Star Wars: Episode VII **NO SPOILERS**

Anyone is entitled to enjoy any movie they want to, and if you like the Star Wars prequels, more power to you, it's just a character flaw that you have to deal with. There's no harm done if you actually like them for some reason.

However, to put them in the same ballpark as the original trilogy is flat out heresy.

I'll even admit that the originals had a lot of their own silliness and campy dialogue and acknowledge that a lot of the old fondness is based purely on nostalgia. Screw the special effects even, the lasting impression of Star Wars was in the characters and even though the storytelling was basic and formulaic, there was a universal quality about it that appealed to our imaginations and fantasies. The prequels had poor characters and convoluted storylines. Even worse, adopting those characters and storylines into the canon of the original films diminished the quality and romance of all of them.

 
Ulty said:
However, to put them in the same ballpark as the original trilogy is flat out heresy.
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Good thing nobody has done that.

Starting to wonder if EbylHusker is like the great grandson of whoever played Admiral Ackbar or something - dude is vehemently attacking the prequel trilogy as if they made sexual advances on his mother.

 
It's kind of hard for the younger folks to understand, and yes I'm a pathetic nerd because of it, but there is an entire generation from the late 70s and early 80s whose entire childhoods were based around an obsession with Star Wars. We watched the movies, we played with the toys, we ate the breakfast cereal. The influence of the original trilogy on popular culture cannot be overstated. So by the time we get to adulthood, we may or may not have grown out of this nerd-dom to some extent, but the influence of Star Wars was still deeply ingrained.

So when the prequels came out when that generation was in our 20s, we knew that the stories would likely not match what captured our childhood imagination. But we did not imagine that the movies would make the greatest villain of all time into a whiny little b!^@h. We did not imagine that they would reduce the spiritual overtones of the force into a count of blood cells, or that the wise Yoda and Obi-Wan would turn out to be bumbling fools. We did not want to see a bunch of old, beloved characters unnecessarily shoehorned into a nonsensical story. Now that these movies are the "official" story, it's difficult to go back to the originals and have the same respect for these characters. Not only were the prequels a poor fit for the original trilogy, but they were poor films anyway; if not for the "Star Wars" label they would have absolutely flopped.

If you didn't grow up with these characters and these stories, it wouldn't have been such a big deal, and you probably wouldn't get it. But for the older nerds such as myself, the prequels were almost a raping of our childhood. Now I'm embarrassed for showing how pathetic and geeky I really am, but may the force be with you all.

 
In other words, comparing the prequels to the originals is like comparing the Callahan years to the Osborne years. There's an entire generation now who don't even remember the glory days, and now waiting on Episode VII is like waiting for Pelini to deliver a championship. We know Pelini will never be as bad as Callahan or as good as Osborne, but a lot of us are grumbling because we're still unsure of the quality we can hope to expect next year. I wonder if JJ Abrams has a cat and can do the Harlem Shake.

 
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EbylHusker said:
An amusing post coming from the person who previously posted that wide sweeping, bullsh#t statement.
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You're awfully defensive about this, sorry you didn't like the prequels. I enjoyed them. Are the originals better? Yes. That alone doesn't make the prequels bad. As stand lone films they are great. Attached to the original trilogy they apparently make people angry.

I guess my advice would be to pop in your vhs of Empire and ignore the upcoming sequels as I'm guessing you will hate them.

 
If you step back and look at character development, doesn't it make sense that the ultimate villain would be a whiny little b!^@h? Evil is often the greatest form of selfishness. Don't you have to be a bumbling young fool before you can become a wise old man? I'm sure if Lucas would have fleshed out 2 more series to show the development of Vader and the other characters people might praise his genius.

Utly, you sound like all the transformer fan boys that had Michael Bay ruin their childhood as well. We 20 somethings grew up with Star Wars just the same as the 30 and up crowd. We had the action figures, the light sabers, the giant X-wings and Millennium Falcons, and the bed sheets and underwear. Don't forget that the movies were also re-released in the late 90's. We just have the added advantage of not being an adult when the prequels were release so we were still able to experience the child like wonder and not the have the burden of being an adult and over analyzing everything.

 
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1995 Redux said:
I guess my advice would be to pop in your vhs of Empire and ignore the upcoming sequels as I'm guessing you will hate them.
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Why do you think that? I'm more than willing to give them a chance. If they're even halfway decent movies, I'll be fine with them. That's not something the prequels can claim. I like the old Star Trek stuff, too, and am a fan of the new Star Trek movies. I like old Transformer things, and enjoyed the first movie (the only one of the bunch that was any good...so far).

The problem is the Star Wars prequels are pure sh#t. They're awful movies in every possible aspect. If they had made even halfway decent prequels, it wouldn't have been an issue.

 
BrayWyatt said:
It was announced the other day that the new movies won't be following the Expanded Universe stories about the children of the Solos and Skywalkers. If Disney is writing their own original stories I think the new movies will f'ing suck more than Attack of the Clones.

http://www.ign.com/a...panded-universe
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Actually, not following the EU is the only way the movies have a shot of being any good. The vast majority of the EU is utter garbage. Tossing all of the EU out of offical canon is a good move, though there are a few bits and pieces they should have kept. Hopefully they'll draw on the (very few) good parts of the EU and reintroduce those things back into the official canon as they move forward.

 
EbylHusker said:
The problem is the Star Wars prequels are pure sh#t. They're awful movies in every possible aspect.
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Since you seem to think that this is actually reality and not just your unreasonably angry bias, answer me this.

If they are really awful, as in exceedingly poor, in EVERY POSSIBLE aspect, then why did they receive nominations for and win legitimate and prestigious awards?

 
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