Prequels could've been legitimately great films—something I was reflecting on the other day when I was trying to explain the textual release-history and conceptual broad-strokes of Star Wars (the overall enterprise) to my girlfriend (who took me to see both Rogue One and The Last Jedi, but hasn't really sat down and watched any of the other films). Significantly, the idea of a proud democratic republic falling into torpor and seeing both its weaknesses and greatest strengths deployed against it, to its ultimate dark autocratic downfall, is a powerful arc (and one that's even more relevant today than ten years ago).
Sadly, they simply weren't well-executed. Dialogue was stilted and bad; acting was mostly as fluid as cement, and mostly bad; pod race sequence ruined the pacing of the first film, and is still unforgivable; yoda lightsaber duel in Attack is less commonly derided, but for me even more unconscionable, fan-servicey, over-CGI'd, and unforgivable than the pod race (and really seems more Disney than any of the actual Disney-produced films). I've never rewatched Revenge of the Sith, so I can't comment critically on that one—I saw it in an air-conditioned tent at Bonnaroo 2006, and surprisingly really liked it, but I'd eaten a handful of mushrooms (among other consumption) a few hours before, so I feel there are mitigating circumstances to my gloss of that film.
