I have come to the point where I am more interested and fascinated by the train wreck nature of this franchise and by the toxic battles within its own fandom then the actual material.
That mindset haunts me too in terms of the Prequels. I can’t enjoy Episode I - III as movies anymore. I guess i watched the Making Ofs & Web-Docs (The Beginning, From Puppets to Pixels, etc.) more often than the movies itself. And when i watch them occasionally, i just watch them with audio commentary. I wanted to enjoy those movies so many times, but it always comes down to: trying to understand George Lucas’ awkward decision making and neverending ‘it-always-meant-to-be’ justifications. It is a puzzle i can’t solve. The OT is not tainted for me, but the PT is.
This is similar to what I feel too. There are far too many “mental gymnastics and long reaches” required, as others have said on here, which simply do not address or fix the many issues the PT has. They just don’t do it for me, and shouldn’t be needed to enjoy films now meant to be part of some sort of coherent Saga.
For all the modern hate thrown at the Plinkett PT reviews, they did raise some solid issues and points about the shortcomings of the PT onscreen.
Fan Edits for the Prequels address many of the issues, fixing the parts of the PT films far better than George ever likely would. And also making them more enjoyable and coherent films in the overall Saga.