TarisianAle

The Phantom Menace and the prequels as a whole may be a box office success as some point out, however that does not make the movie as a quality film a success. Good profits from a product does not equal good product. If a bad product recieves good profits, there are other factors at work. The prequels do quite well exceed the originals in some aspects, although it is best to say that most of those aspects are appeals to the senses (visual effects, music) rather than the quality of the acting, character development, pacing, etc. The soundtrack in the prequels, especially in Revenge of the Sith, exceeds any of the original films in my view. The third film is the only one I liked as a film, and I'm not a part of the generation which first saw the originals; indeed, the third film exceeds the originals. I enjoyed the general flow of the storyline throughout the prequels with general ideas like a seperatist movement, a devestating war, and democracy being ultimately the last casualty as transformed into a dictatorship, but I think that the implementation was far below the potential which Lucas has. Character development is much more poor in the prequels, and that goes for several characters. Anakin is far too happy-go-lucky for a child who basically lives in a child slave labor program. You would expect a harshness and maturity to him, even at that age, and it is not impossible to portray those aspects without abandoning the idea of innocence. Anakin in the second film is starkly too much of a different character than he was in the first film. He has gone from being an angel to being a brat, with no explanation or feeling of continuity; as a result, we loose sympathy and connection to him as a character. He becomes wooden and disconnected. He is a person which we do not know or understand. The third film is the only one which hits Anakin's character right in his maturity, boldness, and resourcefulness in the opening act. It's fair to the actors to give credit for the bad dialogue more to the script than to the actual actors, although in several scenes the actors compound the situation. The worst aspect of the prequels, and particularly the Phantom Menace, was the manner in which Lucas generously peppered pre-adolescent jokes and slapstick humor throughout the film, something which never belonged there and seems utterly awkward. The originals, granted, may have had it's cheesy moments, yet they were much more relative and they were few are far between. The original movies were never so heavily geared towards goofy behavior. As a young child watching the Phantom Menace I did not mind them, although they slightly jarred me. Now, they make the first film un-watchable for me. I stand by that. The prequels are a tragedy, and not a goofy comedy, and Lucas failed to recognize that in the first film. All major characters, with the exception of Palpatine, and all major organizations are doomed in some fashion (death, exile, annihilation, etc). Adding silly, goofy, cheap jokes ruins that vibe. I can't look past that, and that is not my problem. In short: - Great music. - Great visual effects. - Good overall ideas for storyline. - Poor implementation of ideas for storyline. - Poor character development. - Poor acting at times. - Poor dialogue at times. - Poor over-reliance on CGI at some times. (There is nothing wrong with CGI, but one can go overboard with it). - Terrible insertion of children's jokes. The movie does not take itself seriously. (Particularly in Phantom Menace)