particularly the last 40 minutes of Attack of the Clones - I thought the final battle was spectacular - and Revenge of the Sith for its darkness.

Yes, they are not great compared to the others, but they are capable to stand on their own much more so than - say - Godfather III (though I also didn't dislike it either, particularly for its references to the Vatican Bank scandals, etc.).

I'll never forget seeing 'The Phantom Menace' at a midnight screening on the first day of release in 1999. A Star Wars-obsessed friend of mine (I'm a huge fan, but not obsessed) got tickets for his entire circle of friends and family. The buzz in the theater prior to the movie was exciting. A lot of people got dressed up in costumes, including that of Boba Fett. (I pointed this out to my wife, a Star Trek fan, and she responded "Who is Bobo Fett? You could practically hear every head in the place turning our way. And hear the unspoken question: "Who let her in here?&quot

All of us were practically vibrating with anticipation by the time the movie started, and the familiar screen shot of the Star Wars logo appeared, accompanied by John Williams' iconic music. But about 20 minutes in, I began to get bored. I got a little puzzled when Jar Jar Binks entered the film, with his racist gibberish, and even a fart joke to go with it. There were miserably incompetent battle droids who said things like "Uh-oh!", and a baby Darth Vader who said things like "Whoopee!" The Trade Federation poobahs had stereotypically Asian accents so thick, it qualified as auditory yellow-face.

When the plodding film finally ended, the lights came up, and we all kind of sat there blinking with incomprehension. My friend put on a grim show of trying to be cheerful, but it was plain he was pretty embarrassed by the whole thing.

The less said about the subsequent films, the better.

Natalie Portman was radiantly lovely throughout, and her costumes were incredible. But everything else just plain sucked.

I wanted them to be great. I thought they had a lot of potential. I thought the idea of Darth Vader starting life as a slave was an excellent way of establishing a motive for his hatred, bitterness, bloodlust, and thirst for vengeance.

But then they showed Anakin as this happy little boy who worked in a junk shop, tinkering to his heart's content, saying "Yippee!" a lot, and then going home to his mommy every night. His slide into evil seemed arbitrary and made little sense.

Though the age difference in the first film made that relationship...ick.

Will Wheaton on TBBT rooting for the home team at The Force Awakens premier:

Though I did read an article recently that those that were young when they came out like them more than the original.

Jar Jar was only the beginnings of my problems (though, come on, BB8 kicks his ass in the cuteness arena). I thought the Midichlorians were idiotic and elitist. The writing was HORRIBLE which resulted in really poor acting. The excessive use of green screen changed a really rugged original trilogy and made it too crisp. And how he bastardized the original trilogy with the new CGI tech was disgusting (Han short first, dickhead--that's to Lucas, not you).

Were the horrible? No. But they weren't good.

I'm not religious at all, but I loved that The Force was a mysterious, well, force that anybody could ascribe to their own personal beliefs. Then, we're told it's all about the midichlorian count...way to piss on my belief George.

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=#009999]Okay, I will say this, Episode 3 didn't completely suck. The rest of them....uggghhh[/font]

There is really NO reason to watch Episode I.

The Machete Order is brilliant and highlights that Episode I is not vital in any way.

Eh.... not so much on the III not completely sucking tho.

and, each one got better, but they seemed to have lost the overall charm of the original 3 movies. That said, I might give Revenge of the Sith a slight nod over Return of the Jedi.

The bad:
1) Midichlorians ruined the mystery of The Force for me
2) Jar Jar was silly and too prominent. If he had a small role and was silly, it would have been okay.
3) Some of the dialogue was atrocious. Lucas was able to make otherwise good actors like Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen look bad.
4) Anakin went from 8 years old in movie one to the same age as Padme in movie 2.
5) Anakin went from a hero rescuing the Republic leader to killing baby Jedi too quickly, IMO.

If you watch the original movie, Luke was kind of whiny brat when he started out, so I don't mind that Anakin was also a whiny teenager in Attack of the Clones, or a whiny kid in the first movie. Like father, like son.

The good stuff:
1) Darth Maul was a cool villain and his showdown was Qui Gonn and Obi Wan was excellent in episode 1, and with some cool music.
2) the lightsaber duels in the second movie were also excellent (Dooku vs Anakin and Obi Wan and then vs Yoda)
3) the final sequence with Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme in the arena, and then being rescued by the Jedi and clones was cool in the second movie.
4) In Revenge of the Sith, I enjoyed the showdown with Obi Wan vs General Grievous, and the final showdowns between Yoda and Palpatine and Obi Wan and Anakin. I also thought they did a good job with the "Order 66" scenes where the clones turned on the Jedi and killed almost all of them.

why not Yoda?

In response to Luke's "Great warrior".
Because he was always about using the force not weapons.
Because he always gets around on a cane, then suddenly he's breakdancing.
just no.

Part of the problem was that Lucas had written himself into a corner, story-wise. Everyone knew there had to be a clone war, Anikin fathering Luke and Leia, and something hideous that happened to Anikin so that he would become Darth Vader. Getting there, though, was the challenge and Lucas wasn't up to it.

Ewan McGregor did a good job as younger Obiwan, even down to Sir Alec's voice patterns. I don't know why the Qui Gon Jinn character was introduced (though I generally like Liam Neeson); didn't Obiwan tell Luke at the outset of The Empire Strikes Back that Yoda was the Jedi master who had trained him?

The outlines of a decent story are there, but so many unnecessary detours just make the movies drag. Lucas' continuing personal quest to re-create the chariot race from Ben-Hur have long just been boring and tiresome (Pod race? Nobody cares! Just get Anikin off the planet). Lucas would have been much better served detailing Anikin's descent. When his turn to the dark side happens (and everyone knows it has to), it's just too sudden, seemingly the result of a moment's impulse. The story would have been far better served drawing out this internal tension and external conflict until Anikin's utter alienation from Obiwan, Padme, and the Jedi Council made the turn inevitable.

The final battle between Anikin and Obiwan was very good, but the characters probably should have shown a little more wear and tear from the heat of the oven they were fighting in. The death of Padme and the spiriting away of the twins was good, but did we really need the clichéd "Noooooo!" from the newly-created Darth Vader at the end?

The first three movies could have run about an hour shorter and been a far more brisk and enjoyable lead up to the events in Episode IV.

That being said, I really enjoyed The Force Awakens, and the new story is very promising in that the audience doesn't know where it has to end up.

was so... illogical. It just didn't work for me.

Two hours of operatic sweep.

As for the other two, there are many virtues mixed in with the negative:

-Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn
-Palpatine's scheme to play both sides
-Unlike J.J. Abrams, Lucas knows how to properly frame an image
-The Pod Race and the Duel of the Fates are beautifully constructed action sequences
-The gorgeous John Williams scores
-Lucas's world-building