It's funny you should say the bolded part, because come on now! All six movies had badly unrealistic special effects. The overblown CGI in the prequels was in no way more realistic than the muppets of old. But when you compare the two kinds of bad special effects, the original films had something in their costumes, robots and aliens that the prequels never came close to capturing; Charm. 

Fortunately for this debate (and unfortunately for fans of starwars), Lucas released the original films in a "special edition" with added CGI scenes. These give us a pretty good comparison. Take the band in Jabba's palace with the long mouthed green woman for instance. The horribly fake looking muppet in the original was a hell of a lot more enjoyable than the horribly fake looking CGI version with her similarly fake looking furry counterpart. Infact, with the exception of the new Han Solo scene and some improved Wampa footage (not cgi, just a better costume), nearly every cgi scene takes you out of the film and sours the experience.

And 20 years from now, when people look back, the prequels will be just as dated, only there won't (and isn't) any redeeming charm in any of it. None of the computer effects mimics the emotion of rubber yoda, the awesomeness of model made AT-ST's, the danger of Mos Eisley cantina with it's porely costumed individuals or excitement of the Deathstar trench run Down a Real Trench! 

And yes, the story and dialogue sucked, leaving nothing but badly unrealistic effects to rely on.

I would have liked Revenge of the Sith better if they had just handled Padme's death a little differently.

As it is: she dies because she has nothing left to live for even though she's giving birth. What? Screw you, lady! You are now the most unsympathetic mother ever!

Now, take the same scene. Anakin Force Chokes the Hell out of Padme, maybe even worse - and of course she's mortally wounded, perhaps internally, and she's taken away after Anakin leaves. Now we have her at a point of injury where even Star Wars tech shouldn't be able to realistically save her - she's way, waaaay past the point of no return. But there's an inversion of what's in the movie: they talk about how she should already be dead, but she continues to live as she goes into labor. She gives birth to them, remarking that these children are the last symbols of the love that she and Anakin shared, and naming them accordingly. She dies only after giving birth because, until that point, she just would not allow herself to die.

It wouldn't have been great cinema but it would have been a much better tear-jerker than what we actually got

Also I like Empire Strikes back best. When I was young I liked Return of the Jedi for the battle over Endor - not Endor itself.

all 6 are amazing but Im voting for Episode IV

heres my ranking

A New Hope
Return Of The Jedi
Revenge Of The Sith
Empire Strikes Back
Phantom Menace
Attack Of The Clones

Clone Wars

My ranking...

1. Return of the Jedi (tie)
1. The Empire Strikes Back (tie)
3. A New Hope
4. The Phantom Menace
5. Attack of the Clones
6. Revenge of the Sith

Is this even worth discussing? it's obvious it's Empire Strikes back, anything else is clearly retarded. yeah, retarded.

Especially those massive retards who voted Episode 1, unless you're being ironic, because it's the retard's more retarded little brother. he doesn't ride the little yellow school bus, he thinks he is the little yellow school bus.

Wow, all these people bashing I-III. My personal favorite was The Phantom Menace. The others were good but I liked that one the most

That's a great example of what failed with the prequels.  Lucas had locked himself in with stuff that had to happen.  Luke and Leia had to be seperated, their mother had to die or exit stage left somehow, Anakin had to turn... but sadly, Lucas failed to take all these pre-set events and produce a story where they made sense.  Anakin's turning made no sense as presented, until very late in RTOS, Padme dying beacuse she'd 'lost the will to live' during childbirth is simply terrible.  Women rarely lose the will to live during childbirth, although i can tell you from experience they gain the desire to blame you for their predicament!

What struck me when TPM released was how wide of the mark Lucas seemed with his own material.  There had been hints for years about what happened, many from Lucas himself, then somehow he went completely left field and delivered a set of films that literally felt like they were set in another Universe with no connection to the first.

I mean, I'm sure it was difficult to get in all the preset events and create films that retained the fun of the originals, but I also didn't expect Lucas to fail so miserably either.

Empire Strikes Back is my favorite. I like it very much.

"She's lost the will to live" is one of the worst lines I've ever heard in a movie. I literally screamed "COME ON!!!!" at the screen during that moment.

Other than that, I generally enjoyed the second half of Revenge of the Sith. The first half was almost entirely terrible, though, excluding the awesome intro scene.

Yah, I know exactly what you mean.

With the TPM I was just completely thrown.  The whole movie seemed a waste of time as essentially it simply set up that Anakin was a decent enough kid and that the Sith had returned.  Over 2 hours to convey two fairly basic plot points.  The whole film to me was just irrelevant to the overall story I thought Lucas was trying to tell.  Very cool pod race though.

AOTC was a little better in that there was actually some sense of something going on that could lead to the rise of the Emperor, and at least some hints about Anakin being open for corruption, but it was sunk by some terrible lines/acting plus a general lack of coherence.

ROTS improved things a fair bit, great openning that got lost in the middle but came together for the end.

What struck me at the end of it all was that, ROTS on its own seemed to contain all the plot points necessary, why Anakin got seduced by the Emperor, how the Emperor overcame the Jedi, etc.  TPM and even AOTC both seemed unecessary, particularly TPM, as they contained nothing that really wasn't handled in ROTS anyway.

Unfortunately for ROTS it had to cope with 'that' line, nicking an iconic ending shot from another in the series, the weakest excuse for Obi defeating Anakin I can imagine - 'I have the high ground' - plus of course the worst possible intro of Darth Vader toooooooooo... or is that noooooooo.

Oh well, at least a fair bit of ROTS made some sort of sense and actually worked, plus the duel was killer until it became apparent Lucas had no idea how to end it with victory for Obi when he'd setup the scenario that Anakin was the better swordsman with superior force powers as well.