[Just your average movie goer]

The original Star Wars trilogy is a complete story. It has a beginning and an end. There is no reason why we need to see all of the stuff that led up to it. It was outlined well enough in those movies.

Also, because we've all seen the original Star Wars movies and know what happened, the prequels can really not give us anything new.

It is like reading a long book in which we already know the ending in great detail. Where's the fun in that?

Do we want to get ourselves acquainted with a whole heap of characters who we know are all going to die by the end of three films?

Why does Lucas want to make movies of a back-story? It's just completely unnecessary. We all watched the Lord of the Rings movies, right? And we understood everything perfectly well without the aid of a movie series based on The Silmarillion (which tells the history of Middle Earth). In fact, most people I know haven't even read the book of The Silmarillion.

And they don't have to. This is because The Lord of the Rings is a complete story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Most stories, especially ones in imaginary locations, have histories and back stories for all their different characters. What makes Lucas think he's so special that he has the arrogance to make three films about a back story? It shows a lot of arrogance and a man who has too much time and money on his hands.

If there were more Star Wars movies, this average movie goer would much rather have had sequels, movies that actually progressed the story and added to it.

Perhaps if Lucas really wanted to alter anything in the original trilogy, then he should have altered the text scrolls -

Change Episode IV to Episode I.
Change Episode V to Episode II.
Change Episode VI to Episode III.

If Lucas had got his act together early enough then he could have made a movie trilogy based on Timothy Zahn's books. That would have been movie magic - and I have no problem in saying that I believe that had this trilogy been made into movies, it would have surpassed the original trilogy and every one on this forum would proudly buy all three DVDs.

But of course, Lucas is years too late for that. Now I'm just waiting to find out how bad Episode III is for my morbid curiosity. After that, I believe we can burn every copy of each prequel movie and salt the earth then force Lucas (by whatever means necessary) to release the untarnished original movies on DVD, with the new Episode names (as above).

And after that, have Lucas swear on his life that he'll never make another film again and will shut himself away from the world for good.

[barend]

i'm suprised to find myself agreeing with both of you on this one...

the prequels gave us a chance to see what seduced anikan to the dark side... however, the fact that it turned out to be the loss of his mother, and his inability to seduce women despite being compernsated with cool powers... is just sad.
(the nickname annie would have been enough for me to go bad!)

ROTJ is a good place to ends things. but the 1 and 1/2 Zahn books i read were really good, and would have made cool films... and they were set 5 years later and came out like 8 years later, so making them as they came out would have been the only window of oportunity to make them. but Lucarse is a credit hog. there is only one lord of the film, and he does not share power

the silmarillion on the other hand is book that alot of poeple pick up but are unable to finish due to the biblesque compressive nature of the story telling. personally it is my favorite book of all time and touched my soul in a way i can't even begin to describe... it's pure magnificence!!!
it also does not ned to be a film series but, christ it would make the greatest movies ever... think of the scenes JYAMG!!!
-Feanor fighting the Balrogs
-Fingolfin fighting Morgoth
-Turin vs Glaurung
-Sauron fucking up Numenor
-Beren and Luthien and Huor vs Morgoth and Sauron and Carcaroth

admit it! if these films came out in the same quality as LOTR tommorow, you'd be running to the cinema with one hand down your pants just like i would!!!

[Jordan]

Replying to Why make prequels at all? 

Because of money.











duh

[Just your average movie goer]

Good points, everyone. And yes, most of the Extended Universe is utter shit. But Timothy Zahn's stuff is absolutely brilliant.

And Barend, my analogy was just to say that we don't actually need movies of The Silmarillion to understand The Lord of the Rings.

However...

if these films came out in the same quality as LOTR tommorow, you'd be running to the cinema with one hand down your pants just like i would!!!

this is also very true. In fact, come to think of it, we should get Peter Jackson to ...

[HK 47]

I think prequels might be good idea. If they had been about the Jedi a thousand years before A New Hope with no attachment at all to the Skywalker storyline. I think all Star Wars fans would have liked to see Jedi vs Sith in the ancient days.

Knights of the Old Republic anyone? The game that now OWNS Lucas. I became much more attached to the characters in the game than anything in Lucas prequels. I could only imagine how grand a movie based on that story would have been. Just look at some of the protagonists: a female jedi lead, a tough-as-nails mandalorian warrior, a fast-talking twi'lek rogue and an insane battledroid (HK 47 ) I can't recommend it enough.

Also, I think that Silmarillion would be an incredibly difficult project, but the Beren and Luthien story alone would be worth it.

[HK 47]

I truly wish that Lucas would make a movie of that instead.
But sadly, it will never happen. 

What WILL happen however is KOTOR II.
It's not Bioware anymore but I'm still hoping for a winner...

http://www.gamespot....ew_6095371.html

[Just your average movie goer]

I truly wish that Lucas would make a movie of that instead.

But sadly, it will never happen.

Sadly? Hardly - it is a blessing that Lucas won't make a movie of that. If you love something then why would you want that talentless hack to butcher it?

Lucas can't make movies any more. Do not let him touch anything that is of value to you - for he will make a royal mess out of it.

[Vwing]

Good points, everyone. And yes, most of the Extended Universe is utter shit. But Timothy Zahn's stuff is absolutely brilliant.

Oh I wouldn't say that. The Michael Stackpole X-wing series is good and fun. The Kevin J. Anderson Jedi Academy series started out good, then got really stupid, but Stackpole's I, Jedi is excellent. And, surprisingly, both prequel books that I read, Rogue Planet by Greg Bear and Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover are both really good, and give much more insight into the characters of Anakin and Mace Windu respectively than the prequels could ever hope to do. After 3 pages of reading Shatterpoint, I liked the character of Mace Windu. And there are also many other books I'm forgetting that I've enjoyed. Yeah, some of the EU is crap, but a lot of it is fun and worthwhile reading.

That being said, Zahn is the best.

As for the topic, I wholeheartedly agree with you JYAMG. I hated the idea of prequels before it turned out they sucked anyway. I would've loved sequels, especially based on the Heir to the Empire series. But it's too late now.