I find it interesting that no one sees how devious and slimy Palpatine is from the moment we meet him. He is orchestrating nearly everything from the first scene of Episode I until he underestimates Vader/Anakin's ties to Luke in Episode VI. For instance the apparently badly acted scene where Palpatine begs Amidala not to go back to Naboo is Palpatine being insincere. Palpatine wants her to go and might even be using the force to make sure things happen his way.

Anakin is portrayed as very similar to Luke (whiny kids must be common on Tatooine) except that Anakin's speech pattern (which is so often criticized as bad acting) oddly matches Vader's speech patterns.

I would have loved to see more character development from Anakin. I was very disappointed Lucas chose to start the story with a child Anakin and things just went downhill from there. I think there are enough pieces shown in Ep2 & 3 that they could be edited to make a stronger character development. There should have been more after his mother dies and more love with Padme so his sense of betrayal is stronger. And there's a lot that could be cut to reduce his whiny and annoying nature.

I can see what Lucas was trying to do, but I don't think he pulled it off quiet as well he should. In some ways there is too much to the prequels yet not enough story. Being a fan of classic movies, I don't think I find the prequels as objectionable as other people do.