I think episode 1 is my favourite of all the prequels. I like both the others, but episode 2 is, well episode 2, and 3 was pretty great but the character transformation of Anakin was so bizarre to me that it takes me out of the movies completely. Like the relationship between Anakin and Padme feels so weird knowing what we know, it just throws me through a loop every time.
Episode 1, huge warts and all, felt like a complete experience, had a weird and interesting aesthetic, and characters acted like a consistent version of a character. I can’t help thinking all the pushback to this movie is what turned the others a bit offtrack, they felt a little less from the heart than 1 did.
God I wish someone else had directed those movies like George wanted, he knew his strengths and weaknesses.
On a rewatch a few years back it was amazing how much of the rot that hit the prequels and sequels started in rotj. It’s not as bad for certain, but the turn towards what was familiar from the other movies, characters being flanderised, and the whole thing being a bit of a mess all show up in that movie. It even was the first to do the yet another death Star.