We freely admit that we're no fans of the Star Wars prequels around these parts, but they've got some decent moments here and there.
The podracing sequence in The Phantom Menace, for example, was pretty great. Likewise, some of the fight scenes in Attack of the Clones had their moments and so to in Revenge of the Sith. However, for the most part, they were universally terrible.
George Lucas was recently interviewed by Vanity Fair and discussed, amongst other things, how he responded to the criticisms levelled at his prequel trilogy and now, quite honestly, we feel a bit bad.
Look, we're sure the mountains and mountains of money he made out of them keep him happy and so on, but we do feel a little bit sad here. There was always that analogy that George Lucas became Darth Vader, the very thing he swore to destroy when he started with THX 1138.
Lucas was part of the American New Wave, fiercely independent directors who wanted nothing to do with the old studio system and wanted to forge their own path. Of course, what happened with Lucas was that he became a studio system in and of himself and lost something along the way.
It's also a little bit sad that the criticisms were so noted that they just scared Lucas off directing, which is a crying shame because he can be a great director when he wants to be. American Graffiti and THX 1138 are all classics that are worth seeing, but the prequels, yes, they were bad. Really bad.
Who knows. The Jar Jar Binks line was pretty funny, though.
Via VF.com
