WARNING: Fucking huge nerd rant. Ignore unless you have an obsessive interest in Star Wars.
Opeth17 said:
Personally, I think most of the flaws that people see in the PT wouldn't exist if they understood the context of the time within the galaxy. People try to dissect these new films without examining any of the elements of society, spirituality and politics within the time. The PT films are essentially made for hardcore fanboys and if you don't understand a lot of the outside story that is essential to their viewing, you're just not going to get it. People try to examine each prequel as an individual film, when they're each installments in a MUCH larger picture. Most I've talked to that hated TPM, now enjoy it because ROTS helped them understand a lot of things that stood out at the time. ANH was a one-off style film, TPM wasn't. You can't judge it the same way.
Yeah, this may be a little confusing. What I was going for here isn't EU related at all, it's about understanding where the galaxy is at at this point in time and how that affects basic things such as acting, graphics etc. that so many whine about.
Honestly, I don't know if it was planned this way by Lucas, as it seems a long shot, but his decision to create the prequels when he thought the technology was right for the story was actually a brilliant idea. The Republic of the Prequel era is SUPPOSE to be crisp, clean, perfect, beautiful. From the outside it is suppose to be the ideal picture of a utopian society. From the frilly architecture on Naboo, to the flamboyant dress of those across the galaxy. Even though the Republic is rotting inside, it's a FORMAL time period and the story is based around those on the top of society. This story focuses on Royals, Politicians, Jedi. With technology at it's current point, Lucas was able to exploit how this society was suppose to look through CGI and create things he wouldn't have been able to in the past. Even looking at something such as Anakin and Padme's relationship, the social standards of the time and their position in society goes a LONG WAY toward explaining their awkward scenes. It's a courtly love, it's a Queen/Politician and a Jedi. It's two people who are not suppose to feel that way. It's forbidden and so they do their best to keep up the appearances that they're suppose to and act a certain way. It's SUPPOSE to be corny and awkward. They're suppose to be restraining themselves at every turn and it's exactly why everytime they're together it's such a mish-mash of emotion that the whole thing turns goofy. It was planned that way people, it's not simply bad acting.
What we're exploring here if you want a comparison, would be society and love in 1950s America vs. what it was in the 60s. There are radical changes and if people had put these things in context, they'd have a better understanding of the films. The Republic was rigid and formal and when it fell, everything about that society came crashing down around it, opening things up for the OT. The visuals are dirtier, everything is down to earth, real, this is the Empire. The time of Jedi, the Knights and their Medieval society, is over and the gunslinging west of the OT era has been created. The OT is based on a grittier era. Our story begins on a backwater world following around a farmboy who runs into a smuggler and our story takes off. The OT is about bounty hunters, mercenaries, rebels, scum. Even when you see Leia and the Imperials, you can tell that any sense of formality has been driven off and it's just a free-for-all society. Whereas Anakin always had to hold down his emotions and try to "act like a Jedi should", you have someone like Han, who's just a normal guy hiding out in a society that's easy to get lost in. He has NOTHING to hold him back and that's why his character is so witty and charming. It's why he holds nothing back when he goes after Leia and puts it all on the line. He can flirt and be off-color, hell, even the Senate is disbanded now. Nobody cares, it's very much like the American West. The Empire has opened everything up and as long as you don't fuck with them, it's pretty much anything goes for all you rabble.
By examining Anakin and Padme's relationship and Han and Leia's, you get a pretty decent picture painted for you about just how different one era is from the other(among a hundred other examples). Too many people slag the prequels because of the CGI, because of "bad acting" and the most retarded thing I've ever heard of, an inferior storyline. This huge rant is just one example of what I'm talking about. People not connecting the dots or giving these films the chance they deserve seems to be a result of people not wanting to be challenged, not wanting to take the time to figure out the greater reasons why something doesn't make sense or rubs them the wrong way and perhaps just a general laziness in the sense that, "I'd rather take this at face value and slag it off as crap without any real reason than try to make sense of something." I'm not saying that's the case with anyone in this thread, because if you actually just read all of this, you deserve a medal, but with the greater community at large. I'm not saying the prequels are objectively better blah blah, just that I don't see how someone who truly enjoys Star Wars wouldn't at least like these films, the same way I LOVE the OT, despite what I consider its flaws.
