this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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The prequels are bad… but not in the same way the Disney stuff is bad. Their main flaws lie in dialog and acting. You can see that Lucas had a story he wanted to tell, it was interesting… It just needed another couple rounds of polish (by someone other than Lucas and his yes-men) that it never got.
Most the Disney stuff, on the other hand, never had a chance. It all follows the principles of: design by committee, fan service, and rule of cool. There was never a vision for compelling story to be told…. Just dollars to generate.
I am on a similar wavelength, but harsher as the plots and film structures of the prequels are also just no good. The prequels are bad. I have trouble putting myself in the headspace of people who genuinely enjoy them as films.
As terrible as I think they are, the fact that Lucas clearly had passion and love of the universe he created did give them a flavor which is missing in the sequel films. While the prequels failed at being coherent films, they succeeded in creating a whole new era in the Star Wars universe that was ripe for other people to come and tell stories inside of. The prequel era feels so different from the OT, but at the same time is undeniably proper Star Wars. Other creators came in and built so much there. The strength of those other creations are actually why I think some people have convinced themselves to re-examine the prequels.
The setting of the sequel era is just so bland and lifeless. There is nothing there which was set up by those movies really for other creators to get passionate about and flesh out. The Mandalorian wedged itself between OT and sequel era to get some stronger tie in with the OT, but really there's been very few stories set firmly and entirely in the sequel movie era, and none that anyone seem to care about.
I think the prequels are a good example of how divided it is, and how similar it is to Disney stuff. Lots of people that think the prequels are bad, or that only one or two movies are bad. Same goes for the sequels, and other shows as well.
The problem is that the community behind SW is so gargantuan that it is impossible to cater to all crowds. It's simply not possible, and it will never happen. There will always be people that agree and disagree about what's good and what isn't.
Especially when Disney decided to just destroy the whole expanded universe before Disney came around, to make room for their own canon. It opened up so many fan ideas and theories. And it ranged from simple concepts to the wildest concepts. It really exposed how divided the community was about how SW should be in their eyes.
It's definitely a mess over at Disney when it comes to story/world consistency and those that are in charge of many of their projects, but I don't think it would've mattered who would've been at the helm. If Lucas had decided to continue with the sequels and/or tv-shows on his own it probably would've been the same all over, especially considering his previously revealed concepts of what could've been his idea for the sequels stories (something about the midichlorians being a sentient race controlling everything or something vague like that) and how insanely divided people were about that too.