Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace gets a bad rep. Justifiably so for many reasons, but it suffered thanks to the nostalgia blinkers we all had on for the original trilogy. Let's face it, Star Wars was always cooler than it was good. Cheesy dialogue, retroactive nonsense, and wasted badass antagonists going out like bitches were nothing new. At least Darth Maul managed to kill a main character, unlike Boba Fett who managed to kill one of his own operatives and that's about it.
The worst thing the prequels did was waste what could have been the greatest origin story of all time ie. Anakin's, though that's more on the other 2 films. Jar Jar Binx was an insult sure, but he wasn't enough to poison the entire film. In retrospect, Phantom Menace was way more original than the carbon copy that was The Force Awakens, and had plenty of pros to balance out the cons, and set a lot of precedents for the series going forwards.
Better: Darth Maul
Not quite as badass but perhaps even cooler than Darth Vader. Or vice versa depending on your definitions. In any case, Darth Maul remains one of the great movie villains despite not saying anything in any voice let alone James Earl Jones'.
As well as his unique look and lightsaber, he was the underdog in the climactic fight.
Worse: Darth Maul
But alas, like Boba Fett before him, was defeated far too easily, and it didn't play nearly so well this time. After watching him defeat Qui-Gon and corner Obi-Wan like a boss, we had to watch him stand still and do nothing to let Obi-Wan defeat him, which didn't do either character justice.
Better: Visual Effects Quality
ILM has always been at the forefront of Visual Effects and dived into headfirst into the new wave of C.G.I. with Star Wars and The Mummy.
The effects don't hold up so well, but in the days before The Lord of the Rings no-one had ever seen anything like it, and the C.G.I. was used masterfully to enhance the fictional universe.
Worse: Visual Effects Execution
Having said that, the C.G.I. was overused and spread far too thin, leading to many effects shots that looked good but didn't convince for reasons we couldn't quite put our finger on.
Despite seamless Jedi v droid fights in convincing greenscreen settings, the tech wasn't there to let the characters interact with the environment, and the fights left zero scars on the droids or scenery. Everything was just too clean.
Better: Action
One very notable improvement on the original trilogy was the lightsaber fights. They'd improved by Return of The Jedi sure, but the prequels raised the bar with intricately choreographed lightsaber duels that put the original Obi-Wan Vader duel to shame. Not that they were perfect but they were certainly a substantial step in the right direction.
Worse: Lucas' Creative Control
George Lucas famously used to bemoan the lack of creative control producers allowed him. Well, he got what he wanted with the prequels.
No longer could producers question his expertise. And he now had more weight to throw around than the movie stars. Unfortunately, this led to hammy soulless dialogue and robotic performances. And Jar Jar, of course.
Better: Music
Once John Williams throws down a main theme it inevitably becomes the strongest iconography in any series. Man of Steel felt hollow without it.
But unlike Jurassic World and The Avengers Series who constantly fell back on their world-beating main themes, The Phantom Menace brought another stunning original score.
Worse: Stakes
One issue with prequelling is that we already know the fate of the main characters, making most of them invincible, like Arthur Dent in the Hitchhiker's Guide books.
Add to that cheesy moments like Obi-Wan's victory over Darth Maul and the impulse to basically blow up a death star every second movie and it never feels like the main characters are in any real danger.
Better: Cast
Star Wars managed to snare a first-rate cast from the get-go, but come prequel time the series quite rightly had their pick. The cast of Phantom Menace was stellar, and Ewan McGregor as Alec Guinness was a stroke of genius.
Worse: Performances
Harrison Ford once had the power to turn his nose up at the script and rewrite his dialogue, leading to some of the most memorable lines in the franchise.
Unfortunately, the power of the actors faded as George's increased, leading to unconvincing characters and performances by great actors such as Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson.
Better: World-Building
With the advancement in technology, Lucas was able to take us to immersive (for the time) new worlds and bring us more diversity when it came to alien characters.
Again, the logic behind some of the creative decisions doesn't hold up today, but again, at the time no-one had ever seen anything like it.
Worse: Lore
And we're not just talking midichlorians. Despite breaking open the Star Wars universe and effectively fleshing out the likes of Palpatine, in the end, The Phantom Menace did more to tear down the Star Wars lore than it did to improve it.
But the team behind the movie still deserves credit for trying something new, like Jurassic Park III. These days Star Wars and Hollywood in general just make inferior risk-free copies of previous hits, which is just boring to everyone who was alive the first time. It was awesome when Kylo Ren caught the blaster in mid-air though. And that light speed stuff in Last Jedi? Ooft...