Twenty-five years later, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is enjoying a deserved reappraisal.
Of course, it helps that everyone has moved on to yelling about the Sequel Trilogy.
Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like fucking Shaft.
Tim Bisley, Spaced, Change (2001).
Reviews forThe Phantom Menacewere, its fair to say, mixed.
Looking back on it, thats understandable.
Its a mixed film.
After a lot of excitement and hype for the return of the game-changing franchise, some anti-climax was inevitable.
Theres a thematic consistency that works irrespective of the faltering emotional truth to the movies.
For better and worse, these films are the product of a singular vision.
It feels like a billion-dollar version ofConsequences.
But by the end of the Sequel Trilogy, the studio had lost its nerve.
Lucasfilms response to theLast Jedibacklash made a tricky job even trickier, first for Trevorrow and then Abrams.
Whats the worst that could happen?
Its bittersweet downer of an ending is vastly improved once youve seen the rest of the trilogy.
Theres a sense of grim inevitability.
The burgeoning relationship between Anakin and Padme in this installment is also absolutely integral to the following film.
Unfortunately, it is genuinely uncomfortable to watch, and Im not just talking about the dialogue.
The love story is simply not believable.
Anakin is a creepy teenager waving multiple red flags, but Padme falls in love with him anyway.
Revenge of the Sithfollows through on the clear and obvious danger that is Anakin.
Its extremely grim stuff.
His strengths and weaknesses have been seeded.
Rey, on the other hand, doesnt have that throughline.
Which is Lukes story.
Thats the risk you take starting a trilogy without a sense of where the story is going.
Irrespective of the quality of the acting or dialogue, the strength of the Prequels lies in this consistency.
It gives the central story power despite the many flaws in the telling.
Its got a great story realized badly.
The sequels have an incoherent story realized well.
