You have to admit, though, the prequels weren't that well conceived. C'mon, the whole "Chosen One" prophecy was so horribly cliche that it failed to evoke any sympathy for Anakin. In episode one, Lucas never seemed to stick to the plot; the whole Tatooine episode was a very lofty tangent, from meeting Anakin all the way up to the podracing sequence, which was cool but at the same time a novelty at best. After all, they did spend a third of the movie looking for ENGINE PARTS (If only MacGyver was a Jedi).
Lucas just seemed to hurry through the prequel trilogy, hence Anakin's overnight transformation into Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith. I agree with the comment made earlier that there was a lack of continuity between Jake Loyd's character and Hayden Christensen's character that made the Sith-transformation difficult to believe. This happened to Obi Wan as well between Ewan McGregor and Alec Guiness in the original trilogy; McGregor's character was a sarcastic smartass whereas Sir Alec's Kenobi was wise, humble, and caring.