Might be the best prequel.

No no, don't leave. Hear me out.

It's not good. It's aged horribly. A lot of screen time is taken up by child Anakin and Jar Jar, two of the most annoying characters in all of Star Wars. Its pace is plodding and uneven. There's midichlorians. There's stuffy, hand-fisted political scenes. Episode III is definitely a better-made movie.

But despite that, there's a certain heart that this movie has that the other prequels lack. I…

The thesis statement on how to utterly and completely ruin a franchise. This movie is so bad, and so insulting in its utter mediocrity and lack of effort, that it made me completely and utterly stop caring about Star Wars basically overnight. I know that's an extreme reaction, but clearly Disney didn't even care enough about the sequels to plan out a story or even a basic vision, so why should I care about their vision for Star Wars?

This…

Certainly, replacing Channing Tatum with The Rock in a cheesy action flick such as this was a step up. While Tatum has proven that he can do well in dramatic and comedic roles, his turn as an action star in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra was poor. Meanwhile, The Rock seems to be developing into one of the most reliable and believable action leading men of the modern day. In their limited appearances together here, The Rock and Tatum play…