Why did so many people hate the new Star Wars trilogy?!
Question: Let's say the Beatles were all still alive, and they decided, after almost 40 years, to record a new album. People would be beside themselves with excitement, but that album could never, ever, EVER live up to its expectations. It would always be compared to their past legacy, and no matter what the sales figures were, it would be considered by many to be a failure.
Isn't that pretty much what happened with the most recent Star Wars triogy?
Granted, Episode I sucked, I will concede that, but E2 and E3 were both rich with a story, great action sequences, and E3 specifically tied the two trilogies together quite well. The worst part about E2 and E3 is Hayden Christiansen steals a paycheck every time he is paid to act; he is horrible.
I'm just curious why everyone hated these movies so much...
Answers: Let's say the Beatles were all still alive, and they decided, after almost 40 years, to record a new album. People would be beside themselves with excitement, but that album could never, ever, EVER live up to its expectations. It would always be compared to their past legacy, and no matter what the sales figures were, it would be considered by many to be a failure.
Isn't that pretty much what happened with the most recent Star Wars triogy?
Granted, Episode I sucked, I will concede that, but E2 and E3 were both rich with a story, great action sequences, and E3 specifically tied the two trilogies together quite well. The worst part about E2 and E3 is Hayden Christiansen steals a paycheck every time he is paid to act; he is horrible.
I'm just curious why everyone hated these movies so much...
I think you nailed it near the end with your comment on Hayden.
First and foremost - acting. Movies are about capturing acting. The actors make big bucks because they are to bring life and depth to the characters they portray. Gadgets and conceptual art don't override this imperative.
As much as Natalie Portman is attractive and I liked her in a couple other films, she is window dressing. As you mentioned, Christiansen was poor. Other big names were not spectacular either. In not one scene did they capture the dare and dashing of Harrison Ford, or the ethereal mystery of Obi Wan Kenobi.
Now, whether some of the poor performance was due to mediocre script writing, or directing is another story; I just thought the best part of the movies was the spaceships.
Oh, and including that modern day Goofy, as a token to keep and attract the children in the audience went over as well as the walking furballs in the last show of the first trilogy. Just added onto an already burgeoning feeling of watching a pre-sale advertisment for more Lucasware.
New and old, I dislike them all.
Episode I (It was for kids) That Jar Jar Binks character suck!
Episode II (it was for teenagers)
Episode III (it was for adults)
Each movie has a great scene, and music too.
I didn't hate them but they were pretty disappointing. It seemed to me that Lucas relied heavily on special effects to carry the movies. So the story and writing weren't any where near as good. You could say were disappointed in them because of the first trilogy. To me if it weren't for the first trilogy, the latest three would have been a box office disaster.
That is pretty much it. There was no way to live up to the impact of the first set. We watched the evolution of movie making and the ultimate good vs evil journey. All the characters were strong and unique. And there was so much mystery and wonder in those stories. But for the time they were revolutionary. If you were to watch all of them again, technicaly the newer series is more exciting and the effects are even better. I will have to say that i did not enjot the story of Anikin as a child, with Luke we met him as entered adulthood.
Three major things:
Presence of an irritant in a major role in all three movies - Jar Jar Binks or Hayden Christiansen.
A soulless feel in a 'used future' setting. It's clear that Han Solo loved the Millenium Falcon more than all but two sentient beings (and one of them was the ship's first mate). Compare that to the sterile machines of the first trilogy.
The big one for me is that the new trilogy made it clear that Lucas had exactly one plot, no dialogue or characterization skills, and seemed to be making the new ones to make up for all the special effects that weren't around or were out of the budget in 1977.
Incidentally, the effect you described with the Beatles was, I believe, already in action at the end of the band's career.
Well, being a die hard fan of the originals, I didn't hate the new trilogy but I do agree that E1 was terrible. And I don't even blame Jar Jar completely! Whoever wrote Anakin's lines ("Whoopee!") should have been fired and whoever came to the decision that Jar Jar's character should have a bigger role than Darth Maul should be thrown into the Sarlaac pit.
I think a ton of people agree that Hayden Christensen was very poor in E2 but I thought he was decent in E3. In my opinion, the new trilogy tried to cover too much material so the pacing and editing were very choppy and too quick. The originals were more focused on character development and the relationships of the characters rather than pushing through the story as quickly as possible. Also, the special effects were just too much at times. There's something cool about knowing that real people are in the costumes rather than seeing computer-generated characters. I just didn't care about the Gungans at all but I wanted the Ewoks to kick Empire butt!
Just my two cents.
Not everyone hated them. The proof is in the box office and DVD sales' results. It's just not deemed "cool" to prefer the new against the original. For example, movie buffs will always say the best James Bond was Sean Connery (I think so too, but that's beside the point). We'll always have a special place in our hearts for the original trilogy because it revolutionized the face of moviemaking and the movie industry in general, but I remember leaving the theater back in 1977 thinking "wow! this was great! but when you think about it, it's a simple fairy tale about a farmer rescuing the princess from the villain's clutches", and this from a 7 year old. The second film actually was the one that rose the story to epic proportions for me (Darth Vader is Luke's father? you gotta be kidding!). We are decades away from those first exciting experiences and now we see the new trilogy with more cynical eyes (which have already seen countless similar SFX, CGI and, well, better acting). The acting in both trilogies, let's be sincere, is quite average. Special Effects have blown our minds in both cases (Lucas is best known by his tech savvy than his skill as a director).
Summing up, both are great (with the probable exception, as you mentioned, of Episode I... damn Jar Jar Binks! and even that one has the coolest lightsaber duel of all time!) You just have to understand we are watching all of these in different contexts. Again, not everyone hated them, it's just that we lost the "this is new" awe by the time we saw the last three films.
george lucas (according to an interview) created the original trilogy with the intention of making it look like a cheap sci fi b-movie... the new one clearly does not have that feel...
I think George Lucas should have left well-enough alone.
There was nothing wrong with the movies per-say but......I agree that nothing comes close to the originals
Oh goodness, my boys LOVE star wars. It is nothing but star wars around here! My two sons will walk around the house light saber fighting and my two year old will hum the theme song to star wars around the house! I have a 6 yr old and a two yr old son who pretend to be Jedi's at least 3 times a week.
And they are not even familiar with the old star wars, I mean the movies 4-6. They are familiar with 1-3. So whenever I see Chewbaca and tell my 6 yr old, "Look Chewbaca!" he doesn't really care because he is not familiar with him. So I need to get the episodes 4-6, because they are classics! Plus they are the continuing story, which at first they WERE the story....but it makes sense to go before then to make more- kinda interesting too! However our graphics today and visual affects are way more advanced and you can tell, when watching all of them, which ones were made before the others.
Three words: Jar-Jar Binks.
Besides the obvious Jar-Jar Binks, Episodes 4-6 had a dignity to them lacking in Episodes 1-3. I did like the action sequences and Natalie Portman was tastey, but as a whole it didn't reach the epic status of the originals. Some scenes that jump out at me were the pod race (the announcers were so out of place) and any scene in Episode 2 with Ainiken. Seriously-he needed to have his whiney a** beat. Who knows-maybe I'm one of those guys that over romances the past. Vatever!