The stupiest thing about the prequels was Episode One. As others have said, Anakin should have started out older. Obi-Wan should have been given something to do for the middle 90 minutes of the movie. Samuel L. Jackson should have been a villian... sorry, but hiring him as a level-headed good guy is wasting his gift as an actor. I would rather watch congressional sessions on C-SPAN then ever be subjected to anything involving Nute Gunray, Trade Federations, tax rates, Chancellors, etc. Hmmm... some backstory on how Palpatine became the super-badass Sith Lord?!?? Naw... it's time for the inner-workings of galactic government followed by a half hour of NASCAR of the future... err... I mean a long, long time ago NASCAR.
As hard as Lucas tried to clean up the load in his pants after Episode One, the next two films just couldn't overcome it. I'm not going to say that the acting and overall direction of "A New Hope" was anykind of masterpiece, but it wasn't an outright liability like in the prequels. Bad actors doing bad acting, good actors looking bored and uniterested. Just depressing... even if they got progressively less crappy, the prequels are still a pile of wasted promise.