10 Ways The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Aged Poorly
The Star Wars prequels have earned their status in the modern age, but they still have some undeniable problems that only get clearer over time.
The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is by far the most fascinating of the bunch — at least off the screen. Each film faced visceral backlash as they were released, only to find a measure of vindication through a new generation of fans and those revisiting them without expectations. To their credit, the trilogy certainly has its strengths. Its exciting lightsaber battles and top-of-the-line effects have stood the test of time for decades, and the characters it created are still prominently featured in Star Wars spin-offs. But admittedly, it still has its problems, as well.
Star Wars itself has copped to some of the mistakes of the prequels and created an extended spin-off universe purely to flesh out their less developed characters and events. While that certainly forgives some of its shortcomings, it doesn’t erase their existence. In some cases, it only serves to further highlight them. Episodes I, II, & III are fun and fantastic beyond argument, but they’re also undeniably flawed — especially by modern standards.
10 Two Decades Haven’t Made the Sith Apprentices Any Better
The Prequel Trilogy’s trio of Sith sidekicks — Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and General Grievous — are all beloved characters, but most fans would also probably agree that it wasn’t necessary to have all three. Each Sith underling felt criminally underdeveloped, and while two decades of spin-offs have saved the former’s reputation, the latter two still feel half-baked.
The rapid switches between the Prequel Trilogy’s secondary antagonists give fans too much of too little. One apprentice across three movies would have resulted in a much stronger character than any of those from Episodes I, II, & III, and it likely would have helped unite the somewhat disjointed sequence of films. Even as they’re continually developed, the apprentices feel more like incomplete ideas trying to be justified than solid foundations worth exploring.
9 The Clone War Feels Contrived
The crux of the prequel trilogy is the plot surrounding the Clone Wars, a galactic-scale war mostly fought by a battalion of faceless clones and inhumane battle droids. While Jedi and Sith involve themselves strategically, most of the war’s combatants and casualties are completely ignorable.
Shows like Bad Batch and Clone Wars have given depth to the Republic’s seemingly infinite supply of Jango Fett clones, but it only highlights the problem in the films. The vast majority of clones aren’t characters and their war feels irrelevant, doing little to impact most key planets or create the supposed pressure that gives Palpatine his emergency powers.
8 Episode I Only Gets Worse Over Time
The Phantom Menace featured a number of superfluous or conceptually ridiculous elements that bogged down its short and long-term reception. There’s the overextended stay on Tattooine, Darth Maul’s underdevelopment; Jar Jar and Midichlorians most famously drew universal ire. These are things the franchise has spent decades trying to make up for, and it shows.
Rewatching The Phantom Menace now feels less like an adventure and more like reading a callout post. Episode I still embodies its trilogy’s weakest elements and flaunts them with undue pride. Apart from a few minutes’ worth of moments, it doesn’t even feel like necessary viewing anymore, offering little in the way of character or plot highlights.
7 Qui-Gon Jinn Is More of a Plot Point Than a Character
Star Wars spin-off shows have covered almost every square inch of the Clone Wars-era Jedi Order. However, Qui-Gon Jinn has remained a strange exception. He’s made minor appearances in Clone Wars and the recent Kenobi series, but has largely missed out on major new adventures, save Tales of the Jedi. It’s a shame, because it means he’s still a pointless character.
In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon fills a stereotypical, underdeveloped role as Obi-Wan’s master. Prominent spin-off media could have fleshed out his character and relationship with Obi-Wan to understand him more on rewatches, but their time together has mostly stayed unexplored.
6 An Unremarkable Return of the Jedi
In post-Clone Wars Star Wars media, Jedi are seen as societal and militaristic gamebreakers. They’re mythical figures whose very presence can change the hopes and beliefs of those around them. It’s almost impossible to imagine any group making galactic progress without at least one of the holy warriors by their side.
But in the prequels, the Jedi are more of a glorified police force. While they’re certainly powerful, they don’t carry the universal gravitas built up around them. As Star Wars continues to grow, with Jedi continually depicted as far more individually capable than they were in the prequels, it only makes their depiction feel even more unsatisfactory.
5 Episode I Set Anakin Skywalker (and His Actor) up for Failure
More on the fans than the movies is the tragedy of young Anakin Skywalker. Not the character, but Jake Lloyd, the actor filling the role. In The Phantom Menace, Lloyd had been given the unenviable task of portraying Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, as a poorly-written kindergarten-aged child. It was never going to end well.
Fans unsurprisingly proved as much following release. Despite Episode I releasing pre-social media, the vitriol toward Lloyd grew to outrageous proportions. Lloyd retired from acting and has endured a lifetime of struggle, turning The Phantom Menace into a harsh reminder of how a fanbase damaged a young boy for life.
4 Adult Anakin Wasn’t Much of an Improvement
Things didn’t get much better for Anakin Skywalker as an adult. If one were to only watch the prequels, Anakin would come off as shallow, overly malleable and probably a little dim. Throughout the prequels, he was consistently seen by critics as an unsatisfying characterization for the man who would become Darth Vader.
In 2024, that problem has been mostly fixed. It only took multiple spin-off films and television shows, plus a new generation of fans growing up with everything available to watch at once. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fix the Anakin on screen in Episodes II and III, who is still shallow, overly malleable and a little dim.
3 The Films Only Offer Glimpses of a Larger World
Star Wars’ original trilogy didn’t show the expanses of the Empire’s reach or every planet in the galaxy, but as a series focused on the adventure, it didn’t need to. The prequel trilogy, however, was arguably created for the sole purpose of fleshing out the universe. Despite that, the films tease more than they ever end up showing.
The expanse of the Republic, the legalities of its relationship with the Jedi, and the feelings of more than just a couple of its planets should matter. Recent spin-offs show new planets and territories, and the empire’s effects on their world. The films specifically centered around governmental power disputes should have done more of the same.
2 The Prequel Trilogy Needed Multiple Spin-Offs to Redeem Them
Fans can enjoy the prequels and the spin-off material they inspired, but it needs to be admitted that one only exists because of the weakness of the other. Star Wars’ prequels were meant to fill in the gaps of the original trilogy and create a complete story, and in that right, it failed.
Every Clone Wars series and character enjoyed by fans exists because the prequels didn’t adequately tell their story. So spectacular were their shortcomings that a generation’s worth of new canon was created to retroactively improve them. Every creation is an admission of failure, and now, the prequels are the last place to find their characters’ best moments.
1 The Emperor’s Rise to Power Hits too Close to Home
It’s no secret that George Lucas has always used politics as inspiration. The prequels, specifically, used Palpatine’s rise to power as a metaphor to voice concerns about the American political landscape of the early 2000s. While the Emperor could once be seen as an overly villainous parody of governmental evil, he now feels tame in comparison to the reality we face.
In a world where evil politicians rise to power through manipulation of good faith, trilogies about an evil politician’s rise to power through manipulation of good faith are a bit much. Maybe seeing empires formed around crumbling republics right in front of their citizens’ helpless faces just hits too close to home to find fun in it.
