When I first saw TPM my first reaction was, "Well, there has got to be a learning curve, right? The guy has been out of it for a long time, by the next film things should really start getting good."

I was completely certain that the lightsaber fight at the end of the movie was a sign of things to come. Unfortunately, it was the very last time we would see anything like that in a Star Wars movie.

Looking back, TPM, as awful of a film as it is, actually has more warmth and heart to it than the others. Even with Loyd's bad acting, I felt bad for him as he leaves his mom behind. When Qui-Gon got impaled with Maul's lightsaber, I was right there with Obi-Wan thinking, "No! Why did that have to happen!" Even when Obi-Wan was hanging on for dear life above the bottomless pit with Darth Maul taunting him from above, I was on the edge of my seat wondering how he was going to get out of it.

The other two films evoked either a gag reflex or smirks and laughs every time they tried to be emotional or dramatic. Shmi's death scene had me groaning rather than feeling bad for him. The injustice of him murdering all the Tusken Raiders made me feel mad more than anything, Padme's reaction to it just made me furious. Obi-Wan's dramatic, "He was killing... younglings." and Padme's reaction literally made me laugh in the theater the first time I saw it. So did my friend who was sitting next to me.

And the ending of ROTS, the confrotation should have had huge emotional impact, but instead the thing comes off as silly and overly stylized as they are hovering on the backs of droids over molten lava, as Obi-Wan preaching as his friend as he slowly burns to death. It felt more sick and twisted than anything else.

I still think TPM is an awful film. It may luck out by having a few good parts, but to me those good parts are not near enough of a reward for all the muck you have to wade throught to get to them.