Originally posted by: CO

Anakin, should have been like a great athlete who is a wildcard, but was loved by the people and not necessarily loved by the Jedi. Lucas should have shown Anakin being heralded for being the top jedi during the Clone Wars, being the Michael Jordan of the galaxy, but his arrogance, like many star athletes, and their belief that they are indestructable, are the reasons for their downfall. Show him learn even greater powers from Palpatine, and make the audience feel that Anakin loves the darkside, but knows it is wrong deep down inside. Have the dream of Padme as a subplot, just something else to drive him there, not the sole reason. Anakin never turned to the darkside, he just wanted to save Padme, that was a real lame reason.

Sorry about the rant off topic, but once I start thinking of what if for the PT, I could go on and on......

I first just want to say that that's exactly how I felt too.

I was 13 when Phantom Menace first came out. I too bought my ticket ahead of time (To this day I still have the complimentary McDonald's coupon they gave me with the ticket). I went to see it with a friend who was also into Star Wars. I was a little wary of the existance of a prequel trilogy, that it would eclipse the popularity of the originals to new fans. But it was outweighed with the excitement of a new Star Wars adventure. We had a poem-writing assignment near the end of my 7th grade year (a couple of months before the movie was released), and I wrote mine in honor of The Phantom Menace (although it was actually a synopsis of the original trilogy... a looking back of sorts). I still have it at my mom's house. So I saw the movie with my friend, and I liked it. I admit it. I liked it. I didn't think it was as good as the originals, but I didn't have too many problems with it. I didn't mind Jar-Jar at all. I still don't, to be honest. And I didn't like the podrace until the last lap, and I think it's a horrible decision that they made it even longer on the DVD because it's just boring for longer. Most of my dislikes with the movie was about how it seemed that Lucas was obviously trying his best to make everything look better and cooler than the originals, and all he did was seem to break continuity with sleeker-looking ships and almost ridiculously powerful Jedi that just didn't make any sense to me. And I thought it would have been nice to have seen one hint that Anakin had a chance of turning to the dark side besides Yoda saying a few cryptic words with little real substance to back it up. But I pretty much think of it now the way I thought of it then. It looks pretty cool, and it's a decent movie, and it's entertaining, but it just doesn't hold a candle to the originals. And it also seemed like too much of a departure from Star Wars. If Star Wars takes place in a galaxy far, far, away, The Phantom Menace seemed far away from it.

Even though it's not part of the question, others have summarized their experiences with the other prequels, so I'll do so as well. I was 16 when Attack of the Clones came out. I went to see it with a different friend. And I left feeling pretty good about it. It started to seem closer to Star Wars. Things started to make sense. The things that happened in the movie were things that had actually been talked about in the originals, like the Clone Wars, for example. Anakin wasn't just this perfectly innocent boy with absolutely no chance of ever doing anything wrong. Obi-Wan grew a beard, so he looked more like Obi-Wan. I didn't even mind the love story stuff, as I was sappily in love at the time with someone who didn't give a shit, so I could relate to him. And I still don't think it's that bad, although I now get a cringe feeling at a few lines, like, "If you are suffering as much as I am, please tell me," and the whole thing could have been acted better. I liked how they finally showed evidence that the technology was not as good as how it was 20 years in the future (like the fighters not having built in hyperdrive engines). But my opinion of it has lowered some. The Boba Fett story seems pretty stupid, especially now that the New Zealand accent has infiltrated the original movies. I'm not sure why Lucas decided to go in that direction anyway, since it makes no sense. Did New Zealanders not exist in 1980, so he couldn't make Boba Fett the way he wanted? But I'm getting off topic. I always cringed when Boba Fett was simply called Boba. It just sounds kind of... stupid to me. And I thought the Yoda fight was cool at the time because he's Yoda and wow and blah blah blah, but now I think it makes no sense and diminishes the character. But I still find the movie entertaining enough to watch and enjoy.

I was 19 when I saw Revenge of the Sith, and I'm still 19, just for the record. It was the only prequel I saw in theatres more than once. I saw it with my girlfriend both times. She hated it. The first time I saw it, I liked it mostly. I felt for Anakin and Obi-Wan when the duel ended and right before Anakin interrupted Mace and Palpatine fighting. But the turn was unconvincing, as was the piss-poor reasoning behind it (trying to make Anakin more sympathetic by doing the wrong thing for the right reasons... for love of his wife and sheer gullibility rather than love of power and greed). It was a visual effects orgasm to the point where I stopped paying attention. I didn't even realize there was a Wookiee battle going on, and when I tried to watch it the second time around, I still stopped paying attention. And I thought that the lava got in the way of the actual lightsaber duel. General Grievous is the worst villain ever, and the subplot of chasing him was lame and detracted from the main story. Couldn't they have gotten Obi-Wan out of the way some other way? And I laughed at the term "younglings" and "NOOOOOOO!" and a Star Wars film has never unintentionally made me laugh. So in a way, Revenge of the Sith was the most satisfying prequel because it tied up the loose ends, and is a good movie on its own, definitely the best of the prequels, and I felt for the characters. But it's also the most disappointing because of all the bad moments and continuity misteps and bad decisions in an otherwise good movie.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that I always thought the droids were out of place, and although I can see why George felt kind of obligated to bring back those Star Wars icons, I think the movies would have benefitted from that horribly implausible scenario. Yeah, they just always happen to be around? Yeah, right. As Anchorhead used to say, it just shrinks the universe. Oh, yeah, and the least they could have done was wipe R2's mind as well. If they're going to go for a copout explanation, they should at least do it right.