Even though I’ll admit they have some minor problems (and the originals do as well), I still love the prequels. I grew up with the UOT on VHS as a kid, and I was 16 when the Special Editions came out. Regarding George’s films, I’m no purist, so I was able to accept both the changed versions and the prequels on their own merits. When I first saw “The Phantom Menace”, I loved it, and I still think its a lot of fun. All three of those movies are worthy companion pieces to the originals, in my opinion.

The sequels, however, are a very different story. I enjoyed most of “The Force Awakens”, but upon viewing “The Last Jedi” I was stunned into silence, and not in a good way. It took me a short while to gather my thoughts, and after that all I could think was “My God, they did it. They actually managed to eff up a Star Wars movie.” Luke being a depressed hermit was completely wrong, along with Snoke being turned from a potential threat to an idiot so clueless that his own apprentice literally slices him in half. Rey became vastly overpowered, Finn & Poe became almost redundant, Captain Phasma was treated like trash, and don’t get me started on Holdo - her sacrifice had no impact on me at all. And then of course, there’s the “Leia Poppins” moment, which I wasn’t sure whether to laugh at or groan about. The entire movie just flat-out sucked. I never saw “The Rise of Skywalker” all the way through, but from the clips I’ve seen the general tone seemed more in line with “The Force Awakens”. Still, bringing Palpatine back was a dumbass choice, and lazy as well. I really blame Kathleen Kennedy for the bulk of this; she promised George Lucas that she would respect his characters and the legacy that he had created. But once she had control of his company, she turned right around and stabbed him in the back.