I don’t know about you but the farther I get from the original release of Star Wars eps. I, II, III the more I appreciate them. The acting is not great, and Jar-Jar Binks is still a painful experience, but the story arc is still good.
Yes I do believe that eps IV, V, & VI stand-alone and they are amazing. In the original trilogy Luke Skywalker is the hero, Han gets the girl, and the Rebellion defeats the evil Empire. It’s great.
What George Lucas was trying to do with the prequels is important though. I think he was trying to show us why Luke matters so much. Using Anakin Skywalker’s journey from an innocent and gifted child, to an accomplished yet troubled hero, to a man who is willing to do anything to save the woman he loves and ultimately the person who destroyed the Jedis and fell to the Dark Side, George Lucas gave us a character who is troubled and conflicted. Darth Vader is no longer just the face of evil. He’s a person who tried to do what he thought was right and he was ultimately decieved.
Star Wars then becomes about the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Luke’s mission is not about overthrowing the empire it is about rescuing his father from darkness. In the process the Emperor is defeated but in the process Luke saves his father. I find the saga of Anakin Skywalker to be compelling. I find Luke’s journey to be very interesting. And I wonder how long we should wait until we reboot eps. I, II, & III and see if we can do it right. that or just edit out Jar-Jar and replace the actors for Anakin.
JasonDeuman.com 
I agree. I never hated them, accusing George of ruining my childhood, as some seem to enjoy doing. In fact, im looking forward to taking my sons to see eps I in 3D when it comes out. Maybe someday someone might even dare to put timothy zahns books into film that chronicle the years after ROJ.
Great line, ” Luke’s mission is not about overthrowing the empire it is about rescuing his father from darkness.”
Thanks for sharing.
I also agree. The dialogue isn’t great. Yet I think it was brave (yet misunderstood) to have an adolescent actually being awkward and not the kind of ultra-cool comic genius thirty-something (as they are usually presented by Hollywood). They are essentially massively expensive independent films that have substance and complexity; compared to the more frequent drivel that makes up summer blockbusters they’re pretty impressive. I also don’t think that the originals are uniformly better; Empire is allot better that Jedi and A New Hope, and I’m not sure Jedi is better than Phantom Menace and Revenge.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. Sadly, it seems a lot of “geek culture” type stuff is based around the concept of shared hatred; case in point notice how 90% of video game reviewers take the “swear a lot and rip the games to pieces” tack on reviewing. The Simpsons Comic Book Guy is actually a pretty spot-on satire of how geek culture seems to work. The prequels were awesome films, but they had the disadvantage of being based on something people grew up loving; they were doomed for venom from the start.
I remember back when A Phantom Menace was just announced (before it even had a name) legions of fans on BBSs were already tearing it apart saying how it will suck. The awesome on the new trilogy far outweighed the bad, and I feel they steadily got better as they went on, to the point where even most bitter fanboys will admit (at least many have when I had a logical discussion with them) that Revenge of the Sith is the third best of the six (better than the classic trilogy’s Return of the Jedi).
Finally, for all the talk of Lucas being a control freak changing things to his way, he obviously listened to the fans as time went on. How much of Jar Jar do you really see after Phantom? How often does midichlorians come up (a concept which I had no issue with, people love to knee-jerk and say “urgh hur hur so the Force comes from bacteria?!” when in the films it says they’re DRAWN TO THE FORCE, not cause it…not are it…simply are a correlation that is not a causation). After Clones what do we really see about the Anakin/Padme love story? Revenge pretty clearly shows it as a dysfunctional mess with two emotionally immature people trying very unsuccessfully to create a storybook romance in a galaxy that’s being torn apart. It’s to the point where the only thing the haters can really snark about in Revenge is the “big nooooo” and the word younglings. Grasping at straws in my opinion.