How I Learned to Love The Prequels (Again)

It's been a journey for me and the Star Wars Prequels, but one with a happy ending

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

If you could have converted the excitement I felt leading up the the release of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace into energy you could have powered the entire United States. I happened to be working at a movie theater at the time so not only did I watch it in it’s entirety at least 3 times, but I watched bits and pieces of it all summer. It was only later in the fall that I started to wonder, “was it any good?”

I repeated this cycle two more times with Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith. Every time a new Star Wars movie was coming out I would buy into all the hype, purchase all the toys, and watch it as soon as humanely possible.

Here I am at the late night screening of Revenge of the Sith

It was only after the hype died down that I started to question whether or not it was good. Eventually, I had decided that I didn’t like the Prequels, for all the reasons. They just weren't as good as my beloved Original Trilogy. More to the point, all the changes and adjustments George Lucas made to the Original Trilogy were just as bad as the Prequels.

Around 2015 a friend of mine was in a show about the Star Wars films and he was doing a podcast to promote it. He mentioned to me that he found that people who were kids when the Prequels came out really loved them. I thought this ridiculous and wrong, as you might expect. That being said, it stuck with me.

After Rogue One came out in 2016 I went back and watched the Prequels. Here’s the thing, I started to like them again. I mean, yeah the dialogue is a bit wooden, but the story was solid. The fall of a Republic due to an authoritarian manipulating a feckless senate, uh, seemed relevant. Also, in that time I grew to respect George Lucas’ creative vision, even if I didn’t agree with it. All six Star Wars films he produced were, if nothing else, his vision. All the post-release tinkering was within his rights.

So, at this point, I respected the Prequels but didn’t love them. No, my love for the Star Wars Prequels really came to fruition in 2019 because of two events. The first one was that I went to Star Wars Celebration Chicago. Star Wars fandom on Twitter or YouTube can be incredibly toxic. At Star Wars Celebration I was only among people that loved Star Wars. Not only did they love Star Wars, they loved all of Star Wars. People dressed up in elaborate costumes from every era of Star Wars, including the Prequels.

The second event was the release of The Mandalorian on Disney+. I instantly fell in love with that show. It was the brain child of Jon Favreau, but came to life with the help of a guy named Dave Filoni. Dave had spent years with George Lucas as he worked on the show Clone Wars. Given how much I loved Mando and that it had so many references to Clone Wars I went back and watched Clone Wars. I loved it.

Clone Wars takes place during the Prequel era (specifically between Episode 2 and Episode 3). The show turned my respect for the Prequel Trilogy into admiration. Before long that admiration turned into straight up love of the characters, world, story, and mythology of the Prequel Trilogy. All of it was wonderful.

Listen, the Original Trilogy of A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi will always be what I love the most. I grew up with those films. Those films helped me through tough times. Those films ignited my imagination. Those films are part of the reason I went to film school.

I get how the Prequel Trilogy could have the same impact on the kids that grew up with it. Now, I can finally join those people in their celebration of it.

Some Star Wars Stuff:

Last weekend was Star Wars Celebration Anaheim. What is interesting to me is that it was all Disney+ TV shows. There was nothing about the movies.

Of course, a lot of the focus was on Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is fantastic. Hayden Christensen going from taking the brunt of the criticism for the Prequels to being celebrated is awesome. Here he is with Ewan McGregor talking about Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Andor trailer was released and looks amazing.

There is a lot of toxicity in Star Wars fandom, but it is a small minority. It’s important to tune it all out and the best way to do that is to listen to The Blast Points podcast. The host Gabe and Jason love Star Wars.