TPM just feels like an EU novel. You follow QuiGon, Jar Jar, and an undercover Padme for most of the movie, thus leaving ObiWan as a side character, and Anakin as a little boy with not much to do after the pod race. TPM's sole purpose should have been to establish the 4 relationships of the key players in the PT: Anakin, ObiWan, Padme, and Palpatine, within the two hour plot of establishing the whole republic beginning to crumble as the sith plot their revenge. Whenever I watch TPM, I get zero establishment of those four characters, and it does nothing to set up Episode II, as Lucas is not forced to resetup everything in AOTC.
For how bad the love story is in AOTC, and many other things that drive me crazy in that movie, atleast it focuses on the ObiWan, Anakin, and Padme. They are finally the stars of the movies, which should have started in TPM. Just imagine ANH not having Han, Leia, and Luke as the 3 main characters, instead not until ESB is everything set up for them to show their relationships. That would have meant, SW '77 would have failed, and ESB would have never happened. The only problem with AOTC is there is not enough Sidious, as we needed to see alittle more interaction between him & Anakin to show how he is becoming his real master instead of Kenobi. But again, as usual with the PT, we have to assume everything that is interesting plotwise.
Finally in ROTS, the four main characters are finally the four main characters, and their scenes are the most interesting of the saga, which should have started in TPM! Finally we see Palpatine messing with Anakin's head, finally we get to see a nice friendship moments at the beginning between Anakin/Kenobi, and finally we get a couple of un-nausiating moments between Padme/Anakin we they just talk heart to heart instead of talking like Romeo & Juliet.
Lucas had zero character arcs for the PT, and that is huge negative for me when it is all said and done. By not having the four main characters be the four main characters in TPM, I was never able to really care the way I should have when their fates were met at the end of ROTS. Sure there are alot of things I would change about the PT, but I feel the same way about ROTJ. But the reason ROTJ works for me better than the PT, is not because it is any better of a movie than them, but I really care about Luke, Leia, and Han, and I could be sucked into even an average film cause I wanted to see how their fates end. With ROTS, and Anakin laying there burning and Padme laying there dying of the will to live, I said to myself, "Am I suppose to get emotional here, cause the sad thing is I am not?" I had to see the twins being held by their foster parents for me to get emotional, and that is where Lucas failed.