but he still feels that the Jedi Council doesn't take him seriously. He is promoted to the rank of full-fledged Jedi Knight, but he isn't granted the rank of master. This greatly angers Anakin and he resents the Jedi even more. Meanwhile, he starts to get visions of Padme and his unborn child dying. He tries to get advice from Yoda, by only vaguely explaining what he's worried about and not giving the full details (for fear that he would be estranged from the order), but Yoda just tells him that visions can't be fully trusted. He essentially just tells him to get over it. This doesn't satisfy Anakin and he keeps ruminating on his obsessive thoughts. Eventually Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is actually the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and he tells him that the only way to save Padme from death is to learn the ways of the dark side. Anakin submits to it after he betrays Jedi master Mace Windu. Anakin is christened Darth Vader and he is given the task of destroying the Jedi Knights. In the climatic fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, Kenobi is able to cut off the limbs of Vader, who only barely survives the encounter. Sidious rescues Vader and reconstructs him into the iron-lung terrifying menace that we all know from the original trilogy.
The basic story of the prequels is brilliant. A republic that had been going strong for thousands of years becomes so incompetent that it can't even protect one of its major planets. Palpatine starts off as a senator from Naboo and slowly manipulates and schemes his way to become Emperor. First he convinces the Trade Federation to blockade and terrorize Naboo which causes a bunch of havoc. Then he convinces Queen Amidala that Chancellor Valorum needs to be impeached. She listens to him and a new election happens. Palpatine wins and he becomes the new Chancellor of the Republic. He then starts to sow the seeds for Clone Wars. He is able to secretly convince a bunch of planets that are disgruntled with the Republic to secede. This causes the Clone Wars to break out where thousands of people die. Palpatine is given emergency powers during this time, which for all intents-and-purposes make him a dictator. At the end of the Clone Wars, Palpatine is able to convince the Republic that the Jedi Knights are evil, and that the only way to maintain peace is if he keeps the emergency powers and transforms the galaxy into an empire.
Anakin Skywalker starts off as a slave who is discovered in the middle of a large conflict. It's clear that he is a force-sensitive prodigy. But the Jedi council fears his training will go down a very dark path. Only after the death of Qui-Gon Jinn does the council grant permission for Obi-wan to train Anakin. Anakin wants to do great things but he is very temperamental and reckless. He also has emotional scars from being a slave and a paranoid fear of losing any of his loved ones after the death of his mother. He's also very quick to anger and rage. The complexity of the Anakin Skywalker character is superb. He's not a power hungry brute before he turns into Darth Vader. He's a man who is going through emotional stress and trauma. He turns into Darth Vader because of love. He wants to save Padme, the love of his life. He doesn't care about wealth or political power. He cares about saving those he loves most. It is actually a very tragic story that gives a deep and sad backstory to the wheezing terror from the original trilogy.
The prequels even had great allegories and parallels. Chancellor Valorum is obviously a satire of Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain was a weak, incompetent man who let Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany conquer many areas of Europe. It's no wonder that the Republic crumbled under Valorum. Palpatine is an amalgamation of Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Just like Julius Caesar, Palpatine was granted emergency powers after the well-being of the Republic was threatened. After the conflict was resolved, he refused to give up his powers and he became a tyrant. Palpatine played it off like he was a good, wise man looking out for the well-being of the galaxy, but he was actually a brutal, power hungry man who would do anything to ruthlessly keep his strangle hold on those he ruled. The Jedi order were the noble Jews who had a mandate to bring light to the galaxy. The Jedi utilized the force to be the keepers of the peace. They were very honorable and noble, but they had started to develop an overly strict and meandering code. This caused them to come across as pharisaic and Palpatine was able to convince the public that they were evil. The Jedi had their temple burned down, akin to how the second temple was burned down in Jerusalem. The Jedi were also hunted down and massacred. It was essentially a holocaust. Anakin Skywalker was the fallen Jesus of the story. In the Old Testament there are numerous prophesies foreshadowing Jesus. It states that He would die for the sins of His people and He would defeat Satan in the Messianic age. The Jedi prophesy states that one would rise up who would eventually end the Sith once-and-for-all. Anakin does eventually fulfil this in the Original trilogy but first he falls to the dark side and helps the empire hunt down the Jedi Knights. It's a story of tragedy and redemption.
The prequels were able to do an excellent job in showing the flaws of the Jedi Knights and their failures. The Jedi weren't as perfect as everybody thought them to be. Even though they were keepers of the peace for thousands of years, they had developed this archaic code which made them seem cold and uncaring. They protected people but they never seemed to care about the people that they were protecting. They were in their own little insolated world and it seemed like they cared more about meditation than the happiness of the average citizen. To put it bluntly, they came across as assholes. This made it much easier for the citizens of the Republic to believe the lies of Palpatine. Lucas really did give a lot of depth and vulnerability to the Jedi order.
I would like to also mention that the music from the prequels is sensational. John Williams was at his absolute best here. In fact, I believe the original scores from the prequels were better than the ones from the original trilogy. There were so many great ones, such as Duel Of The Fates, Battle Of The Heroes, Beyond The Stars, and many, many more. I don't think John Williams ever reached the heights with his musical prowess in any other film or series of films as he did right here. The music hits all the right notes and it helps tell the story beautifully. John Williams is an absolute genius and he outdid himself with the soundtrack for these three films.
But there were some definite flaws. Let's talk about some of the negative aspects of the prequels.
Even though the general story arch was very good, the specific writing left a lot to be desired. The writing was very cringy, especially during the more romantic scenes. Who could forget Anakin trying to woo Padme with talk about sand being rough? Or who could forget the classic back and forth between Anakin and Padme where they said to each other, "It's because I'm so in love with you," or some dribble to that effect. One of the stupidest lines was when Anakin said to Obi-Wan during their episode 3 climatic duel, "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" I mean really - would a guy who had become so engrained in the dark side and who had just murdered a bunch of people start of a statement, "From my point of view..."? Lucas should've definitely hired a writer to help him craft a script worthy of the grand plot he was trying to tell for each movie. The bad dialogue was something that Lucas should've recognized right away before filming began.
The acting was also subpar. With the exception of Ewan McGreggor, Liam Neeson and Ian McDiarmid, the acting in the prequels was shitty. Normally Natalie Portman is a fantastic actress, but she was dreck as Padme Amidala. Jake Llyod played a very bad child Anakin. Hayden Christensen was absolute garbage as the young adult Anakin. Both Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen have proven in the past that they can be fantastic actors but they didn't bring their 'A' game here. Natalie Portman even seemed kind of bored. The supporting cast was very wooden. I'm not sure what Lucas could've done differently but he didn't get the best performances out of his actors.
The prequel trilogy was almost a piece of work that could be talked about in the same vain as the most classic movies and novels. Unfortunately, a few flaws prevented it from being in the pantheon of great films! But nevertheless, I still love the prequel trilogy and I will continue to defend it!
Let's start with the good parts:
1. The general story is wonderful and it expands on the mythos of the Star Wars universe and brings it to life. Lucas attempted to show the downfall of a functioning (yet crumbling) republic - and how the people let democracy turn into a dictatorship. Episode 1 shows how the Old Republic, even though it means well, can't handle a conflict revolving around one of its major planets. The Trade Federation, in an attempt to gain power and more wealth, has blockaded the peaceful planet of Naboo (which doesn't even have its own professional military force). This blockade is unjust and many of the Naboo citizens are starving because goods can't reach the planet. Supreme Chancellor Valorum attempts to resolve the situation by sending two Jedi Knights (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn) to make peace negotiations. The Trade Federation viceroy immediately panics when he realizes the men who were sent to negotiate with him are in fact Jedi. He contacts Darth Sidious - the real man who has orchestrated this whole fiasco. Sidious tells him to kill the Jedi and then send a military force down to Naboo in order to force their head of state Queen Amidala to sign a treaty which would legalize the actions of the Trade Federation. A Trade Federation battle droid army is sent to Naboo to overpower them with brute force. The Queen is captured, but the two Jedi Knights were able to survive the attempt on their life and they are able to rescue Amidala. To make a long story short, in a series of events, which involves the Jedi and Amidala having to stop on the desert planet of Tatooine and the discovery of force-sensitive prodigy Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi are able to get back to the capital planet of the Republic Couruscant and inform the senate about the events that have transpired. The senate doesn't believe their testimony, which makes Amidala completely lose faith in Chancellor Valorum and she makes a motion for a vote of no confidence in him. This leads to a vote where a new Chancellor will be elected in. Senator Palpatine of Naboo is elected as the new Chancellor. The seeds have been set for Palpatine to completely take over the entire galaxy. In Episode 2 Palpatine manipulates things to start the Clone Wars. He is able to convince the senate to give him emergency powers, akin to Julius Ceaser, in order to create a clone army and defeat the Separatists. In episode 3, Palpatine has been given so much power that he is effectively a dictator. After the two main leaders of the Separatists, Count Dooku and General Greivous, are defeated, which effectively ends the Clone Wars, he convinces the public that the Jedi Knights are evil and have been plotting to overthrow the republic. In actuality, it was Palpatine who evil the entire time. He had been plotting to become Emperor since his youth. He was actually a Sith lord trained in the dark side of the force. His true identity was Darth Sidious. Palpatine convinces the government that the only way to defeat the Jedi Knights and prevent another civil war from happening is to give him complete control and make him an absolute dictator. The Republic is transformed from a democracy to a dictatorship. Palpatine becomes a tyrant in the span of three movies and we can clearly see how all the plotting and scheming in each movie led to his rise. It's actually a very compelling arch from start to finish.
Anakin Skywalker at the end of episode 1 is reluctantly allowed to be trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin is an absolute savant who learns every thing very quickly, and it's clear by the start of episode 2 that he is more skilled than his master. However, his powers have made him quite arrogant and he is prone to taking unnecessary risks which jeopardize their missions. He is powerful but he doesn't have the wisdom, experience or temperament to go off on his own. When they're given an assignment to protect Padme Amidala, who is now the Senator of Naboo, Anakin is smitten. He secretly has a major crush on Padme and he really wants to reveal his feelings for her. However, the Jedi code forbids romantic love, so he is very conflicted. This causes him to start to resent the Jedi order and his mentor Obi-Wan. Anakin wants to break off on his own and not be restrained by the archaic Jedi rules. When Anakin is given the task of escorting Padme back to Naboo, he reveals his love to her. By the end of the movie they get married - if anybody found out, it would be career suicide for the both of them. As the Clone Wars break out, Anakin proves he is one of the best Jedi Knights in the entire order, but he still feels that the Jedi Council doesn't take him seriously. He is promoted to the rank of full-fledged Jedi Knight, but he isn't granted the rank of master. This greatly angers Anakin and he resents the Jedi even more. Meanwhile, he starts to get visions of Padme and his unborn child dying. He tries to get advice from Yoda, by only vaguely explaining what he's worried about and not giving the full details (for fear that he would be estranged from the order), but Yoda just tells him that visions can't be fully trusted. He essentially just tells him to get over it. This doesn't satisfy Anakin and he keeps ruminating on his obsessive thoughts. Eventually Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is actually the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and he tells him that the only way to save Padme from death is to learn the ways of the dark side. Anakin submits to it after he betrays Jedi master Mace Windu. Anakin is christened Darth Vader and he is given the task of destroying the Jedi Knights. In the climatic fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, Kenobi is able to cut off the limbs of Vader, who only barely survives the encounter. Sidious rescues Vader and reconstructs him into the iron-lung terrifying menace that we all know from the original trilogy.
The basic story of the prequels is brilliant. A republic that had been going strong for thousands of years becomes so incompetent that it can't even protect one of its major planets. Palpatine starts off as a senator from Naboo and slowly manipulates and schemes his way to become Emperor. First he convinces the Trade Federation to blockade and terrorize Naboo which causes a bunch of havoc. Then he convinces Queen Amidala that Chancellor Valorum needs to be impeached. She listens to him and a new election happens. Palpatine wins and he becomes the new Chancellor of the Republic. He then starts to sow the seeds for Clone Wars. He is able to secretly convince a bunch of planets that are disgruntled with the Republic to secede. This causes the Clone Wars to break out where thousands of people die. Palpatine is given emergency powers during this time, which for all intents-and-purposes make him a dictator. At the end of the Clone Wars, Palpatine is able to convince the Republic that the Jedi Knights are evil, and that the only way to maintain peace is if he keeps the emergency powers and transforms the galaxy into an empire.
Anakin Skywalker starts off as a slave who is discovered in the middle of a large conflict. It's clear that he is a force-sensitive prodigy. But the Jedi council fears his training will go down a very dark path. Only after the death of Qui-Gon Jinn does the council grant permission for Obi-wan to train Anakin. Anakin wants to do great things but he is very temperamental and reckless. He also has emotional scars from being a slave and a paranoid fear of losing any of his loved ones after the death of his mother. He's also very quick to anger and rage. The complexity of the Anakin Skywalker character is superb. He's not a power hungry brute before he turns into Darth Vader. He's a man who is going through emotional stress and trauma. He turns into Darth Vader because of love. He wants to save Padme, the love of his life. He doesn't care about wealth or political power. He cares about saving those he loves most. It is actually a very tragic story that gives a deep and sad backstory to the wheezing terror from the original trilogy.
The prequels even had great allegories and parallels. Chancellor Valorum is obviously a satire of Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain was a weak, incompetent man who let Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany conquer many areas of Europe. It's no wonder that the Republic crumbled under Valorum. Palpatine is an amalgamation of Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Just like Julius Caesar, Palpatine was granted emergency powers after the well-being of the Republic was threatened. After the conflict was resolved, he refused to give up his powers and he became a tyrant. Palpatine played it off like he was a good, wise man looking out for the well-being of the galaxy, but he was actually a brutal, power hungry man who would do anything to ruthlessly keep his strangle hold on those he ruled. The Jedi order were the noble Jews who had a mandate to bring light to the galaxy. The Jedi utilized the force to be the keepers of the peace. They were very honorable and noble, but they had started to develop an overly strict and meandering code. This caused them to come across as pharisaic and Palpatine was able to convince the public that they were evil. The Jedi had their temple burned down, akin to how the second temple was burned down in Jerusalem. The Jedi were also hunted down and massacred. It was essentially a holocaust. Anakin Skywalker was the fallen Jesus of the story. In the Old Testament there are numerous prophesies foreshadowing Jesus. It states that He would die for the sins of His people and He would defeat Satan in the Messianic age. The Jedi prophesy states that one would rise up who would eventually end the Sith once-and-for-all. Anakin does eventually fulfil this in the Original trilogy but first he falls to the dark side and helps the empire hunt down the Jedi Knights. It's a story of tragedy and redemption.
The prequels were able to do an excellent job in showing the flaws of the Jedi Knights and their failures. The Jedi weren't as perfect as everybody thought them to be. Even though they were keepers of the peace for thousands of years, they had developed this archaic code which made them seem cold and uncaring. They protected people but they never seemed to care about the people that they were protecting. They were in their own little insolated world and it seemed like they cared more about meditation than the happiness of the average citizen. To put it bluntly, they came across as assholes. This made it much easier for the citizens of the Republic to believe the lies of Palpatine. Lucas really did give a lot of depth and vulnerability to the Jedi order.
I would like to also mention that the music from the prequels is sensational. John Williams was at his absolute best here. In fact, I believe the original scores from the prequels were better than the ones from the original trilogy. There were so many great ones, such as Duel Of The Fates, Battle Of The Heroes, Beyond The Stars, and many, many more. I don't think John Williams ever reached the heights with his musical prowess in any other film or series of films as he did right here. The music hits all the right notes and it helps tell the story beautifully. John Williams is an absolute genius and he outdid himself with the soundtrack for these three films.
But there were some definite flaws. Let's talk about some of the negative aspects of the prequels.
Even though the general story arch was very good, the specific writing left a lot to be desired. The writing was very cringy, especially during the more romantic scenes. Who could forget Anakin trying to woo Padme with talk about sand being rough? Or who could forget the classic back and forth between Anakin and Padme where they said to each other, "It's because I'm so in love with you," or some dribble to that effect. One of the stupidest lines was when Anakin said to Obi-Wan during their episode 3 climatic duel, "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" I mean really - would a guy who had become so engrained in the dark side and who had just murdered a bunch of people start of a statement, "From my point of view..."? Lucas should've definitely hired a writer to help him craft a script worthy of the grand plot he was trying to tell for each movie. The bad dialogue was something that Lucas should've recognized right away before filming began.
The acting was also subpar. With the exception of Ewan McGreggor, Liam Neeson and Ian McDiarmid, the acting in the prequels was shitty. Normally Natalie Portman is a fantastic actress, but she was dreck as Padme Amidala. Jake Llyod played a very bad child Anakin. Hayden Christensen was absolute garbage as the young adult Anakin. Both Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen have proven in the past that they can be fantastic actors but they didn't bring their 'A' game here. Natalie Portman even seemed kind of bored. The supporting cast was very wooden. I'm not sure what Lucas could've done differently but he didn't get the best performances out of his actors.
The prequel trilogy was almost a piece of work that could be talked about in the same vain as the most classic movies and novels. Unfortunately, a few flaws prevented it from being in the pantheon of great films! But nevertheless, I still love the prequel trilogy and I will continue to defend it!
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