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OPINION: The Star Wars prequels are better than the original trilogy (arguments and discussion included)

Which of the two Star Wars trilogies do you prefer?

  • The original trilogy (I grew up with them)

    Votes: 81 71.1%
  • The prequels (I didn't grew up with them)

    Votes: 5 4.4%
  • The original trilogy (I didn't grew up with them)

    Votes: 21 18.4%
  • The prequels (I grew up with them)

    Votes: 7 6.1%

  • Total voters
    114

Sybb

Banned
So, I grew up with the original trilogy, meaning they were my first contact with Star Wars. This means my strongest nostalgia lies there. And when the prequels started in 1999, I was swept away with all the negative critisism and thought that while good, in their own right, they were definitely worse than the original trilogy.

But 20 years have changed my mind.

When I go back today and watch all six movies, it strikes me very hard how ugly and unprofessional the battle scenes are in the original trilogy. Especially the light saber duels looks like two amateurs duking it out on the schoolyard, compared to the intense and much better battles in the prequels.

The special effects are far superior in the prequels as well, which is kind of like comparing Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild. BotW simply could show so much more due to better tech. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Jar Jar (a popular hate subject among the nay sayers) is no worse than C3PO in the OT. Whether it be Jar Jar's anniying clumsiness or C3PO's shitty British dry humour jokes, they're equally annoying to me. But Jar Jar was mostly only seen in Ep I, while that golden piss robot was seen in Ep IV, V and VI. Also, Ep VI had the ewoks, which people even back then thought were out of place.

The OT had Han Solo, but the prequels had Palpatine. Both actors performed extremely well, with Palpatine having a lot of memorable quotes such as "DO IT" and "I AM the senate".

When it comes to the script and the story, it's really a matter of taste. I really like how you could follow Anakin from a child to his death. I think the love story part of Ep II was weakly written by Lucas, but the OT also have weak parts.

I think it's very easy to copy the opinion of others, especially when all media, magazines etc says that the prequels are shit. Hive mind mentality affects people.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Prequels get too much crap, but no.

The originals are much better written, acted, and filmed. They’re not only a more mature, interesting product, but technically better as well.

The prequels will always be fun, but they were from a director who had found a much more childlike side in the twenty years between trilogies, and either lost the people who helped him with or some of the directing/writing talent he had.

I can easily see where they could have been better. So much of the concept is genius. But the execution doesn’t even have the prequels living up to everything they could have been, let alone the other Star Wars.
 

INC

Member
the prequels CGi dont make it look better, in fact the polar opposite, the CGI now looks dated, the originals have stood the test of time, they still have charm, and you can see the people who made the films craft involved in making it, the prequels is nothing but green screen

the actors in the prequels are bad, even ewun cant save them, even he sounds like a hallmark actor, where as almost all the actors in the original films, are all memorable. and the reason DO IT is memorable, is because it became a meme, it became a meme because its bad

the originals, looked lived in, dirty, grimey, why Mando works so well, it follows this art style, all the other star wars films after the original, all look clean and clinical, thats not how the originals looked
 
Just posting so I can look this over later... I think you're WRONG but I also think the prequels were unfairly maligned and too many people bought into the Cult of Plinkett and it lead to the fucking sequel trilogy.
 

TheContact

Member
Star Wars became big when I was a kid when they did the remasters in theaters and then the prequels (can’t remember if that was the correct order) but the original trilogy captured me more than the prequels. Especially as a kid, the first episode was just too political but looking at it now, it was necessary to set up the plot they hold up better than the trilogy.
 

ManaByte

Member
Just posting so I can look this over later... I think you're WRONG but I also think the prequels were unfairly maligned and too many people bought into the Cult of Plinkett and it lead to the fucking sequel trilogy.

It wasn't Plinkett. "George Lucas raped my childhood" began with the Special Editions. Plinkett capitalized on that and today performance outrage YouTubers keep it alive.
 
the prequels CGi dont make it look better, in fact the polar opposite, the CGI now looks dated, the originals have stood the test of time, they still have charm, and you can see the people who made the films craft involved in making it, the prequels is nothing but green screen

the actors in the prequels are bad, even ewun cant save them, even he sounds like a hallmark actor, where as almost all the actors in the original films, are all memorable. and the reason DO IT is memorable, is because it became a meme, it became a meme because its bad

the originals, looked lived in, dirty, grimey, why Mando works so well, it follows this art style, all the other star wars films after the original, all look clean and clinical, thats not how the originals looked

The actors in the OT were pretty awful too.
 

INC

Member
The actors in the OT were pretty awful too.

ill take the originals bad actors, over prequels bad actors, any day of the week. at least the originals didnt have long drawn out dialogue, so you dont see the bad actors, for as long
 
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kiiltz

Member
Prequels were poorly executed and I do share the sentiment that Anakin should have start off as a padawan rather than a kid. There were a lot of complaints about it being over political but tbh I didn't really care about that. No excusing Jar Jar though.
 
It wasn't Plinkett. "George Lucas raped my childhood" began with the Special Editions. Plinkett capitalized on that and today performance outrage YouTubers keep it alive.

The special editions deserve every ounce of hatred they get, I'm such a big proponent of preservation of art and George Lucas doesn't want me to experience the original art that was the theatrical versions of some of my favorite films, I'll defend him for the prequels but honestly fuck him for the special edition bullshit
 

Sybb

Banned
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.
 

VulcanRaven

Member
Episode 1 was the first Star Wars movie I saw but I still prefer the original trilogy. I was 6 years old at the time and I saw the originals soon after. Prequels are not as bad as people say but they are not very good movies. The original trilogy has better story, characters and is visually more interesting.
 
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Birdo

Banned
The special effects are far superior in the prequels

I disagree. The models and animatronics of the OT look far better to me than the CG cartoon crap of the prequels.

star-wars-fx-mpc-returnjedi-ships.gif


Vs this video game looking shit:

147343c79e9cc57fa51686659bd3c1e093d130d0_hq.gif
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.
I assumed this was a joke thread. How can you be serious?
 

Hudo

Member
Couple of years ago, before Disney fucked everything up, I would've said that the prequels are always worse than the original trilogy. Nowadays, I can appreciate the prequels and I feel like it depends on the personal mood. Sometimes I prefer the prequels (they carry a different, more grandiose atmosphere IMHO) but I usually prefer the original trilogy (which are a bit closer to characters than the prequels IMHO). It's like asking me what Final Fantasy I like best. Sometimes it's FF6, sometimes it's FF12. Depends on my mood, really.

Both trilogies are good but for different reasons.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.

You got some decent answers, and the thread has barely started. Don’t be an Anakin about this.

xJCKiYs.jpg
 

VulcanRaven

Member
When I go back today and watch all six movies, it strikes me very hard how ugly and unprofessional the battle scenes are in the original trilogy. Especially the light saber duels looks like two amateurs duking it out on the schoolyard, compared to the intense and much better battles in the prequels.

The special effects are far superior in the prequels as well, which is kind of like comparing Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild. BotW simply could show so much more due to better tech. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.
I prefer the lightsaber fights in the old movies. Especially the ones in Empire and Jedi but I agree that the one in A New Hope is pretty bad though. I wish they had made that scene better

Practical effects of the original trilogy are so much better and have aged better. CGI doesn't always age well. Someone could see this gif and think that its from the Clone Wars cartoon

CPBh.gif
 
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INC

Member
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.

or perhaps youre just wrong, ever consider that?
 
So, I grew up with the original trilogy, meaning they were my first contact with Star Wars. This means my strongest nostalgia lies there. And when the prequels started in 1999, I was swept away with all the negative critisism and thought that while good, in their own right, they were definitely worse than the original trilogy.

But 20 years have changed my mind.
I actually liked the first one. And I didn't pay attention to internet critics or websites back then.
Leaving the cinema after the horrible shit show that was AotC and being disappointed is because the movie was the worst piece of trash I have ever seen on the silver screen, and not some internet critic influencing me.


When I go back today and watch all six movies, it strikes me very hard how ugly and unprofessional the battle scenes are in the original trilogy. Especially the light saber duels looks like two amateurs duking it out on the schoolyard, compared to the intense and much better battles in the prequels.
Light Saber fights were never about crazy stunt stuff and Wuxia flying people in the OT.
They are just a metaphor for something that's the real emotional core of the scene.

Late 90ies was Kung Fu Wuxia movies prime time, so these influences unfortunately happened that light saber fights needed to look like some retarded Hong Kong cinema flick.

The special effects are far superior in the prequels as well, which is kind of like comparing Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild. BotW simply could show so much more due to better tech. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Basically you are right. CGI on its own is nothing bad.
The problem is they went completely overboard with it when they didn't have to.

All the green screen shit looks lifeless, and the scenes have too much stuff happening at once.

Jar Jar (a popular hate subject among the nay sayers) is no worse than C3PO in the OT. Whether it be Jar Jar's anniying clumsiness or C3PO's shitty British dry humour jokes, they're equally annoying to me.
To you.
I vastly prefer the "shitty british dry humor" than someone walking into piles of crap every few scenes.

But Jar Jar was mostly only seen in Ep I, while that golden piss robot was seen in Ep IV, V and VI. Also, Ep VI had the ewoks, which people even back then thought were out of place.
Why were they out of place? They were just some bloodthirty little cannibalistic teddy bear motherfuckers playing bongo drums on the skulls of their enemies they have eaten.

Not the best Star Wars invention, but miles better than Jar Jar fucking Binks' antics.

The OT had Han Solo, but the prequels had Palpatine. Both actors performed extremely well, with Palpatine having a lot of memorable quotes such as "DO IT" and "I AM the senate".
It's not about quotes, it's about charisma.
Palpatine was okay, but most people in the prequels were bland as cardboard.

There was no clear hero figure for whom to root for because everybody was basically an asshole.
Anakin was a teenage spoiled brat asshole.
Obi-Wan was a cold asshole.
Padme was just a side character after the first movie.

Star Wars needs hero figures to root for.

When it comes to the script and the story, it's really a matter of taste. I really like how you could follow Anakin from a child to his death. I think the love story part of Ep II was weakly written by Lucas, but the OT also have weak parts.
Nobody needed to see Darth Vader as a cute little boy.
And by the time we see his "turnaround", he has already been an insufferable ass hat for two whole movies I don't care for anyway. So why should I care he goes to the dark side?

Also, shit doesn't make sense, if between RotS and ANH is only 19 years. He is much too young in the prequels if he looks like Sebastian Shaw did in RotJ.
He must have been like 40 then.

Shaw looked more like 50 to 60 years old.

I think it's very easy to copy the opinion of others, especially when all media, magazines etc says that the prequels are shit. Hive mind mentality affects people.
I arrived at these conclusions on my own, be assured.

The prequels are still shit, even if the sequels are bad as well, just in another way.
 
Last edited:

Soodanim

Member
I really enjoy the Star Wars universe, but I’m going to take a different approach and say the OT isn’t that fantastic. I’m sure it was in ‘77, of course. But there’s some standout bad moments, like Obi Wan dying and Vader throwing objects at Luke in Empire (that’s really bad with the slow swings after each object).

Not saying the PT is better, but I’m a sucker for prequels and world building and the PT does both.
 
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.
You sound like someone sniffing his own farts a lot.
People gave you lot of stuff to respond to, but you chose to sit in the corner and play the victim card.
 
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.

OPs who find dumb reasons to escape their own threads rarely last long around here.
 

Super Mario

Banned
The original trilogy is overrated. It is not some bastion of perfection. Everything people hate about the prequels, can be found in that trilogy as well.

The prequel trilogy is underrated. It has some bad parts, but doesn't deserve the hate it gets

But I still say the original trilogy is better. It has way too many iconic scenes and lines.
 

YuLY

Member
Episode 3 (Revenge of the Sith) is my favorite Star Wars movie. I still get chills when I watch it and it gets to the part where Anakin is pondering on what to do/choose and thinks of Padme, there is a silence but kind of music in the background, the Coruscant flying cars outside of his building, feels so special to me even now. I think the song is Padme's ruminations. So I do love the prequels.

With that being said, I do believe Ep 4 and 5 (especially Empire Strikes Back) are better movies than Ep1 and 2, so overall the OG trilogy would come on top, but I never understood the hate the prequels got. They are so fun, dreamy, makes you imagine...it makes me feel like a kid again not knowing what adventures await, the OG is lower on that even if better movies.
 
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I'd entertain that view over this nonsense.
Well that must make you a monkey brain? Dude's schtick is getting old.

OK, but you never clarifed that either after you said her butt has too much fat. That's pretty easy to interpret as you saying you think it looks fat.

Everything I ask for is an argument. An explanation. You think I see myself as "god" because I simply complain when people spout "it's ugly" without explaining why? How difficult can it be for you? Just explain what you mean in greater detail, otherwise we have a thread where every message is

"nice" (how is it nice?)
"bad" (how is it bad?)
"good" (what makes it look good?)
"bad proportions" (how and where?)

"I'm a monkey brain who can't be arsed to think, so I'll just shout my opinions on impulse, because I've never thought about why I think like I do, because I'm too lazy"
Exactly. But again, ignorant monkey brains are too lazy-brained to even understand themselves. If you don't think, you don't know yourself. And a lot of people today rarely think, because just like physical exercise, it requires effort.
Everyone: please note how people reply. They reply the same way as in the ass threads:

"It's nice"
"The movies are bad"

I give up. It seems to be impossible to make people think, to actually put in some effort. To have a proper discussion with arguments, rather than just monkey brains spewing out their opinions left and right.

I'm out.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
So, I grew up with the original trilogy, meaning they were my first contact with Star Wars. This means my strongest nostalgia lies there. And when the prequels started in 1999, I was swept away with all the negative critisism and thought that while good, in their own right, they were definitely worse than the original trilogy.

But 20 years have changed my mind.

When I go back today and watch all six movies, it strikes me very hard how ugly and unprofessional the battle scenes are in the original trilogy. Especially the light saber duels looks like two amateurs duking it out on the schoolyard, compared to the intense and much better battles in the prequels.

The special effects are far superior in the prequels as well, which is kind of like comparing Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild. BotW simply could show so much more due to better tech. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Jar Jar (a popular hate subject among the nay sayers) is no worse than C3PO in the OT. Whether it be Jar Jar's anniying clumsiness or C3PO's shitty British dry humour jokes, they're equally annoying to me. But Jar Jar was mostly only seen in Ep I, while that golden piss robot was seen in Ep IV, V and VI. Also, Ep VI had the ewoks, which people even back then thought were out of place.

The OT had Han Solo, but the prequels had Palpatine. Both actors performed extremely well, with Palpatine having a lot of memorable quotes such as "DO IT" and "I AM the senate".

When it comes to the script and the story, it's really a matter of taste. I really like how you could follow Anakin from a child to his death. I think the love story part of Ep II was weakly written by Lucas, but the OT also have weak parts.

I think it's very easy to copy the opinion of others, especially when all media, magazines etc says that the prequels are shit. Hive mind mentality affects people.

What ever trilogy is your first will always be your favourite. More power to you. It’s awesome you like star wars in the first place. So that’s cool.
 

kunonabi

Member
The overall story of the prequels is more interesting but the OT has two practically perfect films to its credit and while RotJ is the weakest of the 6 it still nails the big payoffs better than any other final franchise entry in cinema history.

I love the prequel trilogy but it isnt better than the OT.
 
OP you're banned from ever criticising cinema. Movies are not just about shoving lightsaber and space battles on screen to look cool. It's about characters and story. Prequels are a memeable failure.

Also why Rogue One is kinda shit sorry for Off-Topic.

Rogue One is total shit, agreed
 

GreyHorace

Member
Nope. Don't agree sorry. The prequels were a mess in terms of execution. The effects are nice and the action (especially the lightsaber fights) was better choreographed, but who cares about that stuff when you don't give a damn about the characters and story?
 

Weiji

Banned
In my view there have only ever been two excellent Star Wars movies. Those are the very first two ever made. They rank as roughly an A and an A+.

No other movie in the history of the franchise has ever been better then maybe a B-. Many of them are watchable for a variety of reasons, but also fatally flawed in some way.

The prequels for example have great lightsaber duels to great music. But Jar Jar is horrible, the CG in many scenes is Jarring, and frankly Haden Christian is so bad it’s hard to comprehend how the movie was released. The scenes where Portman and him are together rank as some of the most cringy, awful scenes in cinematic history. They’re meme material for a reason, and it’s not because they’re remembered fondly.
 

mcz117chief

Member
I grew up with both and I liked both for different reasons. I liked the incredible CGI of the prequels a lot and it felt a lot more real. The original trilogy felt a lot more like a movie or an act but I liked the characters a lot more, especially Luke and Vader. My biggest problem was that there was too much boring stuff in the originals like the Han/Leia romance, talking, pretty much the entire Episode 6. But as I grew up I have grown to appreciate the "boring" things and slowly began to favor the originals. Today I definitely like the originals more but I still enjoy the prequels for what they are, a shame that Liam Neeson died so soon, Qui Gon is my favorite prequels character.
 
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ManaByte

Member
I disagree. The models and animatronics of the OT look far better to me than the CG cartoon crap of the prequels.

star-wars-fx-mpc-returnjedi-ships.gif


Vs this video game looking shit:

147343c79e9cc57fa51686659bd3c1e093d130d0_hq.gif

The Prequels used more models than the OT or ST.
 

mcz117chief

Member
The scenes where Portman and him are together rank as some of the most cringy, awful scenes in cinematic history. They’re meme material for a reason, and it’s not because they’re remembered fondly.
An 18 something monk and a 20 something career politician have "awkward" romance. Imagine my shock...
 
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MetalAlien

Banned
I disagree. The models and animatronics of the OT look far better to me than the CG cartoon crap of the prequels.

star-wars-fx-mpc-returnjedi-ships.gif


Vs this video game looking shit:

147343c79e9cc57fa51686659bd3c1e093d130d0_hq.gif
That's what I want. I want a blu ray release of the original 3 with NO enhancements. I want the matte lines and everything.
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
I'd say the prequels have an actually amazing storyline.

It's just hidden beneath some very weird design choices.

With a few tweaks these movies would have been universally loved, I am sure.
And that's what he would have had if he hired a stronger director or co-director. Lucas can write some interesting set-ups, but should never write dialogue. As everyone already knows, even on the original Star Wars IV, the actors felt they were in the middle of a cheap B-movie and kept changing the lines themselves to sound more natural.
 

T8SC

Member
Revenge Of The Sith is the 4th best numbered Star Wars movie (I'm excluding spin offs such as Rogue One & Solo).

The prequels are better than the sequels.

The prequels have a number of great scenes that stand out against all other movies, including the OT, such as - Pod Race, "Seismic charges", Darth Maul duel, "Hello there", Obi Wan vs Anakin ....

The prequels & OT have great soundtracks with many memorable themes, especially when compared to the sequels.

The prequels had poor writing but still managed to get some great performances, lead mainly by Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan & Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine.

The OT includes one of the greatest movies ever made - The Empire Strikes Back.

Return Of The Jedi includes the greatest space battle of all time (Above Endor).

The prequels were & still are, hated on for reasons that people don't fully understand because they're essentially just being sheep & following the crowd.

Attack Of The Clones is the weakest of the 6 Lucas Star Wars movies.
 
If LucasFilm sponsors allowed George to have someone else direct / Spielberg accept the directional offer, the prequels would have been the better trilogy. Hell, the first draft of Phantom Menace fucking SLAPPED until George went ahead and dumbed it down with each revision.

Although, most Star Wars movies have suffered getting watered down with each draft imo. It's just Phantom Menace that suffered the worst during production (that is of course not including the elevator to Hell that was process between the first drafts of Dual Of The Fates and the final product of Rise Of Skywalker).

Attack Of The Clones then took the worst of Phantom Menace and amplified it through a completely unfiltered Lucas. It wasn't until Revenge Of The Sith that he (mostly) figured out what he was doing.
 
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