By Katelynn Brown
Copy Editor
With Disney’s recent-ish Star Wars revival, many people are increasingly shitting on the Middle Child of Star Wars franchise – the prequels. While I’m not going to argue that the prequels are the best Star Wars movies in the franchise – with the exception of Revenge of the Sith, I will argue that they aren’t as bad as everyone says.
First of all, (if you’re a Star Wars fan) I know what you’re thinking – you’re thinking about the sand. It’s rough and it’s coarse…and it gets everywhere. But I think personally, Hayden Christensen’s acting in the franchise is partly what makes watching the prequels so magnetic. His delivery of his lines are either just so angsty or so monotone that it really adds to the overall entertainment of the movies. Also, in Attack of the Clones he’s super upset about the fact that he can’t be a Jedi and have the girl of his dreams, which makes the performance make a little more sense. Does this justify his poor acting? Not really. But does it make the movie better? Absolutely.
Secondly, you may be thinking – was it not the prequels that created the monstrosity we have come to know as Jar Jar Binks? Well, yes. There is no excuse for this massive mistake by George Lucas and his team. Jar Jar Binks should be erased from The Phantom Menace. The movie would be 98% better without Jar Jar Binks. I don’t know whose idea his voice was. I can’t believe a large group of adults gathered around a table somewhere in some studio and agreed that Jar Jar Binks’s voice was acceptable to be put into a multi-million dollar franchise. Literally if they just changed his voice to something more normal, the whole character would have been objectively better. I know this is supposed to be an appreciation piece of writing for the prequels, but you can’t talk about the prequels without talking about Jar Jar Binks and what an absolute mistake he was.
Thirdly, Obi Wan Kenobi is one of my favorite characters of all time. I love Obi Wan Kenobi. I don’t know why, but Ewan McGregor’s performance is absolute gold in the prequels, especially in the final scene in Revenge of the Sith where he fights Anakin for like 15 minutes straight. It’s incredibly tense and dramatic as master and padawan, Jedi and Sith, friend and friend battle it in a life/death situation except not because Obi Wan Kenobi spares Anakin’s life kind of ? I mean he leaves him to die in the lava but he didn’t die. But it was fucking epic. Also I really appreciate Obi Wan Kenobi’s beard. It’s a solid beard. 10/10.
In conclusion, the prequels aren’t as bad as people say. Maybe this article doesn’t quite prove that point, but I just want people to reconsider that the prequel movies are absolute horseshit. They’re entertaining and fun for the whole family, and just because they’re not as good as the rest of the franchise, doesn’t make them any less loveable. The middle child deserves just as much love as its older and younger siblings.
