The Star Wars prequels are given a bad rap, there's no denying it. Practically every Force Awakens review mentions how good it is in comparison to the prequel trilogy. Any comments thread about the film has the same comparisons.

Yet are the prequels ACTUALLY that hated among the general population?

I think it's more of the prequels having simply having very loud detractors, to the point where the accepted view of them is 'mediocre, overly CGI, bad acting, etc'.

Yet if you look at the data that might indicate reception, one has a WILDLY different view:

1. All three prequels received an A- on CinemaScore, which is good.
2. All three prequels had good legs at the box office despite enormous openings (for the time) and being event fanbase-driven pictures. Good legs tend to indicate positive word of mouth.
3. The Phantom Menace re-release in 3D grossed a very decent $22 million in its opening weekend. That's a 1/3 of the original opening weekend.
4. The fact that The Force Awakens is opening to SO much says a lot. None of the prequels had record breaking openings, not even Phantom Menace, which to me indicates the original Star Wars crowd from the 70s and 80s aren't driving this opening weekend, but younger audiences that grew up with/saw the prequels in their young adulthood and actually really liked them are.

Those three films, as derided as they are in certain sectors, were still huge box office hits and have plenty of iconic things about them. I personally think they are as valid a part of the SW saga as any other film and are definitely one of the iconic series of that period of moviemaking. I still remember being in middle school and the biggest movie event of my entire school period was, bar none, Revenge of the Sith.

The prequels have great plotlines. The only thing bad about them are some of the characters, acting and dialogue.

No. I mean, its not like Star Trek Into Darkness, which is a finely made film that is just Hated so much by the hardcorest of fans that its good reviews are overwritten. I don't think many people walked out of Menace thinking they had just watched something terrible. Yet just three years later Clones had its monkey ass whupped by Spider-Man. That doesn't happen if Phantom had a truly passionate fanbase to turn around the hate. But nobody was willing to defend it, cause of Darth Binks.

At the time, I loved the prequels and was highly entertained by them. Of course, over time I've grown to dislike portions of the films. They are difficult to get through start to finish. There are lots of children from that time period who do enjoy those films a lot along with Jar Jar. Overall, I don't hate them just don't like them as enthusiastically as I did when I first saw them which was a unique experience.

It is a Quantum of Solace ==> Skyfall scenario.

My students - quite a few of whom weren't even alive when Phantom Menace was released (feel old yet?) - seem fine with them, with the exception of budding film buffs here and there. That being said, though, it's pretty rare than any of them who have seen all six of the previous films would rate the prequels above the originals, and the ones who do have stupid motivations behind it (specifically, the fact that the originals have worse effects - which is so deliciously considering that the versions they're referring to are Lucas's soured-up special editions).

In general, I feel like much of the public either doesn't take huge issue with the prequels, or has just forgotten about them for the most part. Even though they were huge hits at the time, they didn't stick the same way that the originals did. And as we could see from the box office grosses of the 1997 special editions and the strong sales from the DVD and Blu-Ray releases, audiences still love the original trilogy. The continuing popularity of those films and the fact that Abrams and Co. tried so hard to pay homage to them are huge reasons for why Force Awakens has taken off as well as it has at the box office.

I also wonder just how much of the $22 million from the 3D re-release of Phantom Menace came from fans who wanted the receipts to be high enough to keep the re-releases going all the way up through the original trilogy. That was definitely the reason why I went, anyway.

For one thing I think Sith is just really well liked and on par with OT for many casuals. That was important to TFA having this momentum

As for Phantom Menace the one thing you can say about it is it's memorable. The Qui Gon and Obi Wan pairing is somewhat an iconic memory. Jar Jar for the wrong reasons as much as right is unforgettable. Darth Maul had a memorably unique look. Pod racing. Some lines like fear leads to anger, etc. I'd take Phantom Menace over 10 MCU films. More than 15 years later TPM is a something. I'll take that over Marvel's stale blueprint for a perfectly safe summer blockbuster

The Phantom Menace is better than JW and about every superhero film from Marvel,

I think ROTS was quite popular with a lot of younger SW fans.

A lot of people who are teens now watching TFA grew up on that film.

After the Hobbit films, the prequels are old news. They're complete, overall fun, and mostly exciting. Aimed at kids a little too much, and Lucas making Jedi the least fun characters alienated a lot of older fans missing the human aspect of the films.

Only true loons that can't distinguish filmmaking from fanboyism call the prequels an abomination.

I feel like part of the reason people think of the prequels as lacking in terms of characters is Han Solo. People underrate how important he was to the OT in terms of character. Vader, Luke, Leia, etc. are all flat until at least Empire. Solo is such a great character in the original Star Wars that people mistakenly think it was full of complex, well developed characters. Luke, Leia and Vader do grow over the course of the OT, but not any more than most of the prequel characters. They are pretty flat in the original. Luke's acting is just as bad as Hayden Christensen at points.

It is more the OT are more loved than the prequels are hated, so any fan would be bound to give it another chance.

For those that find TFA great, they will return for the universe.

For those that find TFA disappointing, a rehash of past glories and not much more, they will not.

A couple of people, who aren't movie fans, have remarked to me that it seems like this was made to sell merchandise.

Personally, I still think that TFA will erode quicker than we would expect for December and miss Avatar, because WOM will spread faster. I may be wrong because perhaps SW plays a bigger role in the fabric of America than anywhere else, but I will stick to it for now. On the third day (didn't check the first two days though) there were empty seats abound in cinemas here.

Rough Ticket Sales For Trilogy of films


TDK: 164 million
LOTR: 186 million
POTC: 160 million
Shrek: 165 million
SM: 178.5
TF: 145 million


SW prequels: 196 million

I definitely think the prequels are hated more online than anywhere else considering even I was one of those kids who loved TPM when it first came out. The OT just didn't appeal to me for some reason and in my kid state of mind I thought it was better because it was more fun. Obviously, watching it again today that isn't the least bit true, but at the time it was for me and it even got me into wanting ALOT of Star Wars merchandise almost every christmas/birthday.

WOM is certainly good, very good even, but it's not amazing.

Its much higher then Hp or THG film by a mile.

"Any day now.... any day..."

Plus Padme's Queen get up is iconic.

Agreed re: memorability versus Marvel and it's thanks to Lucas's imagination, which the new films will lack.

Yes, it will make much more money.

Acceptance is important

And Avatar's was?

Avatar was a experience.

The Force Awakens is also an experience of a different type. People want to see what all the fuss is about and it's got critic reviews and audience reviews that are quite positive.

Who mentioned Avatar? But yes, Avatar had much more of a "groundbreaking visual effects" type thing going for it. Not that it matters, because people will go see it because of all the hype, regardless of WOM at this point.