Star Wars: George Lucas Explains How People Just Didn’t “Get” the Prequel Trilogy’s Dialogue

When the Star Wars prequels initially landed in theaters, fans and critics alike had mixed reactions, though this is largely due to the expectations built up over the years and the passionate following of the original trilogy, with series creator George Lucas pointing out that fans were merely approaching the prequels in a mindset different from how he developed the films. In his mind, both trilogies were meant to honor the playful tone of 1930s adventure serials, but that audiences weren’t picking up on the intentional melodrama that was incorporated into the prequels, despite the tonal consistencies with the original films.

“It [the dialogue] is presented very honestly, it isn’t tongue-in-cheek at all, and it’s played to the hilt,” Lucas detailed in The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, per SYFY WIRE. “But it is consistent, not only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall Star Wars style. Most people don’t understand the style of Star Wars. They don’t get that there’s an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930s Western or Saturday matinee serial. It’s in the more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And [Star Wars: Attack of the Clones] is even more of a melodrama than the others.”

As is the nature of Star Wars, there’s just as much to debate about the franchise as there is to love, with a number of fans spending more than a decade decrying the prequel trilogy. The release of the sequel trilogy, while praised by some was chided by others, who would go on to express how superior the prequel trilogy was to the films Disney released after purchasing Lucasfilm.

In addition to addressing the dialogue on the prequel films, Lucas also detailed his process of preparing to shoot Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

“This one, because there was a lot more complex staging, I would take the week’s work and on the previous Saturday, I would spend all day rehearsing with the actors and the cameraman, and we would stage the scene and rehearse it a couple times,” the filmmaker detailed. “So for the rest of the week, we would have a very clear vision of what we were doing, and didn’t have to spend time on the set trying to figure things out.”

The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 is available now for pre-order.

What do you think of the prequel films? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!