Of course it's all personal preference and taste. Sure, there are some people that liked the prequels, but then there are people who like blood sausage.

The dialog may have been bad in the first trilogy (ep. 4-6), but that doesn't mean it couldn't be worse in the prequels. It's been said that the movies were made in a different time, and I think that has to be a factor - movies need to keep up with society, so even if the dialog in the originals was no better than the prequels, maybe it wasn't as bad in relation to the other movies being released at the time. As an analogy, if the prequels used the same type and level of special effects as the originals, they would have been laughed out of the theaters. What worked in 1977 wouldn't necessary work today.

But I would argue that maybe the dialog wasn't necessarily worse in the prequels, but it lacked any good dialog. I think about dialog like:

�You know, that little droid is going to cause me a lot of trouble.� ��Oh, he excels at that, sir.�

"I got one! I got one!" "Great kid, don't get cocky."

"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought." "Nice."

"Being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited." "Sorry, there isn't time for anything else."

"Problems with your droid?" "No, no problems. Why?"

And of course the classic scene where Harrison Ford ad-libs the line in the detention center, and the "I love you." "I know."

Those were clever little exchanges that came up every now and then in a context that made the movie more interesting and fun. I can't think of any exchanges in the prequels like that.

The originals didn't have Jar Jar, and I know you don't feel the midichlorians were bad, but I think they were, and they weren't in the originals either, so those are obvious differences right there. Throw in the stupid pod race announcer, Qui-gon's ridiculous exchange with Watto, etc., and I think there is a case to be made that the overall impression of the prequels was less than that of the originals.

I think ep. 4 started off good, ep. 5 was better, but ep. 6 started the decline. And the later movies change the way the originals are viewed now - the scenes between Luke and Leia in ep. 4 and 5 are downright creepy to watch now.

True, but between the mediocrity and the long wait, it damaged the brand, which costs a lot in the long run.

Just as say, the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies are going to make further Matrix universe products a hard sell, so too did the SW prequels.

All your quoted dialog is from Harrison Ford, which is an indicator that the prequels needed a character like that, not that the dialog itself was the problem.

As for the prequels, the one that instantly comes to mind is in Ep 2 when a chained up Obi-Wan sees Anakin and Padme brought in next to him to be executed and Anakin tells him "we came here to rescue you" to which Obi-Wan, glancing at his chains, replies "good job."



The Jedi Master

Um, someone wrote that character, so all they would have needed to do was write that kind of dialog for another character, but they didn't. And while Han Solo was involved in most of the quotes, he wasn't always the main person speaking, and of course he wasn't in the first exchange at all. So they could have written better dialog for other characters, or written a character to give them better dialog, but again, they didn't, and that's a big miss on the part of the prequels.

Han Solo was a pretty major character, so he was obviously a big part of the movie. What you're saying is kind of like saying that a second batch of cookies was just as good as the first, even though they left the sugar out, because the rest of the ingredients were the same.


That's not bad, but let's hear some more.

A few more from the originals (and not just comical):

"You sure have a way with people."

"The Force is with you, young Skywalker.....but you are not a Jedi yet."

"We don't have time to put this to the committee" "I'm NOT a committee!"

"Do, or do not. There is no try."

"It is you and your abilities the Emperor wants. That is why your friends are made to suffer." "That's why I have to go."

"It's a good thing you don't taste very good." (removed from the Blu-Ray release for some reason)

"How typical."

"Hey, it's me!"

"And I thought they smelled bad....on the outside."

But I would argue that maybe the dialog wasn't necessarily worse in the prequels, but it lacked any good dialog. I think about dialog like:

/quote]


The way it should have been... NSFW

This guy makes some good points... Obi Wan is an #%&*$#

Dexter although the hero started out bad and ended that way.

Another problem with the prequel movies, as with pretty much all prequel movies, is that you know how it's going to end. Maybe not the procedure to reach that end, but you know pretty much this one lives, that one probably doesn't, this one turns into _____ and the bad guys take over.
You had a pretty good idea with the original movies too, but only because good triumphs over evil in movies like that, but not because you actually knew most of the story already. You didn't know nearly as much as you did with the prequel movies, which you just watched to see how awkwardly they could fit their round peg into the square hole that was Anakin the somewhat likable kid. Even in the final fight, you knew what was going to happen, so there wasn't really any tension in an otherwise very well done duel. They worked for a long time to pull that off, but the audience has known since '77 that Obi Wan lives, and Vader is walking around on life support.

Basically, the prequels were a story that you could've just been told, or shown in a long exposition scene, rather than make a full movie or movies out of. The way LOTR told the story of Sauron losing the war and the ring to begin with would have been plenty for the prequel story. Instead, we got 3 movies.

Sometimes a prequel story is worth it in it's own.

The whole "you know the ending" argument is poppycock if you ask me. In 95% of movies you already know the ending before you go in. You know X will win the day, Y will get the girl, and so forth. Movies are pretty formulastic after all.

It's how you present the story that matters. Everyone knows Hitler dies at the end of Der Untergang, doesn't make it a bad movie just because you know the ending. Prequels can be great, if done as good movies. Look at Godfather II, the prequel bits in there are just as good as the first movie.

Leaked VII footage.

I wonder who was more responsible for Jar Jar - George Lucas or Ahmed Best?

My interest in NP has waned over the years. I'm a Rose Byrne fan now, who was, ironically, one of her doubles in the prequel trilogy.

Yet missing from X Men Days of Future Past.

Actually, while Keira Knightley was one of her doubles, I think Rose was just one of her regular handmaidens. I clearly recall her sitting down on the bed beside Padme in her room after the attack by Zam with the centipedes.



The Jedi Master

Oh yeah, I remember her now that you describe the scene. She didn't strike me as being that attractive in that scene, but I think she looks good now (Rose Byrne, I mean).

OK, here's a question back on the topic of the movies - what story purpose did it serve to make Padme a queen, does anyone know? It just seemed unnecessary to me.

That's really an excellent question and the immediate reason that comes to my mind is that Leia was referred to as "Princess" in ANH so since she was a princess it would be logical to assume that her mother was a queen.

Now what certainly did NOT make sense is that the monarchs on Naboo served terms in office. LOL
Why have a hereditary title if you are limited to serving so many terms before someone else takes over as "queen"? It's just antithetical. Lucas could have at least modelled the Naboo royalty on the constitutional monarchy of modern day Britain. That at least would have made sense.

I thought of the princess reference too, but since no one knew she was Padme's daughter until well after she was referred to as a princess, it didn't make sense. Her title of princess should have come from her position on Alderaan, not her birth mother that was kept secret. Everyone would have been asking, "why are you being called a princess? Are you just difficult?"

I looked up Bail Organa and there is a reference to him being part of a royal family, so I guess that's where Leia would have gotten her princess title.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bail_Organa

Kind of unfair - Leia gets to be a princess, Luke goes to a desert hell hole.

I think Padme was a queen because the story was so poorly thought out that they were just throwing trash in everywhere. "leah was a princess, so we need a queen now". Kids love C3P0, lets have Anakin build him for some reason!

Battlestar Galactica syndrome... just make it up as you go along ( until you paint yourself into a corner, that is... )

How else do you explain Luke making out with his sister?

Leia was a princess, but I think it had to do with her adoptive parents, since it was all done in secret. Otherwise Vader would've known he had a daughter out there, which he didn't until ROTJ when he discerned it from Luke. He'd have been Prince Luke too otherwise. LOL

Guess this shift driving the nerd bus is mine.

There should have been a Prince Valium in TPM. That would have made the film better.

If two kisses separated by years is what you call "making out", your dating years must sound a lot more exciting in retrospect than mine do. It also means most of us have "made out" with our mothers 100x more.



The Jedi Master