One Genuinely Great Thing About the Star Wars Prequels: John Williams
The legendary maestro gave these disappointing films a set of scores to die for
Warning: Contains spoilers for the Star Wars prequels.
The Star Wars prequels have their defenders, but on the whole, they are regarded as a disappointment in comparison with the illustrious original trilogy. I hold that view, and have written elsewhere about how I would have written the prequels, but there is one significant area in which The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith did not disappoint: The music score. In that respect, John Williams contributed outstanding work, some of the best heard in the entire Star Wars saga. Frankly, this music deserves to score a much better set of films.
Although the prequel scores occasionally quote from older material, in characteristic style, he continued to prove that the only person who can outdo John Williams is John Williams. As such, the maestro contributes stirring new themes for new characters, and many other strident, thrilling anthems for George Lucas’s epic space fantasy saga.
Here are a few selections from each of the scores. I apologise in advance for the excessive adoring adjectives. I tend to go overboard on them when talking about John…
