Tell us how you really feel, Simon. Simon Pegg is known for a couple things. Acting is one. Being opinionated is the other. One of his more famous opinions, that he is certainly not alone in, is his view that the Star Wars prequels are absolutely terrible. Pegg has been acting as a consultant on The Force Awakens for his friend J.J. Abrams, and he says the new film is much more like the original trilogy than the prequels ever were. So we can rest easy.
Pegg has spoken out about the prequels before. Hell, he’s practically made a career of it. His BBC series Spaced gets a lot of it’s humor from making fun of those movies. Well, it turns out he doesn’t just have a problem with the movies. He told the New York Daily News that he also has a problem with anybody who disagrees with him about the movies.
I don't really have any respect for anyone who thinks those films are good. They’re not. (They’re) a monumental misunderstanding of what the (original) three films are about. It's an exercise in utter infanticide ... (like) George Lucas killing his kid.
I have to assume that there are Star Wars prequel fans out there. Having said that I’m not sure I’ve ever actually met one. While the movies were technical achievements in their time, there is little else to hang on to. John Williams' score is still pretty awesome, but that may be the only other thing that’s even worth bothering with.
Simon Pegg’s feeling that even George Lucas himself seems to have forgotten what the original films were about is one that is felt by many fans. There’s a heart in the original trilogy that the prequels just don’t have. C-3PO himself recently used the word "coldness" to describe what’s going on in those movies. Even now, Lucas doesn’t seem to understand. In a recent interview, he said that for a long time he never thought he’d make the prequels because the technology wasn’t ready. There seems to have been a huge focus on the technology, and not a lot on the story.
Basically what we’re saying is that 15 years later, there’s a bunch of bitter old people who were excited kids when the original trilogy came out who became disillusioned young men and women because of the prequels. Basically an entire generation looked like this:
Today we’re getting ready for a new trilogy, and while all signs point to this one looking good, there’s a bad taste in our mouths that hasn’t gone away. Pegg seems adamant that this time it’s going to work. His comments echo those of the director, who recently said the single focus was to make the movie "delightful." The word Pegg uses is "magical."
Optimism can be difficult in the post-prequel age, but damned if we’re not feeling exactly that way. How are the prequels informing your perspective on Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
