Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1999–2005) — IV: Creative Ambition
*SPOILERS*
Which is not to say the Prequels were straight up bad. Despite my complaints, I genuinely enjoyed them overall and think there were key things that worked very well. Some of the same things that hit me when I first saw these movies as an adolescent and some new things I’ve come to appreciate as a dude with a blog.
Anakin Character Design
The first and most important thing I liked was Anakin’s arc itself. Maybe not how it was executed but the concept behind Anakin’s character, motivations, and fall were poignant and compelling. He’s a Force vergence born into slavery, something that would inevitably lead to trauma — the exact kind of trauma that leads to the negative emotions that take one toward the Dark side. So we’ve got a Force vergence with inherent Dark side inclinations, born at a time when the Jedi Order was at peak dominance. Balance by design. Almost as if willed by The Force itself. Which also makes the vanity of the Jedi resisting the will of The Force that much more stark.
This type of character can be written in many different directions; many ways to achieve the prophecized balance. And I think the direction Lucas chose is an excellent one:
- Anakin falls in love, violating the Jedi rule against having worldly attachments, opening him up to the worldly temptations that can lead to the Dark side
- And the passion of that love is corrupted by his inherent fear of loss
- Which is then amplified by his perception of Jedi hypocrisy
- While being darkened by the temptation of Sith power
- And distorted by the manipulation of Sith lies
That is smart character design in my opinion.
Aesthetic Vision
Second I genuinely appreciated Lucas’s creative vision and ambition. It takes some nuts to take a totally different approach when furthering franchise IP as culturally important as Star Wars, and that fundamentally commands more respect than taking the safe(derogatory) Abrams approach of repackaging the same original story beats cushioned with some nostalgic fan service. Predictably there will be parts of the prequels that any individual will subjectively dislike when you take this kind of risk, and for me those are the parts I listed earlier. But there will also be parts that you get right.
The perfect example of this is the feel of the dialogue and feel of the story. Lucas really nailed it with the concept of idealized dialogue. Adjusting for his execution of much of it, the creative vision of a Prequel series that makes us feel like students in the future watching a dramatic holocron reenactment of the Fall of Anakin and The Jedi Order in school is an excellent one that goes under appreciated and under recognized. A friend pointed out that the dialogue feels like an Arthurian theater production of Sir Percival or something. Easy to shit on the dialogue execution but honestly I loved this artistic intention.
Additionally, the associated visual aesthetics of his world-building are just nice to look at. Easy to criticize his usage of CGI but he was also the first film maker I know of that had the balls to ask, “What if there was a movie that was entirely in CGI?” And then reverse engineer a studio from that vision in an honest attempt at doing so. And a studio that persists today. Even in the prequels, the scenery and set design is gorgeous, even though the tech hadn’t progressed enough to look convincing. In a similar vein, this is why I include the original theater posters for each film in this trilogy above — they are just so pretty to look at. This taken together with the idealized dialogue mentioned earlier is all testament to the clarity of Lucas’s comprehensive aesthetic vision. He wanted to create something that was visually beautiful with a clearly defined theatrical style and he absolutely did.
Likewise implying that the Jedi Order had significant flaws and that it needed to go was a bold choice that works well on a conceptual level. And using Anakin’s arc to carry this conflict was clever. Which complements his greater commentary on power structures well.
Power Structures
Third I deeply appreciated Lucas’s intention to gas the social commentary pedal. He was formally educated in anthropology, and what’s more, I’m left with the impression that he is truly a student of anthropology. It feels like he has something to say about power structures, their fragility and their inflexibility; and that what he has to say is sophisticated and the result of a lot of consideration. As someone who prefers films that know what they want to say this was a high point for me.
I’m also a lover of Kurosawa, whose own love of traditional Japanese Noh theater and its intention to make the viewer intellectually engage is something I’ve written about. Likewise, as he progressed as a film maker he would go on to adapt this traditional style of storytelling to film with increasing mastery. Especially in the Sanjuro dilogy ( 1, 2) where the main character is the vehicle for this Noh-inspired intellectual engagement. Each Sanjuro brother is the only one who seems to know how the power structures around him work and uses his genius for the betterment of those well-intentioned humans around him.
As I was distilling Palpatine’s chess moves in each movie, it felt exactly the same as trying to unpack each Sanjuro brother’s rationale for preferring certain strategies over the presented alternatives. You know except that Palpatine’s evil or whatever. Not sure how intentional that was but it was a level of depth I appreciated nevertheless.
Badass Fight Scenes
Finally, the Kenobi-Vader fight was fucking sick. I mind the high ground thing less and less every time I watch; Lucas needed to come up with something that would show Anakin’s egotistical folly in a way that wasn’t too technical for non-duelists (the majority of people on Earth). So yeah whatever. It was awesome. Also it confirmed that Hayden Christensen is a talented facial and vocal actor but was knee-capped by Lucas’s terrible dialogue-writing execution in most of his scenes. If you disagree that’s fine. But you’re wrong and I hate you.
Hopefully my take on the prequels felt fair. Personally, it also helped me appreciate them in a way I probably wouldn’t have without articulating many of the concepts that Lucas was playing around with. Having nailed down in words what specifically was bothering me all along, it’s easier to let them go. I certainly like the prequels more now having written about them.
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Star Wars Episode One Essay —
Star Wars Episode Two Essay —
Star Wars Episode Three Essay —
Star Wars Prequels Overview Essay —
IV: Creative Ambition
