PT Try as I might, I simply cannot hate The Phantom Menace

I have a predisposition to wanting to like The Phantom Menace more than the other prequels for a few reasons.

1. It's shot on film. Enough said.

2.It's the most cinematic of the prequels. In The Phantom Menace the characters actually feel like they are moving about in a motion picture, whereas the other two movies feel like soap opera sets ... shot / reverse shot, walking, talking, sitting on a couch and more talking, etc.

3. The character motivations were still flimsy and illogical at times, but not much more than the average film these days. They were much more realistic and fleshed out compared to AOTC and ROTS.

4. Subsequently, there were fewer plot holes and contrivances than those other two films.

5. Because Anakin was so young, TPM could pass as more of a kid's film and the juvenile, dumbed down tone doesn't feel as misplaced as the later prequels (although the pandering still goes way, way too far IMO).

YMMV but more people than not are of the opinion 5 > 4 > 6 > 3 > 1/2, with ROTS being the best prequel and TPM and AOTC being indistinguishable from each other as the worst. But for those reasons and others, I constantly find myself disagreeing and wanting to consider TPM the best of the prequels, but I just can't get past Jar Jar and Rugor Nass, the unrealistic looking CGI, the comedic incompetence of Nute Gunray and the Trade Federation guys, or Jake Lloyd piloting a ship into space with no training or experiencing and blowing up the droid control ship.