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Should The Phantom Menace have been a Prologue movie?

posted 8 years ago by burnsmatthew2012
8 replies | jump to latest

A good and sort of valid criticism of this film is how disconnected it is from the driving story of Episode 2 through 6. It feels like a self contained story which has strands of world building for the episodes that follow, but all very loose and distant. Why didn't Lucas consider this film as a Prologue episode to the real prequel trilogy to come Eps 1 through 3. This way George could have still told to origin story of Anakin at age 8. But Episode I would have maybe taken Anakin to age 17 or 18. And then he could have had much more time to develop the Obi Wan and Anakin character relations and so forth. It is a really enticing and frustrating what if to me!

[–] lrdcharlton 8 years ago

I honestly do not believe he had it all planned out. You can tell that he went overboard with plot in episode 2 and by episode 3 had to slap something together that left more questions than answers. So, in hindsight, yes it should have been a prologue, but I am not sure in Lucas's mind while making this film that there was going to be such a disconnect.

[–] burnsmatthew2012 8 years ago

James Cameron is writing all the Avatar movies in one go. Lucas should have done that instead of taking each movie individually. Good point.

[–] FlyingJ87 8 years ago

Meh, not necessary to write them all at once, but having a decent outline for the entire prequel trilogy would have been. Did he? Don't know. I could see the outline looking good, it's in the smaller details and direction that George screwed the pooch on the prequels.

I think the bigger problem is George didn't give much thought to the logistics (especially Palpatine's actual plan, and how anyone with common sense would have been able to figure out he was behind it, the character relationships, how to handle performances, etc.) and was far more concerned with A) trying to make some grand artistic statement and B) just wanting to see stuff he thought was cool put in the movie. It's tough to balance those objectives well as it can lead to one overriding the other or the movie jumping around in tone (Zack Snyder's DCEU films, and even Watchmen and Sucker Punch have the same problems: Snyder wants to make some grand epic, but at the end of the day he's a slave to stuff he finds cool: gratuitous violence and sexualization).

The other more major problem: too many sycophants (or even people just too scared to speak up) surrounding George, which was largely his own doing.

[–] lrdcharlton 8 years ago

That's is what I was essentially saying, that he wrote every film individually without a decent outline. And a lot of plot points, especially in the second prequel made, made no sense or were insulting to our intelligence. Palpatines plan was not ingenious, as you say, it works because the characters are idiots. There are serious issues with the logistics ex Palpatines plan relying heavily on chance. I think you are basically saying what I was saying in better detail.

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

Why didn't Lucas consider this film as a Prologue episode to the real prequel trilogy to come Eps 1 through 3?

I'm sure it crossed his mind, judging from how he titled the very first private screening of the initial cut: "The Beginning". He probably didn't want to do more than three movies, because nobody wanted to help him. He asked approached a number of people for help with writing and directing, and they all told him something to the effect of "It's your baby, George. I don't want to mess it up."

[–] burnsmatthew2012 8 years ago

He didn't try hard enough then...

Ultimately Lucas absolutely wanted to direct all three movies. Certainly Attack of the Clones may have been a better film had he got people to help him write it. And he should have been brave and have found someone else to direct it like with the Empire Strikes Back. All three films have good points. George Lucas did try to make Episode III distinctly more dark and foreboding, it works, that's a good move. The execution, the dialogue. This unfortunately, probably among others things too, is why the film didn't reach its potential. He improved even further with Episode III. The dialogue is not AS choppy. But the execution could have been better. Darts Vaders transformation isn't as good as it should have been either. Then again, I really don't know what would have been the most satisfying turning of Anakin to Vader. Certainly I think this thing needed a whole-nother movie to fully develop that transformation. Anakins turn was just too damp quick and hard to take seriously for anyone over the age of about 13 or 14. Certainly for adults! I know, Lucas says it's a kids movie series. But adults love it too as well. Kids grow to become adults and George Lucas should be making these films for all demos and not using that FOR KIDS justification as an excuse for his inept execution of various things.

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

He didn't try hard enough then...

Maybe. The way The Beginning: Making "Episode I" plays out, it is like all his friends and colleagues wrote him off as an out-of-work old man hack of a professional with a childish toy ship science fantasy.

Certainly Attack of the Clones may have been a better film had he got people to help him write it.

To bring up the sequel to the first installment, good point, but perhaps by then he'd dug himself deeper into the hole. One of the problems all along was Rick McCallum being a brown-nosing yesman. Regardless, it is amazing that nobody batted a eye at the line: "I wish I could just wish my feelings away." Not that it is a big deal in particular, but it is a simple example.

The Beginning: Making 'Episode I' (2001)

[–] AndrewGS 8 years ago

The movie already feels like a prologue and I'm OK with the rest of the story being a duology rather than another trilogy. Some more of the Anakin/Obi-Wan relationship would have been good but Lucas seemed to prefer that they have a lot of tension and adversity and I don't like the idea, as some fans do, of there being a whole middle movie just being Clone War action (or Anakin turning in the second movie and a whole third movie being Darth Vader killing Jedi).