The Official STAR WARS Thread

Netflix has finally put 'The Force Awakens' up so I'll check that out soon...officially one of the only people that didn't see it first go-round.

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Australia's lumped in there somewhere, eh?

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I've noticed US Netflix gets way more stuff, especially tv related, but in Canada we tend to get some bigger movies earlier, especially Disney stuff, it seems Disney has a deal with Netflix Canada to put major titles on it a little sooner

As someone who hates the prequels, I have been watching the Clone Wars cartoon (on season 3 now) and it's kind of been lessening my hate of all things prequels. The main reason I started watching it was to get caught up to Rebels for the debut of Thrawn. But so far the Clone Wars cartoon is way better than the prequel movies.

I get why some younger people don't have a problem with the prequels. And I get that some of us older folk might have been stuck in the past when it comes to the original trilogy. But in terms of feel of the universe, it was way different, and while flawed, I think that is what Episode VII got right again if nothing else. They used a lot more practical effects in episode VII. You watch the behind the scenes of the prequels and almost everything is done with CGI and I think ultimately that is why some of the performances were so bad. That and nobody had the balls to tell Lucas that things were off.

Again...I'm not finding these behind the scenes where practical effects weren't at all used. I get that some people enjoy the blend better but the miniatures used, the sets, definitely the makeup...the practical effects are all there. And it's 100x more imaginative than Episode VII which gave us Tatooine, Hoth and Yavin over again but called them something 'different'. That is the first time I've ever watched something Star Wars and felt like I was on Earth, of all places.

I never liked James Cameron, mostly because he's pretentious with his 'forward thinking' and Avatar sucked, but he won me back over when he called out Episode VII for exactly what it was, a re-tread. I also love how suddenly everyone turned anti-Cameron in defense of Episode VII after he spoke out.

deadline.com/2016/06/james-cameron-star-wars-force-awakens-criticism-1201781204/

I just don't think I'll ever get it. I have legitimately enjoyed EVERYTHING Star Wars up to this point...even Episode VII. Thankfully I am invested in the characters, so I am on board to see what happens...but it's by far the least inspired of all 7 movies. Whoever deserves the blame for that, I don't know.

But as far as holding it up against the prequels in terms of effects, I would take a look at this article and the accompanying reddit thread. People can whine about the acting all they want, but really I don't see the argument here after having a look at this:

makezine.com/2015/10/07/the-surprising-practical-effects-of-the-star-wars-prequels/

We could sit here all day and show screenshots of people behind CGI walls and people next to elaborate miniatures with examples from all 7 movies...that's also a scene of Padme riding in a space ship being transported. I guess what I don't understand is, did your enjoyment of those three movies really suffer that much because of the way this scene or a scene like this in particular was constructed? I don't know if I've ever sat in a Star Wars movie and been concerned about whether or not the car or whatever that was being driven was real? If anything I've always just kind of accepted the backdrops and been concerned with what people are saying without really thinking twice about it.

I'm 30 and these movies were released while I was in my early-late teens, which is where one would think I would be most resistant in terms of age and thinking things like this are dumb, but maybe you're right? Not sure if you're older than me or not. I watch clips of the Marvel movies these days and everyone seems to love those and I think the 'subtlety' of that CGI pales in comparison to the way Star Wars blends (all 7 as far as I'm concerned).

Also, Portman is the understated and never mentioned worst part about the prequels. At least Hayden gave it his efforts and despite the fact that people hate that Darth Vader is a whiny teenager, too bad. She phones in everything and anything she's doing in all of those movies and it's as clear as day she doesn't want to be there. Leia is the same way in Return of the Jedi. She is far and away more damaging to that whole world than Jar Jar Binks could ever be.

Anyways, just thoughts!

I'm 41 so I was in my mid to late 20's when they came out. From my experiences, people who were younger when the prequels were a lot more likely to accept them at face value than those who were older. I'm sure a lot of factors play a part in that. It's all subjective it's not like one person is more right than the other. I didn't think about how the films were made while watching them. It's more that I saw after the fact how the movies were made, and that clued me in to one of the reasons that the movies were so poorly acted. I think many factors are to blame, including becoming so preoccupied with the special effects (like Cameron did later in life) that he paid little attention to the acting and story. He didn't have enough people around him to challenge his visions and ideas. Too many stars in the movie hurt it as well, and some of them were clearly not passionate about the films and mailed it in. The only performances I thought weren't awful were McGregor, Neeson, and McDiarmid. I also don't think the technology was ready for CGI to be used as heavily as it was. I personally felt the prequel universe felt very shiny and sterile and the original trilogy had a much grittier feel to it. They didn't look or feel like Star Wars very much to me. Perhaps it is me being a grumpy old man, but it isn't like I am opposed to there being more movies. I really enjoyed episode VII and I am looking forward to Rogue One.

Theres no defending the piles of trash the prequels were.

I am a prequel apologist. Always will be. Not as good as the original trilogy, thought Episode 3 is great. I was 9 when Episode I came out, 12 for the second and 15 for the third. They were a big part of my childhood, I watched the originals on VHS so many times I lost track, and Phantom Menace was my first time ever at a movie theater.

There is good in them. There is tons of bad, but they're fun, and at the end of the day I find them enjoyable if you focus on the positives