1) Hire a screenwriter
2) Cast Anakin older in Episode 1
3) Allow Anakin to be likable at some point, so that his fall actually takes on tragic dimensions.
4) Don’t explain the fucking Force in scientific terms
5) Hire a screenwriter
I only like the first one (of the prequels)
the other two are too serious and the romance is utterly ridiculous
I’d never have made them in the first place.
Does anyone actually believe they could have lived up to the hype no matter what they did or didn’t do?
I have a lot of ideas, but I’ll mention one. I think they needed another film—specifically between episode 1 and 2. The jump in time is too big, and I think we miss a lot of important character development with Anakin as well as his relationships with others, especially Obi Wan and Amidala.
The other option is to start with Anakin as a young adult (or however old he is in episode 2 and 3) and use flashbacks about his childhood if necessary.
One more thing. I think the prequels are about Anakin and his tragic downfall, more than next trilogy was about Luke or any one character. In other words, Anakin (and maybe his relationship with Amidala) is the story. You can have an exciting plot and action sequences, but developing the character is essential. (I think Leo DiCaprio would have been better. I think someone like Ang Lee would have been an interesting choice to direct—at least in terms of handling the character and the tragic romance aspect.)
@Wu
I expect the prequels would never please everyone, but I think it could have been a lot better—to the point that it might have lived up to the hype, at least for me.
@Den
I only like the first one, too. The second is a mess of a film. The third got a little better, but not much. Then again, I think taking a more serious (tragic) and romantic turn was good—but Lucas didn’t handle this well.
the tragic elements had to be dealt with and in a serious manner but there is little lightheartedness in either film.
the only fun scene (and the only good scene) in the 2nd film is the Yoda fight.
his attempt at writing romance, I hope he does not talk that way to his girlfriend (she would probably laugh at him)
I’ve mentioned this before but Episode One to me is one of the most pointless films i’ve ever seen. Its like an extended prologue. A build up to a main event that never comes. and it’s far too light and fluffy, whereas the sequels, as Den noted, were too serious, particularly Sith.
The potential was there, but Lucas ought to have stepped aside on Clones and Sith.
There were emotional landmines all over Sith, but Lucas just failed to capitalise on them. and Anakin’s turn to the darkside felt more like a business decision than a moral one.
Part of the problem with episode 2 is that it’s juggling too many balls in the air—specifically, all the action sequences. But the situations and characters are so poorly developed that the action seems have no dramatic meaning and pretty dull. For example, the Jango Fett fight scene with Obi Wan. That just seems thrown in there to make up for Boba Fett ignominious appearance and end in Jedi. Because of this cramming and preoccupation with f/x and action sequences, I think this may have hurt Lucas’ ability to develop Anakin. Then again, I suspect tragic romance might not be his strong suit, so….
“I only like the first one (of the prequels)”
Yeah, I think the first is the best of the three… but it’s still not good. Though I just have to give credit where credit is due: I really like Williams’ score.
They also needed a Han-like character. In the prequels all the characters come off as huge douche bags. It makes sense for Yoda and the Jedi counsel to use so many metaphors and to act preachy, but former slave Anakin should have had more grounded dialogue at the very least. Anyone agree with Joshua Jackson as Anakin? The most annoying plot hole in the entire series is the fact that he left his mom a slave for so many years when he could have got her years earlier.
four hours of podracing
two hours on the chewbacca planet
a love scene so luke and leia are born
the movies would be a mess but they would satisfy my personal fetishes
In my mind, the biggest problem with the Prequels is that Darth Vader’s fall to the dark side is a story which didn’t even need to be told; as Plinkett mentions in his reviews, all we need to know is that badass Vader was once a Jedi Knight who was seduced by the dark side of the force… as Obi-Wan mentions in Ep. 4. The rest is superfluous and cumbersome; the maxim “less is more” holds true in this instance imo.
1) Make Jedi an ‘ancient religion’ practiced by a select few rather than the galactic government just twenty years ago, like it was in the originals.
2) Reduce the useless cameos like Boba Fett and Chewbacca and child-oriented slapstick humor.
3) No mitochlorans
4) No mitochlorans
5) Keep the theme of the republic giving way to the empire, but have a more clear scheme of the emperor inventing the threat in order to scare people into letting him take control. Like, maybe #1 is about fighting a real outside threat, #2 is about the threat returning and giving power over to the Empire in order to fight it, and in #3 we found out the threat never really came back and Palpatine was behind the whole thing, and Obiwan tries to stop him.
6) Amidala dies for a real medical reason, rather than disappointment. She dies in a ‘Has to sacrifice a few lives in order to prevent a greater catastrophe’ situation, and this is what leads Anakin to make the final decision to cross over.
@MISCHA
You’re completely right, it was a mess right from the very concept. It would be extremely hard to do these movies without making Anakin look like an idiot or making Darth Vader look like a pussy.
@JIRIN
The mitochlorans were ridiculously stupid and it just took away some of the mystery of the force. You’re right, the Jedi should be more of an underground thing and maybe governments consult them. The cameos were completely unnecessary.
I wouldn’t even call the Boba Fett/ Jango Fett appearances a cameo, their presence as main characters in episode 2 was so strangely out of place. Maybe it would be better if Jango was bounty hunter or a Military official or something. Wookiees would have been enough, they didn’t need Chewy, that was just stupid.
I really love your idea of the emperor creating a fake threat to scare people. It would have made sense if after Qui Gon Jinn died the Emperor could have stepped in as a father figure for Anakin against Obi Wan’s wishes. Amidala obviously shouldn’t have died of a broken heart.
Made it animated and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.
Scrap them. Those movies should had never been made.
If the movies were centered around Darth Maul, that would be a huge improvement. Seriously the best moment of the entire Prequel Trilogy is when Qui-Gon Jin and Darth Maul are separated by a laser shield during a lightsabre fight. Darth maul retracts his bad ass double lightsabre and starts pacing, and he stars right at Qui-Gon who gets on his knees and starts meditating/praying. It’s one of the best moments of any Star Wars movies. Darth Maul was so sinister looking, he was mysterious and he really fit in to the star wars universe. Also Liam Neson was perfect, if the script was better Qui-Gon could have easily been on par with Alec Guiness’ Obi-Wan. Ewan Mgregor acted perfectly as young Obi-Wan, but the script sucked.
Yeah, maybe cast Ewan McGregor in all of the roles? Since he’s the only one who managed (miraculously) to act his way out of any of the dialogue.
Jake Cruickshank
I am a huge fan of the original trilogy, and I have always thought of changes that would have improves Prequels. There are obvious things like ditching JarJar, Shitty chiche dialogue, bad overuse of cgi, but I’m more interested in less obvious changes. For example I thought Joshua Jackson should have been cast as Anakin from episode 1. Episode 2 should have been closer to episode 1 and Anakin and Obi Wan should have been going home to free Anakin’s mother right at the start of episode 2, she should have been kidnapped by sand people almost right after Anakin left, they just didn’t know about it. His mom should end up dead because because Obi Wan messed up in some way. Another change I’d make is that Darth Maul should have been the right hand man of Emperor throughout the whole series and he would use more Sith mind tricks. About a million more changes come to mind. Sometimes i think they should have scrapped the entire story, but that would be too time consuming for me to come up with. What do you think? ?ow would have you done the Star Wars prequels?