I felt The Phantom Menace felt like Star Wars but set in the Old Republic. I love Qui-gon. I do not hate Jar Jar. Jake Lloyd was not bad as Anakin. After spending time with 9 and 10 year olds recently, some of them sound like that. And I also saw something he did right before he played Anakin. I have nothing to hate about this movie. I love it. The theatrical version anyway. I do not like the DVD cut. I do prefer CG Yoda over the puppet. That was one horrible puppet. And the CG makes it fit better with the following two films.

Attack of the Clones is mostly good, but it has some terrible stuff in it. The droid factory sequence is probably the worst in all of Star Wars. Comic relief is one thing, but that was over the top and totally ridiculous. And the way Anakin acts does not fit with his character. Not Hayden’s acting, but the way the part is written. That argument in front of Padme is out of place and the way he acts when Padme falls out doesn’t fit. He’s attached to her and madly in love with her, but he isn’t a total idiot.

Return of the Sith is mostly great. It is dark, but the story doesn’t play out quite as expected (based on the other 5 films that came out before it). There isn’t anything I can put my finger on, just a feeling that something is off.

Overall the Prequels setup the story nicely for the OT. They aren’t as good, but prequels rarely are. I really feel that Lucas spent time on TPM and did it right, but rushed the other two and didn’t have a good partner to make sure the script was top notch before filming them. He had too many people who weren’t critical enough of his work and the films suffer for it. AOTS in obvious ways and ROTS in more subtle ways.