I have long been of the Ross Douthatian take on the Star Wars movies, which is that when it comes to my future children, only episodes IV-VI belong in my house. But every girl needs something to watch while she does the ironing, and Spike was airing the prequels over the weekend, and nothing better was on, so I felt I could justify a repeat watching as long as it was just background noise. The movies are just as awful as I remembered. It's entirely possible that it's the worst role, and worst acting job, of Natalie Portman's career. Hayden Christensen is dreadfully miscast. George Lucas is one of the artists in the world most desperately in need of an editor with final authority over his work, or at minimum, exceedingly rigorous feedback he trusts.
I think part of the reason it's a shame is that there actually are a fair number of good things in the movies that, had they been substantially refocused, might have made for highly entertaining viewing. Take, for example, the relatively genius casting of Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa. How much better could the movies have been if they had a balance, introducing both to Tatooine and the extended family Luke would end up with there, and to introduce us to Alderaan, and the political culture that would shape Leia Organa as a universal leader? The preconditions for their development are at least as important as the basic creation story of Darth Vader. It might have even made more sense to do a Young Jedi Knights trilogy, with the characters separated, setting up the preconditions for their eventual meetings.
Similarly, something like the showdown between Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul is a good idea as a narrative device, but executed extremely poorly. That whole rotating-lasers-cut-us-off-from-each-other-and-pause-the-battle thing? Pointless. Slows down the pacing. Doesn't reveal anything about the characters. Doesn't reveal anything about the force, unless Darth Maul standing up while Qui-Gon kneels and meditates is meant to teach us something we don't already know. The fight choreography is showy, but uninteresting.
I suspect my feelings are little more than misplaced nostalgia. Wanting the movies to have been good, doesn't make them so, and it's clear in hindsight that Lucas was never particularly the man to make them. But there's so much that could have happened. Obi-Wan and Anakin could have chased Zam Wesell into Invisec and given us an actually engaging look at Coruscant. Someone action-y, but with dramatic ability, like Chris Pine could have been Anakin. Michael Stackpole could have written the script. Useless dreams, but it's too bad the series has such a signficant misstep in its history.