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How would you feel about a prequel reboot?


Quetzalcoatl
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Not that it would ever happen, but would you go for that? Unlike most fans, my PT experience was not a bad one. Having said that, though, there are enough inconsistencies between the two trilogies that I am left feeling like I still haven't seen the "real" SW backstory. It is clear from some of Ben's dialogue in the OT that Lucas had a very different backstory in mind when making those films, and I still want to see that story. Now, from what I understand, Lucas is serving as a creative consultant on the new Disney films. How awesome would it be if Disney were allowed to make a prequel trilogy using Lucas's original notes and ideas as a reference, effectively giving us the "real" prequel trilogy that we were expecting back in 1999. Do you think this would be accepted by fans? Or has the PT, as underwhelming as it was, found a permanent place in the minds and hearts of fans to ever be supplanted by an alternate version in the SW cannon?

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It wouldn't make sense to reboot just part of the story. It will be interesting to see in Force Awakens or any of the spin off films acknowledges the PT in any way at all.

 

If they were to do any rebooting, I think it would be cool to wait 15 years or so and reboot all of it as an ongoing TV series.

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The prequels aren't good, but they aren't total crap. Plus they now have the the added plus... Okay maybe one thing going for them is that they are the last works by the creator of the series. For that reason alone I think it's worth just leaving them be. Build from now.

 

Side Note: Just reintroduced my 5yo son and introduced my 2yo son to the prequels. They know Star Wars from Clone Wars, Rebels and mostly the wonderfully light hearted LEGO Star Wars series. Plus a smattering of attention on battle scenes as I rewatched them previously. ANYWAY. They like them. Probably proof they are someone else's kids, but it could just be that they are the perfect age to appreciate what they are.

 

My sons' favorites so far are R2, "Roger Rogers" and Pod Racing. Yes. Pod Racing. They love it. Have even been building their own pod racers with LEGO.

 

My 5yo has complained/commented about; Where the little boy Anakin went after the first film? Why does this guy (Hayden Anakin) cry so much? Where is Luke and Chewbacca? Assuming they remember them from LEGO Star Wars. Lastly that Daddy is like a fat Obi-Wan (probably the beard). And yeah, no snack that day! For me and the boys.

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Too soon to reboot the prequels. Maybe they'll just do flashbacks from now on, since there are rumors of a young Luke and Leia appearing in the sequels via flashback. If they introduce that to SW, why not flashback to the Clone Wars sometimes?

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I love the idea of a prequels reboot in theory, but in order to do that "right" (or at least way most fans of the OT envisioned the way they would be) it would be a complete story overhaul.

 

No need to rewrite TPM, just remove it. It didn't contribute anything to the overall story anyways. Just start at AOTC. The saga is better off not seeing Qui-Gon mentor Obi-Wan. We already knew who Obi-Wan's master was. It was Yoda; they told us in TESB. That just subtracted from the OT. We don't need to see Jabba on Tatooine in the prequels. the reveal of Jabba in ROTJ was perfect; you heard about him for two movies and you finally see what he looks like. His appearance in TPM just subtracts from that reveal later. We don't need midichlorians, senate meetings, taxes, or treaties.

 

Using broad strokes:

 

So, in my reboot we start at roughly the time of AOTC but we don't call it that. It's just a dumb title. It should be what the movie is about and not one small thing that happens in the movie. Rise of the Dark Side or something. None of the Villians will have the word Darth in their names either. Growing up, I thought Darth was a name and not an evil title or something. No purple lightsabers, and Yoda doesn't use one. Yoda doesn't NEED one. No force lightning; that's a Palpatine exclusive only seen in ROTJ. The next three paragraphs contain what I think the three movies should include, one paragraph for each movie, in order.

 

We show Obi and Ani actually establish a friendship by actions, not some elevator banter about gundarks and stuff nobody can relate to. Have Anakin save Obi-Wan's ass with his piloting skills. Obi-Wan feels his potential and wants to train him, and the rest of the jedi agrees; could always use another good Jedi. Or have him already be a Jedi; either way is fine.

 

Let the Jedi marry if they want, because allowing the Sith to love and marry, and forbidding the Jedi from doing so is strange and confusing. After cleaning up the terrible, creepy love dialogue, don't make Anakin's love the reason for his fall. He should fight with good intentions at first, but with anger. Have him misuse the force, and have him like it. Have him actually be seduced by the dark side, and not tricked by some stupid lie by the emperor. Anakin taking a wife shouldn't feel like an exception to the rule, and don't tell the audience at any time in any movie that his wife is even pregnant. It sets up the surprise in TESB better that way. Just get him married. While we're at it, change Padme's name to...something other than Padme. I can't stand the thought of Darth Vader saying "Padme". whatever her name is, James Earl Jones should sound good saying it.

 

Have Anakin quit the Order as a dark Jedi, and an enemy of the order. Have him secretly turncoat, allowing Palpatine opportunity to coach him further along his dark path. have Anakin sustain life threatening injuries by being ambushed by Jedi fighters who shoot him down where he is believed to be KIA. He reemerges later in the Darth Vader suit, adopts his new name, making him a new, different, unknown enemy who hunts Jedi. No need to show him killing children and baby Jedi. Instead of Darth Vader-in-the-making, he was more like a serial killer in the making. Anyways, Yoda and Obi-Wan learn Darth Vader's identity but keep it a secret so the Jedi can save face. Anakin's wife, who hasn't seen him in months, leaves him, and disappears for her safety. Anakin's known family is mentioned to have been relocated to tatooine with their newborn baby boy, while his wife's family to alderaan, both at Yoda and Obi-Wan's request, exact reasons unknown. Anakin's wife is branded a traitor of the empire, along with the Jedi, and is executed for treason.

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I wouldn't be interested. Sure, the prequels weren't great, but we got a whole lot of other great stories as a result of them, not the least of which includes the Knights of the Old Republic video game.

 

Although there is one thing I would do over again if I could, or I wish would have been done in the first place: bump Anakin's age up by ten years. Make him in his early thirties by Revenge of the Sith rather than his early twenties.

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Id like to see that era and storyline turned into something good. For sure. But it won't happen. I'd like to see the turn of Anakin into Vader be more than a teenaged ***** crying about his girl problems. Something a bit more significant than that would be good. Something that would give Anakin/Vader his gravitas back.

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Meh. I'm tired of the prequel era (and I like the prequels). It's time to move on.

 

What I'd rather see is them using prequel elements in other stories, like how they're bringing in Clone Wars stuff into Rebels and Clone Wars storylines into the new Kanan comic. Like it or not, the prequels are part of the saga, so they might as well use the good stuff but leave the bad.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Meh. I'm tired of the prequel era (and I like the prequels). It's time to move on.

 

What I'd rather see is them using prequel elements in other stories, like how they're bringing in Clone Wars stuff into Rebels and Clone Wars storylines into the new Kanan comic. Like it or not, the prequels are part of the saga, so they might as well use the good stuff but leave the bad.

Well, technically, Star Wars Rebels is a prequel, too. But I am with you on tying up loose ends left over from TCW and re-introducing more characters from TCW (that didn't die) into SWR.

I wouldn't be interested. Sure, the prequels weren't great, but we got a whole lot of other great stories as a result of them, not the least of which includes the Knights of the Old Republic video game.

 

Although there is one thing I would do over again if I could, or I wish would have been done in the first place: bump Anakin's age up by ten years. Make him in his early thirties by Revenge of the Sith rather than his early twenties.

Yeah, now that ROTS is 10 years old, it's hard to Monday morning quarterback it, now. It's done, and I am not interested in a reboot. That is happening way to much these days, But I see your point and I think having the clone wars last longer than just 3 years might have made better sense. I don't know about 10 years between Eps 2 &3, but Anakin in his late 20s by ROTS might have been better. By that age you know what you are doing, which would have given Anakin's downfall that much more of an impact.

 

I'll qualify this with I think TCW fixed a lot of things I have problems with about Anakin, and the animated version is really the Anakin we deserved in the movies. The one thing I wished we could have seen in the movies is Anakin consciously embrace evil. Not the half-hearted, "I guess I will do whatever you say Palpy, as long as it saves Padme" path to the dark side. I wanted to see a hero that was the best of the best, who had a character flaw (pride) that was exploited by Palpy. I wanted to see a hero that did everything right almost all of his life. Except at the time where it really mattered he made the wrong choice, was seduced by the dark side, and consciously made the choice to turn evil because of that character flaw. Not "the devil dark side made me do it and now I can't stop myself," excuse. TCW more or less gives that needed back story to us, and does help make Anakin's fall in ROTS a bit more meaningful.

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Meh. I'm tired of the prequel era (and I like the prequels). It's time to move on.

 

What I'd rather see is them using prequel elements in other stories, like how they're bringing in Clone Wars stuff into Rebels and Clone Wars storylines into the new Kanan comic. Like it or not, the prequels are part of the saga, so they might as well use the good stuff but leave the bad.

Well, technically, Star Wars Rebels is a prequel, too. But I am with you on tying up loose ends left over from TCW and re-introducing more characters from TCW (that didn't die) into SWR.

 

Well I'll clarify, when I say prequel era I mean the actual time frame from those films. Rebels is Dark Times, which is pretty much unexplored.

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I get tired of people bitching about that. In the grand scheme of things the midichlorian stuff was like 98 places down the list of what sucked about the prequels. And it was a total of what ... two minutes or less of screen time?

Midichlorian bitching has been a cliché since 2001, maybe earlier, but to be fair, I'm not sure you will find another sequence that so perfectly captures the wooden acting, unnecessary and braindead mythos-insertions, and godawful tell-don't-show style exposition that defines the prequels. Yes, there are several scenes that are even worse, but I can't think of one where so many elements of the prequel's badness are on display at once. So yeah -- It's tired and I can see how you'd be tired of it... and it is perhaps lazy, but it is still effective shorthand, IMO.

 

By the way, I liked TPM about as much as RotJ, and there are moments in RotS I really enjoyed too; I can separate my enjoyment of a movie from its flaws. I just don't feel the prequels worked all that well in retrospect, and hope the new movies aren't hamstrung by them.

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It wouldn't make sense to reboot just part of the story.

 

Why not? The OT stood on its own for two decades, so why is it inseparable from the prequels now? Why couldn't we turn back the clock to 1999 and pretend that Lucas's prequels never happened and start from scratch? Again, I'm not expecting this to happen or anything, but I don't see why it couldn't work in theory.

 

 

 

It will be interesting to see if Force Awakens or any of the spin off films acknowledges the PT in any way at all.

 

I know we've been down this road before, but thanks to all the "prophecy/chosen one" stuff Lucas invented for the prequels, the new films have to acknowledge the PT if they are to be taken as existing within the same continuity. If the films are going to continue to feature sith or dark side users that for all practical purposes play the same role as sith, some rationalization will have to be provided for why the prophecy wasn't complete crap or redundant. This is not going to be an easy thing to do. For better or worse, the events of ROTJ are now cast in an entirely different light when viewed in context with the PT that Lucas gave us. The prophecy and its fulfillment is now the primary theme running through all six films. To now make a seventh installment that completely ignores this theme would undermine everything the previous six films were building toward when viewed in chronological order.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

If force users like Yoda and the Emperor are able to see possible futures, why isn't the chosen one prophecy legit?

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Anakin taking a wife shouldn't feel like an exception to the rule, and don't tell the audience at any time in any movie that his wife is even pregnant. It sets up the surprise in TESB better that way.

I've never understood this notion that the prequels needed to somehow try to keep the twists and turns of the OT intact. Star Wars is ingrained in the pop culture subconscious. Everyone knows Anakin is Vader. Vader is Luke's father. Leia is Luke's sister. There is no putting the genie back in that bottle. I remember even reading someone else's version of the PT where they tried to twist it so that when watched in order Mace Windu somehow could be Vader. The audience supposedly wouldn't know until the reveal in ESB that Anakin was Vader and not Mace. Really? Some things are just too much to try and create a mystery around once the reveal has already happened. Let's make a prequel to Psycho where we try to pretend we don't know Norman Bates is Mother.

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I get what you're saying Pongy but for me, Anikan talking about hating sand passing as romantic flirting is easily the most painful thing I've ever sat through in my entire life and I've had wisdom teeth removed. Yet that cinematic abortion of a scene never gets referenced in these situations

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1-I don't think there is any Disney "being allowed" to reboot the prequels. They could if they wanted to, they own Star Wars.

 

2-People need to get over this, we get it, you don't like the prequels. The movies have been out for over a decade. They are just movies, move on. I'm a big Tolkien fan, I went and saw the first Hobbit movie and didn't like it. My response was simply not seeing the next 2. Just let it go.

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People need to get over this, we get it, you don't like the prequels.

Oh, come on. People really don't need to do anything. If you dislike a Tolkien adaptation and want to confine your response to a single "Yeah, that wasn't good" post, that's fine for you. If you enjoyed it, but think it could have been better except for X, Y, and Z issues -- also great. If you absolutely loved or hated it and want to defend it to the end or burn it to the ground, that is also your choice. How art (yes, even SW is art) affects you and how you choose to express your reaction is unique to you.

 

I'm personally not a big Prequel hater or lover. Enjoyed them all thoroughly while acknowledging they aren't good movies. Stuck up for some aspects (will fight u over the color and design choices in the first two) and criticized others (already brought up). In retrospect, I think they are too confining and a net-negative to the Star Wars Universe; I would prefer to see them disregarded, though TPM remains a guilty pleasure. Doubt my opinions on this will ever change, doubt I'll ever get tired of dissecting and viewing them comparatively with other Star Wars films or television series. Sorry, not going to get over it!

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