The Star Wars Prequels were significantly inferior to the Star Wars original trilogy

Rebuttal to plot: What you said was the main problem, we get to see the heroes relax. No one wants to see our heroes relax on a couch for half the movie, we want to see them in constant, varying levels of danger in order to provide tension, and therefore interest to what they're saying and doing. You can argue that the massive battles and duels provide tension, but I never felt my prequel heroes in any danger when cutting down dozens of battle droids with seemingly no effort. In the original trilogy the constant impending danger, coupled with our actual caring for the characters, made us emotionally involved with what was going on to them and around them. I just never felt the same emotional connection when characters like Mace Windu and Qui-Gon died, because they were such static characters. I apologize in that I have never seen the LOTR movies and therefore cannot make the same connection you did, but you say that the prequels weren't intended to be a space adventure, and you are perfectly right, so then why, when I look up the prequels, are they listed as action/adventure scifi movies? Rebuttal for battles: While the battles were naturally better looking with the CGI and choreography, they lacked any form of substance, because again, we don't care at all about what's happening. Take the opening scenes from episodes III and IV, which are the only two that have comparable aspects. In episode IV the opening scene is symbolic, giving us an understanding of what's going on. The pathetically small rebel army was helplessly running away from the far stronger imperials. That gives us all the explanation we need, once we see inside the ship, for the entire backstory of the original trilogy. As for episode III, the opening scene is just a garbled mess. Once again we are watching two armies we don't care for. It's impossible to tell who is winning, so there is no tension, and our heroes are on their way to kill a new character we don't know or care about, but is also somehow instrumental to the war. The CGI effects are indeed quite good, but so what. Entire movies are made to look quite good using absolutely nothing but CGI, so there's nothing special about this scene at all, as well as any other CGI scene in the movies. Now let's take an example from a different movie, Avatar. We are made to care deeply for the Na'Vi and their plot, so when James Cameron films the entire movie using a green screen, it's more powerful. Because we care so much about the Na'Vi and they're home, we become fascinated with everything around them that contributes to their culture. We don't care about the Wookie culture, or the gungan culture, or the cultures of any of the dozens of planets shown. Therefore the CGI effects have no other meaning than to just show a place. As for the force duels, Vader was not ever trying to kill Luke, otherwise he would have blasted the ship he was on as Vader sensed Luke fly right past his star destroyer on the way to Endor, which would have also ended the rebellion, so why didn't he? He was trying to convert Luke to the dark side, which was said multiple times throughout the films. Vader just toyed with Luke's attempts at killing him until they're final confrontation, where Luke was at a level of training at which he could have beaten Vader, which he did. Now as for Yoda, I personally think giving him a lightsaber ruined his character. In the original trilogy, Lucas' first depiction of Yoda was a crazy, tiny hermit, so it surprised us when we say what he was capable of doing. it showed us that being a Jedi, and being one with the force had nothing to do with physical attributes. Giving him a lightsaber and forcing him to comically bounce around just to fight. Yoda, like Obi-Wan, had already shown himself to be beyond such things. I do agree that it was cool to see Yoda as a bad***, but not when he was using a lightsaber. Now, finally I will address the final duel of Luke with Vader and Palpatine. First off, we are told in episode IV that force tricks only work on the weak minded, and are even given an example of this in the new episode VII, so no matter how powerful Palpatine or Vader were, they still would have had lots of trouble manipulating Luke at this point through the force. We know this because there are many parallels from the two trilogies we can draw from that give us an idea of Luke's skill, and the lack of power the force has. take the Darth Maul duel. Darth Maul, being a sith lord personally trained by Palpatine, should have easily been able to just force push Obi-Wan, the padawan/jedi knight, down from the whatever he was hanging on to, but he doesn't, and he is genuinely surprised when Obi-Wan pulls his little stunt, resulting in his death. If Obi-Wan can kill a sith lord at his stage of training, then Luke's must be at an equal, if not higher level to be able to beat Vader in a lightsaber duel.. In addition Palpatine loses to Mace Windu and needs Anakin to save him. Only when Mace lets his defenses down due to his surprise at Anakin, is Able to force push Mace off of the building. Since we see both Palpatine's weakness, and Luke's relative strength, we can assume that Palpatine was unable to just force pick up Luke and throw him off the edge when he refuses to turn. the only time when he could have killed Luke was when he was using his lightning, which was not intended to kill Luke but to torture him for not turning toward to the dark side. It was at this point when the emporer felt absolutely assured of his victory, with the rebels being obliterated and Luke not being a problem anymore, so imagine how surprised he was when Vader picked him up. Just like Darth Maul, he was unable to react in time to the situation and was killed as a result, with his own lightning seeming to be the thing that causes the explosion that kills him. Characters: Although writing can be made out to be personal opinion, characters can not. there is no argument that can be made that shows characters like Queen Amidala, any of the Jedi council, Qui-Gon, or just about any other minor character that had a speaking part, as having any sort of emotion or depth. Closing: The main problem with the prequels is that people view them with a pair of nostalgia goggles on. They think going into the movies that they will be great because Lucas directed them and they are Star Wars films, so when they watch them they seem great to them. But take the original trilogy out of the equation and the prequels alone are just bad movies, with the only people that enjoy them being the ones dazzled by the special effects and nostalgia.