The Matrix is an often used example, but for me it’s the Alien Prequels - especially Alien: Covenant really makes the Original Alien much worse. When the original was released in 1979 it had the perfect Monster. A dangerous killing machine of unknown origin. The missing background of the alien is a big part of its scary mess. It’s a blank space in its mythology that the viewer can fill with many explanations. As these explanations are not precise they don’t have to be logically coherent.
Covenant (and to a lesser degree Prometeus) wanted to fill this blank space and tell us the aliens origin. But once you fill out this missing piece of information it is fixed and can only be one piece. There exists now only one singular explanation. And its a boring: The Xenomorph is basically a creature with it’s origins on earth (because David, who’s origin is on earth created it).
I find this hugely dissapointing. The biggest dangers of deep space are all human in origin is extremely small minded.
(Star Trek: Beyond had the same boring plot - the mysterious villain turned out to be a human after all. As if only humans are capable to pose (or create) a serious thread to humans.).
What are your examples for franchise-movies that somehow made the original worse?
Star Wars has to be THE prime example here.
We could’ve had live-action Mara Jade. Darth Caedus. Tahiri Vaela!!
Instead we got Mary Sue Palpatine and Darth Emo.
I will never not be salty about this.
How does the prequel/sequel make the og trilogy worst though?
Edit: i’m genuinely curious cus i fell asleep watching ep1
Some examples on top of my head:
Midi-chlorian - totally unnessary explaintion for the force
Anakain construction CP3-O in his room - why? This model is obviously already mass produced by some company … and he builds it to help is mom around the house? He’s a fucking protocol droid, not a maid. It makes no sense.
Giving Yoda a lightsaber - His character used to a wise, calm mentor, above using physical weapons, even mocking them. Now he’s just another yedi NPC flipping around witha lightsaber and having a 100% to jump power or some shit. Also Yoda just is just acting stupid in general during the prequels. Totally ruined his character.
Anakains / Vaders entire story, really. - The original quote from Obi-Wan remembers Vader as “a good friend”, yet, we never see any real friendship in the prequels. Quite the opposite really, Anakain went from being totally irrelevant in E1 to being a bratty dickhead that that dislikes Obi-Wan in E2. He has no real arc, he basically has always been kind of an asshole.
To add to your Anakin comments, the idea that he was some chosen, that the Jedi we’re looking for some Messiah seemed lame to me. Just make Anakin a regular guy who becomes a Jedi and then falls to the dark side. It’s been talked to death but Ep1-3 should have been from Obi Wan’s perspective.
I’ve been watching The Clone Wars. I’d say that, if taken as part of the prequel trilogy, they repair a lot of the damage caused by Lucas deeming character and plot development unimportant to a film. Especially, your last point, which, I still absolutely agree with (along with the others).
It also greatly improved the characters of General Greivous and Count Dooku, who in the films are really kinda just there with little reason to actually care about them beyond SFX and fight scenes (and Christopher Lee).
I see. To me it’s really just Vader. In the og trilogy, he is feared simply because he’s the last Sith and there’s no more Jedi(as everyone thought) to fight him. He got that whole pure black armour and breathing sound, making him the coolest bad guy. then all the game show him as some super powerful tank that walk slowly to his enemy to kill them, and all the jedi is so powerless against him for some reason. but a new jedi trainee defeat him somehow 😐
In episode 5, he beats Luke easily but didn’t kill him because he wanted Luke to join him to overthrow Palpatine.
In episode 6, Luke is no master but also no slouch, and Vader’s conviction isn’t as strong. Plus Luke uses the dark side to beat him while Vader didn’t have the same emotional drive to beat him, so Luke might have had a stronger connection to the dark side in that moment and surprised his father who was used to dominating any conflicts he had. Gotta keep in mind that in that moment, while Vader was using the knowledge of Leia to taunt Luke, he also just learned he also had a daughter. And one of the main themes of the OT was that even a villain like Vader wasn’t completely beyond redemption, even though the Jedi themselves believed the dark side was a black and white thing that one couldn’t come back from.
Not to defend the franchise overall (honestly, fuck them for not giving the guy that brought Vader to life a cent for Return of the Jedi), but I don’t think Luke beating Vader is one of the problems with it.
I said it in a comment below, for me, not killing off Palpatine spoils Vader’s redemption arc.
Vader still sacrificed himself to try to end it. His intent and willingness to pay the price spoke more than his results.
I guess he means those Force molecules, I forgot the name. The Force is not something beyond comprehension, you can explain it, even measure it.
It’s the same with Indiana Jones 4. Aliens from another dimension can be explained, the Arc on the other hand is pure horror that we’ll never can comprehend which makes it more scary.
A lot of people hated the scientic explanation of the Force, and Darth jar jar, and dooku being just kind of thrown out there when they scrapped the Darth jar jar idea, and how CREEPY anakin is, and how rough sand is, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember.
Ep 1 gave us duel of the fates though so I give it a pass entirely.
I’ll go ahead and pile on with the others here:
In the original trilogy, one is given to believe that the Jedi were a good and noble order who were betrayed by Darth Vader and then hunted down by the Empire.
In the prequels, it is revealed that they are a bunch of idiots who can’t see what’s happening right in front of their faces with Anakin falling to the dark side, and who are so wrapped up in politics that frankly they deserve to be destroyed.
You don’t have to be a telepathic precognitive to see that Anakin was going down a really dark path. Anyone with an ounce of human empathy could have had a thirty second conversation with the dude and seen that he needed therapy and stability. But instead the Jedi sent the human equivalent of a tanker truck full of nitroglycerin right on into the wars, and then when that went poorly we’re expected to believe that it’s some kind of tragic fall, rather than just piss poor management?
On top of that, the Jedi were emphatically not the “guardians of peace and justice” that Obi-Wan made them out to be in Episode IV. They were loyal to a corrupt and decadent Republic that was not serving its people’s needs. The Separatist movement never would have gained momentum if there weren’t real problems in the galaxy that the Republic was failing to address. But when violence broke out, rather than trying to arbitrate peace and justice, the Jedi became generals fighting at the head of an army of child soldiers.
Virtually every good quality about the characters and systems in the galaxy stated or implied in the original trilogy is invalidated by the prequels. They will stand, possibly forever, as textbook examples of how not to expand on an established universe.