I declare that now officially enough time has passed that we can officially openly discuss things we officially didn't like about the prequels without it bothering anybody too much (well, almost anybody). Yes, I know, there were a million of these threads back in the day at other websites, but this is a new day: the movies can be looked back on with different eyes, in a calm and amusing fashion. People who don't like this particular discussion can be free to eschew this thread (I was originally going to call it 'Things about the Prequels you thought were STUPID', but I try to bring people together, not apart).

All right, let me start by trying to pick out some things that were problems but maybe people didn't notice the first time around when we couldn't yet see the whole picture:

1. JAR JAR BINKS:

I don't think this has ever been covered on a messageboard before, but what the fuck was up with this character? Do you really have to tell somebody not to write a character that is spastic retarded in an action adventure? This isn't 'Of Mice and Men'. You could do something interesting with a learning disorder, like maybe Anakin could be mildly retarded and that would affect how he deals with the force, and maybe that contributes to his fall, or maybe they attempt to use surgery and robotics to help him and that is his first step toward becoming more machine and less human (though people would probably complain that a person becoming evil as a result of being disabled is a poor message; these people are notably silent while Jar Jary makes a mockery of the mentally handicapped).
Also, why is Jar Jar the main character? They even stop on a desert planet: he's an amphibian from a swamp region! Leave him in the ship! You're trying to remain incognito! Leave him in the ship! Jar Jar is sure to make a scene! Leave him in the ship! He belongs to a species indigenous to the planet you just escaped from! That's what detectives call a "clue"! Anyone trying to track you down would probably put two and two together if anyone he questioned described a Gungan, and there's no way they're going to forget that guy: he sticks his tongue into anything! That's like brining Jakester along!
Also, and this is very important, NOT FUNNY! Jar Jar: NOT FUNNY! Really, that would've been a note worth writing in the margins of the script when they were doing revisions.

But that Qui-Gon guy said they were bringing Jar Jar along as a guide. And he was hilarious how he was just absolutely useless, and they still kept bringing him along, and then he was wigging out underwater with that big fish trying to eat them. Every once in a while I fall on the floor in a convulsion of laughter just remembering how awesome that moment was. Only moment better: "What a drag."

2. Anakin

I mentioned in the first post that they could've made Anakin an imbecile: uh, yeah. Anakin is not an intelligent character. This may reflect the writers who were manipulating his actions. What the writers did do is make him the most powerful Jedi ever (in terms of medichlorians, or whatever). Wow, there's a cool idea. Never heard of anything like that before. Why try to make an interesting, dynamic character when you can rely on tropes like that? I mean, the guy was only going to fall from grace, become Darth Vader, and bring about the downfall of the Jedi and the Republic: that wasn't much to work with. Also, Anakin is a wuss. I wouldn't follow this guy down a flight of stairs, and he's supposed to become this leader of the Empirial fleet. Plus, he nails majorly hot princesses: I guess he was the equivalent of the "star athlete" of his time and place. Watching this guy's "fall" to the dark side was like watching a clown slip on a banana peel. And yeah, I know we all knew it was going to happen. Still, they couldn't make a character where everybody couldn't already tell, "Hey, this guy's gonna go bad!" Like maybe a guy who doesn't whine all the time about not getting enough respect.

The writers (aka Lucas) fucked up majorly when they decided the most imposing movie character ever created would go by the childhood nickname "Annie". They (Lucas) were (was) never able to recover.

Jack's Sorrow wrote:Like maybe a guy who doesn't whine all the time about not getting enough respect.

Actually, this was sort of consistant with ANH, where Vader just chokes anybody in a meeting who doesn't agree with him.
One guy: "The Force is STUPID!"
Vader: "Die!"
And how long had Vader been choking people at this point? Was this guy new or something? And why does Vader just sort of hover around this meeting while people either talk down to him or ignore him? Isn't he like the Emperor's number two guy? I guess he got promoted after everybody died in the Death Star. Of course, when you think about how the Emperor chooses his people (tries to intice them by saying the Dark Side will save their wife, has them murder children, rescues them from quadruple amputation and lava flambe, takes them to mad scientest laboratory and Frankensteins them, watches amusedly as they scream, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"), he's probably got a disjointed organization.

I think Lucas should completely re-write and re-shoot the OT as movies that would follow more naturally follow up the PT. As it is, it just doesn't flow well enough from one trilogy to the next. For one thing, the dialogue got lightyears better. That needs to be dumbed down drastically. Also, the whole Syo-Doofus thing thing needs to be fleshed out more. And thirdly, we need an example of Yoda turning down a newborn baby 3 seconds out of the womb because they're too old to begin learning the ways of the Force.

Find ILM's worst artists?

Busy on Eragon.

That's funny shit.

Good thing Ulic's not here to see this!

Quasar wrote:Good thing Ulic's not here to see this!

Actually it's a shame because his God-worship of Lucas is partly responsible for it.

Corporal Hicks wrote:

Quasar wrote:Good thing Ulic's not here to see this!

Actually it's a shame because his God-worship of Lucas is partly responsible for it.

To put it more genericly, it is the reason why the PT sucks as a whole. The expectations of the fan base sharpened the efforts by Lucas, while killing all creativity and spontaneous accidental finds that made the OT great.

I stole this from Sean.

God damn you!

Guess someone else didn't like the prequels.

Too bad he was pissing on one of the few good things about the prequels.

Darth Snoopy wrote:I stole this from Sean.

[mode="Jack's Sorrow"]Don't you mean you "stole" this from "Sean"?[/mode]

I mean "fuck you, Thursty", "you dirty bitch".

omicron wrote:Guess someone else didn't like the prequels.

Too bad he was pissing on one of the few good things about the prequels.

I loved the prequels, they were a lot of fun. Brought back a lot of childhood memories. Apparently many children were raped during their childhoods. Who knew?

At any rate, there were many problems with them, continuity being the main one. And Jar Jar. Most complaints are valid.

But, I'm enough of an adult now to where any issues I had with these movies didn't pollute my overall entertainment.

That's a nice way to say I'm not a titty-baby, unlike the Skywalker family.

I don't feel like my childhood wasn't raped. If it is the case that I feel my childhood was affected in any way, it may be that I feel like a stranger offered my childhood some questionable candy.

Look at this retarded piece of shit.

You know you were sportin' a woody when General Grevious hit the screen.

I can't believe they went with that name over Kaptain Kickass.

I was pulling for Army Armee.

Major Major Major was my hope.

Captain Kickass gets the +++ of the day.