--Liam Neeson. He saved the Phantom Menance. The rest of the acting was crap, but he balanced it out and brought some much needed dignity to the film. He also embodied what a jedi should be. Right up until the moment he died and his body DIDN'T disappear.
--Darth Maul. C'mon, admit it, he was a cool vilain. I'm not usually one for flashy visuals, but his dual sided lightsaber was pretty darn cool too. They ruined it with his brief speaking part though.
--The duel at the end of TPM. (Duel of the fates.) That was a cool lightsaber fight. Very well coreograpahed, and genuinally exciting. Unlike the other battles in the PT, it wasn't all just flashy visuals and spinning lightsabers. They were actually trying to fight, and it was cool. The music was great in this scene as well.
--John Williams's score, by far the best thing about the PT. It was the only thing that felt remotely like the OT. Was it as good as the OT score? Not even close. That's nothing against John Williams, but think of the source material he had to inspire his music on the OT compared to the PT. You can easily see why there is a differance in the music quality. Also, Williams had evolved as a composer as this point, and stopped using levimotifs for charecters. He now used them more for emotions and places, which, while still good, doesn't have the brilliance of the OT music. I mean, without seeing the OT, you can tell a definate story from just the music, with the resounding themes and brilliant one use pieces.
Other than that, the PT was awful. It was nothing like a Star Wars film, and fucks up the OT whenever you watch it. I choose to ignore it when I watch SW, ESB, or ROTJ. My dad can't ignore it, and as such points out all the innacuracies in the two films. Part of that is he's still under the delusion that Lucas had a master plan from the beginning. I've tried to explain to him the truth, but he doesn't exactly get it, which makes it kind of annoying to watch the Star Wars trilogy with him.
One thing that REALLY pissed me off about the PT was how much it dicked with the concept of the force. In TPM, they try to make us believe it is a blood type, and in AOTC and ROTS it's a weapon of mass destruction. Yoda is constantly getting in to fights using the force, and it was silly. The force is, simply, the whole universe, and everything grows from it. How you can use it does ont depend on the type of blood you have, but what kind of person you are. The Jedi do not "manipulate" the force. They become in tune with it, and it helps them, and they help it. They tap into in thier darkest hour, and it rewards them.
When a Jedi dies, they are so in tune with the force, they simply become one with it. Dying and becoming a force ghost is NOT A TECHNIQUE. This little bit in the PT pissed me off, and completely tarnishes what the force is. The force is everything, so naturally, everyone becomes one with it when they die, but some moreso than others. The Jedi, because of how they used it in thier lives, are able to truly become a living, breathing part of the force, which is why they are able to return to the world through it. If the force is everything, then when your physical body disappears into it, you are part of it and can once again become part of "everything" when you are dead. Why would that be a technique? Why? If your body never dissolved in to it, then how can you later become part of it?
Plus, when watching the OT, it's just a given that when Jedi die they diappear. You don't have to get in to all the metaphorical stuff.
There are other reasons I hate the PT, like the acting, the writing, the plot, the CGI, and other things like that, but how they messed with the force in it is unacceptable. Completely inexcusiable, and I will always hate it for that.