Yes, they really ARE that bad......BUT....the designs aren't bad at all. The reason there's so much dislike of the PT when compared to the OT by folks like us who are working on Revisited (when it comes to designs) is that they made almost NO effort to match the PT to what had been created before it (and which comes after it chronologically in the SW universe). There's a very rushed 10 mins at the end of ROTS where they try to throw familiar looking things at you in hopes of tying the end of that film to the beginning of ANH, but overall its hard to imagine ANH, ESB and ROTJ coming AFTER the slick, ultra fast feel of the PT. Things should have been made clunkier looking and LESS modern in order to fit with what had already been seen. Hell, even iconic things like the lightsabers were given pointier tips and different sounding on/off effects than what we knew from the OT. Apart from the design aspects theres also all kinds of additional problems and contradictions from OT to PT. Yoda was Ben's former master? Not anymore in the PT. Leia remembered her REAL mother? Not possible after the PT. Dark side not stronger (only quicker, easier, more seductive)? Not in George's PT...now its definitely stronger. The original material that is the OT...the 3 films that made it possible for the PT to even exist were completely disregarded when making the PT and that is what makes them so unlikable to many (not to mention the horrible direction and bad acting). SW had a certain feeling to it.....most likely brought about by the fact that 4 & 5 were character films....NOT special effects films...ROTJ started to show signs of story weaknesses....So when you get to the PT where the characters are barely fleshed out and the "story" reads more like a documentary with better special effects than most....well then you've left out the very feeling that made SW what it was in the first place.