Honestly, to describe the current trend, the prequels are “trendy” and “cool” now but not as great filmmaking. Whether it’s as a guilty pleasure, or “so bad it’s good”, or analyzing and breaking them down, or justifying them, or just liking them flaws and all, or whatever - a good chunk of these millennials are enjoying them for what they are in a much more honest way than those who attack the ST/OT in defense of them.
You’d be surprised at how much terrible stuff from those movies have become a part of the cultural consciousness. They’ve made almost every line in those films quotable and memorable through memes. Jar Jar, Watto, Sebulba, and the Nemoidians are iconic for how ridiculous and stupid they are.
And the weird thing is, they’re not laughing at the movies. They genuinely adore them in a way that’s hard to explain, almost in spite of those flaws. Because of them, kind of.
What’s “cool” to them is the notion that you aren’t letting general “uptightness” ruin your nostalgic feelings from when you were kid, but taking the films as they are. I think a lot of it has to do with the shift in “cool” as a word going from outspoken and edgy to chill and spontaneous. Idk how much of it has to do with stoner overtaking punk, but it’s there. And not to mention, that in an age where everyone and their mother is a pseudo-film-scholar, being able to do write-ups about something objectively bad and getting interesting material out of it is just what is considered fun now.
It’s definitely a waste of time and energy, but young people are maturing much later in life. “30 is the new 20” as they say. And people in their 20’s are what drive current trends in pop culture and the internet. Being a geek doesn’t have a negative connotation, and liking something unpopular is just “in.” I’m all for it honestly. Aside from the troll we’ll definitely feed here or there, I think it’s pretty harmless.
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This is not everyone who likes the prequels of course, but I think it’s why it’s more accepted in mainstream now in recent years to say you like them.