Count Orlok wrote: Absolutely. More often than not, the prequels were failures of execution (pacing, acting, directing, editing) than the ideas themselves. People get hung up on details like the trade disputes, but not of that would matter if they were put together coherently.
I absolutely agree with this and have been saying for a few years now that the ideas and themes underpinning the prequels and repeated in the originals were top class. Boy on a backwater with exceptional skills deals a heavy blow to a terrible enemy. Boy grows into his skills with study but has premonitions of those he loves suffering. In attempting to save them, he dips into darkness. Finally, faced with the greatest evil, Anakin completes his fall where his son overcomes and also provides redemption for his father. Great stuff.
Unfortunately the execution lacked any narrative inspiration and was generally garbage. It’s probably best to think of Lucas as Steve Jobs: talented idea man who needed more skilled people to bring those ideas to life.