Good thoughts, Diamond Wan!
I agree that, to some degree, the prequels can never be fully saved because of the source material. Lucas wasted so much time telling things that we didn't need to know (or telling them poorly). Here's what we get from the prequels:
Ep. I: Anakin meets Padme. Anakin meets Obi-Wan. Those are the only two important plot points in the entire first movie. And arguably, the second one didn't even need to be shown. If the story started with Obi-Wan already training Anakin, I don't think anyone would have questioned it.
Ep. II: Anakin has gone from being a cute kid to being annoying and evil all the time, not even showing the slightest bit of being able to be redeemed. That's right, folks - Anakin fell to the dark side of the Force
between episodes I and II, and we never got to see it. His fall is what the whole trilogy is supposed to be about, and it took place offscreen.
So, anyway, Anakin and Padme get married, even though it's against the Jedi Order, which makes no sense because Lucas introduced the idea of the Force sense being passed along biologically via the midichlorians, and then had the Jedi do the opposite of what makes sense to keep the Jedi community growing.
There's a brief mention of the Jedi losing all their powers, and I guess that's why they can't sense Palpatine. Again, one of the most important pieces of the whole story, and it's dismissed with a throwaway line of dialogue.
Also, the Clone Wars begin.
Ep. III: The Clone Wars
end, without us ever really getting a chance to see them. (Yes, there's the cartoon now, but what difference does the cartoon make? We already know who lives and who dies, and the ultimate outcome of the war. It could be handled in an interesting way, but it's not.)
Despite the huge buildup about Anakin and Padme's marriage, Lucas dismisses the whole thing with another throwaway line of dialogue from Obi-Wan about how he knows but apparently doesn't care, thus rendering most of Ep. II meaningless.
Anakin implausibly becomes Darth Vader, never once becoming the believable, regal, cool-as-ice James Earl Jones persona that we knew him to be. He's whiny to the end. He couldn't rule as an elementary school crossing guard, let alone as the believable strong arm of the galaxy.
Then, because Lucas has wasted so much time with things we never needed to know or see, he shoves in an inexplicable line from Yoda about Qui-Gon coming back from the dead that doesn't actually explain anything.
The end.
Do you get the impression that I don't like the prequels?
At any rate, although there will never be any perfect version, that just means that everyone in the fan-editing community can take a slightly different approach. And each time that we choose to watch the prequels, we can watch a different cut and see what we think of it!
