While the prequels aren't considered a masterpiece by any means. I don't think it was only kids that grew up with them that changed the narrative. For a lot of people, they were able to look past the things like Jar Jar, wooden dialogue from Hayden and Natalie... Because there was a complete story there. And it ended on a strong note with revenge of the sith. The sequels ended on a low note with rise.
I agree that Sith was better than the first two but, at least in my experience, I see few people outside of those that were teens and under when TPM came out who try to claim these movies were actually good. Personally, TPM was the biggest disappointment I have ever experienced in the theater while Attack of the Clones was the 2nd worst movie I have ever paid money to see.
As for it being a complete story, I half agree. It was certainly more cohesive than the sequels, by a mile, but in addition to the bad dialog, questionable directing and awful acting, there were so many plot holes and what felt like ridiculous leaps one had swallow to enjoy the movie that it felt very jarring to me.
I'm a bit confused by this one. What unearned cameos are we talking about? I'd say Chewy maybe? If anything the prequels were criticized for not having enough familiar elements.
People wanted more of them? Maybe it is just me but every time someone showed up on screen in the prequals who was in the originals it pulled me out of the movie because it made the universe seem so small. Sure, you need Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine to tell the story and Yoda makes sense, but none of the rest needed to be there.
To take it a step further, some of the main cast should have just been a cameo. For example, Anakin doesn't need to be fixing a scrapped C3PO in the first movie. No reason for R2 to just happen to be on Amidala's ship. They should have just been seen in the background when Bail comes into play at most.
Again, small universe syndrome.
It will be interesting to see for sure. Peoples first introduction into something, often holds a strong nostalgic bond for them. So I'm sure for people like my son, whos first theater experience with star wars was the sequels, will have an attachment to it.
Agreed.
Will that attachment be as strong as the prequels? I'm not sure. The prequels had a much more complete story than the sequels. And they also have a much better attachment/connection to the originals than the sequels in my opinion, and that's an advantage as well.
Maybe, but to me the prequals cracked the universe the original created and the sequels just came along and finished the job. Don't get me wrong, the sequels aren't good either, but I would put it roughly on par with the prequals.
As a side note, I tend to believe that The Clone Wars played a big part in the "prequals are actually good" narrative as they did a great job with that series filling in holes in the various relationships and making characters like Anakin much more likeable/relatable than the movie version.
