I went to the theater determined to love the prequels. In fact I was so determined, I convinced myself I did love them, and it took me several viewings to realize I don't. They forced me to hate them, kicking and screaming. Yet no matter how many times I watch Return of the Jedi, I don't feel this way about it, not even close.

So yes, I can deceive myself into loving a movie (because of nostalgia or passive viewing or whatever), but there is a limit to how many repeat viewings I can have before I have to admit "okay, this is actually a piece of crap." I watch the Star Wars saga so frequently that if Return of the Jedi were remotely as crappy as the prequels (according to how I judge movies), then I would have realized it by now. It pains me to admit that the prequels are a suckfest and I never wanted to form that conclusion, but after how many times I've seen them I can't deny it anymore.

And this isn't because the prequels have flaws. Repeated viewings of Return of the Jedi have opened my eyes to multiple flaws in that film which ANH and TESB don't have (even though they have their own flaws of a different nature; just to show I can be fair here), and I was planning on loving the prequels even if they were filled with flaws. Of course what constitutes a "flaw" in a movie is a matter of opinion, but that's all this post is (my opinion).

One of the things I actually hate most about living in a world where the prequels exist is that comparisons get made between the prequels and the originals in which people relativize their flaws. A lot of the things that are horrendous about the prequels (acting, dialogue, etc.) were also not oscar-worthy in the originals, but IMO we're talking about a crystal clear categorical difference in quality here. When I complain about the acting/dialogue in the prequels and someone responds by saying "well c'mon, the Star Wars saga never had great acting/dialogue", I want to rip my teeth out.