I liked it when I rewatched it recently, too. Obviously the flaws are not debatable - much of the casting and writing is poor and the beginning fails to sensibly set up its story, introducing way too many factions, characters, and locations before bothering to demonstrate or explain why we should care.
At the same time, I was surprised to rediscover so much that I liked. Neeson, McGregor, McDiarmid, Jackson, and... whoever did Yoda were commendable. Darth Maul was haunting, in a way no villain in the movies since has been able top. I even liked Jake Lloyd's performance, despite understanding why others still find it cringe-worthy. I'm intrigued by the choice to depict Anakin at three phases of his life over the course of a trilogy, beginning when he would undoubtedly have acted like other children his age. The movie shows us he's a special child before the Midiclorian explanation, showing him to be an intuitive mechanic, a great pilot, fluent in multiple languages, and charitable beyond what you expect from someone in his position. I'll also flat out say that Lucas is a great action director. The podracing scene is still fantastic and I like how he recaptured the multiple battlefronts from Return of the Jedi, with the Gungans on a battlefield against the Droids, Anakin with the fighters in orbit, Padme leading a special forces mission through the palace, and Maul confronting the Jedi.
I can't say if we'll be hearing this more with Disney's approach but for me, personally, I loved this film these movies have aged better directly because of The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Despite their shortcomings, Lucas still caught lightning in a bottle twice - he invented an entirely original creative universe for other storytellers to make their own adventures with television shows, video games, and other media, some of which did go on to become critically acclaimed in their own right (KOTOR, The Clone Wars, Battlefront). I came to appreciate this more when I watched interviews where he explains what "independent" means to him and why he stepped away from consulting on The Force Awakens. As James Cameron remarked, Lucas' films were far more conceptually innovative than what we're getting now. That doesn't make the acting better, fix the bad dialogue, or reconstruct the poor implementation of the story. But it does enhance my enjoyment and immersion, much moreso than a movie that purposefully recreates the earlier imagery of its franchise. Disney's films do this to an extent that it almost feels like they're breaking the fourth wall in a self-aware way.
While I can see why, on the whole, the new movies are overall better than the Phantom Menace, I have incredible respect for Lucas to throw away the visual foundation of the original trilogy and start all over again, telling a different story with new themes, characters, locations, all for a second expanded universe to dominate our cultural imagination.
), and Queen Amidala all made it easier to not fret over the nonsense.
