Yes, we're trying to watch the Prequels, now, too — simply because +Kay Hill never saw them except the first (and parts of the second via the Lego game adaptation).
http://letterboxd.com/three_star_dave/film/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace/
Summary: Some beautiful set pieces, but a story crippled by clashing tones of seriousness and slapstick, as well as some dumb plotting. 2.5/5 stars (and they don't get any better from here).
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Take out jar jar binks, pod race and the destruction of the droid mothership and it's a decent film. imo
+Derek Wilton I agree. With the exception of the pod race that was definitely for the kids. And the midichlorian explanation. I liked the fact that anybody could possibly use the force vs it being a physical thing.
+calvin coleman I guess I forgot to mention (again) the midichlorian thing, which not only ruined the much more mystical aspect of the Force, but, by rendering it into a science, raised all sort of issues. (Can midichlorians be transfused? Can they be filtered out? Can you create artificial midichlorians? Could folk be tracking midichlorian-positive individuals for more nefarious purposes?)
+Derek Wilton On the one hand, the pod race is an amazingly cool bit of production. On the other hand, it's both unrealistic (I would have liked to have seen some actual indication that Anakin is using the Force, even unconsciously, for all those miraculous moments) and, ultimately, it's unnecessary, as there are a thousand other, less flashy ways that they could have gotten the money, and it doesn't really impact the story or characters.
The bigger problem with the destruction of the droid mothership is that it's the whole Death Star battle (both of them) writ much smaller. (Never mind that, while remote controlling the droids makes some measure of sense, it;s much less plausible in a setting where broadcasts are so easily and frequently jammed.)
To generalize from both of those, though, dramatically reduce the focus on the little kid, which makes a great deal of sense.
But if you pulled out the Jar-Jar bits, and played the Gungans less for comic relief, it would make a significant difference.
Trim the Gungans, lose Jar-Jar and make Midichlorians (if you have to have them) critters that subsist on the force, so are more common in Force focused beings like Jedi and Sith.
I think the droid mothership destruction is supposed to tied back to the Deathstar. Storytelling and all that. In fact the whole prequel series does that. See : http://www.starwarsringtheory.com/
2.5!?
Boggles
Wow.
No stars would be about right, considering that I did not think it possible to make a worse Star Wars movie than Return of the Jedi, this one plumbed new depths of horribleness that the franchise never really recovered.
+Stan Pedzick Yeah, but if I give it zero stars, then I have to give "Attack of the Clones" -1 and "Revenge of the Sith" -2 stars, and that just gets silly.
Plus, there are just enough spectacular moments to drag the score up.