Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Prequels
1. They Were A Critical Flop
Obviously, the Prequels were always going to be a financial success and you certainly can’t argue with the box office. To be honest, back then and right now, you could probably make Jar Jar’s Big Adventure and still turn a profit. But critical response is very different. Unless you bribe people. Our fee for that is a full scale X-Wing.
Eighteen years later, it’s a lot more difficult to find out what the average cinemagoer’s response was. But the thoughts of professional critics and fans with internet access are still in abundance. If you dig into the reviews (both professional and public) that came around the time of all the Prequels, they’re mixed.
Roger Ebert gave The Phantom Menace three and a half out of four stars while the BBC gave it four out of five, and also praised Episodes 2 & 3. Elsewhere, notoriously acid-tongued critic Mark Kermode gave Episodes 1 & 3 a thorough roasting, as did The Onion’s AV Club while still pointing out some positives. And away from professional critics, if you go back far enough on IMDB, you’ll find a similar mix of positive and negative.
When a series of films' legend of being a disappointment is given so much time and attention, it’s obviously going to grow. And legend is quite an apt word here since their reception was hardly Darth Vader killing Admiral Ozzel. Maybe him briefly choking Admiral Motti in A New Hope though.
What do you think people get wrong about the Star Wars Prequels? Let us know in the comments below…