Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, suffering leads to Attack of the Clones!
Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, suffering leads to Attack of the Clones!

My reviews of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were a bit on the negative side. In an effort of fairness, I have decided put aside my contempt and look at the prequels positives. Here are three things I think the prequels did as well or better than the original trilogy.

Locations

Kamino
Kamino

Tatooine was cool. Bespin and Hoth were awesome. Degobah and Endor were certainly memorable, but Yavin and some of the other locations were a little less notable. The prequels had Naboo; a denser Tatooine; the city-planet Coruscant; Kamino and its oceans; Geonosis and the enormous sinkholes of Utapau. They even had the Wookie home world of Kashyyyk. Thats a pretty impressive list of new planets. I like the practical (more realistic) sets of the original trilogy a little more but I’ll give credit to George Lucas for introducing all those new worlds, particularly Coruscant.

World Building/Mythos

What are you doing Mr. Qui Gon? Oh, just trying to ruin the mystery of the force for everyone.
What are you doing Mr. Qui Gon? Oh, just trying to ruin the mystery of the force for everyone.

Before the prequels we didn’t know who the Sith were. I took that for granted while rewatching the original trilogy, I forgot there was no mention of the Sith. There was no rule of two. The clone wars was only briefly mentioned in a conversation between Luke and Obi-Wan. The prequels brought all of this into canon. It elaborated on the Jedi order and contrasted them with the passionate Sith. It showed the rise of the empire. It even threw in a little nugget about Palpatine’s master (I think). While not everything was welcome (midichlorians), there was alot that was added to the universe in the prequels.

Lightsaber Battles

Yep! Still awesome!
Yep! Still awesome!

This one is a no brainer. The lightsaber battles in the prequels were much more dynamic than in the originals. The clash between Yoda and Dooku was certainly questionable but most of the other battles had a lot more action. The battle on Mustafar between Anakin and Obi-Wan was both intense and heart breaking but the battle to end all battles was the duel between Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. That was truly epic. The coriography was spot on. The music was off the hook. That sequence is the definition of light saber battle.