The prequels to me were at face value, popcorn flicks. At least the first and second (1 and 2). Did they waste my time? You betcha, but did I get immersed into the Star Wars universe again? Yep. I enjoyed it in the theaters, it was a good blockbuster. It wasn't Empire by all means, and it didn't hold a candle to the original films, but as a "kids" movie it was okay. It did what it was supposed to do. Create an innocence in the worlds and slowly move it towards darkness. As it did through 1-3. Episode II was kind of in between good and horrible, Ewan McGregor is a great actor but he is restricted by wooden dialog. Hayden Christiansen is a horrible actor mostly, but I think by the time Episode III hit he was perfect as Anakin.
Anakin had become this tormented soul, twisted and self conflicted. His combination of having to show no emotion and then the feelings of all of the "bad ones" rising to the surface was portrayed well by Haydens horrible delivery of sometimes more enthusiastic lines. He WAS Anakin to me.