Why do you think the Star Wars Prequel Movies are dislike and made fun of?

[Yellow Lantern 15]

I was going to ask this question before the old board went down, but I guess I will start here. As it stands the Episode 1,2,3 movies are often dissected by Star Wars fans and movie critics very badly. Many have pointed to their flaws and offered better solutions and complete rewrites.
While I admit that they are not perfect movies and certainly do not measure up to the original trilogy, they are not the worst movies that I have ever seen ( and I have seen plenty of bad movies). So CBR community why do you think the prequels get a lot of hate?

[Pharozonk]

Pretty much this.

[Jabare]

Well everyon's got their own opinions, but just to be frank the movies were prety bad from the script to the directing plus we already knew what was coming especially in movie number 3.

Star Wars is a very poplar franchise one that helped revolutionize the movie industry and the scifi genre. I think its natural people will hold it to a high standard. Look its not like the original Star Wars films were master pieces but they were innovative in a lot of other ways and had great historical value. The new Star Wars movies don't really do any of that.

[Vworp Vworp]

They're not just bad Star Wars movies. They're bad movies.

[Zero Hunter]

They made some questionable choices in characters and actors. There are a lot of cool things in all 3 prequels, but there are also a lot things that didn't need to be there. It is almost that they went too kid freindly with Episode 1 (Jar Jar and kid Anikin) and over compensated with Episodes 2 and 3. I honestly don't think 2 and 3 are that bad, but 1 did set things off on a very bad footing.

[JediMindTrick]

The bad actually starts with Return of the Jedi.

The original idea instead of Ewoks was a planet of enslaved Wookies that the rebels would free and who would help. Then Lucas decided to go all cutesy instead with Ewoks. Little moments of humor were fine in the first two movies but they weren't overdone. The Ewoks were over the top and cheesy. Lucas then double downed in Phantom Menace with even more cheese and Jar Jar Binks. It utterly backfired. If not for Phantom I don't think Clones and Sith would be viewed so badly but Phantom drags them down by association. Sadly there is a good movie in Phantom if you take out all the Jar Jar and about half the Anakin parts.

[BeastieRunner]

I think if Anakin was older (closer to Luke's age), more of the Clone Wars was shown, and Vader appeared sooner to cause some mayhem ... people would've been happier. Frankly, that's what a lot of expected, myself included.

[Don C]

There was only one problem with the prequels: too much George Lucas. Lucas may have written and directed Star Wars, but Empire and Jedi were written and directed by other people. Yes, Lucas oversaw everything, but other people did the heavy lifting. Also, Gary Kurtz was there for the first two movies. He was someone who wasn't afraid to clash with Lucas. After Kurtz left LucasFilm, the company was filled with "Yes" men.

[Coal Tiger]

Because they're terrible movies. Other movies being worse doesn't make the prequels any better.

[LoneNecromancer]

Because they're not that great.

[Manchuto]

Pretty much this.

Well said. Jar Jar Binks had a large effect on the "hate" towards the prequels.
In addition it can be really hard to produce an entertaining, fun, intriguing prequel because it's a .................prequel. The ending storyline is already known to a degree and really diminishes the possibility of a plot twists in the script. I personally did not hate the prequels and I actually enjoyed them but I believe I am in the minority.

[zhris]

I think the biggest problem is that they had to be written with a pre-determined end in mind; the trilogy had to end just so in order to flow into New Hope. Yes, I've heard the myth that Lucas already had 6 (or 9, or whatever) in mind, but I doubt it. So Anakin had to turn bad somehow, Maul had to die (or at least be removed from the main story), Yoda needed a reason to be on Dagobah, etc, etc.

[DrNewGod]

The bad actually starts with Return of the Jedi.

Yup. (IMO) It began with Lucas deciding to make children's films rather than nostalgic adventure films that children could also enjoy. I think you can also see that difference between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and its predecessors.

Another issue with the prequels were that it seemed like Lucas was indulging more in his fascination with CGI than story-telling to engage us. The fight with Darth Maul is probably the best duel of the whole Star Wars series, yet the more perfectly rendered aliens were less compelling than the cheesy looking Cantina crowd.

Finally, Lucas scripting was allowed to run amok. There was no Harrison Ford to tell him "You can write this $*** George, but you can't say it".

[wjowski]

Let's see...

Performances ranging from wooden to just awful?

George Lucas' patented tin-ear directing?

Over-reliance on CGI to the point where everything in the movies that wasn't a flesh-and-blood human looked like it came from a Star Wars toy playset?

The unintentionally-hilarious fight choreography?

And equally hilariously bad plot?

An absolutely wretched romance subplot that has an arguable claim to being worse than Twilight?

Pick your poison.

I mean, sure you can just wave all that away as 'just for kids' but so's a lot of other stuff out there that's actually watchable.

And quite frankly? I'm not even a big George Lucas geek in the first place. I don't see them as bad Star Wars movies, I see them as bad movies period.

[Surtur]

I think it is a lot of things. First off certain acting performances. I like Liam Neeson as an overall actor, I really do, but he is god awful in episode 1. Just terrible. Jar Jar was another, he was no obnoxious and it was..there was no reason for it. There are still good actors though, Obi Wan was played by a good actor. They had Christopher frickin Lee and Sam Jackson too. I think the movies did a lot of things right in terms of action scenes, but then they have the god awful romance dialogue and the pod racing from the first movie.

For me, the best of the prequels is, hands down, episode 3. I find this movie not just good for a star wars prequel, but good overall..as long as you remove every single love scene, of course. George Lucas is just flat out terrible at any kind of romantic dialogue. Like he is just really really bad at it. As if some mystic cursed him to specifically be only able to write terrible romantic dialogue.

Of course the thing is, the thing that is great about Star Wars? It was never the specific movies, even the original trilogy. It is more just the universe itself and everything that came from it. Hell, all the comics and video games, etc. some of which are vastly superior to anything put on film. For me, I have more fond memories of playing things like Jedi Outcast when I was young or the N64 Star Wars game, etc. then the memory of seeing the movie. It was the games, tv shows, etc. that got me back into it later in life.