TPM is the best of the prequels
Yes, better than Sith, which I find massively overrated. It has all the same problems AOTC has, just with the benefit of telling a more interesting story.
I can see why that might push it over the top for most people, but that also came at the great expense of TPM and (to a lesser extent) AOTC having fuck-all to do with the over-arching plot. Sith could have easily been the starting point for the prequel trilogy given how little exposition we actually needed from TPM/AOTC to follow along with the story.
I give the edge to TPM because it feels the most like a Star Wars movie, it's like a natural evolution of where the franchise was headed after Jedi. My enjoyment of it roughly mirrors how I feel about Hook, another children's fantasy movie that's massively flawed but I can't help but adore it. TPM isn't quite as good as Hook (which doesn't have anything as obviously degrading as Jar-Jar or the racist Trade Federation officials), but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it the last time I re-watched it. Definitely a movie where my experience with it didn't quite live up to the anti-hype generated by Internet discussion (Spider-Man 3, which I only saw for the first time earlier this year, was the same way - can understand why people didn't care for it, didn't match the "WORST. MOVIE. EVAR" hyperbole that usually goes with it).
