Why the Star Wars prequels are actually pretty good.

There’s a song by The Offspring that’s called Cool To Hate. Offspring hit really really big in the mid 1990’s, just as the internet was really starting to take off all around the world. So when The Phantom Menace flickered onto the silver screen in 1999, a lot of internet users knew that it was cool to hate and laid down the hate on The Phantom Menace via the net. Any one with a keyboard actually. Venom spilled all over the information superhighway for that movie.

Myself, I really don’t know why. I saw Phantom 3 times at the theatre, it was that good. The only ever other movie I saw 3 times at the theater was Edward Scissor hands.....

But the hate for Star Wars continued over to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Which is sad because I really really enjoyed these movies! The haters are in a minority though but that’s hardly relevant. What is relevant is why everyone who hates Star Wars prequels should stop hating the Star Wars prequels.

Let’s caveat this – if we can all just agree that Jar Jar Bink’s sucked as a character, that would be great. Oh we can’t? Why not?

Because Star Wars are movies made for kids.  Let me repeat that. Star Wars are movies made for kids. Jar Jar Binks was created by George Lucas with the intention of kids enjoying his bumbling antics. So if we assume that the Jar Jar haters are not kids, they can’t really complain about a character in film intended to be loved by kids is not their cup of tea. Jar Jar is no Sponge Bob Squarepants for sure, but he does the job he was designed to do. Mostly. 

Don’t believe me about Star Wars being for kids? Even the Emperor himself says so:

“ I’m usually approached by mums and dads of 4-year olds now who’ve been watching the movies, who are completely fascinated by them. And they won’t leave their television screens until they’ve seen the whole lot. So it continues to grip, and it continues to grip kids. And even though, we all know with the prequels some of the adults who’d seen the early films were a bit disappointed, that’s not true of succeeding generations, which sort of means that these films are really going to go on forever, and that’s extraordinary, I think, and great.”

Which captures the feels quite nicely.  

What does this mean? It means any one over the age of 13 who hated the Star Wars prequels is entitled to their opinions but that hate is misdirected. 

But there’s still some real reasons why the hate needs to be dropped. And here's what I think they are:

Yoda turns out to be a total bad ass.

I dunno about you, but in the theatre where I saw Attack of the Clones people began cheering when Yoda and Count Dooku started to battle. Yoda was flipping around and using the Force like he invented it. This was great spectacle and showing Yoda in this light increased his standing in the Star Wars realm amongst fans. The prequels are great because they showed how great a Jedi the little green guy was.

Jango Fett and his young son, Bobby something, or was it Bibba?

Everyone loves Raymond Bobba Fett. He’s become a bit of a cult figure for fans. Attack of the Clones gave us an insight into the character's origin and gave him a bit of life. To learn that the Clones were derived from Jango Fettand that his son was Bobba was great story telling. 

The prequel also gave us a great fight between Jango and Obi Wan Kenobi. What’s not to love about that?

Revenge of the Sith had the best opening of any Star Wars film.

Yeah, Return of the Jedi was awesome when Luke rescued everyone but it was a slow build. Revenge of the Sith featured a Battle over Coruscant where hundreds of ships were taking part in an epic space battle. Anakin and Obiwan were flying round, dodging missles, crashing ships and droids that were trying to eat their ship while on a frantic mission to rescue the Chancellor from the many clutches of General Grevious. 

Featuring some of the best CGI ever done at the time, great camera work, amusing banter between the leads and some zippy music, this opening Stanza of ROTS was epic Star Wars magic.

It also featured the beheading of Count Dooku – a signal that things were about to get very dark across the Evil Empire due to a wayward Anakin.

Qui Gon

Before Liam Neeson was Taken and Taken again, he was Qui Gon, one of the best Star Wars characters EVER in my honest opinion. Liam had a bloody tough assignment in carrying off such a pivotal character in The Phantom Menace but he managed to pull off “There’s always a bigger fish” with an appropriate grace.

He also featured in one of the greatest light saber battles in the history of Star Wars movies. Which brings us to…

Darth Maul

The red and black face introduction of Darth Maul was an instant classic Star Wars moment. If fan’s aren’t wearinggolden bikinis to dress as Princes Leia, they are doing cosplay of Darth Maul. People love him. He was bad ass.

The Pod Race

Family fun at its absolute best. A dastardly Sebula. Fast engines. Amazing sounds. Pot shots from Sand People. Life and death experiences. A slave child beating the odds to win his freedom. Be honest with yourself, if u say you hated Phantoms Menace you actually loved this bit! 

When Anakin massacres the Jedi  Younglings

This was the first true moment when we knew Anakin had well and truly turned to the Dark Side. Yes, he’d massacred the tribe of Sand People who had beat and mistreated his mother so badly that she died of her injuries but these were children we had actually met in Attack of the Clones. It was a brilliant set up that actually. Whilst Yoda teased Obi Wan about losing a planet, these Jedi kids were the back drop and were quite cute. For Anakin to come and kill them all in ROTS, it was a chilling, chilling moment and perhaps was one of the darkest moments in all of the saga. How can you hate such great story telling?

You got to see the Clone Wars

We got to see them (and not in cartoon form). Ever since Princess Leia mentioned the Clone Wars in a new hope fans had been wishing, wanting,  waiting to see them – a boy we did! As I see before the Battle over Coruscant was one of the greatest action pieces Star War fans had seen!

Obi Wan is also a bad ass

Obi Wan Kenobi never lost a one on one saber fight until the fateful day he raised his sword and allowed his Pawadan Learner to send him to be one with the Force. The prequels showed all those saber fights – Darth Maul, General Grevious and Anakin Skywalker.

All great battles and his climatic duel with the the angsty Sith Lord in trading brought it all home for ALL the Star Wars movies. That fight was the climax of the prequels but also gave A New Hope an even greater poignancy. We now knew just how tragic Anakin’s transformation into Vader was.

The Music by Jon Williams

Listen to the Duel of Fates. It’s arguably some of the best music you could listen to from the movies. While it’s not as iconic as The Imperial March, it’s up there in terms of awesomeness. You can’t hate the Star Wars prequels if you agree Duel of Fates is great movie music.

There you have it, these are my reasons why the haters gotta stop - I got a feeling they never will but who cares - if you love Star Wars, you love Star Wars!