To me the prequel he promised in his original outline and in the OT is what I wanted.
Not the prequel as made.
But I’m not going to argue with kids who grew up on these as being valid as their Star Wars.
But Phantom Menace sans the pod race and duel of the fates, and maybe the design of the underwater city I like so much and Mos Espa, is shockingly bad. Though I do like Maul and Qui-Gon.
But the trade dispute and those trade federation guys whose mouths move funny, is just worse than even the Flash Gordon serials in quality. With none of the old charm of the serials. The beginning of the film lags, and Jar Jar is hopelessly a bad character, who bungles his way into situations accidentally to become a hero.
And the politics dialogue in Episode II is even more listless and boring and even Ian has difficulty delivering it.
I almost hate all the palace and senate scenes and Jedi Temple scenes. Though I think the testing of Anakin in episode I is fine. and I quite enjoy the opera scene in Revenge of the Sith.
I wish Lucas had not made unnecessary retcons and made the prequel to fit the original trilogy.
Christopher Lee brings some gravitas to Dooku, and a presence you never got with Maul, because he barely ever spoke. And Obi-Wan cut him in half pretty quickly. and Grievous was like a cartoon mustache twirling villain. I still remember that animated like sequence of Obi-Wan on some lizard and that was awful in the theater. Chasing Grievous and the noise the lizard made,lol.
You never do see Anakin and Obi-Wan develop a friendship or relationship, its left off screen in between episode I and II. And in between II and III. Leaving this up to EU and Clone Wars which came very much later from Filoni was a mistake. There should have been a falling out between them, but first you needed to see these guys as brother warriors who had each other’s back. And slowly Anakin is seduced to evil.
I will give Lucas credit he is a much better visual storyteller than a writer. The prequel is easy to understand and follow visually and if you follow the notes of John Williams score that gives the ideas a beating heart it’s a reasonable experience. But if one wants to build upon or deepen or recontextualize Star Wars in the manner The Empire Strikes Back did, they will come away disappointed. Or if they wanted the same swashbuckling derring-do of SW 1977 they would be disappointed as well.
And not to double post i do love the soundtrack for phantom menace and probably would enjoy it with in an isolated score track.