The prequels are shit, loved them when they came out but went back more recently and just can't understand how this happened. Episode 2 is by far the worst one, it's just bad movie making. Love the original trilogy, Empire is my come home drunk and watch something movie too. I go in with the idea that I'll go to sleep after the snow battle but fall asleep right around Luke getting fucked up by the yeti every single time.
A lot of people were talking about violence in these movies earlier and how they were PG instead of R, up until Indian Jones and the temple of doom, movies were either PG, R, or X. But after the whole flaming heart pulled from a mans chest, the PG-13 rating was invented, that was in 1985.
Disney bought Lucasfilm and the rights to Star Wars in 2012 for a billion dollars or something. I remember it was 2012 cause i was sitting in traffic listing to NPR and they announced that Disney was making more Star Wars movies and I just yelled fuck while sitting in my car thinking we were getting more prequel quality movies. With that said, The Force Awakens looks really really good. Plus the OG cast coming back, ace in the hole.
just as a fact though for all these people talking about their use of models over CGI in this new one, there were more models/sculptures/traditional camera tricks used in the phantom menace then the entire original trilogy. The problem with those prequels was Lucas not giving a fuck and writing shit movies/ letting his kids name characters (Jar Jar, Qui-gon). Lucas was just like "Fuck it. it's going to make a shit ton of money anyways!"
What I find more interesting about this whole prequel trilogy legacy is the impact on the actors involved, it's like the only one that got away clean was Ewan McGregor. Natalie Portman had to take roles she otherwise would have never been involved with (V for Vendetta) but the best example would be Jake Lloyd. I read recently that he was so effect by the negative feedback that he received at 8 years old for the phantom menace that he became schizophrenic. He was made fun of for the rest of his school career, and a few years later snapped and destroyed everything star wars related that he owned, quit acting, and leaves George Lucas completely responsible for ruining his childhood and acting career. He said it was Georges fault cause he wrote a shitty movie(true). more recently he got in a high speed chase after getting into a fist fight.
http://www.etonline.com/news/2015/06/24160011/jake_lloyd_mugshot.jpghe looks more like a character from Breaking Bad or Oz nowadays.