9 Reasons Why The Star Wars Prequels Aren’t As Bad As You Remember

4) Ian McDiarmid’s Great Overarching Performance As Palpatine

If it wasn’t for the fact that ‘Darth Sidious’ is quite obviously just McDiarmid under a hood, as well as the fact that he played the Emperor in the original trilogy, you’d never guess that the unassuming Senator from The Phantom Menace would turn out to be Star Wars‘ evil master.

Ian McDiarmid renders Palpatine in subtle shades, and his three-movie arc is the single most compelling example of character development in the prequels (some would say ‘only’ as opposed to ‘single most,’ but that’s by the by).

It’s probably the finest performance in a saga that isn’t renowned for its acting, as McDiarmid sells the Lucas dialogue so well that you temporarily forget how badly the prequels are written whenever he’s delivering it.

Seriously, he makes the great Darth Plagueis the Wise monologue in Revenge of the Sith sound like Shakespeare from the tongue of a pro.