I rewatched Revenge of the Sith around a year ago, just to see if my opinion would change in light of the widespread “reevaluation” of the Prequels. But no… it still mostly sucked, sadly. This is a case where I genuinely, authentically really want to like these movies. I’ve always been fascinated by the story of Anakin Skywalker, at least on paper. But I just can’t enjoy the actual Prequels. They’re just too flawed, to the extent that the flaws actively prevent me from just enjoying these movies on their own terms. I have too many expectations about what these films should have been, and at the same time the films regularly violate like, just normal cinematic conventions that most people would likely agree constitute “good” film-making.
But anyway, clearly I’m in the minority here, because the recent box office returns alone shows how much people love Revenge of the Sith, at least. What will be interesting is to see, in the coming decades, if the Prequels still maintain such a devoted fan base. My theory is that the current popularity of the Prequels is one case that is mostly driven by nostalgia - that is, like 90% of devoted fans fell in love with these films as children. If I’m right, the Prequels should slowly drift back into being considered mediocre as the late Millennial generation continues to age.
This may seem condescending to Prequel fans, but from my perspective it’s the only explanation that can explain how such seemingly obviously bad movies (from my POV) have such appeal among a particular age group. In contrast, the popularity of the OT can’t be as easily explained as entirely the result of nostalgia, because the OT films have many devoted fans among the younger generations as well, I assume. The OT has become more like a universally acknowledged cinematic classic, along the lines of the Godfather Trilogy or Casablanca or whatever. I would be shocked if any of the Prequels ever end up on like an AFI top 100 hundred list or whatever. But who knows - I’ve consistently been wrong about the Prequels. Back in like 2006 I simply assumed they would fade into obscurity, but I turned out to be totally wrong about that. Somehow Lucas’s weird, quirky and often tone-deaf movies spoke to the generation that came after me.