I like both trilogies pretty much equally. In fact my ranking of the movies is pretty "unconventional" compared to most.

Holiday Special ~ Is quite unique and in it's own category

2 Ewok movies were fun, but not sure what "timeline" they in, pre/post SW.

But in one of them, w/ little girl and old man on the ship, the old man swears!! lol I about died!!

I like both trilogies pretty much equally. In fact my ranking of the movies is pretty "unconventional" compared to most.

1) ROTS

2) ROTJ

3) TPM

4) TESB

5) AOTC

6) ANH

Everybody has the right to like the prequels, there is some good things in them if you take the time to look for them and open your mind. But, as soon as someone doesn't put the Empire Strike Back as the best of the 6 movies, he lose all credibility....

Paging Mr. Plinkett. Mr. Plinkett, you have a telephone call at the front desk.

Caution: Mr. Plinkett's Star Wars reviews are not for kids. Not for anyone, really.

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/

Every time Manakin Skywhiner opened his mouth I wanted to take a power drill to my ears. Most of the acting was garbage. The dialogue was utter s**t. George Lucas was the worst thing to happen to Star Wars. His ego is unrivaled.

Thank you for sharing this. I laughed my @$$ off through the whole thing. Perfect delivery.

I'm going against the grain here, but I enjoyed all six movies. I didn't try and dissect the plot lines, and quite liked how Ep3 pulled the loose ends together. I found them entertaining movies because I wasn't looking for a history lesson in Star Wars.

Sure, they all had some bad points, there's no denying it. Jar Jar needed to get mowed down by the 1,000 bad things that were headed his way. The kid that played young Anakin couldn't act to save himself.

I think they should have got more mileage out of Darth Maul - that was a great villain. He's taking on two Jedi and arrogantly smiling about it through the whole fight. When I saw him light up that double lightsabre - awesome. Ep1 spent too much time discovering Anakin, while Ep2 spun its wheels so much that by Ep3, it all seemed rushed to get all the bits together for Ep4.

Having said all that, I still enjoyed them and don't mind watching them again. Which brings me to my final point: for the many out there that have said how bad Eps1-3 were, how many times have you actually watched each episode?

The Prequel Trilogy was a slap in the face to any adult who expected what was only reasonable: decent acting, decent script, decent cinematography. Instead, we were treated to a movie made for 7 years olds with every opportunity taken to showcase Lucas' "cutting edge" movie technology. Honestly, if the previews had marketed the movie as one for kids, it would have been much better (and forgivable).

Thank the Maker that the franchise is out of George Lucas' hands....

Having said all that, I still enjoyed them and don't mind watching them again. Which brings me to my final point: for the many out there that have said how bad Eps1-3 were, how many times have you actually watched each episode?

I have seen them a ton of times. Episode I came out when I was still pretty young so I was into all the action and stuff, and had a ton of the toys and was excited about the rest of them when they came out. As I grew up though, and became more interested in film making and had the cloud of nostalgia lifted, I realized they were all terrible films. Not compared to the originals necessarily, but just on the standards of basic film making and screenwriting.

The worst thing about the prequals was that after an early screening of Phantom Menace, Mccallum and Lucas were apologetic and making excuses for it. They KNEW it was bad and went forward anyway.

I think the prequel plots and premises were totally fine. The script and dialog were bad and some of the directing/acting was done in a caricature fashion rather than for depth. That's what sets good fantasy apart from bad fantasy - depth or trope?

I think that the prequels were an attempt at showcasing some of the planets/characters that had been mentioned in passing but never fleshed out. I take the material for what its worth - an additive to the star wars universe, and make no claim that EP1-3 were anything ground breaking or good from a theatric standpoint (where Empire Strikes Back is defiantly a highlight of the original trilogy in production and premise).

The Clone Wars cartoon has helped me in appreciating 2 & 3 more, as there is now more of a complete story of the fall of Anakin (though I'm only halfway through CW yet).

I ignore part 1.

Ever heard of " Machete order "? IT semi-solves some of the bad stuff the prequel does by suggesting a new viewing order (IV - V - II - III - VI and yes, ignoring the first (I) completely). Sadly it doesn't do much for veterans but should be great for newcomers. I expect to follow this example in a few years when my daughter is old enough.

A few of the highlights:

• Virtually no Jar-Jar. Jar-Jar has about 5 lines in Episode II, and zero in Episode III.
• No midichlorians. There is only one reference to midichlorians after Episode I, and in the context it appears to mean something as benign as “DNA.”
• No Jake Lloyd. Sorry Jake, your acting is terrible and I never really wanted to see Darth Vader as a little boy.

To me the article was a great read and eye-opener on how to approach the prequel without ruining your SW experience.

I enjoyed the Clone wars, not sure how "canon" they are but was nice to have some weight added to what was virtually unknown to me minus Origin-Triology

The biggest mistake I see newcomers make is thinking they should see the prequels first, because they are the prequels.

But just like most other prequels, they shouldn't be. Most prequels are expansions on the first story and presuppose knowledge. In TPM we see the Jedi Council and they mean nothing to us, the Force is slowly explained to us and built up in ANH and ESB. Why should we care about Obi Wan in TPM if we don't know that he is the wise teacher in ANH?

I often forget that there are a few decent things in the prequels. The planet Kamino is pretty cool, I always liked it.

That said, among their many failings I think the greatest issue I have with the prequels is that they managed to completely miss the feel and tone of the original movies (hell they don't even match each other very well), a feat replicated by Clone Wars and most likely the new Rebels show by the looks of it. Too much style over substance, and the style isn't even that good most of the time.

Bouncing Yoda was a bit annoying. Suddenly he went from frog on speed to old guy in 30 years? The guy is 900 years old.

Bouncing Yoda was a bit annoying. Suddenly he went from frog on speed to old guy in 30 years? The guy is 900 years old.

That part made sense, age caught up with him. He was beaten and demoralized by having all he knew and cared about destroyed around him. And in the end he realized a lot of it was his fault, he was the face of the Jedi for hundreds of years. It was his policies and philosophies that led them to ruin. That has to age you quick.

The issue with the prequels is they make Anakin's fall seem so petty and nearly instant. The acting doesn't help, but they go from him being morally opposed to Windu summarily executing Palpatine (despite him doing just that to Dooku) to him killing younglings. It's to big of an instantaneous leap. It isn't a believable transition.

The Clone Wars cartoon does more to portray Anakin's fall then any movie did,

My prequels are Knights of the Old Republic, and Star Wars the Old Republic.

It's kinda sad that 3 5 min video game cinematics can shame an entire trilogy so easily.

I for one enjoyed Revenge of the Sith as much as the original trilogy even if it does have a few flaws. But honestly both trilogies have bad writing, the difference is that the original trilogy has a charm and soul to it so we forgive those flaws, and the prequel trilogy lacks that.

Maybe it's just because we were kids though when we saw it. I watched the OT recently and I was surprised by how cheesy it felt. I still loved it though.

Having said that the prequels did have good parts to them including:

-Liam Nesson

-Ewan McGregor

-Darth Maul

-Jango Fett

-John Williams music

-ARC-170

-Yoda vs Palpatine in the Senate Chamber

-Order 66

-Palpatine was great in all the movies

-Vader killing Viceroy Gunray (now if he'd only killed Jar Jar too)

-RotS clone troopers

To me most of the flaws of the Prequels could have been forgiven except the majority of the villains you couldn't take seriously, which killed it's potential to be interesting in the EU. Even the Clone Wars cartoon, which was the best the Clone Wars came off, was still hindered every time a battledroid or Grievious showed up.

To make the Prequels better, you have to rework the Separatists from the ground up, combine the plot of Ep I and Ep II to make more room to develop the important characters, and give the characters more time to have chemistry together.

My prequels are Knights of the Old Republic, and Star Wars the Old Republic.

It's kinda sad that 3 5 min video game cinematics can shame an entire trilogy so easily.

If someone hasn't shown JJ Abrams the trailers to The Old Republic it will be really unfortunate.

I've said, repeatedly, that the prequel trilogy is a wonderful story poorly told. The novelization of Episode 3 actually proves this point rather well- it's a rather good book written from Lucas' script. What makes the movies bad is Lucas' poor sense of what is important in the story. He's like a comedian who knows that the punchline is "THE ARISTOCRATS!", but thinks he needs to foreshadow the ending while stumbling over his words rushing past the setup. All the while, he's forgotten that the setup _is the important part_.

Think about the essential parts of the story:

A government is so weak that it cannot stop its constituent members from going to war.

A group of wizards who have become so complacent that they cannot see the corruption that has seeped into their ranks.

An antagonist group that has defined itself in terms of how far outside itself it can extend its power.

Palpatine continually puts the Jedi into positions where they must either lose their freedom to act- or extend the power of the Jedi- that is, he either makes the Jedi irrelevant, or makes them think like the Sith.

Meanwhile you have Anikan, the child of destiny. He has been ripped away from every support structure he's had in his life. He years for respect, and every time he does something that he thinks will earn it for him, it reminds the Jedi that they are not _supposed_ to be warriors. And so he simmers.

Honestly: does anyone think that a competent storyteller couldn't do wonderful things with that?!

the prequels are an example of what happens when u get huge and get rid of everyone who tells you when things are bad ideas. I must admit though i think sometimes Georges ideas are so grand that they cant really fit into a feature film he is always kinda thinking too large i believe

Honestly: does anyone think that a competent storyteller couldn't do wonderful things with that?!

The Clone Wars series showed me the potential of the story you described. They hit many of the notes the movies missed while still having plenty of action, comic sidekicks, and even Babyfett. In some ways the clone wars made the prequel movies more palatable, in some ways it made me hate them more. Imagine the series' story telling with the movie's budget.

But I keep coming back to the ARC, I want one of those way more than an E-Wing.

I sat through the prequel movies just recently and I think I can make an opinion that isn't knee-jerk reacting. The Prequels were bad, but they could have been worse. Attack of the Clones is the nadir of the series in my opinion. The performance between Christensen and Portman was much too wooden (and a bit creepy for Anaken), Obi-wan seemed disinterested and there was far too much talking and not enough action to balance it. I get that they tried to set up a mystery here but Star Wars does better adventure over mysteries, and this wasn't it.

Of the prequels I think Episode 1 had the best polish, in spite of Jar-Jar, and Episode 3 had more emotion to it than 2. For all the hollaring that Jar-Jar gets I'd still take his jester antics over the wooden acting coming out of the Anaken and Padme characters for the rest of the trillogy. Jar-Jar is easier to ignore because you're not supposed to take him seriously. We are with Anaken and Padme, and it's hard to watch.

One interesting thought though is how the original series kind of describe Anaken's fall differently than what we see in RotS. Leia knowing her mother? The Powers of the Emperor corrupting Anaken? Putting aside even the certain point of view, the script between the lines kind of points to events transpiring differently (and perhaps more interestingly).