I was going to make this thread until I found it already existed. Sorry if this is considered resurrecting a dead thread.
There's good and bad in both, but ultimately, I prefer the sequel trilogy.
Prequel Trilogy: STRENGTHS
Good world-building that felt very different from the original trilogy, unlike the sequels.
Gave us some fun villains in Count Dooku, General Grievous and Darth Maul.
The Podracing and Maul vs. Obi-wan fight were fun scenes in "Phantom Menace"
"Revenge of the Sith" is arguably a pretty good SW movie and better than TROS, Solo, and some others.
It gave us "The Clone Wars" animated series. GO WATCH THE FINAL SEASON STARING WITH EPISODE 9!! IT'S SOME OF THE BEST SW EVER!!
WEAKNESSES
Attack of the Clones may be the worst SW movie. Heavily dated and overused CGI, the terrible romance between Anikan and Padme, Yoda's lightsaber fight looking kinda goofy and a climax of a bunch of Jedi in an arena looking like SW fans LARPing.
The acting. Oh GOD! The terrible acting! Some incredibly talented actors trying hard to work with terrible dialogue and it made them look stiff and wooden. Only Ian McCallum, Ray Park and Ewan Mcgregor came out unscathed.
Anakin and Padme's romance. So forced, so wooden, so painful to watch!!
Jar-Jar Binks. So bad, his role got smaller and smaller with episodes two and three.
Padme gives birth and names her two children, but loses the will to live?! I don't care how heartbroken you are, who loses the will to live after just giving birth?! What? Raising your likely force-sensitive children to possibly save the galaxy isn't enough?!
George Lucas. Do you know why A New Hope was so great? Because Fox kept telling Lucas "no" and kept tightening the purse strings. It forced him to keep his vision narrow and focused to the point that it made a great film. A third of the movie was supposed to be in Adlerann until they just had it blown up to reduce the budget. But the PT?! Lucas did not have a "no" man. He did whatever he wanted and barely edited anything out. Lucas was already showing signs that his directing chops were in the past. Pretty much any Lucas movie after Willow was crap. Lucas is a great world builder and character creator and even a decent storyteller, but not a good director. (Well, I did kinda like Red Tails).
Now, don't get me wrong, I think Lucas can still be a great value to the SW franchise provided he's in a producer/guidance role. Clone Wars is proof of that. He had a lot of creative control but did not overstep and worked with Dave Filoni to create a great series. In fact, I wish Lucas had more creative input in the Disney era.
Sequel trilogy: STRENGTHS
The first two are genuinely good films. The Force Awakens may tread a lot of old ground, but it gives us Rey, Finn, and Kylo it FEELS like Star Wars even if it doesn't do a lot new. Last Jedi went the opposite route and took risks, went against our expectations, and told a strong, if not polarizing story that could have almost ended the saga right there.
Rey and Kylo Ren. While TROS ruined everything, the main hero and villain of this trilogy were very well done and fascinating characters. We deeply wanted to know more of their backstory and both were played by great actors.
Poe Dameron. I like Poe. He's basically Han Solo while not being nearly as important.
BB-8. C'mon!! You can't deny that BB-8 is cute.
Practical effects. Puppets will always be more visually appealing than outdated CGI.
Porgs. The Ewoks of the ST.
Strong acting. Were the PT had horrible acting, the sequels shine. Except for the squabbling that takes place in TROS.
Speaking of, while Palpatine's existence in TROS basically ruins the Skywalker Saga, that doesn't mean there are not some good/fun moments in that movie. C-3PO had some of his best moments ever, I loved Lando's return and I thought the two new characters were interesting if underused. While I enjoy TROS more than AOTC, that movie does more harm to the franchise than good. Speaking of...
WEAKNESSES:
The Rise of Skywalker. Say what you will, Revenge of the Sith stuck the landing. It was far from perfect, but it was a satisfying enough ending. TROS on the other hand not only misses the landing, it slides off the runway into a bomb factory. UGH! "Somehow, the Emporer returned?!!" Somehow?!! Is he a clone?! A dark force spirit inhabiting a body?!! Give us a clear, fucking answer!
Finn's journey. You can basically say Finn's journey was over at the end of Last Jedi. He went from still trying to run away to being 'rebel scum'. Say what you want about Rose, but she helped bring him to that point. In TROS, there's nothing left for him to do. Oh wait! He finds he's force sensitive (actually did they really mention that in the movie or am I thinking about stuff they said in interviews?) and meets another Stormtrooper who has defected just like him! Does this mean we will see him use the force? Will he now struggle to kill stormtroopers. knowing many are not unlike him?! Nope. None of that is explored. Instead, its all "REY! REY! REY!! REEEEEEY!!!"
Palpatine in general. I don't care how great and hammy Ian McCullum is, his character shouldn't be here. It just screws everything up. The fact that Palpatine returns means everything that happened in the OT was for basically nothing.
Rey's parentage. It should have been left with The Last Jedi. No one is special because of birthright. There's no reason Rey could not have been a powerful Jedi without it being tied to another famous force user.
That undeserved kiss. She can forgive him and hug him goodbye, but c'mon! He tried to kill you an hour ago!
Canto Bight. I'm not saying it didn't have it's importance to Finn's character building, it just could have been handled better.
JJ Abrahms. He's an odd director. Abrahms did great on his first Star Tek and pretty good on his first Star Wars, but the second of those two he directed had so much fan service that I'm surprised he wasn't at every theater showing offering out handjobs. Fanservice is okay as long as it doesn't detract from the story, But sadly, Abrahams doesn't seem to know how to do that. "Oh, fans were joking about how Chewie doesn't have a medal in ANH? I'll give him Han's at the end of this movie out of fucking nowhere for no reason! Let's bring back Palpatine instead of giving Kylo more character development! Don't worry, I'll make sure I include everything from 'Last Jedi'. Oh? Some assholes didn't like Rose?! Can't use her! Let's keep using that thing where Kylo and Rey can touch each other from miles away even though it was Snoke who was behind that."
It's not just Abrahms' fault. Kathleen Kennedy should have had the basic plot structure of this entire trilogy written out from the start. Instead, they would go from film to film and panic over any criticism and try to fix those problems, but usually, only make things worse. TFA too much like ANH? Make sure the next one has a ton of unexpected moments (but still have a Hoth battle). Oh? Some small amount of fans hated Rose? Better leave her almost completely out of the new one! Oops!! We killed off Snoke too soon! Better bring back Palpatine!! It's not that they didn't listen to the fans, they listened to all the wrong reasons and frankly, listened to the wrong fans as well. They were so afraid of messing up that the final one wasn't creative in the least. At least "The Last Jedi" was original.
While I still prefer the sequel trilogy over the prequel, it's still almost 50/50 with me thanks to TROS. Funny, the third movie of the PT was the best while the third movie of the ST was the worst.
