3. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
How The Original's Magic Was Stripped Away: Unnecessary Backstory/Far Too Serious I tried to think of a way that I could write this list without beating this dead horse over the head with a broken lightsaber for the zillionth time (hasn't it suffered enough?), but it ultimately proved impossible. I know that nowadays most of us have gotten over the tragedy that was The Phantom Menance, given that it's been nearly fifteen years since it was first released in theatres, but here's one movie that really did strip away the magic of the originals. And then some. It wasn't enough of a travesty that George Lucas was going back and filling in a story that was probably best left to the imagination, it was the fact the prequels felt like a mishmash of plot elements shoe-horned together in the most unnatural fashion which made Star Wars fans really, really angry. That notion, coupled with George Lucas' rambling political plot threads (which served only to suck the fun factor out from the series), tarnished the Star Wars name. Though affection for the original trilogy will last forever, the series has a whole has never really recovered from Menance.