Where did the Prequals go wrong? How would you improve them?

[Spartan]

Where did the Prequals go wrong? How would you improve them?

For me the new triology just started wrong. Leaving aside such abominations as midiclorians and Anakin's virgin birth. My biggest problem is that Obi-wan and Anakin are just to far apart in age.

When Obi-wan said in ANH that Anakin was already a great pilot, when he met him; I had always assumed that he meant that he was a top fighter pilot during the clone wars. And that they met during the CW and became fast friends.

So here what I would do:

The First Film

1. TPM never happened. Force sensitives can be discovered and trained at any age. Anakin has actually parents (no virgin births). The force is completely mystical, and incompletely understood.

2. The first movie opens with the clone wars starting the for the same reasons Palpatine pulling strings etc. Start the war with CIS attacking a worthy planet (Kuat, Correlia, or Alderan).

3. No Freaking Droid armies (but droids are used for fire support, SD-10's baby! ). The Republic uses conscripts and volunteers, while the CIS uses clones (but the clones are produced Zahn-style).

3. I'd have the movie follow to different tacks:

Obi-wan (the freshly mented Jedi knight) story; Just released to operate on his own by his master YODA.

Anakins story as a young volunteer to the Republic's fighter corp. Detailing his training on Cardia (yes the Republic has an actual military in my version). Anakin should be cocky as hell, think Han Solo, or Roy Fokker (from Macross).

4. I wouldn't even have them meet until the end the of the first film and Anakin would be completely un-impressed by Obi-wan being a Jedi (similar to Han's attitude in ANH).

The Second Film

1. The war continues....3-4 years latter.
2. Anakin and Obi-wan have become friends.
3. A rather arrogant Obi-wan offers to train Anakin, who would resist his attempts to convert him until he is forced to call on the force to save his life.
4. Anakin meets Padame - yadda yadda (insert a believable love story here)
5. Anakin's racked up over a thousand kills, and is starting to go all dark.


The Third Film

More later.... But in my version it would be very clear that if Padame had lived Anakin would never have fallen.

[General Zod]

i'd have gotten rid of that idiotic pod racing thing. maybe made it a footnote as opposed to the major event in the movie that it was portrayed as. i understand that they needed the parts and everything, but it just wasn't that big of a deal.

i'd also have made darth maul a larger supporting character. Sith are bigtime players, they deserve more than brief appearances only to get hacked in two later on.

that's about all i can think of for now.

[Lord Poe]

The prequels are fine. Could lose Jar Jar though.

[PackMule]

Make the dialouge more casual and less anal.

Both prequels so far havn't really worked for me. If it was up to me, I would make the lead character likeable, not some retentive kid who grows up into an annoying retentive kid-at-heart.

For me, the 6 films of Star Wars are about the rise, fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker, set against a backdrop of the rise and fall of the Empire.

My problem is the fact that everyone wants to bitch-slap Anakin in the first two movies and tell him to grow some balls ....

Oh and get rid of Jar-Jar

[Luzifer's right hand]

I don't think you need to improve the prequels, I prefer to ignore them. The virgin birth stuff, Jar Jar and the destruction of the Droid Control ship by a little boy were too much for me. EP 2 is only a little bit better.

I will just resume to enjoy SW games(Tie fighter, JK1 and JA, Kotor) and the original eps. ::sigh:: most star wars games have a better story than ep 1 and 2 anyway. Ep 1 and 2 are better than the last star trek movie though, hmm wait thats no real compliment every movie I know is better than Star Trek 10 .

[CmdrWilkens]

The single biggest boost that could be done on the cheap is to remove some of the crappy romantic sequences (like the you skin in soft not like sand one) and replace it with the deleted scenes. Those were FAR mroe natural and provded a much better basis for understanding their relationship.

[Lord Pounder]

The whole idea of whos side the clones are on thing annoyed me too. I distinctly remember Mara Jade saying "I wasn't gonna sit back while a bunch of cold faced clones try and take over the galaxy again" in the aftermath of the recover of the Katana Fleet. Fair enough EU is pretty much disregarded but Zahns work deserved a bit more respect. Young Anakin annoyed me too.

I figure the major problem is that George Lucas seems to be making up the plot as he goes along, he needs to cut that out.

[Howedar]

The execution of the prequals is the problem, not the story. Spartan's is even worse.

[Stormbringer]

Where did the Prequals go wrong? How would you improve them?

They went wrong right from the start tryin to tell a story that didn't really need to be told. Let's face it, the way it was done with veiled hints and suggestions worked far better than anything George Lucas was likely to produce. But if it must be done.....

First Film

This was a lousy shit brick of a film. It was dull, uninspiring and at parts totally cringworthy. First and foremost I would have started out with an older Anakin (child actors rarely ever work) and less of an emphasis on the FX to the detetriment of the story. Any way, here's the basic plot.

Obi Wan Kenobi (a youngish Jedi Knight, I never bought the Padawan to Jedi Master leap) and his mentor (but not Master) Qui-Gon Jinn are sent to escort Queen Amidala to Coruscant as her world in under blockade by the Trade Federation. After a short, simple scene and they're under way but of course the Trade Federation has no intention of actually allowing them to escape and they're jumped over a big time trade planet (not Tatooine!) and shot down in a prolonged dog fight with none other than Darth Tyrannus.

They begin looking for a ship and find a spice runner, captained by a forgettable no one. What makes it noteable is the young first officer/navigator Anakin Skywalker. Of course Tyrannus wants to make certain of the kill and begins sweeping the area with his henchmen and of course the captain is caught going to the ships and sells them out. Anakin finds out and helps them run and for a while it's a gave of cat and mouse with Tyrannus before they make it to the ship and escape. Of course in the inevitable, Qui Gon dies holding off Tyrannus.

The arrive on Coruscant, Palpatine is made Chancellor and we find out Obi-Wan suspects Anakin could be a Jedi. He's ordered to keep an eye on Anakin.

Mean while the Republic won't get the forces together to properly contest the Trade Federation's invasion, of course the Neiomodians are scared shitless and the only thing holding them in line is Tyrannus. Anakin volunteers to go along as a fighter pilot, to impress the Princess who he's taken with.

It's a glorious space battle, the Trade Federation has wanted to run but Tyrannus forces them into the fight anyway. Eventually after a pitched battle Tyrannus's ship is hit and taken out of the battle by virtue of Anakin's heroic attack run on the command ship and with that the Trade Federation cuts and runs, for now. But they're naturally pissed that the Republic which had ignored their depredations till now is taking action.


The Second Movie

Essentially the same except gets some one that can do it writes the love scenes and they already have a better Anakin.

The only thing different is that the Clone Army is already ordered, by one Darth Sidious not some unknown (to us anyway) Jedi Master.

[Meest]

Let someone else direct them like ESB(in my opinion the greatest of all the films) because its pretty clear what Lucas thinks is cool and hip definately is not. Also get rid of the "romance writer". As someone pointed out if you checked out AOTC deleted scenes, the Padme and family scenes are the best acted scenes in the whole PT, and really make sense in the film. Also get rid of Rick McCallum or whatever, clearly just a brown noser, get someone to challenge and add ideas not just say "yes sir!".

[Stofsk]

One idea which I had hoped they would implement was to introduce a 3-way love triangle between Anakin-Padme-Obi-wan. Why? Because in ANH Ben always keeped a wathful gaze over Luke - I can't recall clearly, but I always gained the impression they had met before (which Uncle Owen tried to discourage) - not to mention his obvious fatherly manner when dealing with Luke.

So why the love triangle? Yes, Anakin was Luke's father, and I wouldn't want to change that - but who did Padme love? Why did Obi-wan hang around Tatooine for as long as he did, protecting Luke from afar and giving him guidance whenever he could. Maybe he loved her, but she chose Anakin over him (which naturally ends up being a mistake ) In spite of this, he feels an obligation to protect Luke and Leia from Anakin, who's now in the dark side.

This may sound like a soap opera but it really isn't, as I would try not to force it through every second - just a few scenes here and there would be sufficient. It emulates the OT as well, after a fashion, as Luke-Leia-Han had the same thing I'd be aiming for with Anakin-Padme-Obi-wan, just done in a slightly different way (Obi-wan's love would be more unrequited, and there wouldn't be a last-minute plot contrivance that would make Padme his sister ).

[Connor MacLeod]

The prequels are fine. Could lose Jar Jar though.

Silence! How dare yhou deny certain people the opportunity to bitch about what annoys them in SW

[Stofsk]

I thought of a new area where the prequels went wrong, though in truth this has bugged me from day one. Did anyone here watch the OT and wished we could see the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk (I've been KOTOR you see)? Or Ackbar's homeworld of Mon Calamar? There were a lot of opportunities that could have been taken with the first 2 films. I'm sorta sick of seeing Tatooine.

It's not a major problem but it would have been nice to see both species's particular homeworld and what happened to them during the Clone Wars (it would have been nice seeing the Proto-rebellion being started by the Mon Calamari or at least them having a major effect in it's creation; at least, I would have liked seeing a Mon Calamari character rather than a Gungan).

Another thing I might have changed was make Naboo Alderaan. We never see that world or what it's people are like before Tarkin wipes them out. It would also accentuate the tragedy if the people and characters we meet in the PT end up being killed in ANH.

Of course, some of the above will be addressed in ep 3 - at least Chewbacca will make an appearance.

[Vympel]

Phantom Menace- specific changes to work around the pre-existing structure, somehow

1. Drop the 'Trade Federation' angle entirely. Get right into the Seperatists as the enemy immediately. It's less boring. Nothing was wierder than seeing "taxation of trade routes in dispute" in the opening crawl of a STAR WARS movie.

2. Ditch the child actor Anakin. He's an awful actor and makes me cringe every time I see it(which isn't often, that's how crap Phantom Menace is).

3. Keep Tatooine/Mother etc angle. That's acceptable, and IMO necessary.

4. Add a Republic fleet and military. Make the Republican war effort against the Seperatists to go badly- they're somewhat competent, but are poorly led and have low morale compared to the Seperatist forces, whoose battledroids are quite fearsome (i.e. drop the whole pathetic standard battle droids, make them smart/scary- and drop the fucking embarassing "roger roger" thing which is just cringgggggeeeeeeeeeeee) and whoose fleets are quite massive.

5. Keep Naboo in there, but invent another reason for a battle there, delete the Gungans entirely, and have a relatively moderate fleet skirmish to top off the film, with a early 20s/late teens Anakin (as suggested above) figuring prominently. The fight between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn and Darth Maul stays in.

Attack of the Clones:

Basically the same- fix the embarassing romance though.

[Kurgan]

I would think the two stock answers you'd get from most fans would be:

1) "Get rid of Jar Jar" or "Tone Jar Jar Down." I'm with the latter on this one. His character is now essential to the trilogy, but he didn't have to be "Jar Jar the Retarded Idiot who steps in crap and gets farted on while acting like a Disney sidekick." He was done for comic relief, the trouble is the comicness was aimed at the under 6 set.

2) "Put in more references to the EU" or "Make it about the EU." Lot of fans were pissed when all they got was Coruscant (and a double bladed lightsaber). They wanted lots more references and nods to the EU, if not an outright portrayal of what had come before (Jorus C'boath, Garm Bel Ibis, Prince Xizor, Spaarti Cylinders, Sith aliens, Dark Side adepts other than those shown, holocrons, Chiss, Palpy's cloning and rapid aging, early ships like z95's and dreadnaughts, Mandalorians, etc). This could have been done I suppose, but it would have meant he would have had to re-read all of the books he liscensed and figured out a story from there.

[Stofsk]

1) "Get rid of Jar Jar" or "Tone Jar Jar Down."

Well, I would have put in a Mon Cal just for the hell of it. You still get a Fish-face character, but the bonus is that they've already been introduced in ROTJ which most (if not all) fans would pick up on.

2) "Put in more references to the EU" or "Make it about the EU."

I especially would have liked Zahn references, especially seeing Garm as a young Corellian. It's odd that we never see Corellia, in spite of the fact a few noteworthy characters are from there (Han Solo and Wedge Antilles). It would have been nice to see it just once. Ah well.

Still, some of this stuff could come out in episode 3. You never know (isn't there going to be an EU character in episode 3?)

[Vympel]

Expecting George Lucas to kowtow to some licesned stuff for his story is just inane- I hate fanboys like that. Coruscant was done because it was necessary, I was quite happy not to see a single Dreadnought, Z-95, or any other EU invention. Why the hell should the creator be restricted by the crap that an army of other people (some of whom are outright hacks) came up with? It's just not reasonable.

[kojikun]

I should have liked to see Anakin kill some sith lord after he [the sith lord] killed padme, and enjoy doing it. Him killing him with utter hatred and detest, yet enjoying it so much out of vengeance, would epitomize his fall to the dark side, and the same beginning that the emperor said would make Luke cross over.

[PainRack]

The prequels storyline is good, the problem lies in the directing and frankly, actors.

Ewan McGreggor, Natalie Portman,Jar Jar, hell, even Samuel L Jackson(thus reviving every fanboy dream of not just acting in a SW movie, but the infamous Pulp fiction fan scenarios of Jedi over decades old), all these frankly seem to pander more to the audience looks than to protraying the story. Of course, this isn't an attack on their acting, hell, their acting skills were superb. Natalie Portman pulled off an extremely diffcult role as the Queen of Naboo, wise yet immature. Its diffcult to imagine anyone else stepping in Sir Alec shoes.


However, the somewhat inept timing and directing just keeps trying to throw the storyline off-tangent.

[2000AD]

As someone who actually quite likes the two prequels *Ducks rotten vegetables* i wouldn't make any massive changes. Getting rid of Jar-Jar comes high on the list as does the inclusion of the following scenes:
Padme getting bathed by handmaidens
Padme - Anakin sex scene
Padme-Beru lesbian sex scene
And so on

[PackMule]

As someone who actually quite likes the two prequels *Ducks rotten vegetables* i wouldn't make any massive changes. Getting rid of Jar-Jar comes high on the list as does the inclusion of the following scenes:
Padme getting bathed by handmaidens
Padme - Anakin sex scene
Padme-Beru lesbian sex scene
And so on

hell I'd watch that prequel every day ...

[Stofsk]

...the following scenes:
Padme getting bathed by handmaidens
Padme - Anakin sex scene
Padme-Beru lesbian sex scene
And so on

Porn - is - GOOD.

The prequels storyline is good, the problem lies in the directing and frankly, actors.

I really disliked Amidala in TPM, I guess I just found her dull; or cold and lifeless - yes, even though she was supposed to be that kind of character. But the idea of handmaidens posing as decoys was a pretty cool idea, I must admit. There was an element of elegance to that. (plus it gave worthwhile lesbian fantasies - ok, stop now Chris...)

The problem with the actors is they look for the most part bored. I don't know where the fault lay - Weak script? Weak direction? Weak producer? A combination of the three? Or were they just bored actors?

[Spartan]

The execution of the prequals is the problem, not the story. Spartan's is even worse.

So you say.

And how would you execute then Oh brave director sir. Why don't you enlighten us since that actual subject of the thread.

[Stravo]

The execution of the prequals is the problem, not the story. Spartan's is even worse.

So you say.

And how would you execute then Oh brave director sir. Why don't you enlighten us since that actual subject of the thread.

You invited people to opine on the prequels which you lambasted as awful (I generally agree) but then get offended when people say you're plot is worse (which again I agree with) You don't see a problem with that attitude?

[Spartan]

I believe that you misuderstood me. I'm did not attack him because of his opinion. The thread asks how you would fix the problem. If he doesn't like my ideas fine. However he should have elaborate of his "execution" comment.