Why put The Phantom Menace so low?
Once the initial action-packed opening ended it became really boring. The movie throws away pretty much all potential it has for emotional investment, and only some individual scenes stick out (Liam Neeson hard carries). It doesn’t show any of the carnage caused by the trade federation, thus you don’t have any sympathy for Padme’s situation like you do Leia’s in ANH. Same problem with Anakin, no abuse is even hinted at. The mf literally goes “yippee” to his slave master. The only potential value that seeing Vader as a 9 year old could possibly offer is just thrown out the window. It’s just a fundamentally stupid concept making him that young, he either can’t do enough or anything he does is flat out ridiculous because, again, he’s 9. Obi-Wan has hardly anything to do. AOTC is the first prequel movie where Obi-Wan really feels like a character, in TPM he’s basically just Qui-Gon’s sidekick who bickers with him all the time. Even the relationship between the Gungans and the Naboo is squandered. Could’ve maybe actually explored why they hated each other and reconciling, as well as expounding upon whatever symbiotic relationship Obi-Wan was talking about, but nope. You can see that Lucas was trying to explore the themes of symbiotic relationships, that people need to work together in order to accomplish things, and as someone who takes a lot of interest in ecology, it’s an interesting concept, but it simply doesn’t come together.
I don’t like it for the same reason a lot of people who dislike the prequels like it the most of the 3: it’s irrelevancy to the larger story. I know many people hate AOTC more because it messes up Anakin, but not only does Obi-Wan still make it enjoyable for me, but trying and failing to tell Anakin’s story well is better then doing basically nothing at all.