Star Wars

@untucked - the problem is that none of the work done in episode 1 is ever paid off. It makes the relationship between Anakin and Padme weird (he was 8 when she was 16, in episode 2 they're both about 20), Quigon Jinn may as well never have existed, Pod Racing is irrelevant, Darth Maul is done, and the trade federation is only tangentially involved for the next two movies. It was poorly planned, poorly executed, and largely a waste of time -- though for the most part quite entertaining. If it were it's own story, fine, but as a conceived part of a three movie arc, the second part renders the first completely useless. The only actual character developed by the telling of that part of the story was Kenobi (and maybe Padme), and he's not the main character. The story in Episode 1 could have been told in 25 minutes as the prologue to the Anakin Skywalker Jedi training and downfall.

There are weak parts in the next two movies, but overall I like episodes two and three, and think part three actually holds up. There are mistakes all over the things, but if you put any sort of fantasy under a microscope it tends to fall apart. The interesting thing about the machete order, though, is that if you read into why it's beneficial, you've already spoiled every bit of why you should bother with the watching order. As I worked through it, I actually was less impressed by it than I was the description. On paper, it's great to have the whole Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker mystery intact when going into A New Hope. If you already know the story from the original trilogy, though, and it's not spoiling anything, I think I agree with you that it's better to watch them in numerical order. Back in the day, however, one of the best things about star wars was the cliffhanger at the end of Empire/five. Since it's so ingrained in pop culture these days, the only people that can benefit from this are really children or people who have never been exposed to Star Wars or heard anything about it (at this point, no one). 

So in hindsight, episode 1 was a throwaway, which certainly colors opinion of the film -- and since it was always part of a planned trilogy (though the episode one documentary indicates he started writing part two after finishing part one, which actually explains a lot, and I believe identifies Lucas' difficulties as a writer), it makes no sense that it is only tangentially applicable to the rest of the prequels. Had they been in more practiced hands, though, I think they would have been more cohesive as a set of films, and better fed into the existing trilogy (rather than the jarring shift of art direction and tone in the last 30 minutes of episode three to look and start to feel like A New Hope). 

It's easy to look back at this, and it's easy to criticize George Lucas having never been faced with the blank page in 1995. However he built his own mythos by saying that parts 1-9 were already written when he initially came up with Star Wars -- something that is so obviously not true. The man has done huge things to progress the special effects industry, and led a team through ground-breaking things nearly every time he made a film, but he made some films that are pretty hard to defend with the prequels, especially in light of The Force Awakens.

I'm going to just leave the complaints about the original trilogy where you left them -- we're supposed to be gentlemen here. I will admit that if they hadn't cast Harrison Ford in the original, it's unlikely there would have been another six movies to debate. They created a significant empire within the film business, though, so it's hard to hate on them too much (especially if you're familiar with Industrial Light and Magic -- as every kid of the 80s (up until the lord of the rings) is whether they ever noticed or not).