I'm often lonely in liking the first of the three prequels but as a well known hater of II and III, I don't know anyone who hates them for their politics
This is backwards to me, so I gotta ask ... why the first one, but not 2 or 3??
Also, yes, I unironically liked the political sleuthing. It gets mocked for being dull or whatever, but I always found it compelling, and pulled in "real people", so it wasn't just wizards in personal beefs.
I think the Obi Wan storyline is a great microcosm of the entire prequel trilogy, good and bad. It's conceptually interesting, but becomes a mess when filtered through George's brain without editing. Why is there a noir homage in a kid's movie? Cause George likes that stuff!
Why does the mystery and its solution get totally ignored by the 3rd act? Because George assumes children (why, George, why?) understand that the Jedi are getting played by Sidious at every turn, so the mystery doesn't matter, and he needs a big ending set piece!
Yeah, George Lucas is definitely an ideas guy, and that's okay. But he's not a writer, and he should have left most of the refinement and dialogue stuff to other people.
To me, Obi-Wan was always the most boring part of Star Wars. He gets killed at the end of the very first movie!
The actors were doing their best, because Lucas was pretty clear that he didn't want to direct them, and poor McGregor has to convey being heartbroken about Ani even though they're separate for almost all of it, and is asked to be annoyed/disapproving dad and not caring dad in their shared scenes.
