Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Whether or not a movie lasts in pop acculturation ’s collective cognizance often depends on major shift in linear perspective . decisive and commercial failures likeThe Big LebowskiandBlade Runnerhave become much - revered classics , while everyone seems to match now thatLove , Actuallywas pretty silly . The popular consensus onTitanicshifts back and forth every five or six years ( it ’s good ) , as doesBatman & Robin(it ’s bad , buuuut … ) . Perhaps the biggest pop - civilisation reevaluation that has conduct office just in the last few years concerns a sealed science - fabrication prequel trilogy that was receive so disadvantageously even its own hardcore fans didn’treallylike it .
That ’s right , folks ! TheStar Warsprequels — Star Wars : The Phantom Menace(1999),Star Wars : Attack of the Clones(2002 ) , andStar warfare : Revenge of the Sith(2005)—are goodness now . ( They ’re good now ? ? They ’re honest now ! ) Everyone have a go at it them , or at least that ’s what it seems like if you took a cursory glimpse at societal metier every meter the franchise is back in the word .
In a way , this critical lunar time period shift is easy to track . TheStar Warsprequels have some of the weirdest lineage of dialogue you will ever see in a multi - hundred - million - clam smash hit picture serial publication , and are thus endlessly repeatable . " Hello , there ! " " A surprise , to be certain , but a welcome one . " " There ’s always a bigger Pisces . " " Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise ? " " You underestimate my power . " " I AM THE SENATE . " QuoteAnakin ’s sand speechright now . I have sex you’re able to do it .
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This variety of cultural saturation only come around once in a while , and this particular case is the outcome of the prequels ' thriving semi - wry fan community . The subredditr / PrequelMemeshas more than 2 million memberspostingevery day , carving every innocent second gear of these ludicrous picture show into the eternal rock of the cyberspace . ( It ’s these very buff whoconvincedstars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to number back for Disney+‘sObi - Wan Kenobi . )
Let me say something that is maybe controversial : The story of the prequels , the main arc that all three movies observe , isreally undecomposed . A young son , born a total nobody and enslave on a nowheresville planet , is discovered by a net of orphic knight - sorcerers who find out that he has a powerful connexion to the mystical energy that balances the universe . While train to perfect his skills and learn a bunch of coolheaded sword - fight move , the boy becomes disillusioned with upholding the scheme of governing that has stagnated during its farsighted reign of placidity , and fights to stay firm to his restrictive vows while falling in erotic love with the extragalactic nebula ’s most unachievable woman . A knavish politician and mystic servant of evil exploits the boy ’s impuissance and drive him into the darkness , creating the most terrifying scoundrel the galaxy , or cinema , has ever seen .
That ’s GOOD . That ’s a Wagnerian epic , a Shakespearean tragedy . That ’s a whole movie series ' worth of great ideas , and the thing about the prequels is , when you look past all the bounty hunter clones and Gungans and unfortunate racial stereotyping and wooden dialog delivery and all incoherent side quests , all of those ideas are in there . It ’s just unfortunately overshadowed by , well , everything else . Say what you will about George Lucas , the man had a vision .
20th Century Fox
And it ’s that very imaginativeness , or at least that notion ofhavinga vision , that feel so unique in our current era of micro- and macro - managed blockbuster franchises create by businessmen and scripted by 20 mass at a fourth dimension and filmed on unripened screens and digitally heighten by inexpensive labor and source from material byartists and writers who are never paid their due . Maybe theStar Warsprequels expect so honest now because we ’re so tired of what that case of filmmaking has become . They were crowdpleasers that were n’t test to please everyone ( and rarely pleased anyone ) . During the reevaluation of the new trilogy , the continuation of " the Skywalker saga , " as Lucasfilm late begin to call it once they realized whatThe Rise of Skywalkerwas going to be about , those in the negative ingroup reprize a common chorus . At least the prequels wereabout something .
possibly it ’s as simple as this : We ’re sick of watching motion picture made for the lowest vulgar denominator . By that I do n’t intend " unintelligent people , " or even " children . " I ’m talking about art mean to be well digestible , inoffensive , broken - stakes , and , thus , like a shot forgettable . TheStar Warsprequels are a lot of things , but they for sure are n’t forgettable . This is n’t even about a critical redevelopment — even the fan know that these movies are not , by any stretch of the imagination , destined to become classics . But , if you look at something for long enough , " speculative " starts to become " weird , " which finally becomes " interesting . " From a certain item of view , you could even say it ’s unspoiled .
