Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I - III - 1999 - 2005)

The first three Star Wars movies were better than the last three. In Episode V 'The Empire Strikes Back' it was implied that Yoda trained Obi Wan Kenobi to be a Jedi. But in Episode I 'The Phantom Menace' Qui-gon Jinn trained him. In Episode III it was said that the training Kenobi got from Yoda was how to talk to dead Jedis. In Episode V it was definitely implied that the Jedi training he got was from Yoda. Making it to where Qui-Gon trained him was stupid. Another stupid thing was the Queen of Naboo. She was a teenager for petes sake! Who in their right mind would let a teenager be a Queen? Nobody. It seems that George Lucas lost his touch after making Episodes IV, V, and VI. The three prequels didn't suck but they couldn't hold a candle to the originals. The prequels had better special effects but special effects aren't everything.

I think there is simply too much nostalgia and memories in the original trilogy to which Star Wars was built up to a Camelot like legend.  With these prequels you had 38 year olds going  into the movies expecting to be taken in a time machine to 1978...that's asking too much.  Not all the Lucasfilm magic can do that.  Still the Phantom Menace did  drag despite Ewan McGregor's flawless Obi Wan but Christopher Lee as the evil Count Dooku in Attack Of The Clones got the ball really rolling.  And Revenge Of The Sith had the most action out of any Star Wars movie and also was the saddest to see Obi-Wan and Anakin who shared a brotherly love fighting to the death at the end.  This is when internet geeks started rating movies on websites in droves.  They even have sites designed for them to complain about films. Of course nowadays you have these 15 year old high school freshmen typing on their computers that mommy bought them for their birthday how much Steven Speilberg sucks.

Not cool. Star Wars is now ruined.

Although not quite up to the standard of the excellent OT, the PT still offers many great moments of cinema, as well as using some amazing CGI. It is good to get to know the story of Darth Vader a little better, and also we get to know the origins of other parts of the SW saga, such as Yoda and Darth Sidious. Usually in terms of trilogy quality, this would be worthy of five stars, but for the sake of this PT vs OT argument, I will only give it four so to prove the OT's superiority

It is a telling indictment of many modern movies, and the fans thereof, that the "debate" here turns on where the special effects were better. Ok, they were better in the Prequel. Big whoop. The story, acting, directing, characterizations, dialogue, etc is vastly superior in the original trilogy. The advent of CGI has made far too many directors abandon their craft for cheap (well expensive, but you know what I mean) visual thrills, at the expense of any character development or plausible script. The prequels aren't the worst movie examples of this trend, but they're up there.

The second trilogy suffers a bit under the weight of its pretensions but is extremely well produced and gorgeous looking.  It has a bit of difficulty trying to serve its vast audience of 7 year olds and 47 year olds alike but pulls it off fairly effectively.  The story arc is very clever, going back in time to get to the middle of the story.  Althought they rush to fill in the gaps between the prequel and the first series it is a neat trick to see where story elements that are referenced in "A New Hope" get explaned 25+ years later in the final chapter.  Like the first series it suffers from wooden acting, probably the result of having to stand still in front of the green screen so much to enable the CGI animators to fill in the screen.  Hayden Christiansen is over his head as an actor trying to carry the gravity of his role and comes of as poutty instead of tormented.  Natalie Portman improves from silly in the first film to sexy prop in the second but is reduced to the point of plot ... Read more

The special effects are vastly superior to the original, the depth and scope of the star wars universe is really felt in the prequel

Overall, it lacked the magic of the original, but it had the best duels.