How to Watch Star Wars, Part One: The Prequels Are Better Movies Than You Deserve

Okay, this is one of the lamest videos I’ve watched. You spend a good 100 mins (…) banging on the drum incessantly about “homage”and artists influencing artists. Okay? And!

The last part I skipped because it’s you poisoning the well against detractors. Their points still stand about the characters being one dimensional and wooden. The prequels are a dull affair and they remain that way 20 years on.

You make some decent points about the cinematography, but Lucas destroyed his OWN lore with the prequels. So from a story telling perspective, he lost touch.

Part of me wishes George Lucas could sit down and watch this knowing that there are people who understand his filmmaking and his vision for Star Wars.

Disney making Star Wars films is like Warner making a sequel to The Lord of the Rings.

I prefer the prequels to the originals. I consider them better movies. They just do more with a bigger scope. I still like the originals and every episode in Lucas’ saga though.

The moment where Vader breaks off the table and takes his first few staggering steps - I could swear I saw it somewhere before but it’s not in a Frankenstein movie that I’ve been able to find. Thanks for your hard work! This is amazing.

star wars is a scrapbook.

Mr. Lucas is storyteller but not a movie maker. Main problem with prequels is execution of story.

naw son

Rewatching this for the 3rd or 4th time now, and it is still fantastic!

One thing I noticed on this rewatch is the podracing sequence. Having seen the Grand Prix movie about a year ago, I had no idea how much of the podrace was taken from that movie, a movie that revolutionized how racing movies were shot and still has some of the best racing scenes in all of film history, in my opinion. I also had no idea that Lucas was a cameraman on that film. Awesome details!

By far, the most comprehensive analysis of the movies thus far. Cant really put into a comment exactly how important this is to me. Thank you for doing the research.

I’m glad I had a videography teacher in High School who was almost as much of a film enthusiast as Lucas, because this video is almost like something that he would’ve done in class as the lesson for the week

Some similar shots to classic movies do not a good movie make. 40 minutes into this video, I can't help but wonder if this guy is ever going to present another argument as to why the prequels are any good, other than that.

Referencing classic movies won't make a difference if you have static characters, boring dialogue, nonsensical plot and bad acting. The originals aren't good because of how Lucas was influenced by classic films, but because they were entertaining, coherent, had relatable characters and compelling stories, everything the prequels don't have.

I've seen all 3 parts now and it's refreshing to hear from someone speaking on film who actually knows cinema history and can think with nuance

The music is very overpowering. But I loved every second of this. Extremely eye opening. Thank you.

While I love your videos and am maybe one of the biggest fans of the Phantom Menace, I think you're oversimplifying in several areas just as much as Red Letter Media. On the points about dialog being like lyrics to complement the visuals, this isn't a justification for shody dialog. Word choice is important and dialog is a practiced art. If Lucas views dialog as akin to complementary lyrics, why wouldn't one expect stronger lyrics to enhance the visuals they're tied to?

On the point about Lucas viewing the films as silence movies primarily centered on visualization, this makes the falliing back to shot/reverse shot in static settings seem to contradict his own goal. Episode 2 and Episode 3 also had numerous "slow walking down hallways" scenes that critics have rightfully pointed to. Perhaps I'll have to rewatch the original trilogy and Phantom Menance, but I don't recall nearly so many of either. Dialog in those four films was usually delivered in unique ways (something different going on when the settings were the same) and didn't seem to have nearly the redundancy of Jedi council board meetings, two characters sitting and talking, or Jedi slowly walking and talking. If Lucas wants dialog to be secondary to visual storytelling, it would be helpful to write and direct characters who are actively engaging in something while they are dropping information.

In novels of course these are called beats. The closest I can think of in the original trilogy is Cloud City with Han and Leia in their quarters Lando gives them, but even then there are only two short vaguely repeated dialog scenes- Leia telling Han she is worried about 3P0 and doesn't trust Lando, and Lando inviting them to dinner. Both are framed completely different and have different tones so didn't feel repetitive. I think there was a third that ended up being a deleted scene, and understandably so. In the Phantom Menace, there are only a couple of scenes as I recall in the Jedi chamber, one without Anakin and one with, each quite different. Each of the Senate scenes is different as well.

Anyway, I still like the prequels and Lucas, I simply think you may be glossing over several genuine issues with Episode 2 and 3.

What is the name of that french film with the darth-vader-voice sounding guy?

It's a strong video until part III, then the dialogue just becomes "nuh-uh you're stupid."

The prequels are fine, but they overwhelmingly (except Phantom) look like a computer vomited cartoons. They're so ugly compared to the originals and sequels. Midichlorians is Aryan master race-tier writing, rather than mystical space wizardry. And they're truly is just a lot of flat, boring dialogue scenes in what should be otherwise exciting plot.

To say the entire blowback to the prequels is wrong is ridiculous.

No, they're not. The prequels are arguably even worse than the sequels.

Indeed they R😊😊😊

George Lucas is a genius!!!

Was enjoying the first 20 minutes of this then the jab at one of the most talented American filmmakers put me off.

Absolute Cinema
✋😶✋

It's refreshing to hear this angle taken of the prequels, to look at them as what George was trying to do, rather than what George did wrong

The prequels are dogshit movies

4000th comment

Honestly, this video especially makes me feel that the casting is a big reason the disney movies were such a travesty. I don't really feel like the actors really brought any of their own special charm or personality to the characters, possibly they didn't have room to. But I've never felt that the disney movies were part of star wars (except rogue one, I guess), but it was difficult to explain that feeling

You've allocated a huge amount of resources to justify some absolutely wretched films, but I respect your impressive effort.

Here are the reasons why the prequels fail completely for me:

1. The kid Anakin was a terrible actor. Unwatchable. "All my life!"
2. Jar Jar was unwatchable. He brought fart jokes to Star Wars, a venal sin.
3. The plot of TPM was confusing and convoluted when compared with original Star Wars
5. The dialogue was wooden at best and ATROCIOUS at worst. Sand.
6. No believable chemistry between Padme and Anakin. But i guess the sand speech moved her?
7. Adult Anakin was better than the kid but his angst ridden teen schtick grows old fast. He had just come off the forgotten film "Life As A House" where he plays...an angst ridden teen.
8. Swapping practical puppets for cg. Yoda.
9. MIDICHLORIANS. Good lord. Stop already.
10. YODA was obi wan's master. Qui-Gon Jin felt like a prequel cop out.

The themes of the films are interesting but that's just a treatment, not a film.

Remember, the films were NOT received well by fans when they were released. People camped out for literally months on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese theater in Hollywood and came out of the theater trying to be positive about the months of their they had wasted. It was a travesty.

Eps 2 and 3 were marginally better if only because kid anakin and Jar jar were gone (or nearly so).

My memory of these events don't change in retrospect. They have always been terrible movies and no amount of nostalgia-infused retconning can change that.

Because of Star Wars so many people wanted to learn film theory. Studio films makes nobody want to do that.

My only complaint about the prequels is Gungans. Get rid of Jar Jar, cut out the under water submarine piece that's only there to use effects, and it's fine.

Love this video, just watched it for the second time. Thank you, from a fellow prequel enjoyer.

Music is far too loud and distracting around the 1hr mark - very poor editing choice

i will admit you have helped me appreciate the prequels more, even though i still dont really like them. one thing ive noticed recently is that while as a kid i liked both trilogies equally, as i get older i like the originals more and the prequels less, and now i understand why. when i was a kid i never listened to what anyone said in movies. i appreciated the visuals and the music and ignored the dialogue. as an adult now i can’t get over the corny lines, it distracts me so much. my favourite part of all three movies is the end of attack of the clones where you have all the clones and star destroyers being shown off, and then it cuts to anikin and padmes wedding. its all powerful visuals and beautiful score and no talking. george knew he wasnt good at writing dialogue, and i think he shouldve hired someone to write the scripts for him, that way they could be appreciated by both english and non-english speakers. while i still personally dont like them, i can definitely understand now why he made them how he did.

That’s basically a movie class baited with star wars on the title HAHAHA I love it.

Amazing video. I had fallen into the hyper critical prequel hater thing when I watched RLM when I was young. But you’ve shown Lucas’ pure genius so well here. I don’t know how he thought of all these details, placements of fire, use of colour etc. He thought so deeply about all of it. Maybe that’s normal for directors but I’m not convinced it is. A true visionary. Great video 😊

could you pin a comment of all the films listed in this video?

duke ellington !!