If you hate the abortive trilogy that are the prequels to "Star Wars" as much as I do then you
must watch these crazy video reviews by this guy Plinkett. Watch them in order. You'll laugh your ass off. I only wish this guy had done reviews of SGU. He would have knocked it out of the park!
Start with this one and then check out the rest of his reviews:
http://www.redlettermedia.com/phantom_menace.html
OMG!!! Those reviews were hilarous. I will say that the whole pcychotic murderer bit got a little old but he did dissect the prequels pretty good, and pointed out the actual plot, character and script issues (I like that a whole lot better than just "it sucks").
At that, I think he didn't quite go far enough. A HUGE problem with the prequels was that the story contradicted the first three movies constantly, to the point that Lucas actually engaged in retconning (in his special editions) to try to bring them a bit more into line.
In the original films, Anakin Skywalker was seduced by the dark side in large part because he wasn't trained properly by a qualified Jedi Master. Obi Wan decided ON HIS OWN that he could do the training as well as Yoda, and thus caused the entire problem. Yoda was supposed to train all Jedi.
In the prequels, the Jedi Council allows him to train Anakin WITH YODA'S BLESSING. Despite this, Anakin (correctly noted in the reviews as a massively stupid idiot) is manipulated into embracing the dark side out of fear for Padme.
Big continuity issue there....
Another issue that causes huge problems. A key element in both Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back is that neither Vader nor the Emperor had any notion of who Yoda was. According the Empire Strikes Back, what is needed to defeat the Emperor and Vader is a fully trained Jedi Knight. Luke IS a fully trained Jedi Knight by Yoda's own words in Return of the Jedi. Vader was not (Obi Wan's words after Yoda dies makes this pretty clear).
This leads both Vader and the Emperor to constantly underestimate Luke - all they know of is his preliminary training by Obi Wan. It is also THE reason they fail to turn him.
In the prequels both the Emperor and Vader know Yoda well. Also Anakin (later to be Vader) is a fully trained Jedi Knight.
This again is a huge contradiction that seriously messes up the storyline.
Also, he turns the nature of the "light side" of the Force on its head. All of a sudden the Jedi are moral relativists and the Sith are moral absolutists? That is the reverse of the portrayal in the original films.
It all makes me think Lucas was totally stoned when he wrote the prequel scripts.