The Batlord

Same here. I used to be a total Star Wars nerd. I even read the books. Those things were atrocious. Even the good ones were only really good when I was a teenager. So, if they screw this up, I won't really be that let down, and if they rejuvenate it, then I'll get to be pleasantly surprised.

And ditto for re-releasing the original trilogy without all the Special Edition crap. The original Special Edition was my first introduction to Star Wars, so except for a few **** ups (Seriously, Greedo shooting first and Han Solo stepping on Jabba's tale and NOT getting instantly killed? **** you Lucas) I didn't really mind it SO much, but replacing the original actor who played the Emperor in ESB, replacing Boba Fett's dialoge with the dude who played Jengo Fett, and replacing Anakin Skywalker with Hayden Christensen at the end of RotJ made the original trilogy unwatchable.

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LoathsomePete

Yeah, I actually watched the 2004 DVD release of the original Star Wars with the Mr. Plinkett commentary for the entire movie and he pointed out how stupid all the changes were in ways that I never really noticed before. Like when Han shoots Greedo, in the Special Edition they made it so Han's body kind of slides and he effectively dodges the shot, while having the exact same look on his face. I guess I didn't notice it when I was a kid, but as an adult it was painfully obvious. I really want to own the original trilogy, but I want them how they were suppose to be shown. Like many people, I stopped caring about Star Wars as a franchise after Episode II failed to make up for the disappointment that was The Phantom Menace, and didn't even both with Revenge of the Sith till 2006 or 2007 on DVD because I felt I needed to finish it, even if I wasn't looking forward to it.

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The Batlord

Luckily I was still a kid when Phantom Menace came out, so I actually liked it at first. Of course later on I realized the truth. Though nowadays, I appreciate it for what it is: an enjoyable kiddie movie with a decent lightsaber battle. But yeah, the last two were just fluff for dumb teenagers. And they made Anakin just about the dumbest protagonist I've seen in years to boot.

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Janszoon

How on earth can you like the Phantom Menace more than the other two prequels?

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Revenge of the Sith was pretty well done. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The Empire Strikes Back will always be the best in my eyes with Star Wars taking up second place. I'd put Revenge Of The Sith third right above Return Of The Jedi. The rest of the franchise was pretty piss poor.

LoathsomePete

What I'm most curious about is what happens with the video game publisher LucasArts. Could this mean the release of the much anticipated Star Wars: Battlefront 3? Or perhaps even a revival of the Tie-Fighter and X-Wing space combat series'?

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The Batlord

Well, first of all, Qui Gon Jinn was the only good character in all three of the movies. Everyone else was a two dimensional cardboard cutout. That's not necessarily their fault, since the dialogue could have been written for Days of Our Lives (in content and quality). He was the only character in any of those movies that I actually enjoyed watching on screen, and who therefore gave any of those scenes any semblance of immersion.

Secondly, as poorly made as Phantom Menace was, it still had a recognizable plot that had some semblance of a flow. I honestly have problems recalling what even happened in the other two, because it just seemed to be characters going to do arbitrary things that supposedly advanced the plot, but were just excuses for cheesy CGI effects shots or just poorly executed dialogue scenes meant to get us to the cheesy CGI effects shots.

And lastly (I could probably come up with more, but I'm lazy), Phantom Menace worked as an entertaining children's movie, while the other two movies failed as teenage fluff that remind me of Twilight movie commercials. Phantom Menace may not have been a good Star Wars movie, but I can at least watch it and derive some form of enjoyment out of it.

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Janszoon

Well, I guess we just feel completely opposite about these movies. To me Qui-Gon Jinn was not a particularly memorable character since he was basically a clone of Obi-Wan from the originals. The best characters, imo, were Obi-Wan, the Emperor and Yoda, and one of the most interesting things about the prequels was the way these three evolved and slowly turned who they were in the first trilogy. As far as the plots go, Phantom Menace is the one with the story that I found the least memorable and least relevant—some poorly explained trade dispute that has nothing to do with in anything in the larger story aside from getting the characters all together in one place. The other two were actually key pieces of the larger storyline and much more entertaining movies.

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The Batlord

I don't think any of them did anything to advance any larger storyline. In order to not ruin my love of the original trilogy, I've basically just written the new trilogy off as non-canonical, and ignored them as far as continuity is concerned. So, I'm left with judging them on their individual merits, and...well I've already covered that territory.

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duga

I actually think the plot is pretty intricate...it's a shame the script was so poor because the whole thing was pretty clever (and the one thing George did right...if he even though of it).

Nerd moment coming...

Palpatine was the Ambassador for Naboo. Obviously, he was also a Sith lord. Galactic domination isn't easy. His first task was to be elected Supreme Chancellor for the Republic, which wasn't going to be simple since Naboo is pretty much a bum**** planet. Using his dark side powers, he convinced the Trade Federation to create a "trade dispute" with Naboo (which they were really just going to turn into a full blown war regardless). The Republic had no standing army so there was nothing they could do to help. This also made the current Chancellor look bad and created sympathy for Naboo...perfect time for Palpatine to move in and get elected (I'm sure with a little help from the dark side). The Trade Federation loses, they get pissed, and they and many other planets are convinced to join the "Separatist" movement by Darth Sidious (who is obviously Palpatine's apprentice). The reason behind creating this movement was so that Palpatine could convince the Republic that they needed an army. Queue the clones. Now the Army of the Republic is fighting the Separatists...both sides which Palpatine has orchestrated. He designed the war to go on and on until eventually he could pin the whole thing on the Jedi, kill them, and then declare himself Emperor. This is funny, too, because if you remember it was Jar Jar who gave Palpatine emergency powers to declare all this stuff in the first place...so really he's the one who screwed everyone over.

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