Such contrast of opinions !
AOTC is still the weakest one even if its grown somewhat on me. I can even get a kick out of love angle as long as I choose to judge it by simple fairy tale's rules. My biggest problem with it is that the movie feels too much like a filler episode rather than a story on its own. There's no really memorable scenes or set pieces for me here, whole clones' subplot is confusing, Dooku's character grossly underdeveloped. AOTC is pretty much there only to fill the gap between Episodes 1 & 3 and mostly forgettable. I can still watch just as 90s sci-fi movie, nothing more
I can dig ROTS dark, depressing tone, opening space battle sequence, Anakin's rapid fall to the dark side and emotional final duel between him and Obi-Wan. Plus, it has lots of Palpatine in it. For awhile it was my favourite of the prequeks
But the more I think about it the more I lean towards TPM. As I've said it feels the most like stand-alone story with beginning, middle and ending. I enjoy it's slower almost laid-back pace, , generally calm tone, nothing seems rushed to me. I really like Qui-Gon, Idk, he's just a good noble Jedi I can root for. I guess Neeson's performance elevates Lucas' writing quite a bit. It's just a space fairy tale with sci-fi flavour tp it I can go back to occasionally without watching other two
I think CdL said it best when comparing TPM/AOTC to Prometheus/Covenant: with all its problems The Phantom Menace is pure George Lucas with all of his weird ideas and questionable lore changes. I can certainly appreciate that
