That's what I mean too. First Trilogy = Original Trilogy.

I was 11 years old when Episode 1 got released. I remember thinking it looked really stupid with that geisha looking queen, the small kid and the villain who looked like someone trying to make Darth Vader even more evil by giving him a devil face. Since I skipped the first one I saw little point in watching the rest.

I was 20 when i finally decided to watch the movies, and guess what: the new trilogy does suck. To be fair, the old trilogy is quite campy and there are a lot of plot holes, but at least it was fun and entertaining. The new trilogy feels like no one had any clue what they wanted to make. The story in the original trilogy is simple and clear, but the new trilogy is trying to be some epic character drama that fails in just about every regard. RedLetterMedia made a great decomposition o the new trilogy, but it all basically boils down to one issue: nothing that happens makes any sense.
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/

I highly recommend watching the 2003 version of Clone Wars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYXJZCkN0Hg

Do not watch the 2008 CG animated one it just not as awesome as 2003 clone wars.


As to your original question when I was a kid I loved them both, but I was probably leaning on liking the Prequals more because of the 2003 Animated Mini Series. The Original series for the time was good to me as a kid,but I did not care for it. Man I really was the target audiance george lucas wanted for the prequals. But thanks to the internet's influance on I truly see how shitty the prequals really are and desprately want the Original Trilogy un-edited.

O yes I should have made that distinction. I also enjoyed the 2003 clone wars episodes.

When did Darth Vader appear in your dreams the first time?

;)

Sometimes he's even there when I'm not dreaming. :O

That probably started happening after some months with daily shovel headbanging. :P

You may disagree with I agree with him to some degree. The original trilogy was for young adults and adults, the prequel trilogy was for kids as well - it's this kids part that bugged me a lot personally. I found Star Wars very scary and fascinating at the same time as a kid. The prequels don't have that feeling (I tested this theory on my nephew who LOVES the prequels but finds the original series too scary to watch - he's 6 - so I consider this a FACT).

There's many many problems with the prequels though:

- some poorly picked actors throughout made worse by wooden acting (partially caused by the 3D scenery which limited interaction a great deal)

- Anakin as a child was just a brat. There's a reason a lot of movies with kids acting, are disliked because of the kid.

- a lack of real proper comedy (and I don't mean the retarded slap stick Jar Jar-pleasekilleme-Binks caused) - C3PO was still funny but the other actors couldn't be funny if their lives depended on it. Yes, Luke sucked at being funny as well, but Han Solo and Leia + C3PO were gold together. There's nowhere near anything like this in the prequels.

- a horrible horrible horrible HORRIBLE horrible HORRIIBBBBBBBLE love story between Anakin and Padme. I mean, it's "retch inducing" it's so bad with CGI apples flying about the place. Dear LORD that was bad and painful to watch. Thank GOD the original trilogy had nothing like that.

- and to end it with the worst sin of all sins: they turned Anakin in a bitchy bratty cunty emo fuckwit. In the original trilogy it sounded like he was this amazingly cool guy who fought valiantly for the light side but in the end fell to the dark side. The actual story is so horribly laid out, until this moment I've never managed to watch more than half the 3rd movie. I physically can't, it's that painful to see how George Lucas is taking a massive dump over all our expectations.

So yes, the "new" trilogy is pretty horrible. It has nothing to do with rose tinted glasses and all to do with us having to fill in the blanks for many years by ourselves. We could only imagine what the Clone Wars were, what Anakin did to fall to the dark side. I want to bet not a single person imagined such a lame and poorly executed explanation - except for George Lucas *facepalms*

The thing is, that is the most accurate, dead on, A+ assessment of the prequels I have seen (I'm totally serious, it's a beautiful post) yet I still love them. Maybe it's the John Williams music, who knows? You know that was the first thing I ever learned to play on my guitar?!

I love the original trilogy
I like Episode 1 (apart from Jar Jar) but I think Liam Neeson and Darth Maul are big reasons
Episode 2 is bad because the love story is atrocious but Jango Fett is badass and the battle scenes are worth watching I feel
Episode 3 I really like despite Anakin whining a lot

I was interested in Star Wars as a little kid and I only ever saw flashes of the movies, then later when I had a PC and played X-Wing and after that Dark Forces I was hooked.
I thought the movies were ok, though the special effects were and still are amazing.
Then the Phantom Menace came, which I thought was passable but I really got desilusionized after seeing Attack Of The Clones, Anakin and Padme with their toecringing romance and Anakin's transformation to the dark side was a total joke, all the action and special effects and even the briliantly played Palpatine couldn't save it for me.

I guess you can say I'm more of a fan of certain Star Wars games then of the franchise.

I'm 23 and I watched the original trilogy when I was about 10 right before episode 1 was released I think, maybe a year or so. I have always liked the original trilogy but I did enjoy the newer ones as well as we got some extensive lore to what actually happened before episode 4.

What I don't like about the original trilogy is the empire. It's a soulless antagonist with nothing to reach for, like the equivalent of the nazis during world war 2. I prefer the man behind the curtain hence the focus on the emperor and how he rose to power as opposed to his little project to take over the galaxy. Then again the movies is about the adventure so I suspect when I was younger I was just caught up in the magic and ran with it.

He forgot the part where Jedi Knights went from cool mystical samurai sort of warriors into magical magic wielding superhero kung fu demigods that can jump to the moon magicians. Sometimes it felt like watching the bastard child of a crappy Marvel heroes CGI feast movie and a fantasy magician wars one.

EDIT!!!! man I almost forgot : Knights of the old republic spoiler alert below!

I think you get taken away by the universe created for the films most of all, as is the case for me. When I think of something like No Country for Old Men, I think of the story/plot and the significance of it all. When I think of SW, I think of the awesome places like Coruscant, and the incredible music of John Williams. I don't dwell too much on the negative criticisms because it doesn't address things that I really care about in the films. I agree with it mostly, like the love story between Anakin and Padme as Red Avatar pointed out, but it doesn't keep me from enjoying the film. That doesn't mean that I don't consider it a great pity that it wasn't done better. Still I don't think it is horrible, it's just somewhat underwhelming. [Possible KOTOR spoiler incoming : ] The only good love story in Star Wars is between Bastila Shan and Revan in Knights of the Old Republic :D