Critical Consensus: “Star Wars” Prequels Actually Better Reviewed Than Originals

by Senh Duong | Thursday, May. 19 2005

The results are not what one might expect, based on reviews collected during the time of each trilogy’s original release dates.Based on current active critics though, the results are as expected. The average Tomatometer of the original trilogy handily beats the prequels by 20% -- 90% to 70%, respectively.83% - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 65% - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 62% - Star wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Average Tomatometer: 70%80% - Return of the Jedi 98% - The Empire Strikes Back 93% - Star Wars Average Tomatometer: 90%However, as user ‘ Knelt ’ noted in our News section , it’s not fair to compare the two trilogies based mostly on current active critics because most of them saw “the original films as children, and are reviewing them based on nostalgic memories as well as judging them on established ‘classic’ status.”When “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” was released in 1999, a group of us actually went to our local library and dug up a sampling of available sources that reviewed the original trilogy during the time of their respective release dates in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because those reviews weren’t available online, we OCR-ed them and put them on the web, breaking all kinds of copyright laws in the process. We were quite the rebels back then. However, when we legitimized the company months later, those reviews were the first to go. Thanks to Archive.org, a site that archives the web pages, the quotes are still there but the full text reviews are gone. The results are actually quite surprising.(Click on the links for the archived quotes from Archive.org)31% - Return of the Jedi 52% - The Empire Strikes Back 79% - Star Wars Average Tomatometer: 54%As one can see, only “Star Wars” managed to be Fresh, with a respectable 79% on the Tomatometer, while the other two sequels got successively worse. Most of the critics thought the first film was an inventive, fun, and entertaining summer popcorn movie. It’s interesting that they complain about the dialogue back then too. “Empire,” which is regarded as the best of the series nowadays, only managed to score a mixed 52%. It received great technical grades, but critics had problems with the plot, one way or other, and thought it was just “minor entertainment.” It got worse with “Jedi” – uneven pacing, no character development, tired acting, and hollow and junky filmmaking. It scored a moldy 30% on the Tomatometer. Prequels were probably the last thing critics wanted back then after the thrashing of the last film.Ironically, if you compare the average Tomatometer of the prequels and the original trilogies during the time of their respective original release dates, the Prequels are actually better reviewed by 16% -- 70% to 54%, respectively!83% - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith79% - Star Wars65% - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones62% - Star wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace52% - The Empire Strikes Back31% - Return of the Jedi