Top 11 Good Things From the Star Wars Prequels

Yes, there are actually 11. The Nostalgia Critic counts down the Top 11 Good Things from the Star Wars Prequels!

About Doug Walker

Creator of 5 Second Movies, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews and more.

22 comments

  1. Whiny White Wyatt

    Unnnnnhh! The Star Wars Prequels are the worst movies evar! The Room has a more coherent plot and better characters. Birdemic has more realistic effects and better actors. And From Justin to Kelly has a better romance plot. And have you seen that pigshit tv series Star Wars Rebels?! I can’t believe ne of the best people on this site Blockbuster Buster actually likes that putrid piece of puke!

  2. I have no doubt that I’ll get some flak for this, but I didn’t see the problem with the prequel trilogy.

    Now granted, they aren’t perfect films, but which films are?

    I liked them for the most part, though there were dark and whinny bits in the 3rd that I could do without, but that’s how I am.

    I think my biggest issue is that most of the time when people talk about the problems and things they don’t like about this series of films, they don’t give specific reasons why they didn’t like something. It’s always that it was stupid or annoying or boring, but why is it any of those things?

    For example (and I’m sure people won’t like this either): I liked Jar Jar, there, I said it :P. For me, he is far from a mistake, he’s one of the most hilarious if not the most hilarious character to be introduced into the Star Wars universe. Many people say how they find him annoying, but they don’t really say why. Is it the way he talks? His bumbling? The fact that he is perhaps the luckiest S.O.B. ever to go to war? what?

    I also believe his relates back to an interpretation thing. Many people don’t like the movies, but I do. Heck, I liked all the Matrix movies too, even though some would rather pretend that they only made one.

    So all I ask is that if those who read this comment disagree with me, take a page from the Critic’s editorials and give me a concrete reason why you disagree, don’t simply go “You’re wrong, those movies sucked, nyehhhhhh”

    Thank you

    • I am always specific about what I don’t like about the prequels. Jar Jar for instance. Not only is he an un-needed add for the sake of comic relief, his terms of comic relief are so ridiculous it is painful to watch. Lucas already had, and does in these films, have C3PO and R2D2 for the expressed purpose of not only comic relief, but adding an involved sense of narration much like a Greek Chorus during a play. Which was very clever and well done. We see nothing like this with Jar Jar. Plus they kind of go out of the way to give him purpose in the film which very much mimics J.R.R. Tolkien’s use of Hobbits in the LOTR. Just it is not only a creature/race, that has per se an unfair labeling, Jar Jar makes the unfair labeling of his species fair by in fact being useless aside from dumb luck. Really I can keep going on that note.

      As far as anything else wrong with the prequels it comes down to the lack of depth expressed in the story, as well as messing with the continuity. For instance, in the OT Obi Wan has no idea Leia is another hope for the future (considering Yoda has to say, “No, there is another,” for which people like to speculate when I make this point that is was a long time ago and he could have forgotten. Forgotten. Really, forget that his best friend, his comrade in arms, and the man who was like a brother to him had a wife who died on the table in front of him for mysterious reasons had twins he held in his arms?

      So, MasterofBalance, Not everyone just says because its stupid.

      • Um so he figured that out as a ghost inbetween V and VI or what? First time I’ve ever heard that theory, it always looked like he knew all along and just chose not to tell him. Technically there’s no evidence for that, but yea.
        And it was a retcon, the “other” was supposed to refer to someone else at the time. Guess, according to the retcon, Ben just didn’t think she had the powers… but yea. the sinning’s begun with Jedi, the bastard child of the original trilogy.

    • Huh?? Nerds everywhere have been all over this for 15 years, you honestly saying no one ever gives detailed reasons? Tons of reviews on youtube, RLM?? How can you know of this site, but never heard of Plinkett?

      Anyway, you’ve got a different opinion on Jar Jar, and my human brain accepts it. The ape in me, however, thinks you’ve got an obnoxiously primitive sense of humor (while I’ve got a deliciously simple one, logical isn’t it?).
      The “People vs. George Lucas” documentary, for all its flaws and some dodgy fanboy opinions, has some very nice observations about why he sucks – one comment was “he’s like something a person with no sense of humor would find funny – he walks funny.. he talks funny…” 😉

      It’s basically Dane Cook from Double Team, though nowhere as awful: being stupid, a nuisance to everyone, and interrupting the film in order to slip on bananas and grimace into the camera as if that’s supposed to amuse us. Whereas the other funny characters in the series are sort of naturally there and humor comes from exploiting the different constellations, this feels like an obligatory need for a “comic relief” who stops the film in order to get his bit in.

      His nasal voice is obnoxious, his toddler dialectisms annoying, and it seems as if he’s directed at children – so there’s that, too.

      However, at the end of the day, someone else could’ve done all those things and succeeded (as this one did with you, apparently), as, ultimately, there are no “rules” and the brain determines what is funny and what it isn’t without any meaningful input from above.
      I can elaborate if you want, but that’s the general gist of it – and, by the way, there are various moments of actual comedy in many of his scenes which are actually moderately funny. Mostly it’s where other characters are irritated at him, rather than find him the cutest thing ever and worthy to be taken along to battle.

      Other than that, you didn’t name any reasons why they were good, so I won’t delve into the details – however, there are many ways in which they seem to come from a severe lack of understanding and bad memory of the original films they’re supposed to lead up to. Once you start treating them as kind of playing in a parallel universe, they’re much better and, in fact, are really great, moody entertainment. All the narrative problems in them ultimately only amount to them being “flawed” and maybe “half-finished”, but nowhere bad.

  3. The prequel movies are not GOOD movies, but they also don’t deserve the sheer HATRED that they so often receive. While a lot of the acting, dialogue, and plot IS subpar, I feel like so much of the hatred directed at these movies stems so much more from comparing them to the original trilogy and, worse still, from the simple fact that other people complain about them so much. Like Chuck Norris jokes, the hate for the prequels seems to continue to perpetuate itself simply because people enjoy hating them. Like I said, it’s not like the complaints about the characters, plot, etc. aren’t warranted, because the movies are by no means great. But it’s the sheer force and passion behind these complaints that seems a little unjustified. At least these movies TRIED, and in some cases (as the NC points out), succeeded, in providing things to enjoy. Hell look at James Cameron’s Avatar, which has a horrible, trite plot, shallow, underdeveloped characters and equally subpar dialogue, but it managed to be a hit because “hey, it’s pretty.” The Star Wars prequels have decent choreography and effects (admittedly a big overuse of cgi though) and, while lacking in depth and coherency, can make for a decent watch when you don’t vehemently fix your mindset on hating them because that’s what’s popular to do. Enjoy them and watch them, don’t enjoy them and choose to avoid them, it’s a matter of preference and choice, but people should really stop acting like they were some sort of abominable sin against cinema.

    • I know this is an old comment, but I agree with it entirely, I personally like all of the movies so far, the originals more so than the prequels, but I feel like the people hate them way too hard, which I guess is the problem with waiting over a decade to continue a series that people loved so much, as you said, are they perfect movies? No. Are they great movies? No. Are they genuinely terrible movies? No, at least I don’t think so. The problem I think is that after so many years without new Star Wars we got greedy, dare I say overly nostalgic, and held the prequels up to a standard that even the originals would have failed to meet.

      And on a semi related note, I did not really realize that I watched the prequels from a point of view that leaves Obi-Wan as the primary protagonist and Anakin as the deuteragonist until I watched this video… I guess just a weird random thought.

  4. шоч так мало комментов?

  5. Did you know this video’s been taken off on Youtube because it contained copyrighted material by FOX. What happened to the fair use policy, you goons of Murdoch?!

    • Copyright laws should be severely nerfed, intellectual property laws abolished except maybe for “giving credit” stuff. The people should just wake up and vote that horsecrap away already.

  6. With Yoda, there is an explanation.

    In order to pull off those fight moves, Yoda calls heavily on the Force to fuel his movements and senses. However, the strain on Yoda means he cannot keep this up forever, which means he would eventually tire.

  7. 1:02 – what is that track that is played in the sageways?! Im obsessed over finding it and i cant find it on any star wars ost! I’ve even looked through special editions. Somebody please help:( What’s the name of this track? :(???

  8. Actually, the saddest thing is, Jedi CAN marry. It is frowned upon normally, but there were Jedi Masters who got the approval of their fellows on the council, such as Ki-Adi-Mundi having his main wife and honored wives (this was a special situation because his race has a high to low ratio of males to females). The point is, Anakin should have been able to trust Obi-Wan and talk to him, and together they could have spoken to the rest of the council.

    Having said that, I still enjoy the Prequels, but then again I am an avid Star Wars fan, like my father before me. (Yes, I did just go there. :P)

  9. Well, “Donatello saber” works better than either “dual light saber” or “light saber staff,” honestly.

    Why does Yoda use the cane? Well, it’s either to throw off his enemies, or he just likes walking around with it. Who knows?

    Interesting you say that Ian McDiarmid being the “Tim Curry of the Star Wars universe,” considering that Curry would voice Palpatine in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” after the death of Ian Abercrombie (not sure whose going to voice Palpatine after Curry’s stroke).

  10. 0:30 It’s funny how those eggshells he treads on so carefully there aren’t nearly as omnipresent as one would think based on this… eggshell treading. I and II hold like slightly below 50% rating on all those aggregate sites, and critics had generally positive things to say about, I dunno, anything that didn’t involve the Gungans, little kids or Anakin. The Obi-Wan plotline was well received. Revenge got lots of positive reviews, and now apparently ranks somewhat above Jedi.

    And, well, that view is actually the sensible one, the crowd with the weapons is more of a subculture / “ideology” revolving around ways it got the original trilogy wrong as well as certain narrow/snobby conceptions about what acting should be like. So the “entire 11 good bits I’ve found in there, can you believe it? and, fans, don’t be too harsh, it’s only 11” angle is kinda doomed from the start.

  11. I’ll be honest: I like the prequels better. But I don’t watch them as a die hard fan (I’m more of a StarGate and some StarTrek fan) and I didn’t grow up with the originals and I when I watch Star Wars, I want something that *looks* epic, even if the story *isn’t*. So the CGI and intense action works for me, in ways that the pace of the originals don’t.

  12. Am I the only one who feel it’s strange that Doug did not give props for to ep 1 for reffering to Amidala as Queen instead of princess? For those not in the know it’s one of those things that Doug really dislikes along with calling women girls.

  13. Wow, watching this makes me want to give the prequels another shot… well, not Phantom Menace, of course. Maybe just Revenge of the Sith… or I could just watch A New Hope… yeah, let’s do that.

    Joking aside, what really got me on this list was the pregnancy scene. If they had that much chemistry (and that little dialogue), the entire relationship would have been a lot more believable. It really ties in with Doug’s point about Christensen being a much better actor when he’s not forced to spout corny lines about sand.

    I also feel like an honorable mention should go to the death of Mace Windu. I didn’t particularly care for this scene until I was discussing it with a co-worker. I realized then that this actually reflects the death of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. In both scenes, someone is nearly killed by lightning, both times Anakin/Vader silently watches as he struggles with the conflict within, and both times, he ultimately chooses family over creed. The problem with the scene in Revenge of the Sith is… well, the talking. If you cut out half the actual dialogue, and just let the emotions speak for themselves, it would have been a much better scene. Although, truth be told, that could apply to the prequels as a whole.

  14. damn, when did the Critic become so sharp? i need someone to ride with him in his chariot and whisper tohim “Hominem te memento” … wheter it would be his own Duchie or another reviewer reviewing him. 😉

  15. Order 66 is pretty near the top for me. It almost, ALMOST, makes up for much that is wrong with the prequels.

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