There isn't much that can be said about the Star Wars prequals that hasn't been said by other critics about these films, but here are some of the big issues that I have with these films. If you want to view a funny indepth percpective of these I suggest watching Red Letter Media's reviews on these, just google "Red Letter Media Star Wars" and they should pop up. I have three big problems with these films, the plot which doesn't make sense and you can't get emotionally involved in, the characters that are blank, boring and unrelatable and the special effects that are surprisingly inferior to the original trilogy. Lets begin by diving into the plot, or as I like to call it "The War without cause or consequence"
The overall backstory of the prequals is the Clone Wars. Right of the bat, starting with the first scene of Phantom Menace, the causes of the war are shrouded in mystery. Phantom Menace starts of with an organization called the Trade Federation blockading the planet Naboo. Beyond a vague reference to inter-planetary trade and taxation, there is no explanation why? I have been thinking about this more than I probably should and I still have no ideal, if you have, please share it. What is even more confusing is that an organization made of traders, people who make money by buying goods and services from point A and transporting them to point B and selling them there for a profit, supports a blockade. If a group of merchants wants to prevent a planet from receiving supplies the simplest way to accomplish this is by not selling the said supplies to them and buying those supplies from the market so that it is harder for the planet to buy them from someone else.
While the causes of this remain shrouded in mystery, the consequence of the blockade and the subsequent invasion aren't felt by the viewer either, since the only people we ever get to see on Naboo are the Gungans, about 20 pilots and a bunch politicians. There are no forced labour camps, summary executions, bombed out buildings, refugees or looting and pillaging, everything seems ok in droid occupied Naboo. Beyond vague dialogue by the main characters about Naboo being in danger, there isn't really anything invested in this conflict.
The lack of clear military or political objectives is even more glaring in Attack of the Clones. In this film we see Count Dooku having a meeting with a collection of interstellar bad guys, but again there is no explanation why these guys want to go against the Republic. Clausewitz said that "War is a continuation of politics by other means" so what are the political objectives for the Separitist, what is the Republic doing to these people that would make them want to start a war and how is the life in the Galaxy going to change if they win? We need to know these things in order to care about the battle scene's on the screen. This is in complete contrast to the original trilogy, where the Rebel Alliance is fighting for freedom against the oppressive tyranny of the Galatic Empire. Its a political goal that most people on this planet understand and can relate to. The intensity of the battle scenes is greater since we care about what the heroes and villains are trying to accomplish.
While Attack of the Clones illustrates the lack of causes to the Clone Wars, the Revenge of the Shit (Wait there is something wrong with that title, nah, I'll look into it later.) illustrates the complete lack of consequence for the war. The movie starts of with a big space battle of Coruscant, the capital world of the Republic. The Separatists went down to the planet and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, while we could dwell into all the assness related to this plot, what really bugs me about this scene is that NOTHING happens to Coruscant. The Separitist fleet got to the orbit over their opponents CAPITAL world, with big juicy targets, like the Senate building, The Jedi Temple and the massive support facilities for the clones we saw at the end of the previous films. WHY for fucks sake didn't bomb the everliving shit out of those targets? That would have probably been far more damaging to the Republics war efforts than kidnapping of Palpatine. The Coruscant after the initial battle of Revenge of the Sith looks the same as before the battle. There are no ruined skyscrapers, wounded or dead civilians, refugees, no protests over how the Separatists could get so close to the planet, no anger, fear or any other emotion. Its just business as usual.
This lack of clear and relatable consequence isn't limited to just this one battle. Presumably this war has been going on for sometime now, but we never hear any eulogies for fallen comrades, we never see the anger, fear, horror and sadness that wars generate in humans and other emotional beings. The economic and social consequences are equally lacking, we never see the billions of refugees that flee the fighting, we never see buildings falling into delapitation or be destroyed in the fighting, we don't see people suffer under the heavy taxation needed to fund the war effort. Even the fall of the Republic and the Rise of Empire is largely void of consequences, beyond the destruction of the Jedi, life continues as normal for most of the people of the Republic.
This is again in complete contrast to the original trilogy, in which the consequence of nearly every battle are tangible and relatable. If the rebels failed to destroy the Death Star in New Hope or Return of the Jedi, then the Rebel base would be destroyed, as well as any other planet that dared to challenge the Emperor's rule and all hope for defeating the Tyranny of the Empire would be lost and billions of people would be in danger of loosing their lives and freedom. What could be a greater stake than that. This complete lack of relatable causes, objectives and consequences, makes the plot boring, vague, pointless and the only purpouse it serves is to transport the main characters from one pointless CGI battle scene to the next.
The more finer points of the plot will be examined in the next part which will deal with the characters.
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