Were The Prequels Ever Truly Hated?

I bet some of you met the title of this article with an eye roll and an exasperated "well, duh". I assure you that I am seriously debating the question, and I'm taking the "no" side. I contend that the Prequel Trilogy was never truly hated, but I fully admit that I'm making a bit of a semantic argument. The Prequels were hated on, and some very hateful things were said about. Lord knows I'm guilty of the later. I once said, and later repeated that:

Attack of the Clones is the worst big budget movie in the history of western cinema.

I very much wish I could take that one back. There are lots of thing I said about the PT on my permanent internet record that I wish I could take back. But one thing I am proud of is that I've always said that the broad strokes of the PT story are brilliant. You can search my entire 16 year history of articles here on Bantha Skull and you will find that commentary. My criticisms have primarily been with the execution (namely the unnecessary overuse of CGI) and with more granular storytelling nitpicks.

One such storytelling criticism is the "look" scene in AOTC. It's cringy. It's almost a trope where someone points at an imaginary threat over their adversary's shoulder, and then sneaks away as they steal a glance. There's was no need for Padmé to shout "look", and then for a bunch of faultlessly order-following automatons to belay their orders and indulge their curiosities. The same plot beat could have been accomplished by a squad of droids being spontaneously combusted by the impossibly potent ball turrets of the gunship surprise attack. The attack was the only diversion needed. You didn't need a diversion to facilitate the attack. But this is trivial. I believe it's valid, but ultimately unimportant. It doesn't take away from the overall arc of the three movies.

With respect to Lucas, I've often likened him to a great architect, but a poor general contractor. That may sound harsh, but I see zero insult in that. Anyone can be a GC, but it takes a degree of genius to be an architect. Just ask George Costanza. Star Wars achieved its absolute pinnacle when Lucas was the Steve Jobs to Irving Kershner's Steve Wozniak. That's also not meant to disrespect the Great and Powerful Woz, but he's a podcast guest. Jobs has had two biopics made about him. Dreamers in this word are the unicorns, and that's what Lucas is when it comes to entertainment. He crafted a brilliant overall story that fell apart in the details.

This is why I contend that the Prequel Trilogy was hated on, but not truly hated. The overall arc of the story, with Palpatine icily manipulating both sides of the chess board, always had merit. I have never heard any serious fan plead for it be removed from canon. My best argument that the PT was never hated is that the product never truly pegwarmed. That is aside from the TPM product in 2012, but that was due to numerous business decisions that have nothing to do with the entertainment (which would take a series of articles to fully analyze). The ROTS line was so popular that Hasbro had to tack on a handful of repaints at the end of series just to keep up with demand. If the entertainment is hated, the product doesn't sell (consult your nearest Ollie's).

HECK! The Target exclusive Lava Reflection Vader was "limited" to 50,000 pieces, and it was considered rare. It was a chase piece. Some main line figures today don't see production levels that high. Last Figure Standing is right around the corner. I can tell you that my Top 10 will be filthy with PT characters. That wouldn't be the case if I despised it.

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