TPM - [upon exiting the theatre] Man, I wanna go out and buy a lightsaber!... [5 min later] What the hell was up with Jar-Jar? Is Lucas on crack?
AOTC - Much better that TPM; liked the detective/film noir feel to it; liked the absence of Jar-Jar; I can't believe they made Yoda fight without it looking totally ridiculous... what the hell was up with that cheesy dialogue between Anakin and Padme?
ROTS - THIS was the prequel I was waiting for! Excellent tragedy, epic, overall believable acting... LOVE the scene where there's no dialogue and Anakin and Padme just stare across the city at each other (excellent score here)... can't wait to go home and watch ANH
Overall - We could've skipped the TPM as a film unto itself, and started the PT with AOTC. ROTS would've made an excellent 2nd film, and there should've been a new 3rd film to more closely tie in with the OT (a 19 year gap is a little much)
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Marvolo, concerning your post to Anchorhead, while I agree that Adywan's work is amazing (he actually put me back on to possibly liking a SE of Star Wars after I'd pretty much sworn off it), your persuasive argument is a bit flawed: it presupposes that someone would WANT to "improve" the technical aspects of the film. While I personally agree with you (hell, anything that makes Star Wars crisper, cleaner, and clearer is a good thing in my books), I can totally see why others would like to preserve the '70s feel of the film (which is what I'm assuming Anchorhead feels). It was made in that time period and it should be remembered as being a film in that time period.
I must admit, despite wanting the best version (visually) of Star Wars to watch at home, a part of me sympathizes with Anchorhead... I kind of long for the days when it was just some cool '70s space movie with its own little, as-yet-to-be-over-analyzed characters, universe, and story. The last time I got that feeling was when I came across an old Star Wars LP in a record store; looking at the jacket, with its old production stills, thinking about when this would've still been new, totally took me back 30 years.