Watched Star Wars Episode II today, and it still holds up. As long as you can deal with some wooden acting and cringy dialogue, it's a damn fun movie, and while some of the scenes and locations look a lot more "artificial" and blatantly CGI than I remembered them, many of the action scenes and big set pieces are still spectacular, and there's a lot of genuine eye-candy to behold. Moreover, stuff like Anakin's authoritarian bent and his desperate desire to prevent his loved ones from dying (even dreaming of overcoming death itself) does a better job than I remembered of setting up his eventual fall in Revenge of the Sith.

...not to mention that Anakin's social awkwardness and somewhat off-putting demeanor makes a lot more sense when you remember that the boy spent the first half of his life as a slave owned by a Space Jew, and the second half of his life being bossed around by a bunch of celibate warrior monks who both revere and fear him, and who split the difference by not nearly giving him the credit he deserves.

@ChristiJunior i'm one of those weirdos that likes the prequels way more than the sequels and i don't think it's just because "i grew up with them" because my dad was a huge star wars fan and i had always watched the originals too.

the prequels have insane set pieces, glorious music, and they set up anakin's transformation extremely well in a way that is actually pretty relatable. in a way it's a cautionary tale not just for people in a position like anakin's, but also for the people who put him in that position, which doesn't get talked about enough.

then the sequels came along and they suck cock.

I'm anti-prequel forever but anyone who rates sequels above the prequels deserves to die.

@DrRyanSkelton @beardalaxy Whatever you think about them, the prequels are actual movies, actual original stories. Meanwhile:

The Force Awakens is 70% copy and pasted from A New Hope, while also retroactively ruining the Original Trilogy's ending.

The Last Jedi is a hateful and subversive, yet ultimately dimwitted deconstruction of everything Star Wars ever represented.

The Rise of Skywalker is spectacularly retarded, and the best thing you can say about it is how it represents a big Fuck You to TLJ.

And of course, these movies only exist so Disney can milk the Star Wars franchise and replace the old White heroes with Team Diversity.